Building the Center

When you entered the competition to design The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, what aspect of its program appealed to you most?

R.V.: The first orchestra I ever knew was The Philadelphia Orchestra, under Stokowski, which I heard on my father's records. He was involved professionally with music in Uruguay and then in Argentina, where he ran the Teatro Colón, and I myself originally trained for a career as a pianist. So it appealed to me to build a place for The Philadephia Orchestra, for which I retain an adulation that dates back to childhood.

On a less personal level, the factor that seemed brilliant in this project was that the chairman of RPAC, Willard Rouse, conceived the building from the start as a civic statement. Now, that could be just a formal quality, the way the building articulates itself within the urban scale. But for me, those formal ideas are usually translated, in the design process, into a requirement for some form of accessibility.

The accessibility we achieved in The Kimmel Center is different from anything I know of. The Kimmel Center forces an interaction between functions that are not necessarily part of the typical repertoire of what happens in a performing arts center. And that really interests me.

The program called for two principal spaces: a new home for The Philadelphia Orchestra, later named Verizon Hall, and a new multi-purpose hall, the Perelman Theater. With these as the major requirements, how did you develop a place that would be an accessible civic statement?

R.V.: There was an initial phase in which we tried to understand what would be the best shape for each component of the project, taken individually. Programmatically and also architecturally, we had to understand the challenge of fitting everything into the site.

"The tradition of architectural excellence is enormous in Philadelphia. How do you respond to that? You have to make a landmark for a city of monuments, and at the same time you want to invite interaction."
-- Rafael Viñoly

When you visit The Kimmel Center, the disposition of Verizon Hall and Perelman Theater seem so simple and obvious.

R.V.: That's the key for me! And it's a very difficult thing, particularly in a competitive environment. You think it's obvious, but it's not. It becomes obvious after you do it.

Perhaps the most difficult thing was to convince people that you could put Verizon Hall at the back of the site. This is the bigger hall and the home of the Orchestra, so why wouldn't it be up front? Once it became clear to everyone that Verizon Hall should be at the back, the rest started to come together.

Don't you need some way to acknowledge the importance of Verizon Hall?

R.V.: What makes it important is that it is symmetrically placed. Urbanistically, it's centered on this big element of the skyline, the Drake building, a high-rise that stands right behind The Kimmel Center. The Perelman Theater is toward the front of the site, but pushed off-axis. Its position plays off the symmetry of Verizon Hall.

Once you place the objects like this, what you want to do is create the sense that you enter a place where the traditional notion of the lobby is transformed into a new typology. So we enclosed the two buildings, almost as if we were putting a glass jar over them.

Packing up all the residual spaces into one space forces you to have a sense of disclosure. You can't avoid seeing The Kimmel Center as a place where you're together with many other people. You see them; there are no barriers. All the traditional areas of the lobby are merged into this new civic space. If it's used correctly, I think it will be really interesting.

For The Kimmel Center to be a civic statement, it has to be accessible, but it also has to speak about Philadelphia. How did you respond to the city's architecture?

R.V.: The tradition of architectural excellence is enormous in Philadelphia. How do you respond to that? You have to make a landmark for a city of monuments, and at the same time you want to invite interaction.

You give the building a neo-classical shape to provide people with something familiar, but then you make the shape so big that it's surprising. You use the neo-classical element to respect the urban context, to achieve economy - but then it yields an interior space that's unclassifiable. Would it be fair to say that you're deliberately operating in a zone between comfort and unease?

R.V.: A certain level of discomfort is good. It keeps you alert. That’s something difficult to predict, the extent to which this thing invites you to change the way you perceive the ceremonial aspect of the performing arts.

Why do you think it's important to change the ceremony of attending a performing arts event?

R.V.: These rooms are all about the proscenium, the magic line that separates the musicians from the public. If you know the musicians and you like them, then you want to dilute the pressures of that separation, which emerge in stage fright. If there is no inflation of that fear, I think you play better. And people who listen without fear listen better.

Now, it may seem to be a very small change, but the formality of the audience's dress code has been breaking down, and the formality of the behavior is changing with it. Even at the Musikverein in Vienna, they're waving to one another at the end of a concert and signalling, "Will you phone me?" I believe this change is quite remarkable in its implications, and it's happening everywhere in spite of the architecture.

