Setting the Stage: Abravanel Hall Master Plan and Visioning by Sparano + Mooney Architecture
When an architect is invited into the earliest master planning stages of a project, something important happens: a space opens up - not just physically, but also creatively and strategically. This is the moment when vision meets experience, when ideas begin to take shape through the lens of design thinking, long before materials are chosen or forms take final shape. For owners and institutions with a bold sense of purpose but a need for clarity, the master plan is where possibilities are tested, priorities are clarified, and the built environment starts to align with long-term goals.
At its best, a master plan is not just a technical roadmap - it’s a shared language between owner and architect, a framework that allows both parties to step back and look forward. It’s where our expertise in site, sustainability, and spatial flow meets the client’s aspirations for impact, legacy, and use. Whether guiding the development of a campus, a cultural institution, or a community space, the master planning process is our opportunity to ask essential questions, consider time and change, and chart a course that is both practical and visionary.
When Salt Lake County engaged Salt Lake City-based performing arts architects Sparano + Mooney Architecture to update the master plan for Maurice Abravanel Hall, we stepped into a complex and beloved cultural context, one that demanded both reverence for its history and clarity about its future. The Hall, home to the Utah Symphony and a landmark in downtown Salt Lake City, is more than a performance venue; it is a civic icon. Yet, like many legacy buildings, it faces evolving expectations around access, patron experience, user demands and urban connectivity. The task facing our Salt Lake City performing arts architects was not simply to envision a better building, but also to frame a future that responds to the changing rhythms of the surrounding city as well as to craft a cultural landscape that views a “Symphony Hall” with trepidation.
So first, Sparano + Mooney Architecture and our team of theater designers (including Theatre Projects), engineers and performing arts architects in Utah listened. The Utah Symphony | Utah Opera staff, musicians and board members, the Salt Lake County Arts & Culture Division, Abravanel Hall’s civic neighbors, and regular and potential users of Abravanel Hall were all invited to participate. We held in-person focus groups, interviews, venue and acoustical tours, and virtual listening sessions designed to gather vital insights from the key stakeholders. Comprehensive online surveys were conducted with those who were unable to attend in-person sessions. At each meeting we conducted Strength, Weakness, Threats and Opportunity assessments to build a baseline understanding, and ensuing discussions focused on both the presenter and patron experience and inside the hall.
And then Sparano + Mooney Architecture and our Utah performing arts architects began to look at Abravanel Hall; we dug through the storage rooms, climbed every staircase, crawled around in the fly loft, traversed the catwalks, and sat quietly in the lobby. The team reviewed existing building systems, technology, and front- and back-of-house spaces; studied previous masterplans and project plans and conducted extensive acoustic measurements.
Getting the acoustics right was a critical part Sparano + Mooney Architecture’s evaluation of Maurice Abravanel Hall. Originally designed by FFKR with acoustics by the renowned Dr. Cyril Harris, the hall has long been celebrated for its sonic qualities. During our listening sessions, we heard overwhelmingly positive feedback from patrons and regular users of the space. But the musicians - those most intimately attuned to the hall’s nuances - offered a more layered perspective. They could identify specific moments where the built reality of the hall didn’t fully match the original design aspirations, often pointing to subtle shortcomings that only become apparent through deep familiarity and repeated performance.
To better understand these nuances of Abravanel Hall, Sparano + Mooney Architecture worked with our consulting acoustician, Kirkegaard, to conduct a thorough acoustic assessment. This process combined traditional techniques with advanced instrumentation to analyze how sound behaves in the hall today. We began with the classic “red balloon test,” popping balloons in different areas to capture a raw, immediate sense of how sound reflects and decays. From there, Kirkegaard introduced a more precise method using an impulse sound source—a small, half-sphere device that emits controlled bursts of broadband noise. With microphones placed throughout the hall, we collected data on reverberation time, clarity, and spatial diffusion. These measurements allowed us to create a detailed acoustic profile of the space, highlighting both its strengths and opportunities for enhancement. In doing so, we laid the groundwork for improvements that respect the hall’s legacy while supporting its future as a world-class performance venue.
With the community outreach and facility analysis completed, Sparano + Mooney Architecture and our Salt Lake City performing arts architects turned our attention to synthesizing what we heard and observed in Abravanel Hall; distilling the mountains of data into seven key themes that would guide the masterplan from then on. Discussed by Sparano + Mooney Architecture in greater detail in the final Abravanel Hall Master Plan and Visioning document, the seven themes were: Acoustics, Location, Perception + Inclusion, Accessibility + Infrastructure, Technology, Support Spaces, and Wayfinding + Plaza Use.
As our Salt Lake City theater design team looks ahead, the master plan for Maurice Abravanel Hall stands as both a reflection of its legacy and a blueprint for its evolution. Through deep listening, rigorous analysis, and meaningful collaboration, our Utah performing arts architects charted a course that honors Abravanel Hall’s cultural significance while preparing it to serve new generations of artists, audiences, and community members. This process is more than a study of space - it’s a commitment to ensuring that Abravanel Hall continues to resonate, not just acoustically, but civically, for decades to come.
Whether through performing arts facility assessments, performing arts feasibility studies, performing arts venue programming, performing arts master plans or performing arts renovations and performing arts new design for landmark cultural facilities, Sparano + Mooney Architecture and our performing arts architects in Salt Lake City, Utah performing arts designers, Los Angeles performing arts architects, Mountain West performing arts architects and West Coast performing arts architects are here to help our clients set the (next) stage of their venues!
Image credit: John Sparano, FAIA