Site and Sound: The Architecture and Acoustics of New Opera Houses and Concert Halls - Hardcover

Newhouse, Victoria

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1580932819 ISBN 13: 9781580932813

Publisher: The Monacelli Press, 2012

Synopsis

the rock band, the building surrounding the sound has to have qualities specific to its purpose: it must fit both the musicians and the audience; the acoustics must have a high quality all the way from the stage to the last row; and the aesthetics must be suitable for the surrounding landscape, as well as for its musical purpose. And of course, the concert hall must be as distinguished architecturally as it is musically. It is the concurrence of these two facets that Victoria Newhouse takes up in Site and Sound. In this volume, a companion to the highly regarded Towards a New Museum, Newhouse examines structures built specifically for musical performance. The first chapter offers an overview of concert hall design from ancient Greek and Roman times through to the great modern works of the second half of the twentieth century. The second chapter is a detailed case study of Lincoln Center. Built between 1957 and 1969, the twelve buildings of the Lincoln Center campus have provided a close-up look at changing attitudes toward music, architecture, and the place of the performing arts within society. The third chapter ranges through recent buildings around the world: Los Angeles; Dallas; Miami; Dublin; Olso, Norway; Porto, Portugal; and more. Newhouse delves into each project in detail and offers a critique that draws on her experiences of attending concerts in the various facilities. The fourth chapter covers the building boom in music venues in China where dozens of "Grand Theaters" are under construction or newly completed. Finally, the fifth chapter looks at the future: projects in the early stages of design and planning that will define the future of an architecture for music.

About this title

Review

"Lucidly written, splendidly illustrated . . . Newhouse's illuminating survey . . . includes [China, ] Los Angeles, Paris, New York and Oslo, before concluding with newer projects by Zaha Hadid in Baku, Azerbaijan, and Herzog & de Meuron's Elbe Philharmonie in Hamburg." --Manuela Hoelterhoff, "Bloomberg News"

Praise for "Towards a New Museum"
""Towards a New Museum" [is] about as complete a tour of the horizon of important new buildings as you are likely to find.... Ms. Newhouse is not just an astute and tireless visitor to these and many other places, but a trenchant critic and observer." --""The Wall Street Journal""

"Reading through these pages is to be engaged in a provocative conversation with passionate, very intelligent people." --""The New York Times Book Review""

""Site and Sound", which emerged from four years of research and travel, will be a crucial resource for anyone assessing the state of the hall-building art: I was particularly fascinated by the overview of all the frenzied recent activity in China." --Alex Ross, author of "The Rest is Noise "and "Listen to This"

"Lucidly written, splendidly illustrated . . . Newhouse's illuminating survey . . . includes [China, ] Los Angeles, Paris, New York and Oslo, before concluding with newer projects by Zaha Hadid in Baku, Azerbaijan, and Herzog & de Meuron's Elbe Philharmonie in Hamburg." --Manuela Hoelterhoff, "Bloomberg News"

Praise for "Towards a New Museum"
""Towards a New Museum" [is] about as complete a tour of the horizon of important new buildings as you are likely to find.... Ms. Newhouse is not just an astute and tireless visitor to these and many other places, but a trenchant critic and observer." --""The Wall Street Journal""

"Reading through these pages is to be engaged in a provocative conversation with passionate, very intelligent people." --""The New York Times Book Review""

About the Author

Victoria Newhouse is an architectural historian. She lectures frequently and her articles have appeared in "The New York Times," "Architectural Record," "Architectural Digest," and "ArtNews." Her previous books include "Wallace K. Harrison, Architect"; "Towards a New Museum"; and "Art and the Power of Placement."

Edition details

• Publisher: The Monacelli Press
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 1580932819
• ISBN 13: 9781580932813
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256