What does this have to do with Philadelphia? As a newcomer, I had the perception that these people were the aristocracy of the United States. It's a notion that comes from Grace Kelly, I suppose. Even so, there really is a level of society in Philadelphia where people dress in white tie and come from old money. But there has been a shift. The aristocrats now co-exist with a new group, which didn’t evolve from the Main Line. That understanding gave me another window into the project: the idea that you could propose something that is completely proper and at the same time slightly disturbing, relative to how you perceive the sequence of rooms and this celebration of how people see the performing arts.

So, for you, is the public space in The Kimmel Center valuable because the people are always a little uncertain of where they could or could not go, a little unguided and unsure about how to use the space?

R.V.: Exactly. The collectiveness, the publicness of the statement is visible even from the musicians' quarters. They're on the third tier, where you can walk around the whole building, and we've used wood in them, just as we do inside the concert hall itself. So the back of the house is not a "back of the house."

You've given the interior of Verizon Hall a distinctive, cello-like shape. Why?

R.V.: Verizon Hall reflects the inflection that string instruments have close to the bridge, which emerges in the way the balconies mount over the orchestra. This treatment of Verizon Hall's interior might appear to be too obvious, but it isn't. The room in its conception is actually a shoebox. It doesn't resort to trickery; it doesn't treat the diffusing surfaces of the doors as if they were little mosaics. Verizon Hall doesn't have materials; it doesn't have articulation; it's just itself. When you read the shape of the violin or cello, it isn't a matter of the instrument's having been forced to become something else, because there are great sightlines everywhere, and acoustically the shape is very good.

You've worked closely with the acoustician Russell Johnson of Artec Consultants. Has the partnership with Russell Johnson been satisfying for you?

R.V.: I'm absolutely amazed by Russell Johnson. We've also been working together on the new home for Jazz at Lincoln Center, in New York, which has a totally different set of problems, and Russell's work on that project has been equally brilliant and equally dedicated. It's not just that this man has skills that go beyond another acoustician's. He lives entirely for music. I mean, what if his opportunities had been limited, and he couldn't have done these things as a profession? You get the feeling with Russell that he might have broken into these places on his own initiative and gone to work.

How does The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts compare with another of your major urban projects, the Tokyo International Forum?

R.V.: There is something very important in the Tokyo project, and I don't claim it's happened because of me. The Forum has now become the capital of cruising in Japan. It's absolutely full of people looking for other people. When a building becomes something you never planned for, that's where the magic is.

That's what I usually see as a sign of a good piece. And it has a chance to happen if you can intersect programs that have nothing to do with each other...people going to the café or restaurant, students from Curtis coming for a private lesson, a rehearsal going on, some kids from the University of the Arts just hanging out.

I'd like to think this possibility for openness and unpredictability was what made the project uplifting for the people in Philadelphia. You know, when we made the public presentation, people embraced the idea. That's something that can't be faked, something that gives you the feeling you're hitting it right at some level.

You encourage dissimilar programs to intersect; and you create their place of intersection in the most direct and transparent way. What are the implications, for you, of achieving complex, unpredictable uses through simplicity?

R.V.: To me, it's a colossal, illogical leap in thinking, the idea that to handle complexity, you have to represent it. The problem with representing complexity -- representing any interpretation -- is that you fix the scenario. I think it's better to pull back a little bit. It's an instance of elegance -- which has nothing to do with lack of engagement. You just don't attack the problem with the attitude that you alone can tell everyone how this thing should work.

There is a lot happening in The Kimmel Center. But when you walk around the building, you don't see the complexity. You don't even see the roof, which I think is the best part. From the outside, the building looks like it's a series of brownstones, though with some degree of monumentality. So, again, what happens is really very dependent upon the performance: the performance of the building, the performance of the Orchestra, the performance of RPAC.

Kimmel Center: What is Artec Consultants Inc?

