The Building

The Master Plan. The first phase of the building history of Megaron the Athens Concert Hall begins with the preliminary design of a Centre fof Music, which is prepared by the Doxiadis-Skepers-Vassiliadis team. The Friends of Music Association also contacted the German architect Walter Gropius through his Greek partner, architect Pericles Sakellariou. Gropius was in charge of the plans for the American Embassy, then under construction, and contact is deemed necessary in order to get a general idea of the architectural style of the building adjacent to Megaron.

Emmanuel Vourekas and his associates deliver the construction design of the building. The civil engineers are B. Abakumkin and P. Abouselam, while the electrical design is completed by A. Angelidis.

Construction. Megaron the Athens Concert Hall is gradually changing the appearance of Vasilissis Sofias Avenue, while the progress of the project is being followed by all Athenians. Despite funding issues, the construction is progressing thanks to the perseverance and work under the tireless involvement and supervision of Christos D. Lambrakis. It is worth noting that the external lighting of the building was donated by the French Government.

The construction of the Great Hall begins in 1981. In 1986, the German architect Helmut Müller visits Athens to carry out the final acoustic study. He proposes a number of changes to improve the acoustics that are accepted. The most important of which are the modifications to the great hall (limiting the width of the hall with side boxes and the width of the stage with movable screens). The wood panelling is made in Germany by Schildknecht Innenausbau GmbH, a company specialising in classical music concert halls, and comes in prefabricated pieces to be installed in the Friends of Music Hall.

The second part of Megaron the Athens Concert Hall, the Conference Centre, was funded by the Greek state to meet the country’s needs for large conference facilities of international standards, and was inaugurated in 2004. Part of the Conference Centre is the Alexandra Trianti Hall, one of the largest Opera Halls in Europe.

The depth of the understage that accommodates the stage mechanisms is 40 meters while the height of the stage tower is 27 meters. The hall has the capacity for staging very large stage productions.