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Originally opened in 1904, Chicago’s Orchestra Hall was immediately recognized as acoustically flawed due to low reverberation times, poor bass response, a crowded stage, and poor on-stage hearing conditions. In 1991, the Orchestral Association of Chicago decided to renovate and expand Orchestra Hall into a comprehensive Symphony Center for music in Chicago. The core of the project was a commitment to improve the acoustics to the extent feasible within the constraints of the site and the historic beauty of the hall. The Association contracted directly with Kirkegaard and Associates as acoustical consultants to work in parallel with the architects, Skidmore Owings and Merrill. The renovated hall reopened in the fall of 1997, with completion of acoustics work delayed until summer of 1998. The renovated hall is beautiful architecturally, and its acoustics has been gratifyingly improved. This paper describes the history and results of the remodeling. Test data as well as subjective assessments will be discussed and important acoustics lessons shared.
R. Lawrence Kirkegaard (Mon,) studied this question.