Russell Johnson: Artec is unique. It is probably the only company in the world with a group of highly motivated specialists providing comprehensive services in the planning and designing of every technical aspect of world class performing arts spaces for opera, theater, concerts and recitals. Our specialists cover a broad range of disciplines: designers, acousticians, musicians, architects, former directors of performing-art venues and experts in theatrical lighting, machinery, rigging and sound reinforcement equipment. Artec’s basic philosophy of opera house and concert hall design can be neatly summed up in one word: versatile. Our concert halls, for example, provide excellent acoustics not just for large symphony orchestras, but excellent acoustics for almost countless forms of music performance - string quartets, choral groups, voice recitals, piano, chamber orchestra, tiny orchestras using period instruments and so forth.

KC: What is your particular specialty?

RJ: I have five decades of experience in architecture and acoustics for the performing arts. The first job that I had (for which I was paid) giving theater design advice was in 1947. Then I spent a few years working as an architect. In 1954 I went back to specializing in acoustics and theater architecture for the performing arts. I founded Artec in 1970, and since then, the company has built an international reputation for excellence in the planning and design of performing arts buildings.

"I can't think of any other performing arts center that has presented this combination of opportunities. If we have met them, it's due to the inspired work of everyone involved: RPAC, The Philadelphia Orchestra, Rafael Viñoly, and the many, many people who were determined to make this project succeed." 
— Russell Johnson

KC: How does Artec go about planning a performing arts space?

RJ: We are usually retained by the building owner at the very beginning of the project. We help in the conception of the project: planning the types of activities that will take place, the number of performance spaces that will be needed and the number of seats each space should provide. We then often provide the basic design of the performing arts spaces -- the shape of the rooms, the size of the stage platforms, the number of balconies and such. All of the above is accomplished through a very collegial collaboration with the owner and their chosen architect.

KC: What is your involvement with The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts?

RJ: We were retained to be the consultants on the acoustics and sound-and-communications for Verizon Hall - the new home of the Philadelphia Orchestra - and the recital theater in which drama, modern dance, pop music concerts, seminars, recitals, chamber orchestra and musical comedy will be presented.

KC: How did you work with the orchestra musicians?

RJ: Bob Wolff and I started to meet with the Orchestra’s Players’ Committee for the new hall about 14 years ago, and through the years we have spent a great deal of time listening to them explain their needs. From the beginning, they emphasized that they did not want their hall to change what they described as "the sound of the Philadelphia Orchestra." This was their major concern: they wanted a hall that would support their sound as they now hear it, but not change it. A very, very challenging task. Almost impossible to achieve.

KC: What is the major aspect of the acoustical design of Verizon Hall?

RJ: As in any concert hall, the complete elimination of extraneous noise, including but not limited to exterior vehicular noise and sirens, boilers, transformers, escalators, elevators, fans pushing air into the room at too high a speed, drinking fountains, refrigerators nearby...There are literally hundreds of noises to be aware of and eliminate.

Once the noise has been eliminated, then the sound of music is, in effect, free to be heard with all its nuances intact. The elimination of noise makes possible the almost magical sound of musical instruments and singing voices. The sound in a concert hall must have strength, impact, punch and fullness. Sound that’s even-handed in respect to frequency - "flat frequency response". Sound with lows that are not too weak, with highs that are not too powerful. The clarity and the reverberance must be in a natural balance with each other.

Under perfect conditions, the musicians and the conductor can hear, or sense, what the audience is hearing. There should be no distancing effect between the orchestra and the public, no harshness of sound, no echoes, no frequency imbalances. It should feel as if there is air around the music, as if the music is floating.

KC: How did Artec collaborate with the architect, Rafael Viñoly?

RJ: Bob and I worked closely with representatives of RPAC, the Players’ Committee, artistic directors, and theater planners. The team met early in the process to address questions that had to be resolved before the design work could proceed. It was a complicated process, with tens of thousands of decisions to be made.

KC: Describe some of the elements in the merger of architecture and acoustics; for example, the adjustable acoustics chambers and the acoustic canopy system.

RJ: After the basic design is established, Artec recommends certain acoustic design features. They include "Instant Adjustability" - an extensive system of remote-controlled curtains and banners of velour or canvas that absorb sound and reduce reverberation.

