In 1989 it was merged into the Oklahoma City Museum of Art. Fundraising campaigns began for the successful organization as the Federal Art Project came to an end, and in May 1945 the Oklahoma Art Center was incorporated. The Oklahoma Art Center, a community art center administered by the Federal Art Project, was located in Municipal Auditorium. The first performance, "Rhapsodic Rhythms" took place on October 4, 1937.
The Municipal Auditorium was completed in April 1937. Bellows Construction became the primary contractor and began on-site excavation on time. In August 1935, the Roosevelt Administration announced that all PWA projects had to break ground by December 1935 or risk losing federal support. The original design features a six-story building with both neoclassical and Art Deco features that seated 6,200 in the main hall and smaller theatre that seated 400. Parr began planning and designing the Municipal Auditorium, budgeted at $1.25 million. Roosevelt's New Deal programs in the 1930s contributed 55 percent of the cost of building through the Public Works Administration. In 1927, the Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce and the city jointly purchased the land that would become home to a municipal auditorium after voters approved a $4 million bond for the site. The project was completed in August and opened on Octoat a construction cost of $1,146,783 and a project cost of $1,205,000.” All the ceilings of the auditorium, committee rooms, and the basement exhibit space are acoustically treated. The exterior walls are faced partly with limestone and partly with brick trimmed with limestone. The auditorium stage is sufficiently large and well equipped to permit the production of plays and operas and to accommodate large orchestras and can be used also for convention purposes. It contains an auditorium with a seating capacity of 6,000, a small theater seating 400, a convention hall seating 900, 22 small committee rooms, and an exhibition hall with a floor area of 38,000 square feet. The new municipal auditorium has remedied this condition. “Before the erection of this auditorium, Oklahoma City had no place which could seat more than 2,000 people where public meetings could be held. A 1939 book on PWA buildings describes the site: The facility includes the Thelma Gaylord Performing Arts Theatre, the Freede Little Theatre, CitySpace, the Meinders Hall of Mirrors and the Joel Levine Rehearsal Hall. It was constructed in 1937 as Municipal Auditorium and renamed in 1966. However, it ran out of money before the rest of the building could be upgraded.īrown said, “What it does is take it from the first MAPS and finish all the spaces to the same level.”īecause the finances haven’t been worked out, there is no timetable for when the work will begin or end.The Civic Center Music Hall is a performing arts center located in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. She said, “I don’t think it was ever envisioned the city would be footing the bill.”Īs part of the first MAPS projects in 1998, the city spent $52 million revamping the main hall. Salyer says the city will need private money to pay for all the upgrades. Meg Salyer, a member of the Oklahoma City Council, said, “$38 million is a lot of money.” While the music community is enthusiastic about the proposed changes, not everyone is on board with the plans. The upgrades would continue into the unfinished fifth floor where $12 million would transform the upper level into a new event space.Īnother $2 million would rehab the lobby and relocate the box office. Jim Brown, the Civic Center’s general manager, said, “This would be a performance space if needed, a banquet or meeting space if needed or rehearsal if anyone else needed it.”
Moving on from the Freede Little Theatre, an $8 million upgrade would transform the Joel Levine Rehearsal Hall into a space that could be used for a multitude of purposes. That renovation is estimated to cost around $15 million. One part of the plan focuses on the Freede Little Theatre, which would undergo serious renovations from top to bottom.Įxperts say the seats, ceiling and everything in between would have to be gutted from the theatre to create an entirely modern performance space. Now, plans for a $38 million upgrade are turning heads. Organizers say the Civic Center Music Hall in downtown Oklahoma City has been in need of repairs for years. OKLAHOMA CITY-Plans to upgrade a well-known staple of Oklahoma City’s music scene are creating a bit of controversy among some city leaders. Please look at the time stamp on the story to see when it was last updated. This is an archived article and the information in the article may be outdated.