Walt Disney Concert Hall
Walk to the Blue Ribbon garden, which is the most beautiful part of the Concert Hall. Past the barge with billowing sails is a public park that doubles as an oasis for concertgoers. At the center of the garden is a rose fountain dedicated to Lillian Disney, who provided the initial donation for the Concert Hall. The fountain is constructed from broken pieces of Delft China, Lillian’s favorite. Gehry named the fountain, “A Rose for Lilly.”Gehry’s Walt Disney Concert Hall stands out as a truly unique architectural vision, demonstrating that something new and completely different is possible.While many people first became familiar with Gehry through his Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, his design for the Walt Disney Concert Hall actually predates the Bilbao commission. However, Gehry continued to redesign the Disney Concert Hall for more than a decade, while unexpected delays postponed construction.In architect Frank Gehry’s original design, Walt Disney Concert Hall was intended to be clad in stone. After receiving much acclaim for his titanium building in Bilbao, however, he was urged to change the stone to metal. With this new material Gehry was able to tweak the shape of the exterior, creating the iconic silver sails we see today.Gehry’s innovative forms were a new and unfamiliar challenge for contractors. Gehry ultimately found a solution equal to his design: he employed software used in the design and construction of French fighter jets. Called CATIA (computer-sided three-dimensional interactive application), this software translates Gehry’s organic forms, panel by panel, into buildable construction plans.To bring his bold new vision for the Walt Disney Concert Hall to life, architect Frank Gehry needed new tools. He turned to sophisticated computer software called CATIA (computer-aided three-dimensional interactive application), originally created to design French fighter jets. Watch the story.Such a bold exterior could give the impression that what’s inside is equally out of the box. But surprisingly, the concert hall itself, by Gehry’s own description, is just that: a highly functional box, wrapped in his now-trademark sail-like forms.That’s not to say that the interior is not an accomplishment in its own right. Gehry designed the auditorium to provide both impeccable acoustics and a sense of intimacy, wrapping the audience around the orchestra.From its striking outside to its intimate inside, Walt Disney Concert Hall is an architectural marvel that never loses sight of its main function - bringing music to the city of Los Angeles and beyond. Get to know the building that architect Frank Gehry designed "from the inside out."The first view of Walt Disney Concert Hall most people see is the curving stainless steel skin of the building’s exterior. Resembling silver sails, the curves echo the billows in the auditorium and play off the bowed cornice of the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, forging a link between new and old.Gehry’s team visualized the lobby as a transparent, light-filled “living room for the city,” opening onto the sidewalk. In contrast to the tightly enclosed foyer of the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, the lobby would have a separate identity and serve as a symbolic bridge between everyday life and the inner sanctum. Walt Disney Concert Hall was intended to be a center of civic activity, not just a destination for concertgoers.
Grand Park
The curved concrete lines represent the meridians of the earth. Architects John Fishback, Tony Paradowski and Jessa Chisari of Rios Clemente Hale Studios.A huge component of the park that some may not have noticed is that park is home to plants from all over the world and planted within with curved lines all throughout the park. These lines represent the meridians of the earth. Various floristic gardens feature plants that are living in Los Angeles but are also native to different regions all over the world. During the year these native plants come alive and go dormant. No matter what the season there is always something in bloom.The designers at Rios Clemente Hale also had many obstacles and restrictions when choosing what plants went where. Because two blocks of the park sit above a parking lot constructed in the 60s, engineers had to come in and determine just how many plants and soil the parking lot could support. Because of this Tony told me a little secret on just how they made it work. Many planter beds in many parts of the park sit in about four feet of soil, atop various depths of good old-fashioned polystyrene foam (Styrofoam) to decrease the weight put on the existing parking lot. This fascinated me. We are walking through this urban oasis that, come to find out, literally has so much depth to it.Though the designers spent years selecting what plants would work with these restrictions, nowhere in the park will you find a lack of foliage. Over the past year I have enjoyed exploring the different plants that make up the park. One of my favorite plants is the Evergreen Fountain Grass. Growing up in northern California, there was never a shortage of huge fields filled with this grass. One could gaze out and see acres and acres of grass. There is a different backdrop with this grass here in Los Angeles as shown below, but it meshes a little bit of my old home and my new home quite nicely!
