New AUD$74.5m music venue for Australia
by Caroline Wilkinson | 27 Feb 2009
Victoria's new AUD$74.5m (£33.64m, 37.6m euro, US$47.75m) purpose-built music facility, the Melbourne Recital Centre (MRC), has opened in Australia – 30 years after being planned.
The facility, designed by Ashton Raggatt McDougall (ARM) architects in collaboration with UK-based Acoustic Engineer Raf Orlowski of Arup Acoustics, offers a 1,000-seat concert hall called Dame Elisabeth Murdoch Hall. It is accompanied by a second 150-seat performance space, with a 100-seat dining area and a standing reception space for 180 people, called the Salon, which is reserved for intimate concerts, recordings, talks, receptions and dining. There are also three foyers, capable of accommodating up to 400 standing people, used for pre-concert and conferencing refreshments, as well as a VIP lounge and two separate VIP rooms and a boardroom.
CEO of MRC, Dr Jacques de Vos Malan, said: "We have challenged both the building and our audiences over the past three weeks. We’ve had a huge variety of music in here, ranging from solo piano through chamber ensembles and orchestras, from electro-acoustic ensembles to pounding taiko drums. Elisabeth Murdoch Hall has shone through as a fantastic place to make music, and audiences have been thrilled with the results.
Victoria's new AUD$74.5m (£33.64m, 37.6m euro, US$47.75m) purpose-built music facility, the Melbourne Recital Centre (MRC), has opened in Australia – 30 years after being planned. The facility, designed by Ashton Raggatt McDougall (ARM) architects in collaboration with UK-based Acoustic Engineer Raf Orlowski of Arup Acoustics, offers a 1,000-seat concert hall called Dame Elisabeth Murdoch Hall. It is accompanied by a second 150-seat performance space, with a 100-seat dining area and
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