Gammage Memorial Auditorium
Grady Gammage Memorial Auditorium (widely known as Gammage Auditorium and often called the Gammage) is named for Dr. Grady Gammage, President of Arizona State University from 1933 to 1959. The auditorium is located on the main campus of Arizona State University in Tempe at the crossroads of Mill Avenue and Apache Boulevard.
It is considered to be the last public commission of architect Frank Lloyd
Wright (and reputed to be based on Wright's drawings for an opera house in
Baghdad, Iraq of which, legend has it, Wright lost the blueprint in a gambling
wager with Gammage ). Groundbreaking took place and construction on Gammage
began on May 23, 1962. It took 25 months to complete. The built-on-time,
under-budget building opened in 1964 with the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted
by Eugene Ormandy.
The building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.
venue for Broadway Shows
Entrance to Box Office
Consists of a 3,000 seat auditorium, concert hall and theater with classroom and office space. The design conjoins two circles, the larger of which houses three tiers of seating and a smaller circle containing the stage and four floors of rehearsal and classroom space. Access to the widely spaced rows of seats in auditorium is exclusively from the sides since there are no aisles between the seats.
The structure measures 300 feet (91 m) long by 250 feet (76 m) wide by 80 feet (24 m) high. Fifty concrete columns support the round roof with its pattern of interlocking circles. Twin "flying buttress" pedestrian ramps extending 200 feet (61 m) from the north and east sides of the structure connect the building to the parking lot. The auditorium seats a total of 3,017 people on its main floor, grand tier and balcony. The stage can be adapted for grand opera, Broadway musicals, dramatic productions, solo productions, organ recitals and lectures
Text from Wikipedia
lifting material for repair of the roof
a problem common for Frank Lloyd Wright structures
on the Arizona State University
