Minnesota Orchestra appoints celebrated Toronto architects KPMB to design renewal and expansion of Orchestra Hall

Orchestra announces $14 million raised to-date on $40 million project

(June 19, 2009) -- The Minnesota Orchestral Association (MOA) announced today that the award-winning Toronto studio Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg Architects (KPMB) has been appointed to design a renewal and expansion of Orchestra Hall in downtown Minneapolis. Internationally celebrated for its design excellence, KPMB is known for its transformative designs across many cultural projects and renovations, ranging from Chicago’s Goodman Theatre to Canada’s National Ballet School and the Royal Conservatory of Music. The renovation of Orchestra Hall will be directed by Bruce Kuwabara, design partner, and Marianne McKenna, partner-in-charge.

The $40 million project to revitalize Orchestra Hall will focus on a dramatic reinvention of its public lobby spaces, a welcoming exterior that better connects the Hall to the vibrant city outside, a refreshed auditorium and updated backstage facilities.

“We aspire to enhance all aspects of our patrons’ concert-going experiences, improving the functionality of Orchestra Hall, modernizing our capabilities and presenting a visionary new face on Orchestra Hall for this community,” said Orchestra President and CEO Michael Henson. “We’re fortunate to own a hall located in the heart of a vital downtown, and we are presented with a superb opportunity to ensure that Orchestra Hall is a beacon in Minneapolis, drawing broad audiences and serving as a community landmark on the south end of the Nicollet Mall.”

“It is a great thing when a community comes together to support the arts in such a strong way,” says Music Director Osmo Vänskä. “This revitalization of our Hall will improve the experience of our audiences and players for decades to come.”

KPMB was the unanimous choice of the six-member Minnesota Orchestra Architect Selection Committee and its professional advisory panel, after a seven month international search. Known for its particular expertise with renovation projects and performing arts venues, KPMB has recently designed 11 major cultural projects, eight of them performing arts facilities. The firm’s work has received over 100 awards for architectural excellence, including awards from the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Awards, the Chicago Athenaeum, Business Week/Architectural Record and the Royal Institute of British Architects.

“Bruce Kuwabara and Marianne McKenna offered dream credentials for the Orchestra Hall project,” said Gordon Sprenger, MOA Board member and Chair of the Architect Selection Committee. “Our committee was impressed with the way in which KPMB projects merge exquisite, stunning designs with highly adaptable, functional spaces. They have a real understanding of how the public circulates and uses performing arts spaces.

“Our intent was to hire a team who would immediately captivate the public with inspiring architecture – and who would also wow long term users with a savvy, functional design for decades to come. We found that team in KPMB,” said Sprenger.

Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg Architects
“KPMB tactfully orchestrate an interplay between heritage and new interventions so that evolving layers of history are clearly legible, [and] new parts have an expressive dynamism.”
–The Architectural Review (UK)

Founded in 1987 by Bruce Kuwabara, Thomas Payne, Marianne McKenna and Shirley Blumberg, KPMB is dedicated to creating architecture that supports a vibrant public realm and contributes to city building across North America and Europe. KPMB projects include Chicago’s Goodman Theatre, “a building that seamlessly honors tradition and heralds innovation . . . a theater with a soul” (The Chicago Tribune); the Hasbro Inc. headquarters in Rhode Island; numerous commissions for Yale University—including the current $30 million renovation of the School of Music’s Hendrie Hall; the Walgreen Drama Center and Arthur Miller Theatre for the University of Michigan; and projects for Star Alliance in Los Angeles, Japan and Switzerland. The SugarCube mixed-use development in downtown Denver has been lauded as a successful model for contemporary design in a heritage context, and the Canadian Embassy in Berlin is distinguished as the only embassy in the city with a publicly inviting and accessible street base. In the mid-1990s, KPMB was part of a consortium to design a master campus plan for the University of Minnesota.

The firm has also played a major role in the cultural rebirth of Toronto: six of the nine projects that comprise Toronto’s Cultural Renaissance were designed by KPMB. These include a 2006 expansion of the Gardiner Museum, described by the Toronto Star as “a wonder in glass and stone…that does nothing less than reassert architecture’s power to transform the city,” as well as the $75 million renovation of the National Ballet School in 2005. The School’s architecture was described by the jury for the 2007 American Institute of Architects Honor Awards as “a new kind of civic place…powerful and yet well balanced in its context...and an important thread to the community.” KPMB also led a major expansion of the Royal Conservatory of Music, a phased project which involved renovating an existing iconic 19th-century structure, and the addition of a 1,000-seat concert hall. Scheduled for opening in September 2009, it is already being praised by The Globe and Mail as one of Toronto’s top five architectural sights: “Delivered with grace and sophistication by KPMB, the RCM’s Telus Centre for Performance and Learning...reflects a city moving ahead intelligently.”

“KPMB has a great deal of experience in performing arts facilities, especially in adding to and renovating existing buildings,” said Thomas Fisher, Dean of the University of Minnesota’s College of Design, and a member of the Search Committee’s professional advisory panel. “They have designed many beautiful, functional and inspiring projects that fit their context and feel very well suited to their purpose.”

The Minnesota Orchestra Architect Selection Committee comprised Board member Gordon M. Sprenger, former Board member Michael Francis, Life Director Luella G. Goldberg, President Michael Henson, English horn player Marni Hougham, and Board member David S. Wichman. Members of the Professional Advisory Committee were Thomas Fisher, Linda Mack, architecture critic, and Rich Varda, Vice President, Store Design, Target.

