Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall facts for kids
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 Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall
Location in San Francisco
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| Address | 201 Van Ness Avenue San Francisco, California United States |
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| Coordinates | 37°46′41″N 122°25′14″W / 37.777970°N 122.420646°W |
| Owner | San Francisco War Memorial and Performing Arts Center |
| Type | concert hall |
| Capacity | 2,743 |
| Construction | |
| Opened | 1980 |
| Architect | Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and Pietro Belluschi |
| Website | |
| sfwarmemorial.org | |
The Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall is a famous concert hall in San Francisco, California. It's part of the San Francisco War Memorial and Performing Arts Center. This large hall has 2,743 seats. It was finished in 1980 and cost about $28 million.
The hall was built to give the San Francisco Symphony a permanent home. Before Davies Hall, the symphony shared the nearby War Memorial Opera House with the San Francisco Opera and San Francisco Ballet. Having its own hall allowed the symphony to perform all year long.
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How the Hall Sounds: Acoustics
The hall was designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and Pietro Belluschi. They worked with sound experts called Bolt, Beranek and Newman. The building looks very modern and elegant, both inside and out.
To make the sound just right, there's a special "cloud" of panels above the stage. These panels can move. They help adjust the sound for different orchestra sizes and audiences. There are also fabric banners around the hall. These can change how long sounds echo, from about one to two-and-a-half seconds.
The architects made sure the performance area was very quiet. They did this by building a "building within a building." The outer part has thick glass walls. Inside that, there's another wall that forms the lobby. If you go through a door, you enter a hallway. This hallway is between the lobby wall and the inner building's wall. It's covered with material that absorbs sound. This design helps block out noise from outside.
When it first opened, the hall's large size made the sound less than perfect. So, in 1992, more changes were made to improve the sound. This cost $10 million.
The improvements included:
- Making the walls above the stage narrower. This helped sound reflect better.
- Replacing the old sound panels with new, curved ones. These new panels cover a larger area and can be adjusted by computer.
- Moving the walls of the seating area closer together. This made the audience space narrower and more rectangular.
- Adding aisles to the seating.
- Putting in special elements to spread sound evenly.
- Making the floor seating steeper. This gave everyone a better view.
- Adding risers on the stage. This helped musicians see and hear each other better.
All these changes made the sound much better and also improved the hall's look.
The Big Organ: Fratelli Ruffatti
In 1984, a huge pipe organ was added to the hall. It's called the Fratelli Ruffatti organ. It has 147 different sounds, called ranks. This organ can play music from very old styles to modern pieces.
The organ's control panel can be moved around the stage. It can also be electronically changed to match different organ playing styles, like German or French. When not in use, it can be stored away.
What Else is Inside Davies Hall?
Besides the main concert hall, there's another building next door. It has the Harold L. Zellerbach Rehearsal Hall. This hall has three separate practice rooms. The biggest practice room is the same size as the stage at the Opera House across the street. This is great for practicing opera and ballet.
Davies Hall also has offices for the symphony staff. There's a music library, dressing rooms, and a recreation room for the musicians. The Wattis Room is a private dining room for important supporters of the symphony. There was a plan to build a smaller recital hall, but it was never built. That empty space is now used for employee parking.
Outside the hall, at the corner of Grove Street and Van Ness Avenue, you can see a large bronze sculpture. It's called Large Four Piece Reclining Figure 1972–73 and was made by Henry Moore in 1973.
Sometimes, Davies Hall also hosts concerts by modern musicians who are not part of an orchestra.
What People Thought of the Hall
When the hall opened in 1980, a writer for The New York Times, Paul Goldberger, shared his thoughts. He said the hall seemed "confused about style." He felt it didn't quite capture the spirit of San Francisco.
