$100M Rock & Roll Hall of Fame’s 50,000-foot expansion given go-ahead to ‘better serve the community’
The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame was given a resounding go-ahead Friday to move forward with its long-anticipated $100 million expansion project.
The institution was cleared to break ground on its 50,000-foot expansion plan later in 2023 after the Cleveland Planning Commission unanimously approved its schematic design plans.
The massive project aims to evolve the experience for Rock & Roll Hall of Fame visitors and provide the opportunity to amp up its connection to its Ohio homeland.
“We’re in our 28th year, we’ve had 14 million guests and we’ve had a $2 billion economic impact to the region,” said Rock Hall CEO Greg Harris at the start of the presentation to the commission.
“One of the reasons for being here today is because we want to expand the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame to better serve our community, to better grow our audiences, and to have a more positive effect on Cleveland.”
The massive project will roughly double the size of the original pyramid-shaped museum, completed in 1995 under architect I.M. Pei.
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The addition is set to include a new entry lobby and public space; an acoustically-designed and sub-divisible performance area, a classroom, and a 1,350-person event venue, while still emphasizing the museum’s classic archives, architects from PAU said.
Additionally, the shape of the revamped Rock & Roll Hall of Fame will serve its own purpose: each of the new triangle-shaped will point outward to the city of Cleveland, Lake Erie and the museum to metaphorically pull the forces together.
In that spirit, the addition will be clad in black steel and granite in an effort to represent Cleveland’s industrial past.
The addition also includes an ADA-compliant green space that allows visitors access to the lakefront.City Planning Commission/YouTube
The expansion will also include a “museum campus” alongside the neighboring Great Lakes Science Center, with public greenspace that allows visitors to enjoy the lakefront.
“As part of this project, we’re going to be investing a lot of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame resources into making the greenspace a far more user-friendly public park, for the whole community,” Harris said.
“It’s going to have a gentle 5% or less grade, so it’s ADA accessible from the lake up to the street, and it’s going to give the public a chance to really engage with the lakefront in a way they can’t do it at present.”
The project has been in the works since 2019 since architects proposed bringing the landmark into the 21st century.
The Who review – rock operas get an orchestral uplift in a show stuffed with classics
‘I want what you’re taking,” Pete Townshend quips, pointing to an enthusiastic fan. “Not again,” retorts Roger Daltrey, comedically rolling his eyes. After six decades of bickering, the two original members of the Who still have compelling onstage friction.
In a loosely buttoned white linen shirt, Daltrey paces stage right, twirling his microphone and winking at the crowd. Townshend keeps firmly to his own half. “The Who? More like who’s left,” the guitarist deadpans, before gesturing at a stage packed with strings, brass and two drum kits: “We replaced Keith Moon with 50 people, so you’re getting your money’s worth.”
The Who Hits Back! tour is built to be a crowd-pleaser, combining orchestral performances of the classic rock operas Tommy and Quadrophenia with a band-only section of pure hits. A majestic opening overture sweeps the Edinburgh crowd to their feet despite the evening’s heavy rain, but the first songs proper, including Tommy’s concise 1921, feel swamped by their expanded rearrangements. It takes Pinball Wizard to bring the energy back. The string section, with lead violinist Katie Jacoby, sounds victorious against Daltrey’s commanding, brassy voice, and Townshend’s iconic riff feels like a drone ringing through the Castle esplanade.
Spiky and electric … Daltrey (left) and Townshend. Photograph: Gary Calton/The Observer
Eminence Front locks into a strong groove, but other classics are set to cruise control: Who Are You is buoyed only by the crowd. By the middle of the show, however, the core band find a fresh edge, and a double-header of You Better You Bet and Substitute is spiky and electric. When the orchestra returns for Quadrophenia, it’s a much better match – instrumental The Rock seethes like a Bond theme.
Baba O’Riley, saved for last, is the musical equivalent of a fireworks display: Jacoby finds fresh heat in the outro’s well-loved solo, brandishing her violin at Townshend and dancing playfully with Daltrey. A delighted crowd air-guitars along with her.
The two Whos stay on stage for a softer finale. Tea & Theatre is a saccharine ballad about the band’s legacy, but it’s genuinely poignant when Daltrey sings Townshend’s lyrics directly to him: “We did it all, didn’t we?”
At the O2, London, on 12 July. Then touring.
Scientists Discover Mysterious Radioactive Rock on the Far Side of the Moon
Radioactive Moon Rock
Scientists have discovered a large, radioactive granite formation underneath the surface of the far side of the Moon — and according to a new paper, this unexpected rock formation might offer researchers some clues about our Moon's long history.
In the paper, which was published this week in the journal Nature, the researchers posit that the existence of the subsurface granite suggests that the less-studied far side of the Moon, which always faces away from the Earth, once housed one or several volcanoes, which erupted around 3.5 billion years ago early in the Moon's history.
"Any big body of granite that we find on Earth used to feed a big bunch of volcanoes," said study co-author Matthew Siegler, a Southern Methodist University professor and Planetary Science Institute researcher, in a statement.
Taken for Granite
Subsurface igneous rock deposits left behind by cooling volcanoes called batholiths "are much bigger than the volcanoes they feed on the surface," added Siegler. "For example, the Sierra Nevada mountains are a batholith, left from a volcanic chain in the western United States that existed long ago."
To determine the chemical makeup of the radioactive lunar deposit, the researchers used microwave frequencies to measure the compound's geothermal activity. They were able to deduce from the data that the deposit contained certain radioactive elements that could only be attributed to granite.
Still, the results were a bit of a surprise. Though the region of the Moon where the mystery rock was discovered — often referred to as the Compton-Belkovich "anomaly" — contains a known volcanic complex, granite has rarely been found on the Moon.
The newly-discovered hunk of granite, however, is pretty huge and measures over 30 miles in diameter.
"The surprising magnitude and geographic extent of this feature imply an Earth-like, evolved granitic system larger than believed possible on the Moon," the researchers wrote in the paper.
Story continues
Despite the fascinating new findings, scientists may be left with more questions than answers.
"If you don't have water it takes extreme situations to make granite," Siegler said. "So, here's this system with no water, and no plate tectonics — but you have granite. Was there water on the moon — at least in this one spot? Or was it just especially hot?"
More on the Moon: NASA Says There May Be Life on the Moon after All
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