Inauguration
Frank O. Gehry & Partners
Walt Disney Concert Hall
Los Angeles, California
“It is a serene, ennobling building that will give people in this city of private places a new sense of the pleasures of public space.”
Paul Goldberger
The Walt Disney Concert Hall opens on October 23rd with a concert by the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
Photo courtesy FOGA
Los Angeles 2003
Located on a historically and culturally prominent downtown site, the Walt Disney Concert Hall is to become the permanent home of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. The Concert Hall is situated on historic Bunker Hill at the intersection of First Street and Grand Avenue, adjacent to the existing Music Center of Los Angeles.
The project began as an invited design competition, during which many of the fundamental design tenets were established. These include an open and accessible main entrance, a sympathetic and inclusive attitude in the building's relationship to the Music Center's existing Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, a pedestrian scale frontage along Grand Avenue, a generous and open backstage area, and a large garden.
Photo courtesy FOGA
Los Angeles 2003
Photo courtesy FOGA
Los Angeles 2003
Photo courtesy FOGA
Los Angeles 2003
Photo courtesy FOGA
Los Angeles 2003
Many design elements have evolved since the competition, most notably the Hall's shape, the foyer size, and the consideration and subsequent elimination of a chamber hall and a 350-room hotel.
From Design start in 1987, to Construction start in 1999, to the Inauguration in 2003... it took sixteen years!
arcspace folllowed the process:
Photo: arcspace
Los Angeles 2002
Photo: arcspace
Los Angeles 2001
Photo: arcspace
Photo: arcspace
Photo: Whit Preston
Photo: Whit Preston
Photo: Whit Preston
Concert Hall Studies
Photo: arcspace
Los Angeles 2002
Sketch courtesy Frank Gehry
Sketch courtesy Frank Gehry
Read more in arcspace Frank Gehry catalog
Client: Walt Disney Concert Hall Committee
Area: 200,000 square feet
Schedule
Design start: 1987
Construction start:1999
Completed: 2003
Frank Gehry arcspace features
BOOKS
Symphony in Steel:
Walt Disney Concert Hall Documented
By Gary Leonard (Photographer)
Publisher: Angel City Press
Symphony:
Frank Gehry's Walt Disney Concert Hall
Frank Gehry (Introduction)
Deborah Borda (Preface)
Publisher: iPublish.com;
From the stainless steel curves of its striking exterior to the state-of-the-art acoustics of the hardwood-paneled main auditorium, Frank Gehry's Walt Disney Concert Hall, new home of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, will be one of the most acoustically sophisticated concert halls in the world. The hall is destined to be a new architectural landmark, generating as much excitement as Gehry's Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, which its design predates.
This book, which includes an introduction by Gehry, traces the history of the hall from its inception through the architect selection process, construction, and completion of the building, which is recorded in acclaimed architectural photographer Grant Mudford's stunning images. Esa-Pekka Salonen, music director for the Los Angeles Philharmonic, recounts his first impressions of Gehry and the models for the new building in an essay that also defines what makes a great orchestra and a great concert hall.
Author Bio: Deborah Borda is the managing director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Richard Koshalek is the president of Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, CA. One of his most recent books is At the End of the Century: One Hundred Years of Architecture. Dana Hutt is the director of architectural documentation and special projects at Art Center College of Design. Esa-Pekka Salonen is a composer and the music director for the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Carol McMichael Reese is an associate professor of architecture at Tulane University, New Orleans. Michael Webb's essays on architecture have appeared in books and magazines in the United States and in Europe. Grant Mudford is an internationally acclaimed architecture photographer.
Iron: Erecting the Walt Disney Concert Hall
By Gil Garcetti
Publisher: Balcony Press
“The Walt Disney Concert hall will be a feast for your eyes, ears, and spirits.”
Gil Garcetti
The graceful curves of Frank Gehry's Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles are familiar to anyone interested in contemporary architecture or the work of this great master. They are also famous, if not infamous, to the ironworkers faced with the challenge of building them. With a building skin stretched tight and tolerances shaved to a thousandth of an inch, there was simply no room for typical industry standards. A new breed of ironworker was required, one who relies on modern tools like lasers, yet whose muscular forms wielding hammers hundreds of feet above the ground testify still to the great unchanging tradition of their trade.
Photographer Gil Garcetti had unparalleled free access to the construction site. The personal relationships he developed with the workers over the course of many months and his admiration for their artistry are evident in these moving portraits. Garcetti's evocative images, reproduced in rich duotones, bring to life the romantic ideal of the heavy industry.
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October 20, 2003