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Home > Austin Music Source > Archives > 2009 > October > 20 > Entry
Direct Events and UT Architecture school team to help design the new, eco-friendly Backyard
Tim O’Connor and the folks at Direct Events have been saying for months that they want the replacement for the Backyard - still scheduled to open in the second quarter of 2010 - to be the most eco-friendly venue in the United States.
To that end, they have teamed up with the UT School of Architecture to bankroll the Planet Earth Design Competition, a yearly, $5,000 scholarship to design a sustainable concert venue — in this first case, the new Backyard.
In other words, the students are winning the chance to make design suggestions regarding the design of the new Backyard.
“It’s very difficult to stay current with the advancements in eco-friendly applications,” O’Connor said Tuesday. “The idea is that over time, the students will be more ahead of the curve than we would be. They would be helping keep our venue current.”
Sixth River Architects, architects for the project and designers of Austin Music Hall and the Bass Concert Hall renovation, are assisting in the competition. The jury is composed of Austin City Limits producer Jeff Peterson, architect John Grabel, landscape desiger Jennifer Orr, Juan Miro of Miro Rivera Architects and the UT faculty; and Wilfried Wang of Holden Wang Partners, Berlin.
Of course, once the Backyard is actually built, future students would be designing more theoretical venues.
“There may be a completely level of venue, a club or a mid-sized place,” O’Connor said. “They may be making a Backyard type venue for a different indigenous, Arizona, for example. Or maybe there’s somewhere that wind is a better choice than solar (to generate electricity) and they’re designing something for that area.”
O’Connor has big plans for the new Backyard’s eco-friendliness. “Let’s say you have an electric car,” O’Connor said. “you could plug that in for free during the concert using power generated by solar or wind. You’d also have a VIP parking spot. This is the sort of tech we’d want to implement immediately and keep current.”
The final six designs are being showcased today at Goldsmith Hall, room 2.110 on the UT campus. The winning team will be announced at 4:30 p.m.
Comments
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By TXn
October 20, 2009 11:39 AM | Link to this
YES!!!!!
The Backyard - don’t mess this one up. (i.e. AUSTIN MUSIC HALL)
By Dave
October 20, 2009 7:48 PM | Link to this
The folks responsible for the Austin Music Hall have their fingers in this pie? Wow. That’s widely regarded to be the music worst venue in Austin. Wow!
By KO
October 22, 2009 3:02 PM | Link to this
I think Austin music hall is awesome… I don’t know what you people are talking about!
By Rands
October 23, 2009 11:55 AM | Link to this
The Austin Music Hall was not built or designed the way a music venue should be. Look at any large venue built for music, like the Bass, Long Center, Paramount, and you will see the ceiling slopes up. A flat ceiling creates echoes, like the ones you hear at the Austin Music Hall. If you are in the balcony you will hear sound from the speakers, then you hear the same sound bounce off the ceiling a split second later. The Music Hall also does not have enough bathrooms on the bottom floor. The Music Hall does not even have a sign out front to let people know what the building is.