Alice Tully Hall was one of the most utilized, yet unrecognized venues at Lincoln Center. Without a major renovation since its opening in 1969, the Hall had antiquated public amenities and inadequate performer spaces. To address these issues, Alice Tully has undergone a major transformation. In addition to the new transparent and open facade, the interior incorporates a new palette of materials innovatively utilized to produce an intimate space for concerts.

The JaffeHolden-designed Concert Hall Shaper makes the 2,100-seat Bass Performance Hall the first multi-use room in North America whose symphonic acoustic environment equals that of the world’s best concert halls. Its effects complemented by the hall’s classic proportions and carefully selected materials, the Concert Hall Shaper enriches symphonic sound by shielding the music from sound-absorbing stage drapes and surrounding theorchestra with a reverberant chamber.

The Colonial Theatre was once a grand Broadway-style theater, part of the Gilded Age designed by J. B. McElfatrick, who designed dozens of New York theaters. From its opening in 1903 to the early 30’s, the house, which seated approximately 1,200 patrons, was a regular stop for the likes of Sarah Bernhardt, the Barrymores, Rachmaninoff, Will Rogers and John Philip Sousa. Anna Pavlova danced by, as did the Ziegfeld Follies (100 strong). In 1937, the Colonial was converted into a movie palace, but by 1952 it had gone dark, during this time, it served as a retail establishment for a paint and art supply business. Friends of the Colonial Theatre Restoration successfully applied for a grant from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and later the theatre was designated to have historical significance and received additional funding from “Save America’s Treasures”.

The Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre at the Conrad Prebys Theatre Center is a seamless addition to the Old Globe campus in San Diego. The 250-seat theater provides a clear and crisp acoustic environment for all to enjoy dramatic presentations. The unique arena-style design offers seats on all sides and gives all patrons a seat within 5 rows of the stage. Since this space is intended almost exclusively for dramatic plays and spoken word, JaffeHolden helped design the theater to be ideal for performers to project easily and for audience members to experience theater intimately.

The Daegu Opera House, situated in the heart of the city, has become one of the city’s landmarks by providing artists with a stage on which to display their work and audiences with easy access to high-quality performances. The Daegu Opera House is one of Korea’s premiere performance hubs.

Conceived to provide performance space to multiple emerging and mid-size arts organizations, the Dallas City Performance Hall is one of the most versatile facilities in the region.

Acoustic performances in the new Dallas City Performance Hall benefi t from the warm, intimate acoustics of the room. Physically, this warm, reverberant sound comes from the relatively large acoustic volume of the room and it’s carefully shaped cast walls. When combined with the double layered acoustic fabric banners that can be deployed on the side walls of the audience area (which can be deployed in a number of different settings at the push of a button), the room can be tuned to the ideal acoustic environment for many different types of events. Acoustic events are at their best when the room’s reverberant sound is tailored for the particular kind of music being presented, allowing the music to surround and envelop the listeners without being muddy or overbearing. A movable orchestra shell surrounds the musicians on stage providing a blending and projection chamber, while an orchestra pit can be tuned for opera and dance performances....

JaffeHolden was retained jointly by New York City Ballet and New York City Opera as the acoustical consultant for the renovation of the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center. In collaboration with JCJ Architecture and Schuler Shook Theatre Planners, JaffeHolden has provided consultation regarding the acoustic impact of renovations planned in the Theater.

Dragon’s Treasure exemplifi es the merger of storytelling and technology at the highest standard. Five hundred guests grip their handrails in the domed standup theater as they descend to the undersea world of the Jade Palace – a world populated by dolphins, mermaids, sea fairies, and 300-foot dragons battling for the Dragon Pearl. The audience journeys with the four Dragon Kings to their respective aquatic kingdoms in this 10-minute adventure story incorporating Eastern philosophy and Chinese mythology, and completely sans dialog.

Guild Hall was one of the first community centers in America that combined a theater, museum and a community center under one roof. The John Drew Theater, which originally opened in 1931, has now been restored to its former architectural glory while also sporting new, state-of-the-art technical systems.

Anchoring the northeast corner of Chicago’s Millennium Park, the Harris Theater came to life from the need for a permanent home for the city’s world-renowned performing arts companies. In addition to offering permanent accommodations for these small and medium sized music and dance groups, these companies required a state-of the-art venue with an affordable rent, superior technical facilities and the flexibility to serve a range of performance needs.

The Hobby Center for the Performing Arts, located in the heart of Houston’s theatre district celebrated, its grand opening in the Spring of 2002. This $100 million theatre complex houses the 2,650-seat Sarofi m Hall, home to Houston’s major theatrical productions, and the intimate 500-seat Zilkha Hall, which will host dozens of local and touring performing arts organizations.

At the Hollywood Bowl, the overall hard refl ective bowl like shell is the reverberant chamber and the adjustable refl ectors within the halo ring enable us to balance as well as blend the sections of the orchestra and increase onstage hearing for the musicians. In an outdoor venue that seats close to 20,000 people, the use of sound reinforcement is a given. However, a live, well blended and balanced orchestral sound at the source makes it much easier for the console operator to provide a sound that is more representative of what one might hear in a well designed concert hall.

