[Desdemona]

Given the size of the building, I'd guess that an adequate instrument will set somebody back around $2.5-$3 million.

I got to thinking about this - with the radiant heat from the sun and no decent insulation, the thing would be out of tune all the time.

[ninenot]

Not necessarily. Remember that tuning a piped instrument is a matter of relativity. You tune A=440 at 80 degreesF and it is always so. It's temperature variation that kills tune.

I would also imagine that one would A/C the place to a fare-thee-well, at least mostly eliminating the warp from humidity.

On the point: last night's Handel show went well until the organ developed a cipher about 5 minutes before intermission.

The cipher was a result of the organ being exposed to the unusually humid air in Milwaukee the last few days. It's not quite hot enough to run the A/C, thus cooling is accomplished by "makeup air," which is brought from outside the building direct, with no de-humidification.

The organist gamely went on, simply dumping the Positiv manual work and using the Great--a VERY big difference in tonality/registration, and volume control.