Harmonizing with the neighbors

The curved facade of the Davies Symphony Hall faces City Hall on a diagonal axis, toward the heart of the Civic Center. The design is at once contemporary and classic, relating the Hall to its neighboring buildings in terms of scale by matching cornices, roof forms, colors, and textures. The Hall’s cultural role is emphasized by treating the lobbies as glass-enclosed promenades along Grove Street and Van Ness Avenue, with entrances at either end. On concert nights especially, these brightly lit public spaces give the building a festive appearance that enlivens the pedestrian corridor on the west side of the Civic Center.

The program required a seating capacity of 3,000 in the hall, along with public foyers; lobbies and lounges; administrative offices; rehearsal spaces; television and recording facilities; and storage and other backstage facilities. The symphony hall proper is a fan shape, with seating distributed equally between a main orchestra level and two balcony levels, and the lower balcony continuing around the orchestra.

Performance-driven improvements

The original 252,000-square-foot (23,400-square-meter) performance hall was designed in collaboration with the San Francisco Symphony’s acoustician, Robert Newman, and Kurt Herbert Adler of the San Francisco Opera. In 1990, SOM and the acoustician Lawrence Kirkegaard were asked by the symphony to evaluate the performance hall in order to redress acoustical problems related to its volume and the size of its seating area. The SOM team developed and implemented a $10-million program of improvements to the hall and its acoustics, which reduced seating from 3,063 to 2,843 and added two new aisles. Other adjustments were made to enhance sound reflection. The work made an extraordinary improvement to Davies Hall, overcoming acoustical shortcomings and reflecting the original decision to make it a multipurpose venue, rather than solely a symphonic hall.

With these upgrades to its warm, elegant, and harmonious interior, Davies Symphony Hall achieves its aspiration to be an unequivocally modern building, yet also one whose spirit—in its parts, scale, detailing, and materials—complements its handsome neighbors.