ImaginOn joins a library and children’s theater to create a place that engages children and their families with storytelling in ways unlike any before. The facility, with its unique programs, inspires visitors of all ages to experience the written, spoken, and electronic word in a dynamic environment and has emerged as a new prototype for education, the arts, and entertainment. ImaginOn has garnered many accolades from children, adults, theaters and libraries from across the country.

In the Kennedy Center Concert Hall’s first comprehensive renovation, the stage platform was completely reconstructed and a new acoustical canopy erected over the stage to correct a major flaw that had hampered performances since the hall’s 1971 opening—the musicians’ inability to hear one another on stage. Not only has the renovation significantly improved the on-stage hearing environment, enabling the musicians of the National Symphony to perfect their ensemble skills, but it has enhanced the quality of sound throughout the 2,518-seat hall.

The acoustic needs of a facility like the Long Center are not only acute, but also diverse. Venues like Dell Hall and the Rollins Theatre have to support clear, sharp, natural acoustics for performances of the founding resident companies; the Austin Symphony Orchestra, Austin Lyric Opera and Ballet Austin, as well as many other community arts groups.

While the Seattle Opera House had served as the home for the Seattle Opera, Pacifi c Northwest Ballet and a number of Seattle Center presentations for 74 years, there were serious concerns that the building did not meet today’s stringent earthquake requirements, and the renovations done in the 1960s were in serious need of refurbishment.

The Mark Taper Forum at the LA Music Center is a 739-seat theater typical of many drama theatres built in the 60’s and 70’s. These spaces have thrust stages and 180° wide seating plans that make them visually intimate and exciting to perform in, but also create unique acoustic challenges. In 2005, when the LA Music Center set out to provide a long-overdue renovation of the Taper’s public amenities, it quickly became apparent that updating the acoustics was equally important to updating the theater’s public areas and technical systems.

Built during the dark days of the Depression by Fox Westcoast Theaters at a price of $1,000,000, the Fox Theater was the largest theater in Spokane, at 2,300 seats. From 1968-1974, the Spokane Symphony performed in the Fox as their principal venue, and in 1976 the balcony was divided creating two smaller theaters. In 2000, a successful campaign started to renovate this art deco treasure as a regional performing arts center and home to the Spokane Symphony.

Houston’s Miller Outdoor Theatre in Hermann Park is unique in the United States, offering an 8 month season of professional entertainment that is culturally diverse and always free of charge to the public. Programs include Classical music, jazz, ethnic music and dance, ballet, Shakespeare, musical theatre and classic films.

JaffeHolden and Fisher Dachs Associates worked directly with Lincoln Center to reconfigure Avery Fisher Hall on a temporary basis for the Mostly Mozart Festival held each summer.

Detroit Orchestra Hall, built in 1919, was designed by C. Howard Crane. In 1989 JaffeHolden, along with Roger Morgan Studios, unveiled the new Orchestra Hall, in its fi rst signifi cant renovation after being closed for many years. In 2003, Diamond + Schmitt Architects and JaffeHolden, along with Schuler Shook Theater Planners, renovated Orchestra Hall once more to include new seating, stage extension, mechanical and lighting systems and ADA access.

Richmond CenterStage complex features three performance venues, a visual arts gallery and an innovative education facility located in the heart of Downtown Richmond. The historic Carpenter Theater, fully renovated and restored, will have nearly 1,800 seats and serve as the home of the Richmond Symphony, opera productions, dance and Broadway shows. The stage house has been dramatically expanded and fi tted with a custom designed orchestra shell, and features new state-of-the-art sound and lighting systems. Its restored Wurlitzer theatre organ will be reinstalled, and a new fi ber optic system will enhance the ceiling’s sparkling stars.

The newly opened Richmond Hill Theatre in the historic downtown district marries an existing structure with a modern new performance facility. The theatre is a rectangular geometry with a horse-shoe balcony and parterre featuring blond wood. The theatre features a full range sound system with supplemental fill systems so that patrons in all seats have the best possible music fi delity and speech intelligibility for the broad variety of programs that the theater needs to host, which range from internationally acclaimed artists on tour to local production groups. In addition to its audio capabilities, the theatre boasts a 35mm fi lm projector and a high-defi nition digital cinema projector that broadens the production capabilities of the space even more.

The Bill Heard Theater at the River Center for the Performing Arts opened in May of 2002, with performances by the Columbus Symphony, Jessye Norman, Travis Tritt and Arturo Sandoval. To accommodate such diversified performers and future events, including Broadway shows and ballet, the 2,000-seat Theater was designed to be highly flexible in its acoustic environment and performer position.

The Sarasota Opera House underwent an extensive 20 million dollar renovation in 2008 to upgrade the hall to modern comfort, technical and acoustic standards. While the acoustics in the hall were considered acceptable, there was a desire to improve presence and liveness of the vocal line and bolster orchestral richness, while retaining the musical balances between singer and pit orchestra.

