At Powell Hall, Ornamental Details are Carefully Recreated

By Eric Dundon

Part of what makes Powell Hall, home of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, an icon in St. Louis is the level of craftsmanship of the building’s architectural elements. From the picture-worthy chandeliers to the subtle fleur-de-lis features, the 1920s-era building stands out for its sumptuous and ornate details.

When the expanded and renovated building reopens as the Jack C. Taylor Music Center in September 2025, guests will recognize all those beloved ornamentations, plus new details created over the past year that match the historical design.

This is where Niehaus Building Services, a St. Louis-based firm that provides a variety of construction services, comes in. In addition to framing and drywalling portions of Powell Hall and the entire 64,000-square-foot expansion, Niehaus was tasked with creating a seamless blend between existing and new plaster details.

“This is a really exciting project to be a part of,” said Niehaus owner Jake Whittle. “We’ve been in the St. Louis area for five generations, founded in 1902. Our work dates back to the 1904 World’s Fair, so our company has been entrenched in the region.”

On a recent spring day, Powell Hall was abuzz with activity. On the auditorium floor’s rear wall, Niehaus crew members installed plaster “pillows”—custom acoustical panels that will help disperse the sound throughout the orchestra level. As a crew member affixed the pillows to the wall, others filed the plaster into elegant, rounded forms. Meanwhile in the Wightman Foyer, Niehaus craftspeople poured plaster molds in a temporary workshop set up for this skilled work on-site.

The renovation of Powell Hall maintains the historic aesthetic of the building. While the recently installed acoustic panels are new additions to the auditorium, Niehaus has also recreated decades-old details, including ornamental flowers and leaves on the underside of the balcony, intricate crown molding on the exterior of the auditorium’s back wall, and much more.

Matt Luebbers is the Niehaus on-site superintendent. He brings years of expertise to the Powell Hall project and a deep family history in the trade. Well before interior demolition began, Luebbers and other Niehaus leaders surveyed the site to capture the elements needed for preservation.

“We took pictures and saw the vision of what it was supposed to look like in the future. We had a good representation of what the symphony wanted,” Luebbers said.

To bring these historical elements to life, Whittle explained that Niehaus extracted samples of the existing plaster work. At a warehouse, craftsmen poured a rubber mold over those samples to cast an impression. Most of the detailed plaster work has taken place over the past several months. On the auditorium floor, where a new rear wall was added, Niehaus replicated dozens of leaf-like plaster details to fill ceiling space altered during the demolition phase. There’s no visible difference between the 2025 details and those decades older.

Powell Hall presented unique challenges for the crew as they strove to seamlessly add elements.

“The architectural features of this job are very complicated,” said Whittle. “It’s a very intricate building.”

Almost every feature had to be custom made because few of Powell Hall’s surfaces are plumb, including the curved auditorium walls.

“Doing that work in the field can be tricky,” Luebbers said. “It takes great skill and finesse to achieve the exact forms required.”

Much of that work takes place on-site at Powell Hall, where Lubbers said many of the techniques for creating the building’s elaborate decorative features have been in place for decades. For Niehaus, the project is also an opportunity to pass on a specialized skill not practiced as often today.

When the Jack C. Taylor Music Center opens in September 2025, visitors will get the opportunity to see the craftsmanship up close, appreciating the time and skill involved in preserving one of the most iconic pieces of architecture in the region.

For Luebbers, participating in Powell Hall’s expansion and renovation is a point of pride.

“It is a real blessing to be part of this project,” he said. “Driving by this great building, I’ll be able to tell my kids, ‘Dad had a lot to do with this one.’ It’s humbling.”

Eric Dundon is the SLSO’s Public Relations Director.