With the opening this month of the $326 million Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, the press has run a number of interesting stories about new performing arts centers, their viability and the possibility of more new construction in the future.
Kauffman Center, Kansas City
The New York Times ran a news item about the 1800- and 1600- seat venues that opened in Kansas City last week and will be homes for the symphony, opera and ballet companies. The complex was paid for with private donations and was designed by architect Moshe Safdie, who is part of the team that is working on the proposed Utah Performance Center on Main St.
The Kansas City Star featured a story entitled New Facilities Aren’t Always An Unqualified Success, which discussed problems with new performance venues in Dallas, Miami and Philadelphia. It asked many good questions:
Will that big glass-ceilinged lobby be a heating and cooling nightmare? Will acoustics in the two halls prove supportive for orchestral and operatic performances, not to mention musicals, plays, even the occasional recital and lecture? Will patrons find entrances and passageways spacious and free of bottlenecks? Will rental costs be affordable for the city’s arts organizations? Will the center attract management savvy with placating resident companies, booking its own acts and raising money?
The story also details successes in Seattle, Omaha and Los Angeles.
Smith Center, Las Vegas
The Wall Street Journal took a different point of view in its article Cultural Construction Slowdown. It discusses a $300 million hall for the Atlanta Symphony that was scrapped and $383 million Phillips Center in Orlando that has been delayed by the financial realities of the current recession. Cost overruns on new buildings and bankruptcies of arts organizations have forced communities to look HARDER at the viability of new arts venues.
In spite of the recession, a new venue will open soon in Las Vegas, and the Maison Symphonique of the Montreal Symphony and the Center for the Performing Arts in Carmel, Indiana opened earlier this year.
Maison Symphonique
Salt Lake City should look at these new arts centers and learn from the failures, and from the successes, when it makes plans for the Utah Performance Center.
