This month marked the 50th anniversary of the iconic Perth Concert Hall (PCH) with acoustic design by Sir Harold Marshall – co-founder of Marshall Day Acoustics. This much-loved heritage building opened on 26 January 1973 and half a century later is widely considered to have some of the finest acoustics in the Southern Hemisphere. Designed with architects Jeffrey Howlett and Don Bailey, PCH received the ‘Enduring Architecture Award’ at the 2016 Australian Institute of Architects National Awards.
PCH was one of Sir Harold’s first concert hall designs. It implemented the concept of lateral reflection that he pioneered and described in a significant research paper in 1967. A striking example of brutalist mid-century architecture, the 1,729-seat performance venue was designed as a rectangular shoebox concert hall, which provides well distributed early reflected lateral sound as a significant design feature.
In celebration of this milestone, PCH is running guided tours, a special exhibition of historical items and memorabilia, as well as a competition rewarding the best story or significant memory from the past 50 years.
