The "sails" that loom so prominently in this rendering of the Bing Concert Hall, under construction, look billowy. But they are stationary panels with state-of-the-science acoustical qualities. When completed in 2012, the 844-seat hall—at the east end of Museum Way, on the opposite side of Palm Drive from the Cantor Arts Center—promises to be a showcase for the aesthetics of sound as well as a symbol of the importance of the arts in University and community life.
"This is going to be absolutely luscious," says music professor and cellist Chris Chafe, DMA '83, director of Stanford's Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics.
The acoustical design was directed by Yasuhisa Toyota of Nagata Acoustics, whose work includes the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. Polshek Partnership Architects, known for projects including Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall, guided the overall design. Notable aspects of the facility beyond the featured performance area include a rehearsal studio and a technology-rich recording studio.
Groundbreaking for the $112 million hall—underpinned by a $50 million gift from Peter Bing, '55, and his wife, Helen—heralds the long-term development of a sprawling arts district as a "front door" to the campus. The concert hall will be a short distance from Cantor, Frost Amphitheater and Memorial Auditorium, and the Deedee and Burt McMurtry Building for Art and Art History is being planned for a site next to Cantor. Programs including music, drama and dance eventually may consolidate in the location vacated by the Graduate School of Business after the completion of its new campus along Serra Street.
