The Smith Center for the Performing Arts is located in

Downtown Las Vegas Downtown Las Vegas (commonly abbreviated as DTLV) is the central business district and historic center of Las Vegas, Nevada. It is the original townsite, and the Downtown gaming area was the primary gambling district of Las Vegas prior to the S ...

's 61-acre Symphony Park and is a five-acre performing arts center consisting of three

theaters Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perform ...

in two buildings; groundbreaking for the $470 million project was May 26, 2009. The Neo Art Deco design style was chosen by

David M. Schwarz David M. Schwarz (born 26 January 1951) is an American architect and designer. He is the President & CEO of Washington, D.C.-based David M. Schwarz Architects, Inc. and serves as the Chairman of the Yale School of Architecture's Dean's Council ...

to echo the design elements of the

Hoover Dam Hoover Dam is a concrete arch-gravity dam in the Black Canyon of the Colorado River, on the border between the U.S. states of Nevada and Arizona. It was constructed between 1931 and 1936 during the Great Depression and was dedicated on S ...

, just 30 miles to the southeast. It also shares design features with the Will Rogers Memorial Center in

Fort Worth, Texas Fort Worth is the List of cities in Texas by population, fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Texas and the List of United States cities by population, 13th-largest city in the United States. It is the county seat of Tarrant County, Texas, T ...

. The center features a 17-story

carillon A carillon ( , ) is a pitched percussion instrument that is played with a keyboard and consists of at least 23 cast-bronze bells. The bells are hung in fixed suspension and tuned in chromatic order so that they can be sounded harmoni ...

tower containing 47 bells and is the first performing arts center in the nation to be Gold

LEED Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) is a green building certification program used worldwide. Developed by the non-profit U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), it includes a set of rating systems for the design, construction ...

certified. It opened on March 10, 2012. The Smith Center features international music, and dance companies and is the home of the Las Vegas Philharmonic and Nevada Ballet Theatre. The center is under the leadership of President and CEO Myron Martin.

History

Prior to The Smith Center opening, Las Vegas was one of the largest cities in the country without a performing arts center. Some highly customized production shows and venues have long existed at various resorts on the

Las Vegas Strip The Las Vegas Strip is a stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard South in Clark County, Nevada, that is known for its concentration of resort hotels and casinos. The Strip, as it is known, is about long, and is immediately south of the Las Vegas cit ...

but none were geared towards the variety of performances that a stand-alone center would provide, such as that required for touring Broadway productions or major symphony orchestras. A smaller performing arts venue at the

University of Nevada Las Vegas The University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) is a public land-grant research university in Paradise, Nevada. The campus is about east of the Las Vegas Strip. It was formerly part of the University of Nevada from 1957 to 1969. It includes the ...

was inadequate for these purposes. Plans were initially conceived for a new center around 1994. The Donald W. Reynolds Foundation made a donation of $150 million in 2005, the second largest donation to performing arts in United States history. A car rental fee was also initiated by Clark County and the State of Nevada to repay bonds of $105 million. These two factors together moved the public-private project towards construction. The building was named after Fred and Mary Smith, the chairman of the Reynolds Foundation and his wife, as the largest benefactors. The City of

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Veg ...

began separate plans around 2000 to build a

downtown ''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in North America by English speakers to refer to a city's sometimes commercial, cultural and often the historical, political and geographic heart. It is often synonymous with its central business district ...

urban district called Symphony Park, which was selected as the site for the center. In 2010, it was announced that the

Lied Discovery Children's Museum DISCOVERY Children's Museum is a nonprofit children’s museum in Las Vegas, Nevada, dedicated to providing children of all abilities, backgrounds, and beliefs, access to fun and exciting STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, and math) ed ...

would move to the Smith Center, replacing an originally proposed 600-seat theater that was scrapped from the plans in 2008. The reasoning was that the city already had numerous similarly sized venues in the various hotel resorts. A partnership with the

Kennedy Center The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (formally known as the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, and commonly referred to as the Kennedy Center) is the United States National Cultural Center, located on the Potom ...

and some classrooms onsite provide educational opportunities for local youth. The planners expect the center to foster arts awareness and help to revitalize the downtown area with the center's opening in 2012.

