page_title: Wales Millennium Centre
section_title: Design and construction
hierarchical_section_title: Wales Millennium Centre / Phase 1 – Donald Gordon Theatre and Weston Studio Theatre / Design and construction
caption_attribution_description: English: Wales Millennium Centre under construction, Cardiff, Wales
context_page_description: Wales Millennium Centre is an arts centre located in the Cardiff Bay area of Cardiff, Wales. The site covers a total area of 4.7 acres. Phase 1 of the building was opened during the weekend of the 26–28 November 2004 and phase 2 opened on 22 January 2009 with an inaugural concert. The centre has hosted performances of opera, ballet, contemporary dance, theatre comedy, and musicals.
  The Wales Millennium Centre comprises one large theatre and two smaller halls with shops, bars and restaurants. It houses the national orchestra and opera, dance, theatre and literature companies, a total of eight arts organisations in residence.
  The main theatre, the Donald Gordon Theatre, has 1,897 seats, the BBC Hoddinott Hall 350 and the Weston Studio Theatre 250.
  In 2001 Lord Rowe-Beddoe was appointed chairman of Wales Millennium Centre, a company limited by guarantee. Board members include Sir Michael Checkland.
context_section_description: The WMC was designed by Jonathan Adams, of local practice Percy Thomas Architects (taken over by Capita Group in 2004), with Arup Acoustics providing the acoustic design and Arup as building engineer. His first concept drawings were made in early 1998, by 1999 his design was starting to look more like the building it is today.
  Construction began on 25 February 2002, the main contractor being Sir Robert McAlpine Ltd and Kelsey Roofing Industries Ltd being the roofing contractor. Carr and Angier were the theatre consultants. Other contractors included Stent (foundations), Swansea Institute of Higher Education, now part of University of Wales Trinity Saint David (glass), GH James Cyf (stonemasonry), Rimex (stainless steel), Alfred McAlpine (slate), Coed Cymru (wood), Ann Catrin Evans (door furniture), Amber Hiscott (etchings on glass walls).
  The architect's concept of the building was a building that expressed "Welshness" and was instantly recognisable. The building was designed to reflect the many different parts of Wales with local Welsh materials that dominate its history: slate, metal, wood and glass. All the materials used come from Wales; the WMC was built from 1,350 tonnes of Welsh slate, 300,000 concrete blocks, and a million metres of electric cable.
  Slate
  The exterior of the building is clad in multi-coloured slate collected from Welsh slate quarries. Narrow windows are built into the layers of slate to give the impression of rock; strata they depict the different stone layers in sea cliffs. The purple slate came from the Penrhyn Quarry, the blue from Cwt y Bugail Quarry, the green from the Nantlle Valley, the grey from Llechwedd quarry, and the black from the Corris Quarry.
  I always loved going to Ogmore and Southerndown. I thought the cliffs there looked like a building anyway. A building capable of withstanding the roughest weather for hundreds of years. The older they get, the better they look. I wondered if it would be possible to make a building which had the same qualities as these magnificent cliffs. To do that I needed a lot of stone. Normal stone for buildings has to be specially cut into blocks; it takes a long time to make and costs a fortune. But in north Wales the historic slate industry has left behind whole mountains of waste stone that no-one wants. This was stone cut from the mountainside for nearly two hundred years but which wasn't good enough to make roof slates. Over 90% was thrown away. But it was ideal for making walls like the one I had in mind... —architect Jonathan Adams
  Metal
  The WMC's main feature, the bronze coloured dome which covers the Donald Gordon Theatre, is clad in steel that was treated with copper oxide. It was designed to withstand the weather conditions on the Cardiff Bay waterfront and will look increasingly better with age. The architect, Jonathan Adams, decided not to use copper and aluminium as they would both change colour with age and weather conditions.
  We all know that steel making has been important to south Wales, just as slate making has changed the landscape of the north. We have to use a special type of steel that won't go rusty near to the salt-laden, maritime air of Cardiff Bay. This stainless steel will be made near to Pontypool. For the Wales Millennium Centre I thought it was important that the materials should have a "natural" texture, and that they should be instantly recognisable to anyone seeing them, even from a distance. For this reason I felt it was important that the steel of the shell should have the rough grain and the riveted pattern that we think of as more typical of old industrial structures, such as those that used to be commonplace around the landscape of the industrial south. —architect Jonathan Adams
  Wood
  Both inside and outside the building, including the main Donald Gordon Theatre, the balconies and the rear of the building, is dominated by bands of hardwood lining the walls.
  Like the exterior of the building, the principal internal spaces are designed to make the best use of natural materials in their natural state. The structure and d
caption: During construction of phase 1
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