The Columbus Symphony rented an apartment overlooking a triangular plot of land along the Scioto River. The hope is that it will become the home for a new, sparkling, glass music hall.
“And as you can see behind us, we put a cling up that shows the building's concept in its entirety across the window and the windows next door. You can watch it as it goes up,” said Denise Rehg, Executive Director of the Columbus Symphony.
On the table an all-white scale model of the 200,000-square-foot, boomerang-shaped building lights up at the press of a button.
Rehg jokes the building would be Columbus’ "Sydney Opera House” – a landmark to put the city on the map.
“It's aspirational, it's iconic,” she said.
But with an estimated price tag of $275 million and a deadline of June 2025 to secure funding, Rehg must make the hard sell on why the building is needed. If the symphony secures funds that could be coming from the state, Rehg said the symphony has about $37 million so far to go towards the project.
“But look, hope springs eternal,” Rehg said.
Columbus’ current performance spaces
Columbus’ current performance spaces, including music halls like The Newport and KEMBA Live! together have a capacity of about 16,000 seats in about a dozen indoor venues in the city and suburbs.
That ranges from the Ohio Theatre with a capacity around 2,800, down to McConnel Arts Center in Worthington with just over 200 seats and a few small studio theatres in the Riffe Center.
Columbus Association for the Performing Arts, or CAPA, manages many of the city’s theatres. CAPA President Chad Whittington said he believes that to be a great performing arts city, there needs to be a range of experiences.
“When you talk about performing arts space, it's not all built for the same things,” he said.
The Palace Theatre hosts comedians and bands, acts that need its 2,700 seat house but can fit on the comparatively small stage.
The Southern, at about 900 seats, is ideal for Jazz Arts Group of Columbus, ProMusica and Opera Columbus. JoAnn Davidson Theatre in the Riffe Center seats about the same number, but is more often used for dance competitions and one- and two-day commitments.
The mid-size Lincoln Theatre in the King Lincoln-Bronzeville neighborhood does local programming. Garden Theatre in the Short North is the home of the Short North Stage theatre company. The list goes on.
As for the mighty Ohio Theatre, it hosts most traveling Broadway shows, BalletMet, and currently, the Columbus Symphony. But with attendance for the average performance around 1,100 to 1,200, the symphony audience doesn’t fill the space.
The right space, at the right size
Rehg said right-sizing is part of why the symphony wants the 1,600 seat hall slated to comprise one half of its proposed new building.
“That's an ideal size, as a music hall. We know the acoustic experience is enhanced by space about that size,” Rehg said.
As for leaving the Ohio Theatre, Rehg contends it would open up space for other groups.
“There are many of us who would like more nights in the Ohio, and we can't get them,” she said.
Rehg said she reached out to some other Columbus groups late last year to talk about the new building, but the idea is to build a hall specifically for music.
“Within the limitations of what a music hall means, it has possibilities for any of the performing groups,” Rehg said. “But we do not want to create another multi-purpose theater when as soon as you put fly space in backstage wings, you've destroyed the acoustics.”
Cleveland, Cincinnati, Dayton and Toledo all have dedicated music halls. Columbus, so far, does not.
“So, if you wanted the best musical experience you can get, you need a hall built for music. And we are missing that piece in this town,” Rehg said.
The symphony’s aspirational building is slated to have a second smaller theatre, rehearsal space, a recording studio, a banquet hall that could seat 500 and other amenities that Rehg predicts would be used by the community and other arts groups. She said more than 50 people were included in conversations about the designs, including Columbus City Schools.
Rehg said the symphony has wanted its own space for years.
“Look, for 40 years, we've wanted to do it. We've even had a couple of other forays into it. Never like this,” she said.
Rehg said now is the time because the city doesn’t have enough performance space.
How does Columbus compare to other cities?
In terms of number of performance spaces and seats, Columbus has similar capacity to other midwestern cities, though it sits on the lower end. Indianapolis has just over 16,000 seats; Cincinnati, 19,000; and Louisville has about 20,000.
Cleveland, with its robust theatre scene and Playhouse Square, has more than 34,000 seats in more than 20 performance venues.
As for filling seats here in Columbus, CAPA doesn’t track average attendance for the individual groups that use its theatres, but Whittington asserts there’s enough to sustain the theatres.
“When I think about our busiest time, which is really September through May of the following year, we have a steady level of activity. And I think that's true at other venues throughout the city as well,” Whittington said.
Performing arts, of course, took a drastic hit during the COVID-19 pandemic. But Whittington said when venues re-opened in 2021, audiences returned in droves.
“I certainly expect at some point that there will be a little bit of a letdown in terms of ticket sales and attendance and those sorts of things. But we haven't seen it yet,” he said.
The arts: recovering or growing?
That matches national trends reported by industry analyst IBIS World. It’s September report on live performance theatres said a surge in travel helped theatres recover – and that pent-up demand has kept audiences coming even as ticket prices rise.
While the report indicates that live performance theatres didn’t fully recover, IBIS anticipates the industry growing over the next four years in both revenue and employees.
Central Ohio’s population is also expected to grow rapidly in the next quarter century, and Whittington believes that if those projections are true, the arts, and arts spaces will grow along with it.
To that end, CAPA is working on a new venue of its own: a former Presbyterian church on Third Street. CAPA has just begun raising $14 million to renovate the 1850s church into a 600-person standing room or 300-seat flexible arts venue. Whittington hopes it will allow for more immersive programming and he’s confident it will get its share of use.
“I don't think there's any question that we do need more spaces and the city will be able to accommodate those,” Whittington said. “I think with a big question, the most important question is making sure we're building the right spaces.”
The symphony hopes to have its “Sydney Opera House” completed as soon as 2028.
Whittington said demolition work inside the Presbyterian church could begin late this year, with opening eyed for about two years after that.