Along the sides of the hall, hollow spaces can be opened or closed by remote control to increase or decrease the power of the sound and the reverberation.

The canopy system over the concert platform consists of huge sound-reflecting panels that can be raised and lowered above the musicians. They affect the hall’s overall sound, as well as the way in which the musicians hear one another. They serve mostly as a "valve" to adjust the balance between the articulation of the sound of music and the reverberance.

KC: What does it mean to say that a concert hall can be "tuned"?

RJ: We never use that word. Artec differs on this subject from other acoustic advisers. We say that performances of music in Verizon Hall will have a broad range of characteristics. Through a system of moving fabric, variable cubage, and the canopy system above the players, we can achieve the best acoustics for anything from a single harpsichord or acoustic guitar to a huge-scale choral work with 115 musicians and 280 singers. Verizon Hall will have extremely versatile acoustics.

KC: Does your work end with the opening of The Kimmel Center?

RJ: Not at all. We will work with the soloists, artists and the music administrators to decide what adjustments should be used, and to explain what is possible in the way of adjustments. Even with fairly sophisticated adjustable features, there are still refinements to be made.

Seven or eight months after the opening, after the halls have hosted a wide variety of music formats, we will discuss how close the sound is to the desires of the musicians and other performers. We will work with everyone involved to achieve the best possible results.

Location
The project occupies one full block of Center City Philadelphia, fronting on the Avenue of the Arts (Broad Street). The site is at Spruce Street; five blocks south of City Hall, one block south of the Academy of Music, immediately north of the University of the Arts and four blocks east of the Curtis Institute of Music.

Design Strategy
The two major components, Verizon Hall and Perelman Theater, are treated as complete, free-standing buildings. Perelman Theater, with its curved façade, is placed off-axis toward the front of the site on Broad Street, while Verizon Hall, with its polygonal exterior, is centered at the far end.

These two buildings are entirely enclosed by a surrounding structure of glass, steel and brick, so that the irregular spaces between and around them become a kind of indoor plaza, top-lit by day through an immense, glass-and-steel barrel vault roof.

Project Size
Footprint: 100,075 square feet
Gross program area: 429,085 square feet

Building & Land Costs
$235 million

Project Leadership

• Willard G. Rouse III, Chairman, Regional Performing Arts Center
• Tom Ridge, Governor of Pennsylvania
• John Street, Mayor of Philadelphia
• Edward G. Rendell, former Mayor of Philadelphia

Architect
Rafael Viñoly, AIA
Rafael Viñoly Architects PC
New York, London, Buenos Aires

Acoustics Designer
Russell Johnson, FASA
Artec Consultants Inc.
New York, NY

Theater Consultant
Richard Pilbrow and David I. Taylor
Theatre Projects Consultants
Norwalk, CT

Groundbreaking
November 12, 1998

Opening
December 16, 2001 (following gala previews December 14-15)

Perimeter Structure
The envelope for The Kimmel Center is constructed of glass, steel and brick. The façade along the Avenue of the Arts (Broad Street) is largely transparent at street level, allowing passersby to see into the public plaza. To maintain the scale of the surrounding residential and cultural buildings, the brick walls rise approximately to the height of the neighboring University of the Arts. The building is surmounted by a transparent, folded plate-glass barrel vault that extends the length of the structure and ends on both sides in a colossal glass arch. A pair of glass-encased elevators at the front of The Kimmel Center allows access to a restaurant on the third floor and to a rooftop garden above the Perelman Theater.

Verizon Hall
Verizon Hall accommodates 2,500 patrons in four levels of seating. The exterior is entirely clad in Macore wood fins. The sinuous form of the hall is based on the shape of a cello. The interior surfaces are covered in mahogany, including the ceiling of each tier, reinforcing the image of a finely crafted musical instrument. Acoustic diffusion is achieved with the use of solid wood curving strips.

A movable concert ceiling is located above the platform, creating an acoustical reflector for the musicians. This floating element, which also contains theatrical and concert lighting provisions for a cyclorama and a center speaker cluster, is finished in wood and cork. The hall also features acoustics adjustment chambers (71’ high by approx. 16’ deep) surrounding the audience seating at all levels on both sides of the room.