Cathedral of our Lady (Los Angeles)
What historically took centuries to construct was accomplished in three years in the building of the 11-story Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels. This first Roman Catholic Cathedral to be erected in the western United States in 30 years began construction on May 1999 and was completed by the spring of 2002.Spanish architect, Professor José Rafael Moneo has designed a dynamic, contemporary Cathedral with virtually no right angles. This geometry contributes to the Cathedral's feeling of mystery and its aura of majesty.The Roman Catholic Church has never adopted one particular style of architecture. There has always been a appreciation for the creative spirit indigenous to the local community.Founded in 1781 by 44 Hispanic people from the San Gabriel Mission area, the City of Los Angeles began its history with a distinctive diversity of peoples, of cultures, and of languages. Although various sections of Los Angeles became populated with dominant ethnic groups, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Mexican, Armenian, African American, Filipino, and Polish, among others, the Church chose to keep virtually all of the parish communities territorial, rather than designated by ethnicity.The challenge in designing and building a new Cathedral Church was to make certain that it reflected the diversity of all people. Rather than duplicate traditional designs of the Middle Ages in Europe, the Cathedral is a new and vibrant expression of the 21st century Catholic peoples of Los Angeles.Just as many European Cathedrals are built near rivers, Moneo considered the Hollywood Freeway as Los Angeles' river of transportation, the connection of people to each other. The site is located between the Civic Center and the Cultural Center of the city."I wanted both a public space," said Moneo, "and something else, what it is that people seek when they go to church." To the architect, the logic of these two competing interests suggested, first of all, a series of "buffering, intermediating spaces" -- plazas, staircases, colonnades, and an unorthodox entry.Worshippers enter on the south side, rather than the center, of the Cathedral through a monumental set of bronze doors cast by sculptor Robert Graham. The doors are crowned by a completely contemporary statue of Our Lady of the Angels.A 50 foot concrete cross "lantern" adorns the front of the Cathedral. At night its glass- protected alabaster windows are illuminated and can be seen at a far distance.The 151 million pound Cathedral rests on 198 base isolators so that it will float up to 27 inches during a magnitude 8 point earthquake. The design is so geometrically complex that none of the concrete forms could vary by more than 1/16th of an inch.The Cathedral is built with architectural concrete in a color reminiscent of the sun-baked adobe walls of the California Missions and is designed to last 500 years.
Los Angeles City Hall
**View the observation deck** The 27th-floor Observation Deck is open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.Los Angeles City Hall, completed 1928, is the center of the government of the city of Los Angeles, California, and houses the mayor’s office and the meeting chambers and offices of the Los Angeles City Council. It is located in the Civic Center district of downtown Los Angeles in the city block bounded by Main, Temple, First, and Spring streets.The building was designed by John Parkinson, John C. Austin, and Albert C. Martin, Sr., and was completed in 1928. Dedication ceremonies were held on April 26, 1928. It has 32 floors and, at 454 feet (138 m) high, is the tallest base-isolated structure in the world, having undergone a seismic retrofit from 1998 to 2001 so that the building will sustain minimal damage and remain functional after a magnitude 8.2 earthquake. The concrete in its tower was made with sand from each of California’s 58 counties and water from its 21 historical missions. City Hall’s distinctive tower was based on the shape of the Mausoleum of Mausolus, and shows the influence of the Los Angeles Public Library, completed soon before the structure was started. An image of City Hall has been on Los Angeles Police Department badges since 1940.To keep the City’s architecture harmonious, prior to the late 1950s the Charter of the City of Los Angeles did not permit any portion of any building other than a purely decorative tower to be more than 150 ft (46 m). Therefore, from its completion in 1928 until 1964, the City Hall was the tallest building in Los Angeles, and shared the skyline with only a few structures having decorative towers, including the Richfield Tower and the Eastern Columbia Building.City Hall has an observation deck, free to the public and open Monday through Friday during business hours. The peak of the pyramid at the top of the building is an airplane beacon named in honor of Colonel Charles A. Lindbergh, cf Lindbergh Beacon. Circa 1939, there was an art gallery, in Room 351 on the third floor, that exhibited paintings by California artists.The building was designated a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument in 1976.
