The Jesse H. Jones Hall for the Performing Arts (commonly known as Jones Hall) is a performance venue in Houston, Texas, and the permanent home of the Houston Symphony Orchestra and Society for the Performing Arts.[2] Jones Hall is also frequently rented as a venue for contemporary pop musicians and other performers and is estimated to draw over 400,000 audience members yearly.
History
Officially completed on October 2, 1966, at the cost of $7.4 million, it is named after Jesse H. Jones, a former United States Secretary of Commerce and Houstonian.[3] (For the Hall's opening concert a special work was commissioned of the American composer Alan Hovhaness entitled 'Ode to the Temple of Sound').[4] Construction of the hall was underwritten by Houston Endowment, Inc., a foundation endowed by Jones and his wife Mary Gibbs Jones.[5] Upon completion, the hall was donated to the city,[3] and today is operated by the Houston First Corporation.[6]
Designed by the Houston-based architectural firm Caudill Rowlett Scott, the hall, which occupies an entire city block, features a white Italian marble exterior with eight-story tall columns. The interior includes a basement and a sub-basement which houses a rehearsal room. The lobby is dominated by a 60-foot (18 m) high ceiling featuring a massive hanging bronze sculpture by Richard Lippold entitled "Gemini II". The inside of the concert hall itself is unique in that the ceiling is made of 800 hexagonal segments which can be raised or lowered to change the acoustics of the hall.[3] The segments can actually be lowered enough to close the upper balcony, so the seating capacity therefore fluctuates from about 2,300 with the balcony covered to 2,911 with the balcony open. The building won the 1967 American Institute of Architects' Honor Award, which is bestowed on only one building annually.
The acoustics were designed by the firm Bolt, Beranek and Newman, who also designed New York City's Avery Fisher Hall and San Francisco's Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall, both of which have also been subject to much criticism. However, the only renovations since the hall's construction have been unrelated. In 1993, it was renovated to bring it in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. From 2001-2003, a $28 million renovation took place to reaffix marble panels which had begun to fall from the building's exterior façade, to renovate parts of the building that had been flooded during 2001's Tropical Storm Allison, and to remove asbestos from the interior.[7]
Over the past two summers, 2021 and 2022, this cherished theater has been undergoing extensive renovations. And there’s much more to come.[8]
Jones Hall’s iconic exterior profile remains intact, while the interior is being enhanced and redesigned to significantly enhance the concert-going experience. But the popular introduction of vertical aisles and the already dramatically improved acoustics are just the beginning.
Further substantial enhancement of acoustics in the hall are planned, to give audiences the best, most natural, and excellent audial experience.
By the time the 2023/24 season begins, there will be new seats in the auditorium and a sizeable increase to the number of bathroom facilities on the Hall’s courtyard level. Future changes will reconfigure the lobby to create more spaces for patrons to enjoy Jones Hall, including expansion and enhancement of the green room. And it’ll be easier to get to the restrooms, with a new, much wider staircase that goes directly from the Louisiana Street lobby to the courtyard men’s and women’s lounges.
Also to come are technical and infrastructure renovations backstage, including new, modernized stage automation control, and the introduction of fiber networks, ushering in a new era for Jones Hall of state-of-the-art audio and visual capabilities for broadcasting, livestreaming, and stage effects.
ADA improvements to the auditorium and to the Texas Avenue entrance will make the Hall more accessible that it has ever been.
Jones Hall will be better than ever when it celebrates its 60th anniversary in 2026.
