I've been a subscriber of the Bravo series for...what...six years now, I feel like I own my seat (GG-8). The performances do get better each year and Seattle Symphony, for a novice listener like myself, straddles the fence between delivering chestnuts and taking the audiences to more experimental places (I tend to like those better).

However, I will say, the biggest problem for them is not the music, but their building. I know its one of Seattle's monumental New Urbist structures, but it's location and design are atrocious. I would like nothing better than to take transit from here in Kent to downtown, have an afternoon there and return, safely...but 3rd Avenue has become a horrible haven for derelicts. LINK is nice, but sometimes it gets dicey towards the end (I park my car at Tukwila).

But there are other problems. The hall is just supremely...uncomfortable. Especially the foyer and dining areas. It's like there just wasn't enough space so it ends up feeling like being stuck in a slot canyon...too tall and not at all wide. The seats around the edge are few and far between and uncomfortable when waiting. There isn't enough table space in the dining area where I like to come earlier and get the dinner special at Wolfgang's.

One other thing -- and call me paranoid -- but lots of times I have trouble keeping my eyes open during the first part of the performance. I initially thought it was tiredness from work, or perhaps my inability to appreciate fine art -- but then I thought...mmm, underground parking lot. Any chance some of that carbon monoxide is wafting up.

Really, I think we need a new symphony building...something perhaps more regional than Seattle-centric. Something that recognizes the 21st century (malls, parking lots, all that stuff). There is no reason why this, like the sports stadiums, should be designed to handle and accommodate access to all 3 million people in Western Washington...and be fully equipped and up to date.

Let's put the 80s behind us...and recognize that some of us want to be entertained...but prefer to get there easily by car, from a highway, and have all the amenities, free from oxycontin dealers on the street.

You didn't mention the biggest problem: The harsh sound. This tends to be a problem in just about all of the newer concert halls built according to modernist design fads. They think they can position a bunch of angular baffles behind the orchestra to correct the errors, but it doesn't work.

But I can say this much: If they ever move the symphony building out of Seattle, that'll be the end of it for me, and I suspect for a great many of their subscribers, especially now that the "eco" warriors have decided they'll make it harder and harder to get out of the city and back in any reasonable amount of time.

And we just know that if they built a new one, it'd be just as modernist, if not more so, and even harsher when it came to the sound, no matter how much high-tech they stick in there. (Maybe they figure the harsh sound will go well with all the modernist dreck they feel they have to play?) The really ironic thing is that all anyone really needs to do is take a picture of the inside of Carnegie Hall and build a duplicate. But that wouldn't cut it, naturally.

Interesting comments on Benaroya Hall. Acoustically, its great merit is its extreme quiet, a kind of "velvet silence," achieved by all the insulation necessary to avoid sound from the railroad tunnel beneath it. It was tuned, to my ears, to reflect the bright, brassy, and forward sound favored by Gerard Schwarz, who oversaw the design and picked the acoustician. It has unusually shallow balconies, to aid the acoustics and avoid overhangs, but this makes the hall very long. Meanwhile, the best place for hearing is in the balconies, as is true of almost all halls, including Meany Hall.

I agree with the comment about the awkwardness of the long gallery along Third Avenue, where patrons squeeze past a cafeteria-like setting, gazing out at all the bus passengers on the sidewalk. Many new halls have lots of differently-sized spaces for dining and other functions, which give a more intimate feel. One hopes the impressive new regime at the SSO will pays some attention to warming up the spaces in the Hall.