PERSPECTIVE — When the San Diego Symphony Orchestra inaugurates the newly renovated Jacobs Music Center with a gala concert on Sept. 28, it will mark the transformation of one of America’s great movie palaces into a state-of-the-art concert venue. Music director Rafael Payare will conduct a program that showcases the orchestra, starting with Welcome Home!!, a fanfare by Texu Kim which features the brass and percussion sections.
The project’s four interrelated goals had the prime objective of correcting the acoustical challenges in the hall, placing the aural experience for performers and audience members alike on a par with that of other world-class concert halls. Equally important were upgrades to the hall’s 90-year-old mechanical and life-safety systems, as well as extending universal access and programmatic capacity throughout the venue. Finally, the design resulted in the creation of much needed new spaces within the existing structure for collaboration and work.
Acoustician Paul Scarbrough of Akustiks, the architectural firm HGA, and theater planner Schuler Shook are responsible for the transformation of Copley Symphony Hall. As the San Diego Symphony begins this new chapter, the name of the hall will also change. After 30 years, the David C. Copley Foundation has returned the naming rights for the refurbished hall back to the orchestra, which has yet to decide on a new name for it.
I recently spoke with orchestra president Martha Gilmer, HGA chief executive officer Jim Moore, the firm’s principal-in-charge for the project, and Scarbrough as work on the renovation was nearing completion.
Q: What was the impetus for the renovation of the Jacob Music Center?
Gilmer: When I came to the San Diego Symphony 10 years ago, the board charged me with three tasks. At the top of the list was the creation of a permanent outdoor performing space for the symphony. This was accomplished in the fall of 2021 with the opening of The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park. The second was to head the search for a new music director for the orchestra. This objective was met with the arrival of Rafael Payare in 2019. The third was to look at the acoustics of the (concert hall), as well as its infrastructure. The orchestra acquired the Fox Theater in 1984 and in 2013 sold off the adjacent lots to fund renovations to the theater. These efforts included the creation of a temporary, movable shell on stage for the orchestra to perform in, as well as other acoustical treatments, such as “clouds” above the stage. These interventions did not solve the theater’s acoustical problems for live orchestral performances.
Q: How did you assemble the team for the renovation project?
Gilmer: I first met Paul in 2023 at the opening of The Smith Center in Las Vegas. It is a superb venue and excellent for all purposes. Paul has an excellent track record in designing the acoustics in new constructions, as well as in the renovation of existing halls, especially old movie theaters. Paul gave me a list of architects, which included HGA. They made an impressive presentation and even brought a historian to the first meeting. They have worked on some of the best and most successful renovations of Fox theaters in the country.
The architect:
Q: How do you approach such a grand-scaled renovation?
Moore: We explore a space to discover its magical qualities. Perhaps the best example here is the Juliette Balcony, from which you can see the entire hall. Prior to the renovation, it could be accessed only through technical spaces, and the audience passed it by. Reactivating a space like this deepens the engagement with the room. Sometimes, however, history has to be undone. The existing straight rows of seats had to be reworked both for sight lines as well as to wrap around the stage which combine to create a sense of community.
Q: What are the challenges when renovating old theaters as orchestral halls?
Acoustician Scarbrough: The constraints are generally the same — chiefly, the form of the buildings with their deep balconies and the large seating capacity. The challenge is to reduce seating yet make it work economically. Another is that the buildings are usually landmarked, so you have to respect the historical fabric. They are great spaces, however, which makes for wonderful concert halls and remarkable audience experiences.
Architect Moore: There are several small studios within HGA, and one of them has been specializing in restoring old theaters since the Sixties. Theaters built as movie houses didn’t acknowledge acoustics. When you have the right-sized hall with the right-sized audience together with good sight lines, the results can be dynamite.
Q: What were the acoustical challenges in the existing space and how did you solve them?
Gilmer: The problems were two-fold. First, the orchestra was saturated in sound and the players could not hear each other. Secondly, the sound was not reaching the audience.
Scarbrough: In a project like this, acoustics don’t dictate the process, but they have to come first. It’s a three-legged stool comprised of acoustical considerations, architecture, and the factors of lighting, sight lines, and audio visual design. The craft is to combine all three disciplines to meet the aspirations of the client.
Q: Why was it necessary to rework the stage area and include a choral terrace?