Architecture and artworks

The Smith Center Board wanted a timeless and elegant design, selecting architect

to design the center, using inspiration from the

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unit ...

style as a major and lasting historical influence in the Las Vegas area. The building is a reinterpretation of

Bertram Goodhue Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue (April 28, 1869 – April 23, 1924) was an American architect celebrated for his work in Gothic Revival and Spanish Colonial Revival design. He also designed notable typefaces, including Cheltenham and Merrymount for ...

's 1922 design for the

Nebraska State Capitol The Nebraska State Capitol is the seat of government for the U.S. state of Nebraska and is located in downtown Lincoln. Designed by New York architect Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue in 1920, it was constructed of Indiana limestone from 1922 to 19 ...

at Lincoln, and John & Donald Parkinson's 1929

Bullocks Wilshire Bullocks Wilshire, located at 3050 Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles, California, is a Art Deco building. The building opened in September 1929 as a luxury department store for owner John G. Bullock (owner of the more mainstream Bullock's in D ...

in Los Angeles. White Indiana limestone for the façade (as at Lincoln), as well as numerous detail elements based on the Hoover Dam and 1920s motifs feature throughout the facility, including a winged sculpture in the center lobby modeled after the dam's famous Winged Figures of the Republic statues. A prominent flower theme was also added in select places since Mary Smith's favorite flower is the Blue Iris. In addition, artwork by local artists from the Las Vegas Art Museum have been loaned to the center to be displayed. A large concert hall and two smaller theaters were designed as the main venues. At the corner is a 17-story tower featuring 47 bells and providing a new focal point for the downtown skyline, as well as the center. Audio design firm Akustiks worked with Schwarz to ensure optimum sound quality in all the venues, installing high tech sound enhancing features like retractable drapery and auto closing doors to reflect or absorb sounds based on the performance type. The main hall is also double soundproofed against outside noises. An outdoor park plaza was also built, serving as an additional outdoor concert venue if needed. It features an artwork by Tim Bavington, representing

Aaron Copland Aaron Copland (, ; November 14, 1900December 2, 1990) was an American composer, composition teacher, writer, and later a conductor of his own and other American music. Copland was referred to by his peers and critics as "the Dean of American Com ...

’s "

Fanfare for the Common Man ''Fanfare for the Common Man'' is a musical work by the American composer Aaron Copland. It was written in 1942 for the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra under conductor Eugene Goossens and was inspired in part by a speech made earlier that year ...

Entertainment venues

The Smith Center, Las Vegas, United States (Unsplash)

The three main venues at the Smith Center are the Reynolds Hall, Myron's Cabaret Jazz , and the Troesh Studio Theater, the first of which is located in its namesake building and the latter two in the Boman Pavilion. *2,050-seat Reynolds Hall is designed to keep the seats close to the stage, seating is on 5 levels *240-seat Myron's Cabaret Jazz is designed for more intimate performances. *250-seat Troesh Studio Theater rehearsal theater * The Donald W. Reynolds Symphony Park lawn for outdoor performances

Other features

* 47

bell A bell is a directly struck idiophone percussion instrument. Most bells have the shape of a hollow cup that when struck vibrates in a single strong strike tone, with its sides forming an efficient resonator. The strike may be made by an inte ...

; is a 17 story tall tower containing cast brass bells that ring over 4 octaves. * Elaine Wynn Studio for Arts Education * Grand Lobby * Founder's Room and Mezzanine Lounge

Productions

Best of music, dance and Broadway from around the world. Broadway productions include blockbusters such as Book of Mormon, Wicked, The Lion King and Hamilton.

Resident companies

* Las Vegas Philharmonic *

Nevada Ballet Theatre Nevada Ballet Theatre (NBT) is a regional ballet company located in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States. It is the Resident Ballet Company of The Smith Center for the Performing Arts and is one of the largest performing arts organizations in the sta ...

Donald W. Reynolds Discovery Center

Part of the Smith Center campus includes the new home of the Lied Discovery Children's Museum, to be renamed the Discovery Children's Museum.

References

External links

Official website of the Smith CenterDavid M. Schwarz Architect's website about the Smith Center
{{Authority control Concert halls in Nevada Music venues in the Las Vegas Valley Performing arts centers in Nevada Tourist attractions in the Las Vegas Valley Downtown Las Vegas Symphony Park Buildings and structures in Las Vegas Culture of Las Vegas David M. Schwarz buildings New Classical architecture Art Deco architecture in Nevada Bell towers in the United States Carillons Towers completed in 2012