Severance Hall

Severance Hall is the headquarters of the Cleveland Orchestra, one of the Big Five, built in 1931-1932 in the city of Cleveland, Ohio. The concert hall has a capacity for 2100 spectators.

Prior to his residency at Severance Hall, the Cleveland Orchestra played at the Grays Armory and then at the Masonic Auditorium.

The driver and largest donor was John Long Severance, who donated $ 1,000,000 to bear the name of his recently deceased wife, Elisabeth Dewitt Severance.

Despite being in the Great Depression construction began in 1929 and the new room was inaugurated on February 5, 1931.

The building is located within the campus of Case Western Reserve University, called University Circle. The exterior of the building maintains classic lines while the interior sticks to the most leafy American Art Deco, with particularly notable Egyptian, Greek and Roman details in the Bogomolny-Kozerefski Grand Foyer.

In 1958, the great conductor George Szell promoted the complete acoustic remodeling of the concert hall with the construction of a permanent acoustic bell. Since then it is called in its honor The Szell Shell that in fact obtained the desired resonance of the orchestra.

In 1998 a renovation of the hall finished in 2000 was won, winning the National Preservation Honor Award for renewing and respecting the original concept of the Shell.

The room appears in the movie Air Force One with Harrison Ford.

Coordinates: 41 ° 30'23 "N 81 ° 36'34" W / 41.50639, -81.60944

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