“It’s easy to spot the splashier renovations to the Academy of Music from the past couple of decades—the meticulously restored ballroom, or the enormous crystal chandelier in the main auditorium,” writes Peter Dobrin in Wednesday’s (8/17) Philadelphia Inquirer. “Less obvious is some of the work being done this summer on the [1857] building…. The last of its 1960s-era HVAC units [have been] replaced. It may not have been visible from street level, but the parapet atop the building along the Broad Street side has been sliding into disrepair…. Masons have spent the past few weeks pulling it apart, replacing deteriorated bricks with about 200 newly molded ones, and repointing the 60-foot-long structure…. A new copper flashing will help keep water out…. The Philadelphia Orchestra, which owns the Academy, has been on a program more or less every summer since the mid-1990s to renovate the building… in consultation with the Kimmel Center, which manages it…. One of its great traditions [is] the Academy of Music Anniversary Concert and Ball … The next one is January 28, 2017.” The Philadelphia Orchestra performed at the Academy for decades before moving to the nearby Kimmel Center in 2001.
Posted August 19, 2016
