The Michael Fowler Centre is a concert hall and convention centre in

Wellington Wellington is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the third-largest city in New Zealand (second largest in the North Island ...

, New Zealand. It was constructed on

reclaimed land Land reclamation, often known as reclamation, and also known as land fill (not to be confused with a waste landfill), is the process of creating new land from oceans, seas, riverbeds or lake beds. The land reclaimed is known as reclamatio ...

next to Civic Square, and is the pre-eminent concert site in central Wellington. Commissioned in 1975, building began in 1980; the centre officially opened on 16 September 1983. It was designed by Miles Warren and Maurice Mahoney of Warren and Mahoney, with acoustic assistance from Professor A. Harold Marshall, formerly the Head of

Auckland University The University of Auckland (; Māori language, Māori: ''Waipapa Taumata Rau'') is a public university, public research university based in Auckland, New Zealand. The institution was established in 1883 as a constituent college of the Unive ...

's Acoustics Research Centre. It is named after the primary promoter of its construction, Sir Michael Fowler, at the time the

mayor of Wellington The mayor of Wellington is the head of the municipal government of Wellington, the city of Wellington. The mayor presides over the Wellington City Council. The mayor is directly elected using the Single Transferable Vote method of proportional ...

. The auditorium seats 2210 people during a concert, and 1035 during a classroom type event.

Events and performances

Orchestra Wellington warming up in the MFC

The centre is used by international and local acts, conferences, and summits; it is also the home of the

New Zealand Symphony Orchestra The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra (NZSO) is a symphony orchestra based in Wellington, New Zealand. The national orchestra of New Zealand, the NZSO is an autonomous Crown entity owned by the New Zealand Government, per the New Zealand Symphony ...

, and Orchestra Wellington. The venue is now part of the Venues Wellington group of venues, managed by the Wellington Regional Economic Development Agency.

Exterior lighting

The exterior of the Michael Fowler Centre contains a lighting system which allows light to be reflected off the concrete panels of the building. These lights have been used to mark significant occasions such as local

LGBT Pride In the context of LGBTQ culture, pride (also known as LGBTQ pride, LGBTQIA pride, LGBT pride, queer pride, gay pride, or gay and lesbian pride) is the promotion of the rights, self-affirmation, dignity, equality, and increased visibility o ...

events, one hundred and twenty five years of

women's suffrage in New Zealand Women's suffrage was an important political issue in the late-nineteenth-century New Zealand. In early colonial New Zealand, as in European societies, women were excluded from any involvement in politics. Public opinion began to change in the ...

, the birth of

Prince George of Cambridge Prince George of Wales (George Alexander Louis; born 22 July 2013) is a member of the British royal family. He is the eldest child of William, Prince of Wales, and Catherine, Princess of Wales. George is the eldest grandchild of King Charl ...

, or in memory of the victims of the

November 2015 Paris attacks A series of coordinated Islamist terrorist attacks took place on Friday, 13 November 2015 in Paris, France, and the city's northern suburb, Saint-Denis. Beginning at 21:16, three suicide bombers struck outside the Stade de France in Saint-De ...

. File:michael_fowler_centre_20_march_2018_1.jpg, Michael Fowler Centre lit in the colors of the trans flag on 21 March 2018 in remembrance of Zena Campbell. File:Michael Fowler Centre Wellington 15 March 2019 a.jpeg, Michael Fowler Centre lit in the colors of the rainbow flag in March 2019.

References

External links

* * {{Authority control Convention centres in New Zealand Concert halls in New Zealand Buildings and structures in Wellington City Tourist attractions in Wellington City 1980s architecture in New Zealand Brutalist architecture in New Zealand Wellington Central, Wellington New Zealand Symphony Orchestra