Sidney Myer Music Bowl

A loved icon turns 50!

Melbourne’s much loved open air concert venue, the Sidney Myer Music Bowl, celebrated its 50th anniversary in February 2009.

It has been the place for music lovers and fans of the arts to gather and enjoy the ‘free music for the people’ concerts established by Sidney Myer in 1929. Sidney had a passion for the “free flowing spirit of music in the outdoors” and was inspired, after a trip to the US and seeing the famous Hollywood Bowl, to create a world class outdoor concert venue for Melbourne. Sadly Sidney never lived to see his vision realised but his wife Dame Merlyn Myer, along with his nephew Norman Myer, instigated the construction of an impressive open-air venue in her late husband’s memory in 1958.

The design overcame the problem of deflecting the noise from nearby traffic with the canopy clad with plywood and lined both sides with sheets of aluminium and excavating ‘the bowl’ to a depth of 35ft with mounds of excavated earth built up around it. The construction involved a mammoth engineering task with the excavation of 35,000 m3 of soil over 1.43 hectares and construction of a web of steel cables suspended from two huge 70 foot steel poles. A giant network of scaffolding was temporarily erected to fix in place the main cable support for the canopy. Cable riggers dangled from the web of prestressed steel cables. On nearing completion, the canopy web was “plucked and played” to check the cables were correctly tensioned. The £200,000 project designed by Australian architect Barry Patten, and young 30 year old engineer Roy Johnston (Irwinconsult), resulted in a world standard amphitheatre nestled into the surrounding parkland. Roy Johnston personally checked the tension of the cable bolts by climbing like Spiderman over the metal web.

Many new techniques were pioneered throughout the construction to ensure it was aerodynamically stable but remained flexible and watertight. Ground anchors had to be developed that were corrosion resistant. The shape of the shell was important to be acoustically correct; it is said that Patten sought inspiration for the shape by cutting a section through Louis Armstrong’s trumpet.

The official opening was made by Prime Minister Robert Menzies on February 12th 1959 to an audience of 30,000 people. Soon after evangelist Billy Graham drew a crowd of over 70,000. The Bowl has seen many popular performances including a Royal Performance (1963), Billy Thorpe & the Aztecs (1970), ABBA (1977), Bob Dylan (1978), Michael Jackson (1996) and Carols by Candlelight performances every year from 1959. But no bigger crowd than over 200,000 people in 1967, which was a 10th of Melbourne’s population at the time, who came to see The Seekers.

After 40 years, in 2000, the Bowl needed renovation and rejuvenation to meet international standards. Melbourne architect, Gregory Burgess, incorporated a new balcony, technical infrastructure and canopy repairs while still maintaining the charm and aura of the original venue.

Registered on the Victorian Heritage list for its significant cultural, engineering experimentation and architectural importance to Victoria, 2009 marks the 50th Anniversary of the newly renovated Sidney Myer Music Bowl. It has not been surpassed in scale or complexity as a tensile structural system since its construction and is important for its contribution to the development of engineering and construction techniques. With its 30,000 seat capacity and improved visibility, this unique venue is sure to provide inspiration and pleasure to all Melbournians for the next 50 years.

Irwinconsult is proud to be associated with this important Melbourne landmark as one of our early projects. For further reading please visit:

www.irwinconsult.com.au 

www.theartscentre.com.au/bowl50/ 

http://www.heritage.vic.gov.au