Chicago’s Fine Arts Building is a Romanesque treasure in the city’s famous Loop neighborhood, and within the building is an even more exquisite jewel: the 600-seat Studebaker Theater. Both have plenty of history—the Fine Arts Building, originally built as the Studebaker Company’s carriage assembly site in 1885, took on its current form and name in 1898, at which time the Studebaker Theater was also born. After a 1917 renovation, the venue underwent many incarnations over the last century as a touring production house, movie theater, television studio and more, but had mostly relied on its ground-stacked generic PA system. After so much time, it was all long due for a proper renovation and that finally happened this past year, with a multi-million-dollar update that also included a new L-Acoustics Kara II-based loudspeaker system, designed jointly by consultant Threshold Acoustics and integrator OSA Integrated Solutions...