Size: 101,000 square feet

The platform is equipped with a forestage extension, a dual height piano lift and three choral seating wagons. The full platform is 45’ deep by 77’ wide and can be extended to 52’ deep. The stage floor is stained beech with a 6" airspace on resilient pads. The stage doors and loading dock are 12’ clear from stage right. A full technical attic level above the hall has point hoists and lifting equipment for the acoustical reflector. The hall has a lighting bridge and provisions for three follow spots. There is lighting and speaker accommodation at each tier level. 

Principal Acoustics Design Elements:
Controllable acoustics adjustment chambers (at the sides of the audience chamber); system of motor-operated, sound-absorbing banners (in the side chambers and in the primary chamber); mechanized concert platform extension; motor-operated system of three independent sound-reflecting timber canopies above the concert platform.

Perelman Theater
In contrast to the handcrafted, curving, organic forms of Verizon Hall, Perelman Theater is designed as a metal-clad transformable space within the orthogonal form of an 87 foot cube. Finished in light woods and warm-colored fabrics with metallic highlights, the interior of the auditorium complements its soft gold exterior.

Designed as an intimate multi-purpose recital hall, the Perelman Theater can accommodate an audience of 650 for conventional and experimental theater, music and dance simultaneously and individually. Its turntable stage enables the theater to be transformed from conventional proscenium stage configuration to an arena where seating and finishes wrap continuously around the auditorium at each level to complete the horseshoe plan.

Size: 27,000 square feet

Stage Specifications

The turntable stage is a 37’ radius revolve equipped with a fixed "end of room" element that is housed within the stage house atop a 2’ thick concrete slab. In drama/dance mode, the Perelman Theater’s proscenium, which is 38’ 4" high by 58’ wide, frames a sprung wood floor stage measuring 83’ wide by 40’ deep. A gridiron is located 74’ 6" above the stage with a continuous counterweight rigging slot and technical galleries running the full depth of the stage at various levels above. With its modern sound, lighting and rigging equipment, the Perelman Theater can properly host any multi-media event or performance. 

Acoustics Design Elements
The primary machinery to provide flexibility of the acoustics environment is the turntable that occupies most of the floor area of the stagehouse. Mounted on half of this turntable is a concert shell, to be used for recitals, choral concerts and performances by small chamber orchestras. 

Commonwealth Plaza
Access to Commonwealth Plaza, the civic space of The Kimmel Center, is provided through two glass-enclosed vestibules located on Broad and Spruce Streets. The floor throughout the plaza is covered in quartzite, and the naming wall and "Society of Founders" donor wall are made of black granite. The PECO café is open to the public during daytime hours. 

Circulation
The facility contains seven public elevators, two freight elevators, one service elevator and two backstage elevators. Verizon Hall is accessible by the public via bridges at the upper levels and is directly connected to the support spaces for performers on the west side of the complex. The rooftop garden above Perelman Theater is directly accessible by elevator from Broad Street.

Additional Facilities
In addition to the main performance spaces, The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts includes a "black box" theater: a two-story space with a pipe grid hanging system, control room and sprung floor. Also, the Rendell room is equipped with acoustic reflectors and adjustable banners and can be used for lectures and banquets in addition to rehearsal space for choral groups. There is an underground parking garage that accommodates 144 cars.

Dressing room accommodations include lockers and lounge spaces for the Philadelphia Orchestra as well as a Maestro Suite, visiting chorus changing facilities and 14 private/semi-private dressing rooms. There is a full banqueting kitchen and a 175-seat restaurant that extends to the balcony accommodating an additional 60 people.

The Kimmel Center is fully handicapped-accessible throughout.

Design Team

Rafael Viñoly Architects

• Rafael Viñoly, Lead Designer
• Jay Bargmann, Project Director
• Sandy McKee, Project Manager
• Design Team: Charles Blomberg, Harry Bolick, Adam Felchner, Larry Jones, John Kinnaird, Shigeru Kotoda, Harold Park, Caleb Peterson, Stephen Sedalis, Crystal Son, Chris Stone, Hiroki Wakimura, Ivan Zidarov

Acoustics Design Team

Artec Consultants Inc.

