The Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts

The Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts held an open house on Sunday, September 18, 2011. Situated on a 5 acre site the Kauffman Center’s two performance venues, Muriel Kauffman Theatre and Helzberg Hall, are two distinct structures, financed largely by the Kauffman pharmaceutical fortune, designed by the architect Moshe Safdie and built on a hilltop with an expansive glass lobby wall overlooking Kansas City. The pristinely white, inverted ziggurats of the two theaters are influenced by Frank Lloyd Wright’s Guggenheim Museum, and the stainless-steel cladding on the arched exterior have a Frank Gehry feel.

The maritime forms, clad in bead-blasted stainless steel, contain two acoustically isolated venues: the Muriel Kauffman Theatre and Helzberg Hall, home to the Kansas City Symphony. Whereas the former is horseshoe shaped and lined with balconies featuring balustrades of cast resin and crumpled Mylar, the latter is a wood-paneled oval with vineyard seating that brings the audience close to the music. Connecting the two spaces is a glass atrium, which opens onto an expansive terrace and promises to help bring some song, dance, and drama to the city beyond.

The 1,600 seat Helzberg Hall is designed in a vineyard layout with terraced seating both to the sides and behind the orchestra, a style reminiscent of Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. Not by coincidence, acoustical design was handled by Yasuhisa Toyota, whose work on Disney Hall generated wide acclaim. The hall offers an up-close and personal exchange between musicians and audience members; the farthest seats are 100 feet away from the stage.