Hill Auditorium - Built for Perfect Sound

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

In 1909, former regent Arthur Hill left the university $200,000 for a hall for lectures and music. The goal was bold: a room where every listener could hear clearly from every seat, at a time when almost nobody knew how to build one. Albert Kahn's firm designed the building, and acoustics specialist Hugh Tallant shaped the interior like a giant megaphone that widens from the stage to the back wall. It opened in 1913, and the university proudly billed it as a monument to perfect acoustics.

With about 3,500 seats, Hill has hosted an astonishing roster. Sergei Rachmaninoff, Enrico Caruso, Jascha Heifetz and the great orchestras of Vienna, Berlin, Boston and Chicago performed here, and poet Robert Frost read here. Later came Benny Goodman, Yo-Yo Ma, Elton John and the Grateful Dead.

A renovation from 2002 to 2004 restored the hall while protecting the sound that made it famous. If the doors are open for an event, peek inside at that sweeping, fan-shaped room.

Getting here: Hill Auditorium is the big columned hall right next to Burton Tower, facing North University Avenue.

Did you know?: When the planners looked for a model of a huge hall where everyone could hear, the only precedent they knew of was the Mormon Tabernacle in Salt Lake City.

Photo op: Cross North University Avenue to frame the full columned front; around dusk the lit windows glow above the steps.

More on Wikipedia: Hill Auditorium · Sergei Rachmaninoff · Robert Frost · Albert Kahn

Hill Auditorium - Built for Perfect Sound

Stops on this tour