HistoryLink Tours

Benaroya Hall is the home of the Seattle Symphony. The building was designed by LMN Architects of Seattle and opened to the public in 1998. The Symphony had previously been located at the Seattle Center and other locations, but an unsolicited gift of $15 million by Jack Benaroya (1921-2012) and Becky Benaroya in the early 1990s triggered the enthusiasm needed to build a new symphony home in downtown Seattle. Benaroya Hall has a 2,500-seat main stage and a 540-seat recital hall. The building’s acoustics were designed by renowned acoustical engineer, Cyril M. Harris (1917-2011). The sound design had to not only factor in the city sounds from a busy Third Avenue, but also consider the sounds and vibrations created by the transit tunnel below the building where once the city’s buses ran and is now where the Link light rail system travels.

The work we’ll visit at this site is in the Boeing Company Gallery, the long corridor that stretches from University to Union Streets along Third Avenue.

Located along the western side of the upper level of the Boeing Company Gallery of Benaroya Hall, is the light artwork, Skytones. The work is by artist and teacher, Anna Valentina Murch (1948–2014), a British artist based in San Francisco who was known for her architectural, site-responsive, and environmental installations. Skytones is an example of light art made of fluorescent lights with lighting jells installed in painted white niches. The lights are programmed in three different sequences which run during concerts. Because the western view of the sky cannot be seen from the gallery, Murch wanted to create a “horizontal band of subtle, dissolving light [that] will create the illusion of seeing a sky through the building.” Murch was selected from a pool of 139 artists who competed for the Benaroya Hall commission, and the work was funded through the Seattle Symphony’s 1% for Art program, along with funds from the City. Open hours: Tuesday – Friday 10am-6pm; Saturday 1-6pm; closed Sunday and Monday