Music Center at Strathmore
Concert hall of 1,976 seats outside Washington, second home of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.
Strathmore began as a private estate on Rockville Pike whose 1902 mansion became a public arts centre run by Montgomery County from 1983. To give the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra a permanent base in the Washington suburbs, a purpose-built concert hall was added on the wooded slope behind the house and opened in February 2005. William Rawn Associates set the 1,976-seat auditorium within a curving wall of Indiana limestone and glass, reached from the Grosvenor-Strathmore Metro station by a footbridge through the tree canopy.
The auditorium is a modified shoebox of maple and cherry with a shallow surround of side terraces, tuned by Kirkegaard Associates with adjustable drapery and a movable canopy. Besides the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, which gives around thirty-five concerts here each season, the hall is used by the National Philharmonic, the Washington Performing Arts society and touring jazz, folk and popular artists. The nearby Mansion at Strathmore keeps galleries, a shop and a tea room, and outdoor concerts are held on the lawn in summer.
Highlights
- Maple and cherry auditorium seating 1,976 on five shallow levels
- Footbridge approach through the trees from the Metro station
- Second home of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
- Historic 1902 mansion with free galleries in the same grounds
