Bing Concert Hall - Every Seat Close to the Music

Photo: Oleg Alexandrov, CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)

A stop on Stanford University Campus Walk, a free self-guided tour.

The large, rounded building in front of you is Bing Concert Hall, which opened in January 2013 as the anchor of Stanford's growing arts district.

Inside, the 842-seat main hall uses what is called a vineyard layout. Terraces of seats rise on every side of the stage, so the audience surrounds the musicians instead of facing them from one end of a long box. The result is intimate: every seat sits within 75 feet of the conductor. Acoustician Yasuhisa Toyota, who also shaped the sound of Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, tuned the room, and Richard Olcott of Ennead Architects designed the building.

A $50 million lead gift from Peter and Helen Bing launched the project, and the final cost came to about $112 million. A smaller space on the north side, the Bing Studio, hosts cabaret, club and theater shows.

If you have a free evening, look up the Stanford Live calendar; a concert here is one of the best ways to see the inside of this hall.

Getting here: From the top of the Oval, walk northeast about 400 meters to the big curved building at Lasuen Street and Museum Way.

Did you know?: The center section of seats starts right at stage level, so the closest listeners sit almost on the same floor as the orchestra.

Photo op: Step back far enough to fit the hall's rounded main volume into one frame; late afternoon light brings out its curves.

More on Wikipedia: Bing Concert Hall · Yasuhisa Toyota · Ennead Architects

Bing Concert Hall - Every Seat Close to the Music

Stops on this tour