Gehry's relatively limited budget ($ 160 million) made it impossible to experiment with titanium or steel; instead, a light rectangular block has appeared in the center of the city, inside which there are asymmetric "stacks" of various studios and rehearsal rooms (the customer, the New World Symphony organization functions primarily as an academy). All this dynamic content "bursts out" into the glazed atrium lobby, clearly visible from the outside. The main auditorium is the “terraced” system that Gehry already used at Disney Concert Hall, providing a more intimate contact between listeners and performers than in a traditional auditorium.
The use of glazing and dizzying "perspectives" inside the building further destroys the invisible border between the audience and the musicians (the former sees the latter during rehearsals and preparation for a performance, which prevents these latter from immersing themselves in themselves). This is what the management of "New World Symphony" strives for, one of the goals of which is to introduce young people to classical music.
The neutral façades of the building also have a functional value: they are projection screens for live concerts, which can be watched and listened to completely free of charge from the adjacent Lincoln Park. Dutch architects have accommodated the maximum amount of tropical greenery on an area of 1 hectare, deliberately moving away from the idea of a paved "plaza" popular in the USA. Palm trees, labyrinths of concrete paths, pergolas of complex shapes with winding bougainvillea, bench walls should give the impression of a much more spacious garden than in reality.
N. F.
