Newark Symphony Hall facade
— a temple front holding a hundred years of music.
Not only on a wall.
Newark Symphony Hall facade, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
Each tile ships in a kraft box, tied with cream ribbon, with a handwritten note from the studio if you'd like to add one.
Three or five different vistas, hung together — a chapter of places you've been, or want to go.
“A Greek Revival temple front in terra cotta and brick, with six tall columns and a deep pediment that has stood on Broad Street since 1925. The hall opened as the Salaam Temple, then became the Mosque Theatre, then Symphony Hall. Sarah Vaughan sang here. Frank Sinatra played here. The acoustic in the main auditorium still carries voices the way the architects intended. The facade reads quietly across the street and lights up handsomely at dusk.
The place, in three passes.
Newark Symphony Hall opened in 1925 at 1020 Broad Street as the Salaam Temple, built by the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. The architects were Frank Grad and the Newark firm of Polhemus and Coffin, working in a monumental Greek Revival mode. The building was bought by the city of Newark in 1964, renamed Symphony Hall, and has since served as a major regional venue for symphony, opera, gospel, and popular music. It seats roughly 2,800 in the main hall, which makes it one of the largest legitimate theatres in New Jersey.
The facade carries six tall fluted columns set above a high stone base, framed by a deep entablature and pediment. The materials are terra cotta and warm brick, with stone trim at the cornice line. The Greek Revival vocabulary was unusual for a Shrine temple of this era, most of which leaned Moorish or Egyptian; Grad and his collaborators chose a classical front that looks more civic than fraternal. The result wears its age well and reads beautifully under late afternoon light.
Symphony Hall sits at 1020 Broad Street in central Newark, about a fifteen-minute walk south of Newark Penn Station, or one stop on the Newark Light Rail. The lobby is generally open only for ticketed performances. The facade itself is best viewed from the east side of Broad Street, where the columns and pediment read clearly. The hall has hosted everyone from the Newark Symphony Orchestra to Sarah Vaughan, who grew up in the city and played here through her career.
