Architect(s): Diamond Schmitt Architects
Address: 1600 Rue Saint-Urbain, MONTRÉAL, Canada
Latitude/Longitude: 45.50945411373023,-73.5666949613411
Photographs: James Brittain | Stéphane Brügger | Tom Arban | Yannis Guillon
La Maison Symphonique is situated on the north-east corner of Montreal’s Place des Arts. It terminates De Maisonneuve Blvd, facing a new park and sitting before one of the Quartier des Spectacle’s outdoor festival venues. Inside, sophisticated variable acoustics and theatre systems enable sound to be tailored to accommodate a wide range of music performances.
A music hall for a world-class orchestra, the new architecture contributes to the city with an exceptional landmark – warm, inviting, and arts-focused.
Clear sightlines, audience comfort, and superb acoustics define the concert-going experience at this new hall. A monochromatic palette of colours offers a calm, cohesive, and elegant environment. It draws the audience’s attention to natural, unamplified performances. Inside, the auditorium is clad in Quebec beech wood, providing sound reflection and diffusion. White plaster adds texture and acoustics richness. While the auditorium owes its tall, narrow proportion to the success of the traditional “shoebox” design, it is shaped with optimized curved walls and balconies. These formal gestures direct and spread sound to create intimacy between the artist and the audience.
On the façade, an outer wrapper – in glass, stone, and wood – provides sound isolation for the concert hall while offering patrons beautiful views of the urban landscape of Montreal. Tall sculpted wood forms, visible from the exterior, rise through the building to emerge wave-like and define the architecture.
This new music hall instills pride in the city and a strong sense of identity – home – for the celebrated Montreal Symphony Orchestra.
Text description provided by the architects.
Project team: Steven Bondar, Cynthia Carbonneau, A.J. Diamond, Elizabeth Gyde, Matthew Lella, Eric Lucassen, Marcin Ludwik Sztaba, Gary McCluskie, Graeme Reed, Jessica Shifman, Michael Treacy, Gary Watson
Contributed by Diamond Schmitt Architects
