Fresh Funding for Long Center

Austin took a big leap forward earlier this week in its goal to become a major performing arts powerhouse before the next decade. The ambitious Long Center - which when completed in 2008 will consolidate the Austin Symphony Orchestra, Ballet Austin, and Austin Lyric Opera as well as serve as an exhibition space for hundreds of local artists and organizations - received $500,000 from the Dallas-based Meadows Foundation. This brings the total level of donations to over $61 million, ever closer to its goal of raising $77 million.

The new Long Center will occupy the current Palmer Auditorium site, near the shores of Town Lake. The proposed designs call for removing Palmer's massive domed roof and much of its interior infrastructure. In their place will be an enormous open-air terrace with panoramic views of the downtown skyline and the various venues attached at the periphery - much like Lincoln Center in Manhattan. Personally, we think the Palmer dome is rather beautiful - it reminds us of the CGI buildings you see in Star Wars - but the computer sketches of the new design make it pretty clear that the new Long Center will be a stunning world-class performance hub.