This weekend, after a 13-month COVID related delay, the Rady Shell at Jacobs Park, developed and managed by the San Diego Symphony, officially opens on 3.7 acres of the city’s downtown Embarcadero district.
The $85 million Rady Shell at Jacobs Park, designed by the project’s Lead Architect and AOR Tucker Sadler Architects, is the first permanent venue for the Symphony’s schedule of outdoor classical concerts. It aspires to be the same kind of draw as the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, the nation’s only other year-round outdoor concert venue operated by an orchestra.
The park is accessible to the public for free 85% of the year, as the Symphony spent $3 million to rebuild and upgrade the adjacent basketball courts and outdoor athletic equipment at Embarcadero Marina Park South. It added 34 donor benches, which are illuminated at night and were built around the venue’s perimeter and along the promenade between the venue and the San Diego Convention Center.
AN INTERNATIONAL BUILDING TEAM
The Rady Shell is amplified by an on-stage sound system as well as a second system at each side of the stage and behind the audience.
With its flexible seating capacity of 10,000 within a 1.25-acre audience area, Rady Shell at Jacobs Park features walkways, open-air dining pavilions, and recreational facilities. The Shell itself showcases a 4,800-sf stage wrapped in a 33,000-sf canopy provided by Australia-based Fabritecture. U.K.-based Soundforms, with architects from Flanagan Lawrence, Expedition Engineers, and ES Global, designed the Performance Shell, expanding and adapting the concept to accommodate a large orchestra, chorus, and soloists. (The Rady Shell in San Diego is 57 ft high and 82 ft wide.) Tucker Sadler was responsible for the overall design of the venue at Jacobs Park, including backstage artist support, three professional kitchens, underground restrooms, the seating area, and the public park that offers views of San Diego Bay and the city's skyline.
The Rady Shell uses two acoustical systems designed by Salter in consultation with sound designer Shawn Murphy: an on-stage Meyer Constellation Acoustic system, and an L-Acoustics system that projects sound from six towers three on each side of the stage. JRLX and theater consultant Schuler Shook designed the venue’s lighting, and Solotech provided the audio-visual elements. An LED lighting system developed by Horton Lees Brogdon Lighting Design illuminates the exterior canopy.
PHILANTHROPIC OUTPOURING
The venue provides views of this city and its waterfront. Image: Sal Villanueva, Tucker Sadler Architects
Nearly all of the money raised to fund this project came from private donors including Qualcomm’s founder Irwin Jacobs, who proposed the idea for an outdoor concert space two decades ago, according to the San Diego Union Tribune. Rady Shell also brings the Symphony—which was founded in 1910 but in 1996 was forced to liquidate its assets under Chapter 7 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code—full circle.
The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park is designed to host more than 100 concerts and events year-round.
Other members of this project’s Building Team include Gardiner & Theobald (project manager), Coffman Engineers (SE), and Burton Studios (landscape architect).
Related Stories
Cultural Facilities | Dec 14, 2016
Institutions aggressively targeting private donors to fund construction projects
Capital campaigns abound, even though government financing still plays a vital role.
Cultural Facilities | Oct 27, 2016
Zaha Hadid Architects’ Urban Heritage Administration Centre takes its design from the surrounding desert
The futuristic curves that have become a staple for ZHA-designed buildings are also on full display.
Cultural Facilities | Sep 19, 2016
International competition recognizes insect-inspired design for Moscow Circus School
The proposal would make the school’s activities more transparent to the public.
Cultural Facilities | Sep 16, 2016
Competition to design Shanghai’s Pudong Art Museum is down to four firms
OPEN, SANAA Ateliers Jean Nouvel and David Chipperfield Architects are the final four firms competing for the opportunity to design the project.
Steel Buildings | Sep 15, 2016
New York’s Hudson Yards to feature 16-story staircase sculpture
The installation is designed by British architect Thomas Heatherwick and will be the centerpiece of the $200 million plaza project
Cultural Facilities | Sep 13, 2016
REX reveals The Perelman Center, the final structure for the World Trade Center campus
The cube-shaped building is clad in translucent book-matched marble.
Designers | Sep 13, 2016
5 trends propelling a new era of food halls
Food halls have not only become an economical solution for restauranteurs and chefs experiencing skyrocketing retail prices and rents in large cities, but they also tap into our increased interest in gourmet locally sourced food, writes Gensler's Toshi Kasai.
| Sep 1, 2016
CULTURAL SECTOR GIANTS: A ranking of the nation's top cultural sector design and construction firms
Gensler, Perkins+Will, PCL Construction Enterprises, Turner Construction Co., AECOM, and WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff top Building Design+Construction’s annual ranking of the nation’s largest cultural sector AEC firms, as reported in the 2016 Giants 300 Report.
Events Facilities | Aug 31, 2016
New York State Pavilion re-imagined as modern greenhouse
The design proposal won a competition organized by the National Trust for Historic Preservation and People for the Pavilion group to find new uses for the abandoned structure.
Performing Arts Centers | Aug 31, 2016
Sydney Opera House scheduled for $200 million upgrade
Acoustical improvements will be made alongside upgrades in accessibility, efficiency, and flexibility.
