sports halls. Háskólabíó, ISO's venue from 1961, was designed and intended as a movie theatre and no measures were taken during its construction towards making it a locale for classical concerts. Conductors and musicians who performed in Háskólabíó remained unsatisfied with the building's acoustics from the beginning, even if some improvements were made, e.g. by installing large panels on the walls of the theatre's main hall. During the 1980s, public enthusiasm for building a proper music hall increased considerably. The initiative came from entrepreneurs and academics no less than from musicians. On 15 May 1983, an article by building contractor Ármann Örn Ármannsson appeared in Morgunblaðið, deploring the lack of a venue for symphony concerts in Iceland. Ármannsson proposed the establishment of an organization of those interested in paving the way for a concert hall. Three weeks later, on 4 June 1983, an inaugural meeting of the advised organization took place in Háskólabíó. The organization was simply entitled Association towards building a concert hall (Samtök um byggingu tónlistarhúss; SBT) and was prominent on the cultural scene during the next years. Two years later, the SBT was allocated a building site in Laugardalur, east of Reykjavík's city centre, where the anticipated concert hall was supposed to rise. An architectural competition was held in 1986 in which a first prize was given to architect Guðmundur Jónsson who completed his blueprints in 1988. At the award ceremony in 1986, hopes were expressed that the concert hall should become ready for use in 1990. Discussions of the future concert hall were supplemented with a subordinate debate on whether the building should be fit for opera staging as well as symphony concerts. The ISO had been the main point of reference for the concert hall from the start but opera lovers wanted their share as well. A number of international artists gave SBT financial support in its efforts to build a concert hall in Iceland. On 26 February 1985, The Philharmonia Orchestra played in a benefit concert, conducted by Vladimir Ashkenazy, in Royal Festival Hall in London and donated all the income to SBT. According to organizers, the concert raised $1,260. Classical pianist Martin Berofsky, who lived in Iceland from 1982 to 1987, held a series of recitals in the US, donating the profits to the project of building a concert hall in Iceland. Berofsky's first recital in the cycle took place in Harvard on