Walt Disney Concert Hall, Concert hall in Downtown Los Angeles, United States
The Walt Disney Concert Hall is a concert hall in downtown Los Angeles distinguished by its curved stainless steel panels forming a sculpted structure. This organic architecture by Frank Gehry plays with light and creates volumes that extend around the main hall and the adjoining spaces of the complex.
Lillian Disney gave $50 million in 1987 for a hall honouring Walt Disney's devotion to the arts. Frank Gehry delivered designs in 1991; the underground garage was built 1992–1996, but fundraising stalled the hall from 1994 to 1996, and the planned stone exterior became a stainless steel skin. Groundbreaking came in December 1999 and the hall opened on October 23, 2003, the fourth venue of the Los Angeles Music Center.
The hall is home to the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Los Angeles Master Chorale. Its name honours Walt Disney through a gift from his widow Lillian, and the opening ceremony on 23 October 2003 featured a work commissioned from the American composer John Adams, The Dharma at Big Sur.
The concert hall holds 2265 seats arranged across multiple levels, with a central organ featuring 6134 pipes visible behind the main stage area. The seating layout allows visitors to experience performances from different heights and perspectives.
Gehry's design was built with CATIA, software normally used for French fighter jets, and the box columns on the north side lean forward at seventeen degrees. The angular forms were meant to symbolize musical movement and the motion of Los Angeles.
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