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Rafael Viñoly designed the Kimmel Art Center for the Philadelphia Orchestra. A large glass barrel vault that is more familiar with train stations rises over the white box of a 2,500-seat symphony hall. It opened in 2008.
Each performance hall is compartmentalized inside the glass structure, with rooftop gardens above the Commonwealth Plaza. They offer downtown views of the city. The main performance hall isn’t as stunning, but shapes its acoustics around a mahogany musical form. Vinoly recalls his playing the cello. The soaring post-modernist glass is typical with Vinoly. The structures inside mimic the buildings of the downtown but take on more fine-tuned artistic forms. The vault unites it all together into a social, community performance center. |
(Tom Ipri– flickr/creative commons license)
(Tom Ipri– flickr/creative commons license)
(iriskh– flickr/creative commons license)
(hendrix682– flickr/creative commons license)
(ann gav– flickr/creative commons license)
