Jesse H. Jones Hall of Performing
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Jesse H. Jones Hall of Performing Arts
Jonathan Seto
University of Houston
ARCH 1359 – Vahdit
23 February 2015
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The Jesse H Jones Hall for the Performing Arts, also commonly known as Jones Hall, is a
venue home to the Houston Symphony Orchestra and the Houston Society of the Performing
Arts. Jesse H Jones Hall is located in downtown Houston on 615 Louisiana Street; it was open on
October 2, 1966, with a construction cost of about 7.4 million dollars. The building has been
renovated twice, one for following compliance with the American with Disabilities Act in 1993.
It was then renovated again dues to the building’s exterior facade corrosion, natural disaster,
and to remove harmful materials such as asbestos from the interior. Jones Hall is in memoriam
of Jesse Holman Jones, a towering figure in Houston and a key influence in the construction of
many other buildings in the city’s skyline. The construction of Jesse H Jones Hall was
underwritten by Houston Endowment, Inc., which was owned by Jesse Jones and his wife. The
designer of the Jones Halls was the Houston-based architecture firm, Caudill Rowlett Scott,
which is commonly known as CRS. The spatial intention of the Jesse H Jones Hall was to
accommodate a wide variety of art, design, and performing and musical arts in one unified
space, while being revolutionary for its time.
Jones Hall occupies an entire city block with its glamorous and curving travertine marble
facades, rectangular border of eight story columns, and a grand entrance. Jones Hall’s brilliant
interior layout offers versatility, enabling Jones Hall to accommodate a variety of art form. The
800 hexagons create a moveable masterpiece that can adjust to regroup volume and
manipulate the sound acoustically, this is based on the demand for adjustment for the over 250
events they hold annually, all with different intentions
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Historically, Jones Hall was state-of-the-art, a feat of technology during its time, while
still achieving the spatial quality and appeal that it was intended for, which is sound. “Until the
late 1950’s, mechanical stage equipment was still at the level of ropes and pulleys and was
cumbersome to operate walls and ceiling of sufficient mass to accommodate the acoustic
criteria required in an adjustable concert hall“(Forsyth). Many of the intentions, like the
versatility of acoustics of Jones Hall, were designed with the approach of problem matching the
auditorium with the same style and type of performance. The designer tried to be one of many
cases to provide a hall with “variable acoustics through mechanisms in which the quality of
sound-absorptive materials and other effects vary to alter reverberation time “(Forsyth). The
design firm achieves a great distinction in Jesse. H Jones Hall. The halls flexibility to change in
size to accommodate for opera, ballet, and theater meant the acoustic sound of a 3,000 seat
hall must be able to adjust and adapt its surrounding for a more meaningful intention. Both
Charles Lawrence and theatre specialist George Izenour guided the team in developing a
counter weighted ceiling to be adjusted up and down to accommodate various arts.
In 1967 Jesse H Jones Hall Won an American Institute of Architects’ Honors Award,
which is a very special occasion, being that it is only award once a year. Jones Hall has lasted
and relatively gone unchanged after 28 year of continual use, a monument to careful planning
and inspired design. Jones Halls presents a design that is revolutionary for its time and envelope
s the ideas the designer intended for it to do.
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Inside Jones Halls for the Performing Arts
8 story Column surrounding the building
Plan of Jesse H Jone Hall of the Performing Arts
Gemini II Sculpture in the Entrance of Jones Hall
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Construction of Jones Hall
Section Elevation of Jones Hall
Interior Construction of Jones Hall
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Work Cited
Forsyth, M. (1985). Building for music: The Architect, the musician and the listener from the
seventeenth century to the present day. Cambridge, Mass.:MIT Press.
"Jones Hall for the Performing Arts." Jones Hall. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Feb. 2015.
King, J. (2002). The CRS team and the business of architecture. College Station: Texas A & M
University Press.
Smith, G., & Smith, G. (1996). Source book of American architecture: 500 notable buildings from
the 10th century to the present. New York: Princeton Architectural Press.