LA Times Building
After 137 years, the Los Angeles Times is moving from downtown Los Angeles to El Segundo. The move marks the end of an era for The Times and an opportunity to look back at its storied history. The development of Times Mirror Square, located in the Civic Center next to City Hall, reflects the aspirations of a newspaper that played an essential role in the development of Los Angeles.Located at the intersection of First and Spring Streets, the Times Mirror Square complex consists of several structures built between 1935 and 1973. It contains more than 700,000 square feet of office space and includes the Los Angeles Times Building, a grand example of Art Deco and Moderne architecture, and a 1970s addition by modernist William L. Pereira. Local master architect Gordon B. Kaufmann designed the Los Angeles Times Building, which opened in 1935. The building features powerful vertical ribs, which impart a sense of monumentality as they lead the viewer’s eye up to the iconic letters etched onto the side of the building: “The Times.” Kaufmann’s design for the building won a gold medal at the 1937 Paris Exposition.Robert Merrell Gage designed limestone sculptures for the First Street elevation, which represent stylized newspaper motifs.The highlight of the interior of the 1935 building is the glittering Globe Lobby, famous for its aluminum globe, 5 ½ feet in diameter, set atop a bronze pedestal. Ten-foot high murals by artist Hugo Ballin adorn the walls of the lobby, depicting scenes from L.A. history and the newspaper industry. Ballin is also known for painting the rotunda at the Griffith Observatory.The Times Building’s monumentality, as well as its proximity to City Hall, demonstrated the newspaper's relationship to politics and civic power during the 1930s.In 1948, Rowland H. Crawford designed a ten-story auxiliary structure, also in the Moderne style to complement Kaufmann's building.In 1973, William L. Pereira designed an immense six-story glass and steel structure on the northwest corner of the complex, which would become the new corporate headquarters of the Times Mirror Company. Though distinct from the earlier Art Deco buildings, Pereira’s International-Style wing recapitulates the geometric order and monumentality of the Kaufmann structure.
Historic Spring Street
The Los Angeles Stock Exchange Building began construction in 1929, just three days before ‘Black Thursday’ and the market collapse. The eleven-story Exchange building was designed by Samuel Lunden in the Moderne style of architecture. When the Los Angeles Stock Exchange opened its doors in 1931, the country was deep into the throws of the Great Depression. Transactions that inaugural day were valued at about $545,000 (approximately $7,650,000 in today’s money).THE FACADE— A limestone and gray granite front portion spans fifty-three-foot tall, while a reinforced concrete and terra cotta construction of eleven stories (the city’s height limit in 1929) stands in the back.OUTSIDE— above the building’s entrance three bas-relief panels are carved in the granite by Salvatore Cartaino Scarpitta. The panels portray elements of capitalism. The large central panel, “Finance”, displays executives from that industry. The “Production” panel shows an aircraft engine and steel workers pouring and stirring molten metal. The “Research and Discovery” panel shows oil derricks, factories, a chemist conducting an experiment, and a man kneeling in a library reading a book.INSIDE— The interior is wonderfully preserved, and has ancient Near East and Native Indian influences by the designer Julian Ellsworth Garnsey. On the entrance lobby’s ceiling the Wilson Studio created four sculpted figures representing: Speed (Mercury), Accuracy (the archer), Permanence (a figure contemplating the universe), and Equality (the figure bearing scales).The highlight of the interior was its massive 90′ x 74′ balconied trading floor with a forty-foot ceiling and sixty-four booths. On fifth floor was a clearing-house with a statistics department, an auditorium, and a lecture room. Offices occupied floors six through nine, and the top two floors included: a club with a library, a card room, a billiard room, and reading rooms. The basement held a 2,660-sq. ft. printing room and a vault.Los Angeles Stock Exchange and the San Francisco Stock Exchange merged in 1956, and became the Pacific Coast Stock Exchange, which remained in the building until 1986. The building largely remained unoccupied until it underwent a massive renovation into a nightclub in 2008. All construction was supervised under the strict building guidelines that protect Historic Cultural Landmarks, since the Pacific Coast Stock Exchange Building was designated as such in 1979.In the 1980s, the building was converted into a nightclub called the Stock Exchange. The Los Angeles Stock Exchange Building plays a key role in both the cultural and architectural history of the Spring Street financial district. After undergoing an extensive interior renovation, the building reopened in 2010 as ExchangeLA, a nightclub and event venue. The original exterior of the Stock Exchange Building remains intact, and the Conservancy holds an easement protecting its historic façade.
