In Wednesday’s (9/4) Los Angeles Times, Mark Swed writes, “Already a Los Angeles landmark, Walt Disney Concert Hall turns 10 this fall.… The 2,265-seat auditorium is acoustically one of the finest of its size in the world. Disney Hall has helped revitalize downtown, and it has inspired the L.A. Phil to become one of the most vibrant and forward-looking major arts organizations anywhere.… Yet Disney Hall is not what it could be.… Gehry’s [original] design intended projecting video of the concerts as they were being given on the exterior of the hall.… In the hall itself, Gehry included room for a never-built orchestra pit, which would have offered the L.A. Phil greater flexibility for staging opera.… Then there is the issue of the new Metro subway line going under 2nd Street…. Vibrations are hard to predict, and far more transparency and testing is needed.… The fact is you can’t put a price on Walt Disney Concert Hall…. It has joined the Hollywood sign in signifying L.A. But while Hollywood’s glories seldom seem fresh anymore, Disney Hall at 10 stands, more than ever, for the promise of things to come.”
Posted September 5, 2013