What began as a sketch on a napkin has become a real home for the arts in downtown Kansas City.

 After 16 years of preparation, the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts celebrated its grand opening Thursday, Sept. 16. Already on the schedule is a wide variety of productions from the center’s resident companies: Kansas City Ballet, Kansas City Symphony, and the Lyric Opera of Kansas City, as well as several others.

“[The venues at the Kauffman Center will be] as diverse as you can imagine,” Julia Kauffman, chairman of the board for the Kauffman Center said. “We felt Kansas City was right for [the center].”

This diversity will be aided by the two separate performance halls: the Muriel Kauffman Theatre and the Helzberg Hall.

The Muriel Kauffman Theatre houses a large stage for plays, operas, dance productions and more. The theatre is inspired by European opera houses, and can seat up to 1,800 people. The walls are covered with a colorful mural created by students from the Kansas City Art Institute and the balconies are lit to resemble candlelight.

On the other side of the center is the Helzberg Music Hall. The hall can seat 1,600 people, and, as the new home of the Kansas City Symphony, it boasts the capability of hosting a wide variety of music-based functions. Every aspect of the room was designed to create the perfect sound, even the floor, which is designed to vibrate like a drum.

“Everything is so important [for acoustics],” Yasuhisa Toyota, chief acoustician for the Kauffman Center said. “The material of the floor, the structure of the room, everything.”

Architect Moshe Safdie is satisfied with how the building has come together.

“When we started, [people on the east coast] said ‘Don’t try that in the Midwest,’” Safdie said in a press conference. “[I responded] ‘Don’t underestimate the Midwest.’ I know that, when given a challenge, people rise to the occasion. What we did here was really challenging, and we rose to the occasion.”

Vocal music teacher Sheree Stoppel had the opportunity to perform at the Kauffman Center on Sunday, Sept. 18 with the Kansas City Symphony Chorus.

“It is going to put Kansas City on the map as one of the top performing venues in the nation,” Stoppel said.

Overall, hopes are high for the future success of the Kauffman Center.

“We can see [performances] at home on a big screen with awesome sound, but it’s not the same [as actually seeing it],” said Safdie.

 Tickets for events can be ordered on the Kauffman Center at www.kauffmancenter.org.