With the approval from the Department of Planning and Zoning, Columbia, MD’s much heralded venue, Merriweather Post Pavilion, will receive a face lift with the heightening of its roof as part of renovations that will take place over the next 10 years. In addition, there are plans to add new concessions, a two-story warehouse behind the stage for dressing rooms, updated LED screens, and an elevated stage to the already completed and redesigned west entrance, new box office, concession stands, merchandise area and restrooms.

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Project architect Jamie Pett shared his vision with the community on Tuesday, noting that as it stands now, the roof rises 33 feet tall, but with renovations, owners of MPP, the Howard Hughes Corporation, plan to extend it another 20 feet. Pett says, “The height of that may sound daunting at first, but the height of the roof is well within the vertical elevation of the hillside and below treetops.”

Not surprisingly, the developments have been met with some skepticism from the local community. The Baltimore Sun explains how Wild Lake resident Carol Galbraith remains uneasy about the renovations. She says, “Based on past performance and unresponsiveness during the summer to complaints about noise, I’m deeply distrustful of Merriweather and its owner, Howard Hughes. Just glancing at the new projected roof; I’m not an acoustical engineer, but [the sound level] is so bad the way the roof is now, raising it higher is going to, from what I can see, only make it worse. It’s designed to shoot the sound out to more people [who live] up there.”

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Pett and the Hughes organization are doing their best to ensure that all of the communities’ unrest is addressed and put at ease, because let’s face it, who doesn’t want a better view of the stage at MPP? 

[Via Baltimore Sun]