Los Angeles builds a second Frank Gehry hall
NewsEvery visitor knows and loves Walt Disney Hall, a symphony of light and outstanding sound.
Now, right across the road, the Colburn School has asked Gehry to build a matching hall. The cost? A mere $350 million.
Mark Swed writes: It will not only serve an institution that looks after the music and dance education of students from infants to seniors but will also reach out to and offer a civic gathering place for a broad public.
The hall will stand behind the Grand — the spectacular, multipurpose complex across the street from Disney Hall that was also designed by Gehry and is set to open in May. Its potential is to become the linchpin for finally turning Grand Avenue into a thriving arts district of international importance.
Read on here.
The picture looks like the design had been wrapped-up by mistake and opened again, and then built – thinking it was meant that way.
I don’t know if inside the Disney hall there’s a little place like in the Concertgebouw and the Berlin Philarmonie for chamber music. I now that there’s also the Dorothy Chandler also famous for the Oscars. I think that it was the place of the LA Phil before.
Yes it was. However, most of the famous Mehta/L.A. Phil. recordings for Decca were made at U.C.L.A.’s Royce Hall. Now I believe Royce Hall is still closed due to earthquake damage, but I may be wrong about that. Disney is a huge improvement over the Dorothy Chandler.
I saw the LA Chamber Orchestra play in Royce Hall in 2019.
Also the Walt Disney Concert Hall is one the finest modern concert venues constructed. The sound is unmatched, as the acoustic engineer created his masterpiece in the Disney Concert Hall.
Sir. Royce Hall underwent earthquake retrofitting and quickly reopened it’s doors in 1998. That’s been well over 20 years ago.
Disney Hall is my favorite concert hall. This is an exciting project for Colburn, a wonderful institution that seems to fly a bit below the radar.
If LA wants to turn Grand Avenue into a “thriving arts district of international importance” they’d better do something about the homeless encampments, the mentally ill wandering around the area, the gang graffiti, and the generally dirty appearance of the place. Human excrement, public urination, open drug use…yeah, that’s downtown LA.
Welcome to most any downtown U.S.A. I’m not making excuses; it’s just ‘where we’re at’ at the moment. California is particularly bad because of the more conducive weather – you won’t freeze to death in winter.
That sounds like the whole society needs to change, poverty and homelessness to be targeted through more social compassion. Otherwise US metropolitain areas will remain these dirty unpleasant and unsafe places they are.
Have you actually been to the Grand Ave. area recently? Ever?
There are virtually no encampments on Grand Ave. Not around the Music Center’s 4 theatres (which includes Disney) and wonderful new plaza. Nor the Broad, MOCA or Colburn School. Not even in Grand Park. It is ALREADY a “thriving arts district of international importance”.
Actually, it’s his third:
https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2021-08-12/frank-gehry-designed-concert-hall-gustavo-dudamel-yola-inglewood
yes, the answer to gross urban inequality is to build more Eurocentric arts buildings, because what minorities need is to hear more symphonies, they’ll still work as your landscapers paid under the table, but at least they’ll be humming Mozart while mowing your lawn
It’s a Eurocentric civilization, deal with it.
Heaven forbid that the populated left coast should also have what the East coast, Midwest and Europe have had for many decades. Selfish us! Send us your frozen homeless, but don’t allow us to enjoy the same Western culture everyone else gets to enjoy. And, at least we have some lawns to give people some employment to take care of.
Eurocentric? You are hitting a straw man. Symphonic music is arguably ine of the greatest cultural achievements of all mankind. Reason why countries like Japan and now China worship it and build numerous “Eurocentric” temples of art.
waw: commentary by another young, guilt-ridden white liberal born with a silver spoon.
Coburn, a very fine school now, goes major.
James Coburn or Charles Coburn?
Easy Paul, it was Charles James Coburn . . . or was it James Charles Coburn?
Thank God for wealthy people who care about the arts in the US!
What a hideous mess.
FYI, that image is the first version of the addition. The cost had to be reduced, so the building will look way less flashy.
Indeed:
https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2022/03/17/frank-gehry-colburn-school-design-downtown-los-angeles
Is that the scaffolding or the actual facade in the picture?
In what ideal world do all these negative and frequent commentators live? Do let us who live near the Colburn School and Disney Hall know.