Orchestra releases schematics of its planned Music Center

Advancing the concept of blending the natural environment with performance, education and public open spaces, the Sarasota Orchestra has released the first schematic renderings of its planned Music Center, offering a preliminary glimpse of the 32-acre campus at 5701 Fruitville Road.

Led by the design architects at William Rawn Associates of Boston in collaboration with executive architects at HKS Architects of Orlando, release of the schematics marks a key milestone toward a 2027 groundbreaking. 

The schematic drawings offer the first look inside the concert hall and the education center, plus an enhanced exterior view. Approximately12 acres of the property will be for wetlands, water features, natural parks and walking trails intended to soften exterior sound and create shaded outdoor gathering spaces, according to a news release.

“This is a special moment when Sarasota can imagine the next 75 years of Sarasota Orchestra and how this iconic musical destination will serve a growing community,” said William Rawn Associates Principal Cliff Gayley in the release. Added fellow Rawn Associates Principal Doug Johnston, “From arrival to exit, the Music Center will create a welcoming, comfortable and uniquely memorable experience whether you’re taking a stroll through the parks, dropping your child off at a youth orchestra or sitting in the new hall.” 

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The Music Center will bring to the Gulf Coast its first concert hall designed specifically for acoustic performances, joining only three others in Florida, including New World Center in Miami Beach, Knight Concert Hall in Miami and Orlando’s Steinmetz Hall. Designed in collaboration with acousticians and theatre planners at Stages Consultants of Highland Park, New Jersey, the concert hall’s shoebox shape and curved balcony “will ensure every seat enjoys clear, balanced sound and an unobstructed view of the musicians,” according to the release.

The concert hall will be 1,800 seats, and a third structure is a planned 700-seat recital hall between the main hall and Education Center. Capping the seating at 1,800, Sarasota Orchestra President and CEO Joe McKenna told the Observer preserves the “sweet spot” between design, audience experience and acoustics.

“With the schematic design you see some of the personality and it takes you inside the concert hall in particular,” McKenna said. “You start to see some of the characteristics and quality of how the experience will be, and those are powerful images to help prospective donors and funders to become a little bit more engaged in the discussion.”

A formal capital campaign for the Music Center, estimated to cost out between $375 million and $425 million, has yet to begin, but the orchestra has in the past reported an anonymous $60 million gift and a $10 million donation by Jack and Priscilla Schlegel.

With the release of the schematics, McKenna said he anticipates more gifts to seed the campaign once it is underway. Further generating momentum when schematic drawings transcend into detailed renderings that are more detailed in terms of colors, finishes and other details.

“The schematic design process really starts to give you something to share with the donors and community that embody a little bit more of not just the mass of the  building on the site, but what the essence of what the experience is going to be like,” McKenna said, adding the concert hall is “really thought about for the patron experience that we want everyone to have.”

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The experience begins outside with an open courtyard connecting the concert hall to the education wing, the latter supporting Sarasota Orchestra’s youth ensembles. It will feature more than a dozen teaching studios for individual and small-group lessons and music libraries to archive and celebrate music collections of Sarasota Youth Orchestra, Sarasota Orchestra and the Sarasota Music Festival. 

The new exterior schematic advances the collaboration with Houston, Texas-based OJB Landscape Architecture to establish a sense of place. “Across the buildings, natural light and open courtyards create a deliberate indoor-outdoor connection that supports daily use, festivals and community events,” according to the release.

“The Music Center is a quantum leap forward for Sarasota Orchestra,” said Sarasota Orchestra Board of Directors and Building Committee member Michael Esposito in the news release. “What’s really terrific is the opportunity it creates to welcome more students into Sarasota Orchestra’s education programs, with a better experience made possible by new facilities and a concert hall with excellent acoustics.”

The orchestra acquired the 32-acre site in early 2023 from Walmart Stores East LP for $14 million. That amount is not in the overall cost estimate of the project.