Seattle Opera’s Renovated Home

Not far from Seattle's rockin' Experience Music Project museum, opera-loving Seattle-ites are now experiencing their music in a hall improved by a major renovation project, and designed to be more "democratic."

Seattle's opera house has been the odd-man-out in its "Seattle Center" arts & entertainment district. The old hall, originally built as a civic auditorium in 1928, has for the past few decades been surrounded by the remnants of the 1962 World's Fair -- the Space Needle and the monorail -- as well as an amusement park and the futuristic, Frank Gehry-designed rock museum, Experience Music Project.

The old hall's acoustics were unremarkable, and major renovations for earthquake preparedness were required anyway. Rather than settle for a ($99 million) tweak, the opera opted for a complete overhaul. Now known as McCaw Hall, the structure has been transformed throughout and is both functionally and conceptually different from the old Seattle Opera House it replaces. The renovations turned the entrances around to provide easier and more welcoming access from the monorail, added a spacious and colorful new lobby, and opened up an outdoor courtyard with metal scrims that glow with colors that vary with the music being performed inside. (Critics also praised the presence of 100 stalls in the ladies' rooms.)

Interior physical changes include reverberation chambers within side walls, connecting side sections of the orchestra seating with the first balcony, and a more intimate feeling (with very little actual reduction in capacity).

The sound? Feedback is positive, from both audiences and reviewers. The New York Times claimed that if architect Mark Reddington and consultants from Jaffe Holden Acoustics were presented to the crowds, they would be cheered.

Visit the Seattle Opera and learn more about their renovated hall

Read a local review of the new venue, or a New York Times article before [fee required] and after the opening of the renovated hall [fee required]