The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame’s $135 million expansion — the museum’s largest construction project since its 1991 groundbreaking — will open to the public on Sunday, Nov. 22, Cleveland Scene reported. The triangular, grass-topped extension sits west of the original I.M. Pei pyramid on Cleveland’s lakefront and is designed as the Rock Hall’s more public-facing community space, mostly free to enter, according to Cleveland Scene.
Visitors will pass a lakeside garden to reach a new entrance and a panoramic view of Lake Erie, with an entire floor of giant steps built for stopping and taking in the coastline, Cleveland Scene reported. “It’s a wow statement,” Rock Hall CEO Greg Harris told Cleveland Scene on a recent tour. “You come in, see the lake and feel that music is playing. This place is alive,” Harris told Cleveland Scene.
Cleveland Magazine, which also toured the project, reported that the expansion adds 50,000 square feet — growing the museum by about 40 percent — and includes the Haslam Atrium entryway, named after a $10 million donation from Browns owners Jimmy and Dee Haslam, and the Taylor Family Community Park outside. Exhibition space almost doubles, and areas for cafés and food pop-ups grow with it, Cleveland Scene reported…