Light Projection and Disco Ball Installation for BLINK Cincinnati 2022.
Built in 1876-1878, this Venetian Gothic Revival-style auditorium and convention center was designed by Samuel Hannaford and built by the City of Cincinnati to host public events and the annual Cincinnati Industrial Expositions, which were held between 1870 and 1888. The building served as the primary convention center for the City of Cincinnati until the 1970s, and has also served as a sports arena, ballroom, public assembly hall, and auditorium for music and performing arts events. The building consists of three wings, with the central wing, with the tallest roofline and largest interior volume, holding the main auditorium, with the two side wings, featuring lower rooflines, originally being home to exposition halls and meeting spaces, with carriageways between the wings, which were linked on the second floor with hallways that arched over the carriageways below, which has since been filled in. The front of the building has a tall and richly detailed facade, which gives way to a lower roofline and simpler facades to the rear, with the southern wing, which was once adjacent to the buildings of the Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music, most of which were demolished following the school becoming part of the University of Cincinnati in the 1960s and subsequently moving uptown to a modern building on the University of Cincinnati campus. The red brick building’s center wing has a front facade with a front gable featuring roman arched reveals, arched arrow slit windows, and corbeling along the roofline, a large brick and limestone band of trim forming a gothic arch around a large rose window, three windows with decorative arched transoms on the third floor, with decorative stone surrounds, parapet gables, and corbeling at the top, flanked with two small windows with brick and stone faux juliet balconies, a balcony with a stone railing along the top of the entrances on the second floor, with a central doorway featuring a tri-foil blind archway above, a front parapet gable with trim at the top, and rectangular windows in arched openings flanking the central door. On the first floor, there are several arched doorways separated by pilasters featuring harp motifs, filled with modern glass storefronts, and with large brick corbels above supporting the balcony above, flanked by two square towers that rise to the third floor with arched openings, brick and stone faux balconies, and tall pyramid roofs. On the outside of the towers are two identical facades with two doorways at the base, a balcony at either end of the second floor, flanking a protruding central bay with faux balcony below the central double windows, decorative limestone lintels and contrasting black brick, arched windows on either side of the third floor with three windows in the center with corbeling at the roofline and a front gable with a tripartite arched window and a decorative gable parapet. Linking the central section to the two wings are small, narrow, and short bays with triple windows, decorative brickwork and limestone trim, and arched carriageway openings that have since been gated off and closed off in the rear. The two wings feature similar facades with the main difference being the rooflines, and both have a central protruding section flanked by two recessed sections, with the symmetrical recessed sections having double windows on the first and second floors with arched recessed panels above, faux balconies on the second floor, three arched windows on the third floor, and corbeling below the roofline. The central section of both wings feature a central bay with an entrance at the base, with an arched window above, flanked by square doorway openings and window openings with decorative recessed arched brick panels, a central balcony and double window with a gothic arched recessed panel above on the second floor flanked by window bays with arched limestone panels, and arched windows on the third floor, flanking a central bay without windows, with decorative corbeling towards the roofline, and a front gable with a half-rose window. The sides of the wings continue the decorative elements from the front facade, with the southern wing having less decoration and a shallower decorative front roofline owing to its original context. The north wing continues the facade around, replicating the wing’s front facade. To the rear, the building features a simpler facade with arched window openings, corbeling at the roofline, a parapet with decorative recessed panels, gothic arches at the rear entrances and rear windows of the auditorium, and a faux balcony at the rear of the auditorium. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970, and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1974. The building is also a contributing structure in the Over-the-Rhine Historic District, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983. The building underwent a substantial renovation in 2016-2017, updating building systems, restoring the facade, and opening up many previously infilled window openings. The building houses Springer Auditorium, the main performance hall with over 2,000 seats, the Music Hall Ballroom, with a seating capacity of up to 1,300, the Corbett Tower, or Dexter Hall, once a Conservatory of Music performance space and later a radio and TV broadcast studio that now serves as an event venue, the Wilks Studio, a multi-purpose space that can host rehearsals and special events, offices for various organizations that call the building home, and a restored front lobby. The building today serves as the primary venue for the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, the Cincinnati Ballet, The Cincinnati Opera, and the May Festival Chorus.