Temple played host to some prominent speakers during the mid-20th century, notably Martin Luther King, Jr., President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Margaret Mead. Alistair Cooke and Edward R. Morrow delivered commencement addresses. But despite the building's storied past, the Baptist Temple went unoccupied for 30 years and fell into disrepair.
Seemingly headed toward destruction, the Temple was recently certified a Historical Building by the Philadelphia Historical Commission, and designated a Landmark by the American Institute of Architects. A major renovation was undertaken, and the Baptist Temple found new life as the Temple Performing Arts Centre, an art cultural centre for the University and community.
The main auditorium, Lew Klein Hall, is a challenging space that seats 1200. Approximately half of the seats are immediately left and right of the 40ft x 40ft stage, with additional seating in a gallery behind the choir loft. The hall is primarily designed for classical and popular music performance, but also hosts lectures and large scale projection.
As Curtis Kasefang of Chapel Hill, NC-based Theatre Consultants Collaborative, LLC observes, the hall's configuration with tightly stacked side balconies immediately adjacent to the stage, large expanses of glass and a very variable stage depth made designing a sound system that provided high-quality sound coverage to every seat a delicate undertaking.
Kasefang's system design centres around four clusters of nine Renkus-Heinz PN121 Series loudspeakers, each cluster configured for 360-degree coverage. Three of the clusters are spread across the front of the fixed stage area in a LCR configuration, with the fourth positioned at the front of the removable thrust stage extension. Eight PN82 cabinets provide delay coverage to underneath the left and right balconies, with two mobile pairs of PN212 subwoofers placed under the edge of the stage when needed.
"One of the main reasons why I like the Renkus-Heinz speakers, specifically the PN-series, is they blend very well from cabinet-to-cabinet in an array, with very minimal lobing," says Kasefang. "I can count on them to provide CD quality music sound." And Kasefang has props for the system contractor, AVI-SPL, as well: "They are marvelous contractors, very technically capable and very quality driven."
The facility opened with a performance by Patti Lupone, with a variety of classical music, lectures and popular performers planned for its first season, including events as diversified as The Chamber Orchestra Of Philadelphia, Hot 8 Brass Band and Loretta Lynn.
(Jim Evans)
