THE LONG CENTER STORY
Austin’s cultural vitality and artistic accomplishments are among the community’s most treasured hallmarks. But outside of Austin, they have also been among the city’s best-kept secrets. With the opening of The Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long Center for the Performing Arts, Austin has a fitting stage on which to make its grand entrance as an American cultural capital.
The Long Center is poised to become one of the nation’s premier cultural showplaces — a world-class facility that is nonetheless completely and uniquely Austin. Its center-stage location on the shore of Lady Bird Lake, and its unique design that combines history with innovation, showcase Austin’s natural beauty and commitment to sustainability. And the story of how The Long Center came to be — featuring a literal cast of thousands — reflects Austin’s community-wide commitment to cultural excellence and quality of life.
When it comes to the performing arts, Austin has always been a prodigy. The music scene in Austin needs no introduction, but the Central Texas region is also one of a handful of metro areas in the country (and one of the smallest) to support a professional symphony, opera, and ballet — a fine-arts tradition that goes back nearly a century. The Austin theatre scene has earned a national and even global following, with Obies, Tonys, Pulitzers and other major awards to its credit. And community arts groups in Austin number in the hundreds, contributing energy, diversity and excellence to a performing arts scene that (according to a city-sponsored report by Texas Perspectives) generates more than $300 million a year for the local economy.
The Long Center is the climax of a story that goes back nearly 20 years, when leaders of the arts community first coalesced around a vision — a world-class arts center that Austin could call its own and that was fitting to the quality of work being performed here. The need for suitable performance space has always been a challenge for Austin artists.
The Long Center is the crowning jewel, but also the hub, of a new civic, cultural and recreation district on the southern waterfront. While the old Palmer Auditorium, built in 1959, has been reinvented as The Long Center, the new Palmer Events Center serves the needs of community groups for meeting and events space. The surrounding acreage — long dedicated as parkland, but underused and paved over for generations — has made its debut as Town Lake Park, adding to the chain of treasured green space on the shores of what is now Lady Bird Lake.
All three of these projects were made possible by the citizens and voters of Austin, who in 1998 approved two ballot measures: one to allow the lease of Palmer Auditorium to what is now The Long Center, the other to assess a new rental-car tax to fund construction of the Palmer Events Center and the park. However, The Long Center itself did not receive any public funds — the $77 million project has been made possible by donations from more than 4,600 supporters of the arts in Austin, in amounts ranging from $1 to $22 million.
Converting Palmer Auditorium into a quality performing arts venue has highlighted the ingenuity and dedication of a diverse design team featuring both top national talent and leading local architects. The old Palmer stagehouse, one of the largest in Texas, has been preserved as the stage for the 2,400-seat Michael & Susan Dell Hall, The Long Center’s main venue. And the innovative circular "ring beam" that anchored Palmer has been retained as the signature design
element of The Long Center, with the new City Terrace — a public space offering sweeping vistas of the Austin skyline — following its outline.
Within this frame, The Long Center’s new construction — Dell Hall, the Debra and Kevin Rollins Studio Theatre, and the center’s lounges and lobbies — have been artfully enclosed. Both spaces are the product of extensive collaboration between the experts on the design team and with the broad array of arts and community groups who will make the center their home. They combine sophisticated aesthetics, unmatched acoustics and advanced technical capabilities with a welcoming style that invites the entire community to enjoy Austin’s artistic excellence in a relaxed atmosphere that’s in harmony with the community’s character.
The Long Center also reflects Austin’s commitment to sustainability, environmental responsibility, and the region’s natural beauty. More than 95 percent of the material from the deconstructed Palmer Auditorium has been recycled, much of it in the finishes and fixtures of The Long Center. For example, the aluminum panels that formed the distinctive multicolored Palmer roof have found a new life as the exterior finish of Dell Hall. And the glass panels that honor The Long Center’s major supporters in the Founders’ Society have been fabricated from the former exterior curtain wall of the auditorium.
Future plans for The Long Center include the construction of two other spaces to complete the community’s vision — the Topfer Family Theatre and the Recital and Education Building — as wings to the current structure. Fundraising for this second phase will proceed over time as The Long Center plays its part in the continued evolution of Austin’s exciting, diverse and ever-more-renowned performing arts scene — and of Austin’s own growth and maturity as one of the nation’s and world’s cultural capitals.