Orion Amphitheater
May 2022
Just west of Downtown Huntsville, Alabama, a Robins & Morton team gave the performance of a lifetime while building the city’s newest entertainment venue – the Orion Amphitheater.
The classical exterior makes it look like a structure from a different time, reminiscent of a Roman Colosseum, but when concert goers enter the acoustically engineered, 8,000-seat basin, its technology and amenities are nothing short of state-of-the-art.
As its moniker – The Rocket City – suggests, Huntsville is a city on the rise. In 2021, census results revealed that it officially surpassed Birmingham as the largest city in Alabama. On the heels of that announcement, U.S. News and World Report named Huntsville the #1 Place to Live in America. While the years brought economic investments from the tech, aerospace, defense, automotive and hospitality industries, the city was missing a crucial community and gathering space.
Recognizing Huntsville’s proximity to the legendary Muscle Shoals Sound Studio and being only hours away from the country music epicenter of Nashville, Tennessee, The City and Huntsville Venue Group saw an opportunity to bring world-class entertainment to North Alabama.
With unwavering teamwork and a shared commitment to reach their planned opening, the project team of The City of Huntsville, Huntsville Venue Group, Robins & Morton, Matheny Goldmon Architects + Interiors and David M. Schwarz Architects, met their date. The Orion held a soft opening on May 7 with a concert by country music star Jake Owen and held its official grand opening on May 13 with a three-day music festival, featuring artists with ties to Alabama called The First Waltz. Only five days later, it completely sold out for the first time for Dave Matthews Band, proving the venue strikes a chord with music lovers.
Since then, the Orion has delivered a nonstop schedule of impressive headliners and the response from the artists and the community is enthusiastic. The Orion Amphitheater not only looks the part of a landmark but will be a key contributor to economic impact and tourism, earning its place in The Rocket City’s history.
About the Artist John Miller
John Miller’s focus is architecture–he draws and paints buildings and towns modeled on existing structures or conjured from his imagination. He layers colors on craft paper or canvas and continually traces over the lines of his structures to highlight their architectural accents. These many lines and overlapping colors give his environments a busy, lived-in sense that intrigue his devoted fans. His cityscapes are everywhere and nowhere, both familiar and mysterious. His work style can be often be glimpsed in his compositions which primarily consist of dense, concentrated activity but occasionally pause for more open, spacious moments of color.