A 195-foot stainless steel floating concert hall and gallery space created by modernist architect Louis Kahn may be making the voyage to Kingston.
A column published today on the Chicago Tribune website quotes Mayor Steve Noble expressing an interest in acquiring Point Countpoint II.
“We think this could be a great opportunity, one more reason why people would come to Kingston,” said Noble, in the column, which reports that Kingston “officials and activists” plan to meet with the boat’s owner Aug. 4. The asking price is $2 million for sale and transport from Illinois.
Where would the city get $2 million for a floating concert hall? Grants and rich investors/benefactors are suggested.
Point Counterpoint II was built in 1976 and serves as the home of the American Wind Symphony Orchestra, an ensemble composed exclusively of wind instruments. It’s usually docked in Pittsburgh, but has traveled throughout America and around the world.
After Robert Boudreau, the boat’s owner and the orchestra’s conductor, said it may be scrapped if a buyer weren’t found by the end of the summer 2017 concert season, cellist Yo Yo Ma wrote a letter to the New York Review of Books to drum up support for preservation.
“At a time when our national conversation is so often focused on division, we can ill afford to condemn to the scrap heap such a vibrant ambassador for our national unity, so I humbly ask that your readers join Robert and me in finding a new home for Point Counterpoint II,” wrote Ma.