• Russell Johnson, Room Acoustics
• Robert Wolff, Room Acoustics
• Allan Teplitzky, Noise and Vibration Control
• Christopher A. Storch, Co-ordinator

Theater Design Team

Theatre Projects Consultants

• Richard Pilbrow, David I. Taylor, Benton Dellinger, Michael Nishball

Structural Engineers
Dewhurst Macfarlane and Partners, in association with Goldreich Engineering, PC

Mechanical/Electrical/Plumbing Consultants
Ove Arup and Partners

Fire Safety Engineers
Hughes Associates, Inc.

Civil Engineers
Ang Associates

Lighting Design
Claude R. Engle Lighting Consultant

Food Service Equipment Consultants
Cini-Little International, Inc.

Graphic Design
Wojciechowski Design

Specifications
Robert Schwartz and Associates

Vertical Transportation Consultants
Van Duesen & Associates

Security Consultant
Aggleton & Associates

Organ Design
Dobson Pipe Organ Builders

Geotechnical Engineer
McClymont & Rak

RJ: So this theater is shaped like a cello?

FB: Yes, can you see the shape?

RJ: Yeah, it sort of looks like a guitar with the big hole in the middle of the ceiling. What’s that railing up there for?

FB: That's the lighting bridge. There will be lighting fixtures and a spotlight control up there.

RJ: What are all these compartments in the walls?

FB: These are reverb doors that will control sound. There are all kinds of doors that, once it's finished, you won't know are there. This one opens up and a curtain comes out of it that goes all the way down this wall. They'll use that when they want a softer sound. But if they want the sound to bounce off the wood, the curtain rolls up. It just depends on how they want to tune the sound depending on what music they're playing.

RJ: What kind of wood is that on the outside of the hall?

FB: It's Makore Mahogany from Africa. It was chosen because it won't fade under all the ultraviolet light that will come in through the glass roof since it is raised in Africa where the sun is really bright and hot.

RJ: How come the stage is round?

FB: This theater has a round, rotating stage that turns 180 degrees so you can have two productions set up at one time -- one with sets and one without. You push a button and the stage rotates. In one configuration, the stage has a shell for better acoustics, and in the other, the stage has full fly space for scenery rigging for Broadway-type shows. You can also make the center section of seats fold in to make a flat floor.

RJ: Where do the seats go when they fold in?

FB: It's called chair wagon storage. The chairs wheel off, and go under the back of the theater, then the floor comes back up, and then you've got a solid floor for dance or cabaret. Cabaret is where you go to dinner and watch a play at the same time.

RJ: That's cool.

RJ: How thick is the glass?

FB: It's 9/16" laminated glass -- so you have a piece of glass, then a piece of plastic, then another piece of glass sandwiched together. If a panel breaks, it will stay together, like on the windshield of a car. Each corner of the glass has a node holding it in place.

RJ: How did they build this whole wall?

FB: First they put the steel arch up, then there is a stainless steel cable that comes through. At the bottom of the cable they put a 12-ton weight. It's like a big bridge, like the Ben Franklin Bridge. On a bridge, you have an arch with cables coming down holding up the roadway. This is the same thing, except we added glass. This has never been done before in the world! It is designed to move 2 1/2 feet in either direction in high winds.

RJ: What if the wall fell?

FB: This wall has been tested with 80 knot winds and water to see if it was strong enough to withstand the wind and rain, and to see if it would collapse or leak. It passed the test without a problem. If the cables did fail, there is a steel bar that will hold up the glass.

RJ: What is the stuff in between the panes of glass?

FB: That's silicone. That's what seals the glass and keeps it from leaking.

RJ: Is the big dome up there welded together?

FB: Yes. It came in sections. Each arch is in four sections. We would put the two ends on, and then the two middle sections were put together and hoisted in. We call these dinosaur bones, because that's what they looked like when we were putting them together. There are 36 of them all the way down.

RJ: Who decides how they're going to build the roof after the architect designs it?

