The Jesse H. Jones Hall for the Performing Arts (commonly known as Jones Hall) is a performance venue in

Houston Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

, and the permanent home of the Houston Symphony Orchestra and Society for the Performing Arts. Jones Hall is also frequently rented as a venue for contemporary pop musicians and other performers and is estimated to draw over 400,000 audience members yearly.

History

Officially completed on October 2, 1966, at the cost of $7.4 million, it is named after Jesse H. Jones, a former

United States Secretary of Commerce The United States secretary of commerce (SecCom) is the head of the United States Department of Commerce. The secretary serves as the principal advisor to the president of the United States on all matters relating to commerce. The secretary rep ...

and Houstonian. (For the Hall's opening concert a special work was commissioned of the American composer Alan Hovhaness entitled 'Ode to the Temple of Sound'). Construction of the hall was underwritten by Houston Endowment, Inc., a foundation endowed by Jones and his wife Mary Gibbs Jones. Upon completion, the hall was donated to the city, and today is operated by the Houston First Corporation. Designed by the Houston-based architectural firm Caudill Rowlett Scott, the hall, which occupies an entire city block, features a white Italian marble exterior with eight-story tall columns. The interior includes a basement and a sub-basement which houses a rehearsal room. The lobby is dominated by a high ceiling featuring a massive hanging bronze sculpture by

Richard Lippold Richard Lippold (May 3, 1915 – August 22, 2002) was an American sculptor, known for his geometric constructions using wire as a medium. Life Lippold was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He studied at the University of Chicago, and graduated fro ...

entitled "Gemini II". The inside of the concert hall itself is unique in that the ceiling is made of 800 hexagonal segments which can be raised or lowered to change the acoustics of the hall. The segments can actually be lowered enough to close the upper balcony, so the

seating capacity Seating capacity is the number of people who can be seated in a specific space, in terms of both the physical space available and limitations set by law. Seating capacity can be used in the description of anything ranging from an automobile that ...

therefore fluctuates from about 2,300 with the balcony covered to 2,911 with the balcony open. The building won the 1967

American Institute of Architects The American Institute of Architects (AIA) is a professional organization for architects in the United States. It is headquartered in Washington, D.C. AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach progr ...

' Honor Award, which is bestowed on only one building annually. The acoustics were designed by the firm

Bolt, Beranek and Newman Raytheon BBN (originally Bolt, Beranek and Newman, Inc.) is an American research and development company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In 1966, the Franklin Institute awarded the firm the Frank P. Brown Medal, in 1999 BBN received the ...

, who also designed

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

Avery Fisher Hall David Geffen Hall is a concert hall at Lincoln Center on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. The 2,200-seat auditorium opened in 1962, and is the home of the New York Philharmonic. The facility, designed by Max Abramovitz, was o ...

and

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

's Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall. However, the only renovations since the hall's construction have been unrelated. In 1993, it was renovated to bring it in accordance with the

Americans with Disabilities Act The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 or ADA () is a civil rights law that prohibits discrimination based on disability. It affords similar protections against discrimination to Americans with disabilities as the Civil Rights Act of 1964, ...

. From 2001-2003, a $28 million renovation took place to reaffix marble panels which had begun to fall from the building's exterior façade, to renovate parts of the building that had been flooded during 2001's Tropical Storm Allison, and to remove asbestos from the interior.

External links

Jones Hall at the Handbook of Texas Online

References

{{Authority control Concert halls in Texas Theatres in Houston Texas classical music Buildings and structures completed in 1966 Performing arts centers in Texas Music venues in Houston Buildings and structures in Houston Downtown Houston Houston Symphony