Only months away from Symphony Hall’s centennial celebration, the Newark-based nonprofit that operates the historic performance hall is putting the finishing touches on its four-year restoration before the big reveal later this year.
Talia Young, the organization’s chief executive officer, and architect Stephen Doyle appeared this month before Newark’s Landmarks Commission to unveil designs of a new marquee and other updates to the century-old limestone facade.
Doyle’s firm Clarke Canton Hintz, the architecture firm hired to lead the restoration of Symphony Hall’s Frank Grad-designed neoclassical facade, also revealed two digital displays that will flank the entrance. “It shows a great opportunity, not only for the historic nature of the facility, but also to show upcoming events and celebrate local artists,” said Doyle about the LED display.
In the presentation to the Landmarks Commission, the digital display showed footage of Newark native Sarah Vaughn, who performed there in 1978, crooning a melody. The main stage inside Symphony Hall was named after Vaughn.
“We want to show the culture of the institution, the people that make up the institution, as well as the people that make up the community,” Young said.
The ongoing restoration, which began in 2021, is in the last phase of a $75 million investment to give this storied stage all the modern trappings. Midway through the overhaul, Symphony Hall had to manage the departure of its former chief executive officer Taneshia Nash Laird, who had left after a three-year stint to run another arts organization, naming Young to lead the rest of the way.
The reopening of Symphony Hall will be a much-needed shot in the arm to Newark’s arts scene at a time when the local art galleries continue to close, and with the New Jersey Symphony’s announcement that it would be moving its administrative offices to a new concert hall in Jersey City. Symphony Hall was the New Jersey Symphony’s original home when it debuted in 1964. It moved to NJPAC when it opened in the late 1990s.
The friendly Newark-Jersey City rivalry has often been good for both cities. In fact, in the 1990s, when the Loew’s Theater in Journal Square was slated for demolition, some attributed the opening of Newark’s NJPAC to the rallying of local city officials to save the performance hall.
It will be interesting to see what kind of lineup Young has planned for Symphony Hall’s first year after the restoration is complete. Though no official program has been announced, Symphony Hall, built in 1925, has plans to celebrate its first three-digit anniversary later this year.
Symphony Hall’s façade has undergone several subtle changes over the years. When the building first opened to the public in 1925, the copper panels between the seven ionic columns didn’t exist, creating an open-air portico where ticket holders could gather before a performance. However, five years later, the vestibule was enclosed and appears as it does today.
The marquee has also gone through different iterations as well. In 1965, Alex Bennett Kahn led the organization through an extensive renovation and introduced a canopy with a glass dome. That dome was eventually removed and replaced with the current marquee that, in 2019, suffered damage when a runaway car barreled into the lobby, destroying the limestone pillars along the way.
In 2021, when John Hatch, an architect from Doyle’s architectural firm Clarke Canton Hintz firm, first revealed plans to the Landmarks Commission to renovate the facade, the marquee seemed to resemble Kahn’s glass dome.
However, the latest design is a much more stripped-down affair. Jersey Digs reached out to Doyle and Young about why the marquee was redesigned, but never received a reply. Young told the Landmarks Commission, which approved the redesign, that the new renderings were a nod to architect Frank Grad’s original design in 1925. Next, Young, as a requirement for those who receive grants from the New Jersey Historic Trust, will present the changes to the state’s Historic Sites Council.
“It pays homage to what the building originally looked like,” Young said.
