Music Concourse, Open-air theatre and park in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, United States
Music Concourse is an oval open-air plaza in Golden Gate Park, excavated for the 1894 California Midwinter International Exposition and redesigned afterwards as a music venue. The M. H. de Young Memorial Museum and the California Academy of Sciences flank it, and the Spreckels Temple of Music, a bandshell, stands at one end. Three fountains line the centre, with a fourth at the top of a staircase beside the bowl.
The Spreckels Temple of Music, the plaza's focal bandshell, was built in 1899 as a gift from sugar magnate Claus Spreckels, a year before the Music Concourse was completed in 1900. The plaza itself had been excavated for the 1894 California Midwinter International Exposition and was then redesigned as a music venue. The bandshell was badly damaged in the 1906 and 1989 earthquakes and has been repeatedly renovated.
The bandshell has hosted Luciano Pavarotti and the Grateful Dead, and for decades it has been the stage for annual celebrations of the Polish Constitution of May 3, 1791. Statues of Beethoven, Verdi, Leonidas, Ulysses S. Grant and Junípero Serra stand among the pollarded London plane and Scotch elm trees.
An 800-car underground garage opened in 2005 beneath the concourse, serving the de Young Museum and the California Academy of Sciences. Several pedestrian tunnels lead from the surrounding areas directly into the bowl. The oval plaza is planted in a regular grid of pollarded London plane and Scotch elm.
The Music Concourse bowl and its surrounding statues were named a San Francisco Designated Landmark in December 2006. The plaza sits about 75 metres above sea level, and several pedestrian tunnels lead from surrounding areas directly into the bowl.
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