Frank Gehry slots next piece into LA’s cultural quarter

The Colburn School, across the road from Walt Disney Hall, has broken silence on a ‘transformational 100,000-square-foot expansion designed by Frank Gehry.’

The new building, known as the Colburn Center, will be located adjacent to Colburn’s Grand Avenue campus in Downtown Los Angeles, and will dramatically increase the school’s training and performance facilities for music and dance. It will also provide performance space in a mid-sized hall for the region’s established and emerging arts organizations. Site work is scheduled to begin in the coming weeks and a groundbreaking ceremony will take place on April 5, 2024. The Colburn Center is expected to reach substantial completion in Q1 of 2027.

The expansion will create the largest concentration of Gehry-designed buildings in the world. It will be located next to two other buildings by the renowned architect: Walt Disney Concert Hall, which celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2023, and The Grand by Gehry, a $1 billion mixed-use retail and residential development that opened in 2022.

“This is an exciting contribution to the cultural and civic life of Downtown Los Angeles. Colburn has shown a commitment to making education accessible to youth of all ages at their school,” said LA Mayor Karen Bass. “With projects like this and Colburn’s commitment, Grand Avenue will continue to grow into an energetic cultural district while also creating more opportunities to collaborate with renowned local and touring artists.”