Benaroya Hall

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3rd Avenue side of Benaroya Hall.

Benaroya Hall is the home of the Seattle Symphony, in Downtown Seattle, Washington, USA. It features two auditoriums, the S. Mark Taper Foundation Auditorium, a 2500 seat performance venue as well as the Nordstrom Recital Hall which seats roughly 500. Opened in September of 1998 at a cost of $120 million, Benaroya quickly became noted for its technology-infused acoustics, touches of luxury, and prominent location in a complex thoroughly integrated into downtown. Benaroya houses two performance halls and occupies an entire city block in the center of the city, and has helped double the Seattle Symphony's budget and performances. The lobby of the hall features a large contribution of glass art by world-renowned artist Dale Chihuly.

Benaroya Hall is named for noted philanthropist Jack Benaroya, whose $15.8M donation was the major gift toward building the facility.^[1]

The facility sits directly above the BNSF Railway tunnel under Downtown Seattle that is the primary rail corridor for the city and adjacent to the Metro Bus Tunnel. The performance hall is insulated from the rumbles of the traffic in these tunnels and the streets outside the hall by floating on rubber pads to insulate it from the outer shell of the building. These same noise-insulation features also dampen the sensation of earthquakes within the facility.