Moore: Increasing the size of the stage was one of the main drivers of the project. The existing stage was very small for an orchestra and posed challenges for works which called for large forces. A choral terrace is a solution to broaden the stage. Schuler Shook, the theatrical planners on the project, were brilliant in designing both the visual and aural parameters of the choral terrace. It seats approximately 90 choristers and feels like part of the orchestra.
Gilmer: Its construction was one of the reasons for the delay in the opening of the hall. When renovating a hall, expect the unexpected. The entire stage had to be removed. This was complicated by not being able to locate the original blueprints at first and needing to do a laser scan of the structure.
Scarbrough: The payback to all of this is that there is a different feeling to the stage now. The choral terrace has created more acoustical breathing room and the orchestra can hear better.
Q: What changes have been made to the hall’s historic four-manual, 32-rank Robert Morton organ, which has over 3,000 pipes?
Scarbrough: The instrument is a large, wonderful theater organ. Bob Knight, the organ’s curator, wanted to augment the instrument to make it more suitable for the classical repertoire.
Moore: Organs are always a tricky part of the puzzle. Since the goal was to create a permanent acoustical shell outside of the aural space, we had to fit the big wooden pipes situated in the stage area into the two existing chambers. Bob is a magician and we were able to accomplish what he wanted.
Scarbrough: The new pipes are housed in a new chamber on stage right. The result is an organ that speaks into the space as the three chambers are closer to the orchestra. Conductor, players, and organist can now hear each other. The reconfiguration also eliminated the sound delay from the organ, which posed additional challenges in performance.
Q: What tools and techniques are employed to create the acoustical magic?
Scarbrough: Acousticians have a tool box fitted to meet a variety of goals, but the most important thing is that all elements combine to blend and project sound to the audience. Individual acoustical canopies over the stage, such as we utilized here, not only permit the fine tuning of the orchestra’s sound, but also what gets projected to the audience. Drapery systems also can be employed to achieve a more pleasing sense of resonance in the space. They are especially useful in cleaning up the speech track when an orchestra is accompanying a film.
Moore: All of the interventions, including Paul’s acoustic magic, required architectural integration. These included constructing acoustical reflectors and chambers.
Scarbrough: The solutions didn’t, however, always have to be pretty. I wanted the canopy’s diffusing elements to be irregularly shaped blobs, but the contractor didn’t quite understand what I wanted. When I floated “cow pies” as an image, he got the idea.
Moore: Paul provided the dimensions of the acoustic canopy, but the visual parameters came from the existing space. The general pattern for the canopy was taken from the organ screen — acanthus leaves, lion faces, playful elements — which provided depth of pattern through shade and shadows. It’s a case of taking hints from the existing architecture to inform the new.
Q: What else can people expect when entering the hall?
Gilmer: The 2013 restoration to the theater left the lobbies pretty much intact. They were ornate and beautiful, while the hall read gray and very dark. We kept looking upwards towards the ceiling, which wasn’t illuminated. When illuminated, it yielded the solution to the color scheme of the renovated hall. The new hall sounds full of color, and the space now highlights those colors visually.
Q: To what extent were Rafael Payare and the musicians involved in the process?
Moore: Rafael’s role was vital. The question to him was, “What do you imagine this space to be?” It was an opportunity for him to influence the design and other elements on the stage and in the hall. It was obvious that he wanted a hall where the orchestra could perform large works, including Mahler’s Third Symphony, which Rafael will conduct in early October. The Choral Terrace was essential for that purpose. The musicians knew what they wanted to the point of having a list. One example is the percussion lift and the performing terrace designed specifically for them.
Q: In many ways, the renovation epitomizes Winston Churchill’s immortal words, “Never let a good crisis go to waste,” doesn’t it?
Gilmer: It was bold to embark on a $125 million renovation while work was ongoing on the Rady Music Shell, but Covid provided the opportunity, and we seized it. We had bridge funding in place and believed we could raise the money. We are still in the quiet phase of the fund-raising campaign but confident of achieving our goal.
Everyone involved is motivated by the belief that the renovated hall is a gift to the City of San Diego, especially its downtown. One of our goals is to attract more of the city’s dynamic dining scene downtown and make it part of the JMC experience. The San Diego Symphony is vital in providing the intensity and excitement that a great city needs to thrive.
