Project Description
Overview
The MGM Music Hall at Fenway is a 5,000-seat auditorium located in the heart of Boston on the legendary Lansdown Street leading to Fenway Park. The venue was commissioned by the Fenway Sports Group in 2019 to fill the void in the city for a world-class mid-sized destination stage that could serve the needs of touring musical and comedy acts and reinvigorate Boston’s performance infrastructure. It is currently operated by LiveNation and booked by the Fenway Music Company.
Program
This project was a collaboration between leading Boston-based architectural firm DAIQ Architects and WSDG. WSDG was brought on to assist with project programming and master planning of the space, consulting on both internal room acoustics and electroacoustic design, full A/V design of the facility including distributed audio and video systems, sightline review, and acoustic isolation.
Design
The MGM Music Hall at Fenway is built on the ‘triangle lot’ at the corner of Lansdowne and Ipswich Streets, which was formerly utilized by mobile production trucks involved in sports broadcasting. It is four levels tall with an outdoor roof deck, lounge areas, and mezzanine box seating. The wedge shape of the lot created a unique design opportunity for the design team to maximize its functional goals, resulting in a room with excellent sound and sightlines where no concertgoer is further than 110 feet from the stage and every seat is a ‘good seat’.
The venue features state-of-the-art A/V infrastructure, utilizing Clair Cohesion arrays, designed to meet the rigorous standards of international touring acts and increased flexibility to accommodate many different event typologies. It was also designed to have excellent acoustic isolation both inside and out, ensuring that simultaneous events taking place at the nearby House of Blues or Fenway Park don’t sonically intrude on events at the Music Hall and vice-versa.
The finished design of the venue was so successful that LiveNation intends to replicate it at its other venues around the country.
Links
Featured in SCN Installation Showcase 2022