Cincinnati's beloved Music Hall $135 million renovation project

Cincinnati Music Hall; Springer Hall; photo courtesy of Jason Pearce via Flickr

The beloved Cincinnati Music Hall was built rapidly in 1878 in the central city area of Cincinnati in what is now called Over-the-Rhine. This building is truly amazing in terms of its civic intelligent design. Hannaford & Proctor was the architecture firm that designed the building, amongst approximately 300 other buildings throughout Cincinnati. Most impressive is the acoustical design of the Springer Hall, pictured above, because it has been named as one of the most effective acoustically on a national and even international level.



Acoustical design is one of the most difficult feats to master still today. It is again quite impressive that Hannaford was able to nail it on the head and to have done his design work so rapidly. He was truly a master at civic architecture. Not only are the auditoriums well-designed, but the public spaces including the corridors and the ballrooms are beautiful, nicely-proportioned, acoustically-sound, and sized appropriately for the typical numbers of people who would frequent the building.

The backstage design too is interesting in that there is a carpenters shop for the stage prop design and construction crew. Every detail from the decorative designs, spatial proportions, to the functionality of the building works well today just as it has for the past 137 years. To date, the renovations have been sparse, few and far between. The urban area in which the building is located suffered a decline as well, causing patrons to have to park in the rear of the building and to enter by a bridge from the parking garage safely into the back of the building.

Things are changing for the Over-the-Rhine area and to many of its buildings. The area is more civic-friendly in general and many of the buildings are being revitalized. The Cincinnati Music Hall is one of the key buildings for this area and for all of Cincinnati. To have been granted $25 million from the Ohio Historic Preservation Tax Credit program in December 2014, the City is greatly appreciative and is in burning anticipation for its renovated Music Hall.

This was such a fun project to study. Look for the full article in The Architect's Newspaper.

photo courtesy of Fleep Tuque via Flickr

Springer Hall; photo courtesy of Haglundc via Flickr

Springer Hall; photo courtesy of Haglundc via Flickr

photo courtesy of Haglundc via Flickr

photo courtesy of Haglundc via Flickr

photo courtesy of Haglundc via Flickr

photo courtesy of Haglundc via Flickr

photo courtesy of Jason Pearce via Flickr

photo courtesy of 3CDC

photo courtesy of 3CDC

photo courtesy of 3CDC

photo courtesy of 3CDC