Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall

Description

The Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, often referred to simply as the Meyerhoff, is a music venue that opened September 16, 1982, at 1212 Cathedral Street in the Mount Vernon neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland, United States. The main auditorium has a seating capacity of 2,443 and is home to the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. It is named for Joseph Meyerhoff, a Ukrainian-born Baltimore businessman, philanthropist, and arts patron who served as president of the Baltimore Symphony from 1965 to 1983.ArchitectureThe modern style structure was designed by the architectural firms of Pietro Belluschi, Inc. and Jung/Brannen Associates. Ground was broken November 10, 1978. Acoustical design was by Bolt, Beranek and Newman and uses a series of convex curves to avoid flat surfaces or ninety-degree angles inside the hall.The auditorium is oval, its cylindrical wall extends the entire height of the building with the roof sloping down over the stage area. The exterior surface of the cylinder is covered in brown brick and rises through the lobby to be clearly discernible on the exterior of the building. Backstage areas are housed in a concentric oval which projects from the rear of the building while the lobby and patron areas are housed under a sloping metal roof which extends from the building's front. The exterior lobby walls feature large expanses of glass to open the building to the plaza which surrounds it.