L.A. FIELDTRIP - WALT DISNEY CONCERT HALL

Part two of our West Coast Taster trip:

FRANK GEHRY’S WALT DISNEY CONCERT HALL

Designed by architect Frank Gehry, Walt Disney Concert Hall was designed to be one of the most acoustically sophisticated concert halls in the world.

Its exterior is typically Gehry – supposedly based on Lilian Disney’s vision of it appearing like a wooden church with ivy growing over it (!) While most of the structure was matt stainless steel – the Founders Room and Children’s Amphitheater were designed with highly polished mirror-like panels. These areas had to be calmed down a bit, by lightly sanding the panels, as the glare from the sun was reflecting to cause hot spots on pavements and heating up neighbouring condos to cooking point.

The impact of the structure is, however, incredible – especially in the L.A. early morning sunlight which is when we visited it. The interior is also amazing with rich hardwood panelling, and wooden tree like structures in the foyer.

Other uses of materials are warm and ingenious such as metal fret cut lettering on felt walls and stencil lettering in render.

The only downside of the entire site is the Gehry designed carpet – it is truly horrible, mainly due to its unsophisticated colour palette. (You will notice we didn’t even take any photographs of it).

Well worth a visit though, and the audio tour is very imformative.

Walt Disney Concert Hall
111 South Grand Avenue
Los Angeles