Constellation Center | 43 Thorndike St | East Cambridge

[Ron Newman]

Five halls is just what they told me (and showed me) when I went to their open house during the Cambridge Science Festival.

 

[ablarc]

Whether four halls or five, it's overreaching.

Boston doesn't have nearly enough of a pool of concert-goers.

This would maybe fly in New York, London or Vienna.

 

[GW2500]

^^^ If the ticket price is right it could.

 

[Ron Newman]

These aren't just for classical music, they are also for live theatre, movies, other forms of music.

 

[ablarc]

Free concerts often don't fill up. Ditto, cheap concerts.

The price of a ticket is mostly dependent on the artist's demand. If you want a top-notch group that will pack 'em in, like the Sequoia Quartet, you have to pay their fee. And that doesn't translate into cheap tickets.

Do the math yourself.

Hate to say this, coz I'm the kind of guy who likes to go to concerts like this, but this seems like a pipedream to me. I don't think the numbers are there.

Now, in New York ...

 

[ablarc]

From the website:

"ConstellationCenter will be one of the world?s finest performing arts centers. This Center will enable optimal presentation of a wide range of performance events. Musical performances will range from classical music (from early music to new music), classic pipe and theater organ, to folk music, world music, gospel, and jazz; from Baroque opera to American musical theater to contemporary opera. Other work spans Shakespeare to experimental theater; ballet, ballroom, to contemporary dance; silent and classic film to digital art; and the masterpieces of many cultures such as Japanese Gagaku and Byzantine Chant."

500 tickets at $30, you give half of it to Wynton Marsalis and his quartet, they each take home $1500 for a night's work and who knows how much rehearsing. And who paid for their transportation?

How do you think the Byzantine Chant guys will do?




Now, if at mid-concert they had a reefer break ...

 

[statler]

So what you are saying is that they are being bold, taking a risk?

Shouldn't this be encouraged? Isn't this what we want for the Boston area?

A safer bet would have another bio-tech lab. Yay.

Maybe another 'luxury' condo building. Oh boy.

 

[Beton Brut]

As some may remember me saying in the past, this is a good idea on the wrong site. This would be much better on City Hall Plaza.

With all of the beautiful restorations we've done in the past decade, all of these venues are acoustically suspect, and there's only so much engineering can do to improve existing construction. Medium-sized organizations like H&H, BMOP, and the BLO could benefit from purpose-built facilities for chamber orchestras or small (Baroque/Classical Era) opera productions. Indeed there is no purpose-built venue for opera of any kind in Boston. The same is true for chamber ensembles.

The chamber group I'm a trustee with is on "the list" of organizations interested in performing at the proposed Constellation Center. Our artistic director has met with Glenn KnicKrehm on a couple of occasions and has (diplomatically) described his behavior as "erratic."

 

[bdurden]

Boston's performing arts scene is vastly underrated by members of this forum.

 

[ablarc]

So what you are saying is that they are being bold, taking a risk?

Shouldn't this be encouraged? Isn't this what we want for the Boston area?

A safer bet would have another bio-tech lab. Yay.

Maybe another 'luxury' condo building. Oh boy.

Touche. Got me, statler!

Mea culpa.



(I know too much that ain't necessarily so.)

 

[czsz]

While the Constellation Center languishes, it's lapped by...Rockport:

http://www.boston.com/ae/music/arti...n_lends_his_ears_to_rockports_new_music_hall/

Campbell has praise for the interior (though hates the phony traditionalism outside):

http://www.boston.com/ae/theater_ar...makes_rockports_shalin_liu_concert_hall_sing/

 

[briv]

Campbell has praise for the interior (though hates the phony traditionalism outside):

Some photos from the architect's site (Epstein Joslin Architects):

A Victorian building was demolished to make way for this new hall. Considering this, and other things, I think the traditional facade seems to have been a reasonable requirement. Campbell's reflexive dismissal of anything "traditional" is so tired and predictable. Is he really suggesting that Rockport should have disrupted the cohesion of its remarkably intact historic waterfront district in the name of what? satisfying his orthodox Modernist sensibilities?

 

[czsz]

True. Campbell would have us believe that it's "Disneyesque," but it's not exactly another Commonwealth Hotel. I could have seen something wooden and contemporary working here though, along the lines of the Community Rowing building or the North Allston public library (how did Allston get to be such a hotspot for contemporary wood?)

 

[czsz]

Probably not good news, but interesting nonetheless.

http://www.constellationcenter.org/news/news_publicartinstallation.htm

During the weekends of June 12th and June 19th, 2010, the group of artists selected to present their works at the future home of ConstellationCenter arrived at the site to install their art. The artists were joined by enthusiastic volunteers in assembling their works on the site over the course of these two weekends.

The activity on the site drew the attention of many pedestrians in the Kendall Square area. The ConstellationCenter team as well as our neighbors were thrilled to see the much anticipated project reaching its completion at the end of the second weekend.

Below please find photographs of the artists at work during the installation weekends.

One example of the sculpture:

So it basically looks like they're planning for this to lie fallow for a long, long time?

The installation officially opens on Thursday, June 24th, 2010 and will remain on the site for approximately six months. Following this, we are planning to continue the installation with other selected or commissioned works, or with architectural elements designed for the Center.

Also, this strikes me as a terrible metaphor:

 

[GW2500]

I'm getting the impression that they have zero funding for this thing.

 

[kennedy]

Yup.

 

[BostonUrbEx]

wtf is that

 

[vanshnookenraggen]

wtf is that

Dragon cocks.

 

[kz1000ps]

Yup, definitely.

 

[unterbau]

True. Campbell would have us believe that it's "Disneyesque," but it's not exactly another Commonwealth Hotel. I could have seen something wooden and contemporary working here though, along the lines of the Community Rowing building or the North Allston public library (how did Allston get to be such a hotspot for contemporary wood?)

I think disneyland is an apt comparison. It's just such a generic image of victorian architecture.