The Flint concert hall named for the man who brought Buick to town

Hanging in the lobby of the Whiting is a seven-foot golden sphere of 675 gold-plated steel rods — Harry Bertoia’s “Golden Sun,” made in 1968. People walk under it on the way to a Broadway tour or the Flint Symphony Orchestra without knowing it’s worth millions. It’s a fitting front door for a hall named after a man who made one very large bet pay off.

James H. Whiting helped start Flint Wagon Works in 1882, back when the city was the carriage capital. In 1903 he talked his partners into buying a struggling little outfit called the Buick Motor Car Company and hauling it up from Detroit to Flint, where Whiting ran it as president. He then hired a flashy local salesman, William C. Durant, to push Buicks — and Durant used that momentum to found General Motors. A good share of Flint’s twentieth century traces back to Whiting’s decision.

The auditorium that carries his name opened in October 1967 on the Cultural Center campus, the same green lawn that holds the planetarium, the art institute, and the library. It seats 2,043, and a thorough renovation in 1999 gave it the warm, gilded feel of an old European opera house. The Flint Symphony plays its season here; Flint Youth Theatre stages shows; touring musicals and dance companies pass through.

It’s the kind of room a mid-sized city builds when it’s flush and proud, and Flint built it during exactly that stretch. Sit in the balcony some night, look up at the gold sun in the lobby on your way out, and you’re standing in the gift of a wagon-maker who guessed right about cars.