Tom Tomlinson: The Gaillard Center

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February 24, 2015:  Tom Tomlinson, Executive Director of the Gaillard Center, spoke to our Rotary Club about the new Gaillard Center currently under construction.

Mr. Tomlinson has over 30 years experience in the management of large performance centers, as well as smaller theaters. He has overseen the startup of a number of performance centers and his resume includes management of centers in Alaska, Orange County, Miami and Atlanta. 

Mr. Tomlinson came to give us an update and preview of what to expect in the new facility.

The Gaillard Performance Hall is a $142 Million project that is a public private partnership between the City of Charleston and the Gaillard Performance Hall Foundation.  The new Center replaces the Gaillard Auditorium and Exhibition hall which opened in 1968 and was Charleston’s star venue. That center, although Charleston’s greatest venue and center of cultural growth, had become outdated in its acoustics, aesthetics and accessibility and no longer serve the Cultural needs of the City.

The new center will include an 1800 seat performance hall, exhibition space, City Offices and multiple lobbies and pre-function spaces, as well as outdoor space.

As part of his presentation, he showed images of the different spaces.

The performance hall will be an acoustically tuned space with orchestra seating and three levels of balconies. The acoustically tuned space requires no electronic amplification and can be adjusted for different types of performances.

The Exhibition Hall includes a grand banquet room that can be divided into three smaller event rooms and multiple lobbies and pre-function areas that can serve different events.

The terrace is a space that can be used for outdoor events as well.

Tom indicated that the goal for the facility was to be as active as possible, serving not only performance events but also arts events, festivals currently held in the city as well as an educational experience for the public.

As the Center nears completion, a critical task will be the “tuning” of the performance hall where an acoustician tests how different performances will sound and makes adjustments to the space to optimize the acoustics. This will also include test or “hardhat” performances to test the space with an audience. This will be one of the final steps towards opening this year.

Don Baus