reklam

Walt Disney Concert Hall
Saffet Kaya Bekiroglu

In Los Angeles, everybody is looking forward to get inside of the newest city landmark, which will soon be sharing the center stage of LA iconography with the Hollywood sign. On October 23rd, the long time expected Walt Disney Concert Hall will be opening its doors to the public with an inauguration gala.

The Walt Disney Concert Hall (WDCH) will be the permanent home of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, currently lead by Finn conductor Esa Pekka Salonen. Consisting of 105 full-time musicians, the LA Philharmonic has been a resident in The Dorothy Chandler Pavilion for the last 40 years. Also located in downtown LA, this remarkable building was designed as a multi-purpose performance theater, which was used for opera, musical theater, dance performance, and even Academy Awards ceremonies. However, the theater's acoustics compromised for symphonic music and the LA Philharmonic, frustrated, was in need of having a proper place to perform with their full capacity.

The idea of WDCH began in 1987, when Mrs. Lillian Disney -widow of Walt Disney- donated $50 million to The Los Angeles Philharmonic to build a new concert hall. Frank O. Gehry and Associates, with a big garden atrium scheme, won the architectural competition that took place during 1987-88. Following a ground breaking in 1992, construction started. Unfortunately, the bad economy of early 90s and fund raising problems, put the project on hold for a period of five-years. At some point nobody thought it would ever restart, at least till fund raising was reinitiated with the help of Lillian Disney's daughter, Diane Disney Miller. The success of Gehry's Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao together with the LA Phil's outstanding performances abroad, contributed to speed up the raise and finally construction restarted in 1997.

First estimated for $100M and scheduled to be finished in 1992, the WDCH has been completed for $274M, 15 years later. During these difficult years, the design has transformed, developed with different materials and evolved into its final form.

The WDCH sits on a typical rectangular city block, across from the Dorothy Chandler Theater and Arata Isozaki's Museum of Contemporary Arts. It resembles a flower with irregular petals just about to blossom: its central composition turns into a playful urban focus within LA's downtown grid.

Originally, the WDCH was envisioned in limestone by Gehry but later -due to client's preference of metal and budget restrictions- the exterior cladding changed to angle-hair stainless steel with brushed finish. Depending on the time of the day, the surface of the building captures light differently. This changing quality offers unpredictable effects, surprising the public with a different visual experience every time. As a unique piece, the Donor's room stands out with an exceptional surface because of its shiny, mirror reflective quality. Its twisted exterior surfaces produce an interactive effect; they capture, deform, and almost reinterpret the surrounding environment.

As the building steps upwards, the exterior surfaces form balconies for people to walk around. They provide the possibility to climb, get closer and touch the edge of the metal surfaces, while offering beautiful panoramic views of downtown LA. The balconies create a looping path around the building, which starts and ends at the Garden Plaza, located on the second level. This stone terraced garden, includes two small outdoor amphitheaters and a rose shape fountain in the memory of Lillian Disney, made from broken china of Delft (which she used to collect).

When entering the building, after coming up from the curvy entrance stairs, one has the impression of having slid through the metal skirts of the exterior. The main lobby greets you with 20 feet tall, tree trunk like columns, embedded with hidden light fixtures and air condition vents. Open to the public at all times, this lobby disperses along the street; at daytime, for instance, operatable glass panels fold up, literally expanding the space onto Grand Avenue. For some, this social environment works as a passage on the way to work. Others arrive here from the parking lot or from the street. People go to the café, ticket office, restaurant or gift store, or just to hang out, without necessarily attending any performance. This socially oriented setup gives the possibility to use the building as part of daily life, unlike other concert halls that only house high art and its audiences.

Inside the building hides a 2,265-seat vineyard format auditorium (where audiences surround central orchestra on 360 degrees). The central position of the stage and close proximity of the seats creates an intimate atmosphere, with no bad seats in the hall. Moreover, this voyeuristic layout naturally includes the audiences as part of the performance.

Behind the center stage sits a centrally positioned pipe organ, as a focal point within the grand space. It consists of 6,065 curved lumber and metal pipes, all fully functional music instruments.

The interior of the auditorium is cladded with honey (amber) color Douglas fir wood panels. Like a draping cloth, the wood ceiling floats 50 feet high above the orchestra. One could visualize the music in the rhythmically placed wood stripes and continuous flow of surfaces, which run into each other with harmonious encounters, and receive indirect daylight from hidden skylights.
Besides the beauty of its architecture, what makes a successful concert hall is its great acoustic quality. Following the suggestions of the Japanese acoustic consultant Yasuhisa Toyota (a collaborator of Gehry since the beginning of the project) the ceiling's wood strips were bent and assembled to achieve ideal sound. Indeed, while the hall was under construction, several musical tests were done to calibrate the twigs, angles and location of wood surfaces to further optimize acoustics. For external soundproofing, the hall is isolated with two layers of a plaster wall envelope. The full orchestra's first rehearsal confirmed the outstanding sound quality of the hall.

At a technical level, what makes Gehry's architecture unique is his way of combining a sensual, romantic design approach, with a highly developed technology for production. The use of CATIA software (French software developed for aerospace and car design industries) makes it possible for such unconventional designs to be produced and manufactured. Its advanced complex surface understanding, can numerically control material capabilities and help reduce construction costs.

To conclude, the architectural experience of the WDCH is an event by itself, which complements the music performance. Frank Gehry's humane, civic building is much more than a monument for the high arts; it's a place for everyone to enjoy and be part of it.