Frank Gehry selected to design Colburn School Expansion

The Colburn School has selected Frank Gehry to join the all-L.A. team for the campus’s downtown Los Angeles expansion.

The project will add three performance venues, an outdoor performance area, classrooms, a dance rehearsal center, and student and guest artist housing. The largest of the new venues will be the 1,100-seat concert hall, the Colburn School’s first venue for full-scale orchestra performances.

A 700-seat flexible studio theater for dance and vocal performance and a 100-seat cabaret-style space are also included. The 700-seat Studio Theater is envisioned as a hybrid courtyard-style theater that will accommodate multiple seating configurations and can serve as a special events space with banquet seating for up to 500. The cabaret-style club space will be used for small-ensemble performances of amplified and non-amplified music.

Courtesy of the Colburn School.

The new expansion will be constructed on a parcel of land between South Olive and Hill Streets and comprise approximately 200,000 sf. The Colburn School Expansion will mark the third building in the immediate area designed by Gehry. The others include the Walt Disney Concert Hall and a mixed-use project he is designing for the Related Companies.

Yosuhisa Toyota of Nagata Acoustics and Michael Ferguson, Principal of TheatreDNA will collaborate with Gehry on the project.

Now 46 years running, Building Design+Construction's 2022 Giants 400 Report rankings the largest architecture, engineering, and construction firms in the U.S. This year a record 519 AEC firms participated in BD+C's Giants 400 report. The final report includes more than 130 rankings across 25 building sectors and specialty categories.

Performing Arts Centers | Jul 5, 2022

Tour the new Patricia Reser Center for the Arts in Oregon

This month, the community of Beaverton, Oregon, welcomed a new haven for artistic expression with the opening of Patricia Reser Center for the Arts (The Reser).

Athey Center for Performance and Research at Palmer Center, the result of a two-year makeover.

Performing Arts Centers | May 10, 2022

A historic performance space is transformed to reinforce a campus’ Arts District

Connecticut College’s Athey Center for Performance and Research at Palmer Auditorium balances the old and new.

Building Team | May 9, 2022

Cincinnati’s Andrew J Brady Music Center transforms the city’s riverfront

In Cincinnati, Ohio, the Andrew J Brady Music Center aims to connect audiences with live music while transforming Cincinnati’s riverfront.

Performing Arts Centers | Mar 8, 2022

Cincinnati Ballet’s new center embodies the idea that dance is for everyone

Cincinnati Ballet had become a victim of its own success, according to company president and CEO Scott Altman. “We were bursting at the seams in our old building. We had simply outgrown the facility,” Altman told the Cincinnati Enquirer.

University Buildings | Feb 18, 2022

On-campus performing arts centers and museums can be talent magnets for universities

Cultural facilities are changing the way prospective students and parents view higher education campuses.

Aquarium of Niagara Explorer’s Reef, Niagara Falls, N.Y., designed by CPL Architecture, Engineering, Planning

Giants 400 | Nov 19, 2021

2021 Cultural Facilities Giants: Top architecture, engineering, and construction firms in the U.S. cultural facilities sector

Gensler, AECOM, Buro Happold, and Arup top BD+C's rankings of the nation's largest cultural facilities sector architecture, engineering, and construction firms, as reported in the 2021 Giants 400 Report.