FB: The architect creates the grandiose idea, then hires a structural engineer. The engineer figures out how to make it happen, and then a glass company was hired to build the pieces. But because this dome is so unique and so huge, another engineering company was hired to double check the whole plan to make sure it was sound. Total tonnage here is 600 tons! That’s a lot of weight! They wanted to make double sure it would hold!

RJ: How many panels are there in the roof?

FB: 5,808 individual windows. There are four windows in a section.

RJ: Do you have to replace a whole row of windows if one of them breaks?

FB: No, you can just replace the broken one.

RJ: How will they clean the glass that is way up top?

FB: Cleaning the outside will be pretty easy. They'll use a cart like the one used to install the glass to ride on the outside of the dome and clean it. For the inside, it will be a little more challenging. They will use lifts and cranes to reach the highest parts.

RJ: What was that noise?

FB: That was the subway! Isn't it loud? When they were drilling down to the bedrock for the foundation they heard the rumblings of the subway that runs below here. That word got back to Artec, the theater consultant, and they came up with the idea to build the two theaters on rubber pads. So the buildings are actually sitting on rubber pads. So they had to lay the foundation, lay the rubber pads, finish the foundation, then put the steel on it. It was pretty neat to watch that. Nobody in Philadelphia has ever done that.

RJ: So the rubber pads make it so you can't hear the subway?

FB: Yes, they stop the noise of the vibrations from the subway from interrupting the music in the performances.

RJ: Are the pads really heavy?

FB: Yes. I was actually very concerned about that from a safety standpoint because the pads had to be brought in by hand. So I was afraid that the workers might get back injuries handling the pads, but we were very lucky that didn't happen.

RJ: How many pads did they have to use?

FB: There are 225 pads under Verizon Hall, and 120 pads are under Perelman Theater.

RJ: Are the pads hard or soft rubber?

FB: They are almost like a radial tire with layers of rubber and metal ... so they are very hard. The nickname for them around the construction site with the workers was "hockey pucks."

How long have you been a construction worker?
I've been a construction worker for 12 years. I graduated high school in 1988 and I started my carpenter's apprenticeship in 1989.

What made you want to be a construction worker?
My father is a union carpenter and my grandfather was a union bricklayer. I'm good with my hands and I'm handy around the house, so I thought I'd give it a shot. I figured if I didn't like it I could still go to college and get an office job.

What's your normal day on the job like?
I get up early -- 5:15 and I'm on site by 7. It's very hectic on this project ... there's a lot of work to do in a little amount of time. I'm an assistant superintendent with Driscoll, so I spend a lot of time in meetings coordinating different trades -- electricians, plumbers.

Do you ever walk on the high steel beams?
If you want to walk a beam you have to be safe. You have to wear a harness and a hardhat, safety glasses and gloves. I love going out in a harness ... I'd rather be up high than on the ground! Deep down I think I'm an ironworker at heart, instead of a carpenter.

Can you be a construction worker if you're afraid of heights?
You can be afraid of heights all you want! But you don't want to be an ironworker if you're afraid of heights. You can be a carpenter, a floorlayer or a seat installer.

Have you ever gotten hurt on the job?
I haven't gotten hurt on this project, except that my hands are a mess with scrapes and scratches. But I was unloading furniture on a job once, and I broke my wrist and pinkie. I was out of work the whole summer.

How many buildings have you worked on?
I've worked on a lot of buildings. I worked at the CoreStates Center. I loved watching the Flyers and the Sixers practicing!

Do you like to visit the buildings after you finish?
I love to do that more than anything. I can go into a room and look at the molding and say, "Yeah, I put that piece up there," or "I hung that door over there." And at CoreStates I was there the first time they made the ice and drove the Zamboni into the building. I even got to skate on the ice and shoot some pucks! That was awesome.

Have you ever worked on a building like The Kimmel Center?
I've never worked on a building quite like this. It's one in a million. There are acoustics guys who listen to the walls with stethoscopes listening for sounds in the walls! It's a unique building. I'll never see another one like it.

What's you favorite part of The Kimmel Center?
Definitely the concert hall. That's where I've been working for the last year and a half. There is a tremendous amount of woodworking, and that's my favorite thing -- to carve wood. I'm just glad that I can be involved in this project.