La Maison Symphonique is a 2100 seat concert hall in Montreal, designed primarily for symphonic music. Sitting on the northeast corner of Montreal’s Place des Arts, it terminates Boulevard de Maisonneuve East. It faces a new park, providing an excellent backstop for Quartier des Spectacle’s outdoor festival venues.
On the façade, an outer wrapper—in glass, stone, and wood—provides sound isolation for the concert hall while offering patrons beautiful views of the urban landscape of Montreal. Tall sculpted wood forms, visible from the exterior, rise through the building to emerge wave-like and define the architecture.
Inside, sophisticated variable acoustics and theatre systems enable sound to be tailored to accommodate a wide range of music performances.
Clear sightlines, audience comfort, and superb acoustics define the concert-going experience at this new hall. A monochromatic palette of colours offers a calm, cohesive, and elegant environment. It draws the audience’s attention to natural, unamplified performances. Inside, the auditorium is clad in Quebec beech wood, providing sound reflection and diffusion. White plaster adds texture and acoustics richness. While the auditorium owes its tall, narrow proportion to the success of the traditional “shoebox” design, it is shaped with optimized curved walls and balconies. These formal gestures direct and spread sound to create intimacy between the artist and the audience.
The auditorium is a new hybrid form of concert hall. A wooden instrument writ large, it’s a shoebox that’s anything but boxy or a vineyard that’s compact and terraced.
Opened in September 2011, the building quickly won over the hearts and minds of local and international musicians, critics, and, most importantly, audiences. This new music hall instills pride in the city and a strong sense of identity—home—for the celebrated Montreal Symphony Orchestra.
Material Used :
1. Beech wood flooring and wall finish: Plancher Dava
2. Carpet: Tandus
3. Wall coverings: Guildford of Maine (fabric), Lesna for Rosebrand KM fabrics (theatre curtains)
4. Tile: Olympia and Cera Grs Lago Di Marone
5. Theatre seats: Ducharme Seating
6. Theatre seat fabric: Maharam
7. Custom Art Installations: BGL and Dominique Blain
8. Organ: Casavant Freres
9. Façade design by Diamond Schmitt
