GROUND-BREAKING CEREMONY FOR TANGLEWOOD’S MAJOR NEW BUILDING PROJECT

Friday, August 18, 2017 

New four-building project opening in summer 2019 represenets major new investments in the future of Tanglewood, expanding the scope and breadth of the festival through a heightened commitment to the Tanglewood Music Center, the BSO’s acclaimed summer music academy: enhancing the audience experience with enrichment and education programs; and broadening Tanglewood’s reputation as one of the world’s premier festivals and summer home of the BSO since 1937.

In February, the Boston Symphony Orchestra announced a major new investment in the future of Tanglewood that will broaden its reputation as one of the premier festivals in the world and famed summer home of the BSO since 1937, as well as that of its acclaimed summer music academy, the Tanglewood Music Center, founded in 1940.  Launching a new chapter in the illustrious festival’s 80-year history, plans include construction of a new multi-use, multi-season four-building complex designed to support the performance and rehearsal activities of the Tanglewood Music Center and be the focal point of a new initiative, the Tanglewood Learning Institute, offering wide-ranging education and enrichment programs designed to enhance the patron experience. 

Scheduled to open in summer 2019, the new four-building complex — to be located at the top of the lawn leading down to Ozawa Hall — will be designed by William Rawn Associates, Architects, led by William Rawn and Cliff Gayley, and will be the largest building project at Tanglewood since the construction of Ozawa Hall (1994), also designed by William Rawn Associates.  Reed Hilderbrand will serve as the project’s landscape architects.  Consigli Construction Co., Inc. has been hired to build the new complex. Kirkegaard Associates, led by Joseph Myers, will serve as the project’s acousticians. Kirkegaard Associates were also the acousticians for Ozawa Hall.

One of the premier summer music festivals in the world and summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra since 1937, Tanglewood is located in the beautiful Berkshire Hills, between Stockbridge and Lenox, Massachusetts. The Tanglewood Music Center is the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s acclaimed summer music academy; Serge Koussevitzy (BSO Music Director 1925-49) founded the festival in 1937 and opened the TMC in 1940.

This $30-million building project is part of multi-year fundraising effort to support ongoing Tanglewood building and landscape upgrades, providing an enhanced visitor experience for current and future generations of musicians and concert goers; fundraising effort also to include special endowment for the BSO’s concert activities and other Tanglewood programming.

Designed to support the activities of the Tanglewood Music Center and house the new Tanglewood Learning Institute, the largest building of Tanglewood’s new four-building complex will provide state-of-the-art space for rehearsal and concert activities accommodating an audience of up to 200; multi-media education and lecture programs with a seating capacity of up to 300; and a wide variety of social and dining events.  Additional buildings include a 150-seat dining cafe, designed in part as a hub for visitors, TMC Fellows and Faculty, and TLI participants, and two smaller studios providing additional space for rehearsal, performance, educational, and social activities.  Located on the Tanglewood grounds in close proximity to Ozawa Hall, this new highly sustainable building complex will be climate-controlled to accommodate use by the Berkshire community in the off-season. 

Major improvements at Tanglewood will also include renovations to the Ozawa Hall Bernstein campus, including a reconfiguration of the entranceway gate to effectively integrate the campus with the new building complex, and improved restroom and food service amenities. The BSO will also implement a new horticultural plan for Tanglewood’s famous 524-acre grounds, investing in both redesigning and revitalizing landscape elements, as well as uniform strategies for documenting, maintaining, preserving, and enhancing Tanglewood’s horticultural assets. 

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www.bso.org

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