Broadway Theatre District (Los Angeles)
Broadway thrived for decades as the entertainment epicenter of Los Angeles. Massive department stores and magnificent movie palaces drew generations of Angelenos to the city center.Still a vibrant shopping street, the area is now a hub of adaptive reuse projects that have turned office buildings and department stores into housing, dining, retail, and nightlife destinations.The Roxie TheatreConstructed in 1931, the Art Deco-style Roxie Theatre was the final theatre built on Broadway Street. The Rialto Built in 1917Cameo TheatreBuilt in 1910, the Cameo (which was originally called Clune's Broadway) is the oldest remaining theatre on the street. The Los Angeles Theatre The Los Angeles Theatre was built on Broadway in 1931 during the Great Depression, and is known as the most opulent of all the theatres in the historic district. "The Great Depression did impact the neighborhood — the Los Angeles could not profitably fill its 2,000 seats and temporarily closed within months of opening — but by the late 1930s the region was rebounding, with war-time bringing in the biggest crowds." -Bruce Scottow The Palace Theatre The grand Palace Theatre was built in 1911, originally named the Orpheum (the newer Orpheum was built in 1926). This elegant theatre got a $1-million touch-up in 2011 to restore its beautiful design features.Million Dollar Theatre"'The massive Million Dollar opened in 1918 and its over-the-top design and décor earned it title as the city’s first 'movie palace.'" - Bruce Scottow Between the balcony and the main floor, there are 2,024 seats in this stately theatre. The Theatre at Ace Hotel Built in 1927, the Theatre at Ace Hotel was originally called United Artists. Today, the Theatre at Ace Hotel can host up to 1,600 guests for a variety of different performances and programs. The Orpheum TheatreBuilt in 1026, this became the new Orpheum Theatre as the former Orpheum became the Palace. The Orpheum has hosted performers like Judy Garland, Ella Fitzgerald, Aretha Franklin, and many more. "A Wurlitzer organ was installed a short time later and the Orpheum remains the only theatre on Broadway so equipped." - Bruce Scottow
Grand Central Market
Step inside and take a look around.Central Market takes up the ground floor and basement of two adjacent buildings, one which fronts on Broadway, and the other on Hill Street. The one facing Broadway was the first constructed, built in 1897 by Homer Laughlin, founder of the Homer Laughlin China Company. One of downtown’s oldest commercial structures in continuous use, this building was the city’s first fireproofed and steel-reinforced structure.In 1905 a second structure was built, extending the original building through to Hill Street. This building, known as Laughlin Annex/Lyon Building, was the work of Architect Harrison Albright and was the first reinforced concrete building erected in Southern California. The Ville de Paris Department Store, one of the city’s largest and finest, was a major tenant of the enlarged structure. The department store relocated to Seventh Street in 1917. The Grand Central Market opened in September 1917 and has been in continuous operation ever since.In the 1990s the market was renovated as part of the Grand Central Square project, and vintage neon signs marking each stall were restored and new ones were created. At the same time a tile façade added in the 1960s was removed to reveal the second story windows, and many of the building's original Beaux Arts details were restored.
Bradbury Building
At the southwest corner of Broadway and 3rd Street is the Bradbury Building, a reddish-brick, Renaissance-style structure built in 1893. The Bradbury Building is the oldest commercial building remaining in the central city and one of Los Angeles’ unique treasures.The Bradbury Building is an architectural icon of Los Angeles. Built-in 1893 for the gold-mining millionaire Lewis Bradbury, the landmark is best known for its gorgeous atrium with ornate ironwork. Not to mention the Belgian marble floors and tile, and detailed oak woodwork.Behind its modest, mildly Romanesque exterior lies a magical light-filled Victorian court that rises almost fifty feet with open cage elevators, marble stairs, and ornate iron railings. The identity of the building’s final architect is a subject of debate. Lewis Bradbury, a mining and real estate millionaire, commissioned Sumner Hunt to create a spectacular office building. Hunt turned in completed designs but was replaced soon after by George H. Wyman, who supervised construction.According to Wyman’s daughters, he was asked to take over because Bradbury felt that Wyman could understand his own vision for the building better than Hunt, although there is no evidence that Wyman changed the design. Wyman later designed other buildings in the Los Angeles area, but the Bradbury Building (if indeed it was designed by Wyman) was to be his only work of lasting significance, whereas Sumner Hunt went on to design many other notable buildings, including the Southwest Museum.The building underwent complete restoration in the early 1990s as part of the Yellin Company’s Grand Central Square project.Throughout its history, The Bradbury served as a backdrop for music videos, TV shows and movies, including the original “Blade Runner” sci-fi film. However, it’s primarily an office building, which is where Room & Board comes onto the scene. We recently partnered with Downtown Properties, which owns and operates the building, to furnish a spec suite to share with potential tenants.
