New World Center
Miami
The New World Center is a concert hall in Miami Beach. Frank Gehry designed it and it has been open since January 2011. In front lies SoundScape Park, a public park with a big wall for projections.
An orchestra-school
The New World Symphony was founded in 1987. Its founders were the American musician Michael Tilson Thomas and a couple of philanthropists from Miami. Every year it selects young musicians who have just graduated. It prepares them to become leading players in orchestras all over the world.
An inside-out building
Frank Gehry is famous for metal buildings full of curves. Here he chose white plaster and glass. He put the curves inside, in the light-filled atrium. There, more than thirty rehearsal rooms and offices are piled together. Tilson Thomas called it a Gehry building "turned inside out".
Close to the music
The main hall has steep rows, so the audience sits very close to the musicians. The hall's sound was designed by Yasuhisa Toyota, an acoustics expert.
The park of sound
The park next to the hall was designed by the firm West 8. On evenings during the season, people watch the music played inside, live, right out here. The loudspeakers on the lawn are tuned one by one, with care. Families bring a blanket and sit on the grass.