Completed in 2003 the Schuster Center's Mead Theatre is a multi-purpose triumph. Home to the Dayton Philharmonic, the Dayton Opera and Victoria Theatre's Broadway touring series, JaffeHolden's acoustic design innovations provides the Schuster Center with outstanding results for all performing arts genres.

JaffeHolden consultants contributed their acoustical expertise to every aspect of the renovation of Severance Hall, home of the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra—assessing the acoustical impact of new patron amenities being added to the front of the house, implementing strategies to ensure that the hall’s extraordinary acoustical intimacy would be preserved, designing a new permanent orchestra shell, and advising on the relocation of the hall’s Norton Pipe Organ, which had been silent since a 1958 renovation had sealed off the instrument in its loft far above the stage.

Designed in the neo-classical style by architects Paul R. Allen and Ingalls & Hoffman, it was built by and named for actor-producer Henry Miller. The original theatre had 950 seats. It opened on April 1, 1918 with the play The Fountain of Youth. It was the fi rst air-conditioned theater in Manhattan. The theatre was closed in 2004 and subsequently remodeled by the Durst Organization to make way for the 57-story Bank of America Tower. Its neo-Georgian facade, landmarked by the city, remains, and includes an all-new 1,055-seat theatre within the structure. In 2007, it was announced that the Roundabout Theatre Company would operate the Henry Miller’s as its third Broadway theatre. The theatre opened in October 2009 and has recently been renamed the Stephen Sondheim Theater.

The Music Pavilion houses a 6,000 square foot stage under a proscenium arch that supports the permanent acoustical shell. The shell is made of a tensile-steel web over which a wood-shingled roof is mounted. The proscenium arch soars 70-feet and is anchored by an immense foundation consisting of 150 truckloads of concrete. The foundation is designed to make the structure extremely resistant to forces of weather and earthquakes.

The 499 seat theater on the Madison Campus of Santa Monica College accommodates a wide spectrum of programs ranging from live theater, film and lectures to classical music concerts, opera, musical theater and amplified entertainment events. The acoustical qualities of the hall desired for the range of anticipated  programming are quite different, requiring the design to incorporate means to adjust the environment to suit these various performance types.

The Merkin Concert Hall is an exquisite 449-seat acoustical concert hall, and the renovation was designed to ensure that this quality was not jeopardized in any way. Efforts were focused on attenuating sound from the building’s mechanical systems as well as ambient noise from the lobby. This is important because the busy Kaufman Center has many noisy activities scheduled in the lobbies, balcony galleries as well as around the hall. JaffeHolden monitored every aspect of the construction from start to finish and acoustically approved the new carpet, the paint, and the re-hanging of the acoustic cloud, taken down to ease renovation work.

In September 2001, Oklahoma City celebrated the grand re-opening of the historic downtown Civic Center Music Hall. It now serves as home to the Oklahoma City Philharmonic, the Canterbury Choral Society, and Ballet Oklahoma. The renovated Music Hall also hosts touring Broadway shows and other popular productions. For its conversion to this new, multi-use purpose, JaffeHolden has designed a stage that can change shape and an auditorium whose response to sound can be easily altered to suit the event. When dropped into place for symphony concerts, the hall’s custom-designed Concert Hall Shaper creates a 280,000-cubic-foot shell around the orchestra. Other new adjustable acoustical treatments include acoustical refl ectors that can be extended over the audience, rolling shell towers that can be positioned around the performers on stage, an expandable orchestra pit, and movable acoustical curtains to control reverberation in the house.)

Hall C in the Tokyo International Forum is a 1500-seat theater that can be confi gured to serve a broad range of needs from symphonic performances to drama. Acoustically the hall can be adjusted so that its acoustics precisely match the needs of each performance. One key feature in this design is the orchestra shell, a design pioneered by JaffeHolden. For symphonic events, a concert ceiling is lowered in the stage house to seal off the fly tower and its sound-absorbing scenery and drapery. This concert ceiling creates a resonant chamber around the orchestra resulting in a very rich and warm acoustic. Suspended below the concert ceiling is a lower acoustical canopy which ensures that this resonance is balanced by clarity and transparency. This combination of resonance and clarity is characteristic of only the finest concert halls, and Hall C is already being touted by performers as the very best symphonic hall in Tokyo.

In 2000, David M. Schwartz Architects designed two new recital halls (The Van Cliburn Recital Hall and the McDavid Studio) to be included in the Maddox Muse Center. These halls were built for the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, Texas Ballet Theater, Fort Worth Opera and the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition to be utilized for practice space and for commercial use for private and public events.

The new Zankel Hall has fulfilled Carnegie Hall’s longstanding need for a third performance space: one specifically designed to support many kinds of productions too modest for the 2,800-plus-seat Main Hall but too large for the 268-seat Weill Recital Hall. Early music, experimental music, jazz, world music, chamber opera, musical theater, poetry readings, film screenings, interactive video events—all these are among Zankel Hall’s projected uses.