Symphony Hall
Home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra since 1900 and the first hall designed to acoustic science.
Symphony Hall was built for the Boston Symphony Orchestra after its founder, Henry Lee Higginson, decided the old Boston Music Hall had to be replaced. The young Harvard physicist Wallace Clement Sabine was asked to advise, making this the first auditorium anywhere planned according to measured acoustic principles. Sabine's calculations of reverberation time led McKim, Mead & White to design a narrow, high shoebox modelled on the Neues Gewandhaus in Leipzig, seating about 2,625 people. It opened on 15 October 1900.
The plain brick and limestone exterior conceals an interior of coffered ceiling, shallow balconies and side walls set with sixteen replicas of Greek and Roman statues in niches, which help scatter sound. The leather seats, hard plaster surfaces and sloping stage enclosure are all part of the acoustic design. Besides the Boston Symphony Orchestra's winter season the hall is home to the Boston Pops and holds the 1949 Aeolian-Skinner organ. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1999.
Highlights
- First concert hall in the world designed using acoustic calculations
- Shoebox plan modelled on the Neues Gewandhaus, Leipzig
- Sixteen classical statue replicas set in the upper wall niches
- Aeolian-Skinner organ of 1949, with more than 4,800 pipes