“This is an amazing opportunity to transform the public spaces of Orchestra Hall to match the quality and dynamism of the treasured performance hall, and to create a vibrant connection with Peavey Plaza and the evolving City of Minneapolis,” said Bruce Kuwabara.

Expanding Orchestra Hall
“This is our opportunity to bring about a revitalization of Orchestra Hall and its connection to downtown Minneapolis for the next generation.”
–Minnesota Orchestra Board Chair Jack W. Eugster

When Orchestra Hall was built in 1974, it was developed in two parts: the auditorium and the wrap-around spaces including the lobby and backstage areas. The bulk of the resources at that time were appropriately directed into the creation of a first-class auditorium and acoustic –with budget constraints causing project designers to create a wrap-around shell to house the lobby, office and backstage spaces. Now more than 35 years later, the public lobby spaces are in need of renovation to keep pace with the public’s evolving expectations of a contemporary hall.

The Minnesota Orchestra wants to enhance the concert-going experience by expanding and renovating the lobby so it will better accommodate a full house of 2450 patrons, making the building a more engaging space to gather in before and after performances. The current lobby holds about one-third of the auditorium’s capacity, creating crowded conditions that make it hard to move around. The expanded lobby will open Orchestra Hall to the vibrant city outside and offer places to gather for food and drink, to showcase Orchestra history and to learn about music.

“We are excited to have been awarded this opportunity to reinvigorate the public realm of Orchestra Hall, inside and out, with warm, generous and inclusive spaces that reinforce the City’s sense of community and its powerful commitment to music and the arts,” said Marianne McKenna.

The Orchestra also envisions a new image for the Hall’s exterior that will be dramatic, welcoming and better link Orchestra Hall to Nicollet Mall, the city’s signature street. All design work will be seamlessly integrated with the urban design and landscape architecture of Peavey Plaza and the public spaces that surround Orchestra Hall.

Auditorium and Backstage
Orchestra Hall is renowned for its fine acoustics in which to hear classical music. “Our auditorium is a gem,” said Michael Henson, “and we plan to engage acousticians to guide all changes we make within the auditorium to ensure the existing excellent acoustics for the audience are maintained or improved as we make updates.” Those updates will include refreshed interior finishes and seating, updated lighting and a state-of-the-art sound system to support amplified performances, which will make the Hall better able to accommodate the wide variety of musical styles that are presented on the Orchestra’s pops and jazz series. Additionally, the acoustical team will investigate opportunities to improve the musicians’ abilities to hear each other onstage.

In the backstage areas, dressing rooms, locker rooms, and storage spaces will be expanded and improved to meet modern requirements, and necessary upgrades will be made to critical building systems.

A $40 million project
“We have spent the last year assessing our building priorities, testing costs and defining the scope of our project in order to be financially prudent,” says Board Chair Jack W. Eugster. “Our collaboration with Bruce Kuwabara and Marianne McKenna offers an opportunity to bring about a revitalization of Orchestra Hall and its connection to downtown Minneapolis for the next generation, and we intend to do so with a very tightly defined project that also ensures the best use of resources and value for the Orchestra.”

The Orchestra will raise funds for the $40 million Hall renovation through a combination of private fundraising and government bonding. “The project divides into thirds,” says Eugster. “We’ve already raised $14 million or approximately a third of the costs. We’ll seek a third through public bonding from the State of Minnesota, and we’ll privately fundraise for the final third.”

The exact timeline for the Orchestra Hall renovation is now being developed, with the MOA working toward a tentative January 2013 date for project completion.

More About the Architects
Bruce Kuwabara was the 2006 recipient of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada’s Gold Medal for Architecture, Canada’s highest honor bestowed on an individual architect. He is known both for creating architecture that enriches the public realm and as a spokesperson on issues of urbanism and the contemporary city. Kuwabara has directed many of KPMB’s competition-winning projects, including the Canadian Embassy in Berlin and the Vaughan Civic Centre. He served as design architect for Canada’s National Ballet School, the Gardiner Museum and the new home for the Toronto International Film Festival. He also serves in this capacity for Manitoba Hydro Place, which will be the most energy- efficient, large-scale building in North America and a model for climate responsive design. Kuwabara has taught at the University of Toronto and Harvard University.

A native of Montreal, Marianne McKenna was educated at Swarthmore College and Yale University. The architecture of concert halls has been McKenna’s special focus for more than 20 years—spanning her work on the Royal Conservatory of Music, for which she developed the award-winning master plan in 1990, to the design of the TELUS Centre for Performance and Learning, which will open in September 2009. Other celebrated works include the Jackson-Triggs Niagara Estate Winery, a watershed in sustainable design, and two major projects in Montreal; Le Quartier Concordia, a new integrated campus for Concordia University, and the McGill University and Genome Quebec Innovation Centre. She has lectured at Yale, the University of Montreal, and Carleton and McGill Universities.

The Minnesota Orchestra and Orchestra Hall
The Minnesota Orchestra performed its inaugural concert in November 1903, just six weeks before the Wright brothers made their first airplane flight. Now recognized as one of America’s leading orchestras, the ensemble presents nearly 200 performances annually. Led by Finnish Music Director Osmo Vänskä, the Orchestra tours regionally, nationally and internationally and is heard through an award-winning series of radio broadcasts produced by MPR and a vast collection of acclaimed recordings, dating back to the 1920s.

Orchestra Hall serves as the center for hundreds of events produced by the MOA and other community organizations. Nearly 500,000 individuals come through its doors each year to hear classical, jazz, pops, holiday and family concerts. Orchestra Hall serves audiences from around the state and is known as the premier concert hall in the Upper Midwest.

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