What's all this about a new shell?

Here is a picture of the new "full" shell at Chenery Auditorium, where I work. Its installation was accepted as complete on Wednesday, April 9. We invited the WMU orchestra in to test the sound. We also tested it with the Kalamazoo Singers, a 40-voice adult choir, in the "intermediate"--or two-thirds--setup, and had a violin soloist, a cello soloist, and a piano soloist also try out the "short" shell.
What's the big deal? What's the difference? Well, the bigest difference is in the sound, but even the look is impressive. The picture on the left is the old "full" shell (meaning full stage size). On the right is the new shell set up in the modified "short" shell, which has been chosen as the appropriate setup for a solo piano.

The biggest difference you can see is the height of the new one--it is nine feet taller than the old one, and really makes the stage feel more like part of the room than the shorter one does. What you can't see from the pictures is that the new shell is about three time the weight of the old one, with walls 2-1/2 inches thick, compared to the old one with walls just 1/4 inch thick. The back wall of the new shell weighs over 9,000 pounds, compared to 2,800 pounds of the old one.

The weight and density provide noticeably greater reflection of sound over the entire spectum, but especially of the bass range. The fewer, wider curves of the new walls and ceiling also reduce multiple reflections, and therefore make the sound crisper and more intelligible.

Tomorrow (4/12) will be the first public perfomance in the new shell, being debuted by the Kalamazoo Concert Band.

Isn't this just so exciting?