Wrecking Ball's Swing Marks Start Of New Concert Hall -- Demolition Makes Way For Downtown Facility
It was a very wet wrecking ball, but the ceremonial purpose was served today at the Seattle Symphony's demolition party downtown.
The demolition party, mired in a sea of mud but filled with high spirits, marked the official start of construction of the symphony's future Benaroya Hall as the first swing was taken at the old Jones Building on the corner of Second Avenue and University Street.
The building, which occupies the northern portion of the block where Benaroya Hall will be located, is being demolished to make way for a $109.12 million facility, with a 2,500-seat main auditorium and a smaller 540-seat performance hall.
The new building is expected to be ready in September 1998.
Today's event also celebrated the halfway point in the symphony's capital campaign, which is aimed at building the new hall and expanding the symphony's endowment fund.
Of the $90 million capital campaign, $50.87 million in private money has been raised - an amount the symphony says is the largest ever raised by an arts group in the history of Washington state.
The private funding for the new hall, which began in 1993 with a $15 million gift from the family of Jack and Becky Benaroya, was recently supplemented by a gift of $5 million from the Kreielsheimer Foundation.
More than 197 corporations and individuals have contributed the rest.
Public funding of $53.87 million from the state, county and city already has been contributed.
The new hall, owned by the city of Seattle and administered by the symphony, will be surrounded by a half-acre of open space along Second Avenue, including a sculpture Garden of Remembrance and a continuation of the University Street hillclimb from the waterfront.
Benaroya Hall's design firm is Loschky, Marquardt & Nesholm.
The building and its public open space will occupy the entire block bounded by Second and Third avenues and University and Union streets, directly east of the Seattle Art Museum downtown.