Renovation confirmed for Zürich TonhalleRenovation confirmed for Zürich Tonhalle
27th Sep 2010
Gig news staff
Category: Other News
The Zürich Tonhalle (pictured), the city’s largest concert hall, is to undergo a full renovation beginning in 2013. The revamp, estimated at CHF55m (€41.6m), will also encompass the adjoining Zürich Congress Centre.
The Zürich city council announced its plans for the renovation on 22 September. ‘The larger concert hall will be restored, and the backstage areas for artists and musicians will be modernised to contemporary standards,’ it said. ‘The aim will be to begin construction in July 2013.’ The Tonhalle Orchestra, which performs most of its concerts at the hall, will consequently be moving to alternate venues for the whole of the 2013-14 season. It is planned to keep the Congress Centre open as much as possible, particularly during the summer.
The plan has developed as an alternative to a proposal put forward in 2006, which envisioned the building of a new convention centre next to Lake Zürich. Spanish architect Rafael Moneo was commissioned to design a new centre, a project that was delayed when preservationists called for the protection of an existing 1939 building, which would have been demolished to make way for the new centre. When the plans were rejecte in 2008, the council decided instead that the current facility should be maintained for at least another 10 to 15 years.
Opened in 1895 in the presence of Johannes Brahms, the Tonhalle has been praised for its world-class acoustics. The council’s Office of Structural Engineering will now put together an international team of architects, civil engineers and building contractors for the current project.
