Nothing short of miraculous
Restoration, with balance of high-tech and vintage design, was 10 years in making
To Torontonians, Massey Hall has been under renovation for a couple of years. But for the project’s principal architect Marianne McKenna, the hall’s majestic unveiling next month has been 10 years in the making.
“It’s a little terrifying, but exciting. We saw the first drawings 10 years ago!” said McKenna, a founding partner with KPMB Architects in Toronto.
That’s the trajectory for a major overhaul of a historically important building such as Massey Hall. It has been a unique revitalization project for a building with extra-special needs (read: major functional deficiencies) if ever there was one.
“The problem is, you’re dealing with a building built in 1894 and not resourced for the modern times at all,” said Grant Troop, Massey Hall’s vice-president of operations. “We had serious shortcomings in terms of visitor safety, accessibility, performance, mechanical, comfort — all of which made it extremely difficult to operate in an economic fashion.”
That these issues have been resolved is nothing short of miraculous.
“That’s all due to the relationship with KPMG and their structural engineer,” Troop said. “To reconfigure the fundamental structure of the building from attic to underpinnings … that is the engineering marvel, and people won’t really appreciate it. They’ll see the beautifully restored windows, notice that the seating is better and more comfortable, and the sound is improved. But they might never know the engineering ingenuity that went into the solutions.”
Warts and all, Massey Hall is a standout. It’s always had charm, romance, myth — even with its decor confusion, a combination of Moorish elements from the late 1800s with Art Deco flashes introduced during a 1930s refresh. (Don’t worry, it’s all still there.)
McKenna’s experience in combining historical preservation with contemporary technologies made her the perfect architectural lead for the project. She set about balancing all the pluses and minuses as she designed her “fix.”
McKenna knows a thing or two about performance halls. The magnificent Koerner Hall on Bloor Street is one of hers — a jewel in form and function. She built it from the ground up, though with some facade sleight of hand, overcoming challenges not unlike those at Massey.
Several of Massey’s key areas needed attention, most importantly the need for a proper back of house. This is the functional area that includes loading bays, production facilities, dressing rooms for performers, storage and staging areas, and even washroom facilities and amenities for the creature comforts of patrons.
Massey Hall had none of these necessities.
Neither did it have the space for them — until the land south of Massey, the Albert Building, was given over to the project.
“That gave us an 8000-squarefoot footprint, which is incredibly small — so we stacked it up,” said McKenna.
This gift happened in 2013 — and then it was off to the races. With the back of house sorted — it’s now a brand-new, seven-storey annex with performance stages, bar and refreshment area, production facilities and offices — the next technical challenge was to figure out how to get people to it.
McKenna’s solution is to take them outside, around the perimeter of the building, via covered walkways called passerelles. These engineering marvels extend over the sidewalks along Yonge, Victoria and Shuter Streets, conveying patrons past the restored stainedglass windows. They also serve as gathering places, for lingering and watching the streets while enjoying that cocktail.
“Surprisingly,” McKenna said, “the city was okay with them extending over the sidewalks.”
Another major pain point was the seating. At the wings, the seats looked directly into walls. Today, the perimeter seats mimic the curvature of the balconies, allowing excellent sight lines. Even more exciting, the centre seating section can be removed entirely for shows that require a freer form (and dancing).
This seating was custom designed because Massey’s slightly raked floor ruled out off-the-rack solutions. The new hi-tech seats are on rails that carry them under the stage in a process that is mostly mechanized and relatively rapid. It’s not quite “push of a button,” but close.
And so, the unveiling of Massey Hall is nigh. And everyone involved feels the pressure.
The exhortations from the likes of Massey Hall performance veterans Neil Young and Jim Cuddy — to paraphrase: “don’t mess with it, just fix the things that don’t work” — stick with McKenna.
“That was our challenge,” said McKenna. “But you know, we said to ourselves, we can do better.
“And it was a mere 10 years to get to this.”
It’s a little terrifying, but exciting. We saw the first drawings 10 years ago!
MARIANNE MCKENNA, PRINCIPAL ARCHITECT