Capitol Building. Statuary Hall.

I remmber when I was young touring Washington DC, and there was a place, I don't really remember what hall it was in, but there was one tile on the floor of a different color from the rest (the room had a lot of statues and busts all around) . If you stood on this tile, every single whisper could be heard by everyone who stood nearby, but off of that tile shouting was almost of no effect. The entire hall had been designed to focus the sound from that one place to everyone in that place. Blew my mind that day 20+ years ago.

 

 It's the National Statuary Hall[1] in the Capitol building.

 As a resident of Kansas City, I'd be remiss if I didn't throw in a plug for the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts[1] . Absolutely gorgeous construction with awesome acoustics.Yeah, a lot of theatres built in the last twenty years have really gotten it right. I'm a resident of Toronto and the Four Seasons Centre is a fantastic space, purpose built for the Canadian Opera Company. Blows the pants off the Cold-War-Era Hummingbird Centre (now Sony Centre) they used to have to perform in. The problem is a lot of these spaces were built in the utilitarian 60's and 70's.