The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame triangular extension, its largest construction project since its 1991 groundbreaking, will be opening to the public November 22.
At a final price tag of $135 million, the grass-topped building, set the west of the original pyramid, will function as the Rock Hall’s more public-facing community space, mostly free to enter for guests.
Passing a lakeside garden to the west, visitors will enter a new entrance and be met with a panoramic view of Lake Erie and the coastline, with an entire floor of giant steps to entice those to stop and ogle.
“It’s a wow statement,” Rock Hall CEO Greg Harris told Scene on a recent tour. “You come in, see the lake and feel that music is playing. This place is alive.”
The opening later this months comes a little more than three years after Harris and a panel of city and county leaders spelled out the Rock Hall’s aspirations in October 2023. Many present that day detailed the new building’s free-of-charge, public-facing purpose just as they highlighted its aesthetics. Tim Offermant, a project manager, called it a “breathtaking entrance worthy of rock and roll.”
A public building with the coffers to prove it: 95 percent of the cash raised for the groundbreaking hailed from local donors.
But things have changed on the lakefront since 2023. The Browns are bound for Brook Park, leaving a shell on the North Coast. The Port of Cleveland commenced a nine-figure renovation. And lakefront czar Scott Skinner and his North Coast Waterfront Development Corporation released yet another batch of plans just as they line up to tear down OH-2 and build a new landbridge.
Yet, as of today, the Rock Hall still seems like its carrying the brightest torch as far as lakefront expansion goes. Along with the Nov. 22 opening, it purchased Harbor Verandas nearby in July.
In other words, bigger equals better. Exhibition space almost doubles. As did areas for cafés and food pop-ups. And Baker Hall, the two-floor, cone-shaped events space and concert venue, can hold up to 850—almost three times as before.
And, Harris gloated, with much more thought to acoustics and sound design. Especially in the era of Cosm and Vegas’ Sphere.
“We want any artist that plays this to think this is the greatest room they’ve ever played in,” he said.
On a recent tour, the expansion seemed big enough to host a rally or orchestral set, yet oblong and awkward in some spaces to confuse one’s whereabouts, as if M.C. Escher had his way with steel, concrete, glass and wood.
But Harris argued that’s part of the point: to create an off-kilter environment that matches what I.M. Pei’s original design accomplished three decades ago. As rock and roll did to America seven decades ago.
“It compliment Pei’s design, yet it isn’t entirely subservient to it; it has it’s own identity,” Harris said. “You could have done an extension that looked just like Pei’s.”
Harris grinned as he looked down the steps, out to Lake Eire. “But that would’ve been boring, I think,” he said.
