LA Architecture Tours, Sightseeing & Tourism

Frank Gehry's Walt Disney Concert Hall is among Los Angeles' High Architecture. The story of this wild building began in 1987 when Lilian Disney, widow of Walt Disney, supplied $50 million for a concert hall to be dedicated to her late husband. Nearly $200 million and 16 years later, the Walt Disney Concert Hall was finally completed in 2003. Frank Gehry initially conceived a building of stone, but later opted to cover the building with 12,500 pieces of steel that reflect the ever changing Southern California sunshine. Wood, glass, and concrete elements are also used throughout. The interior features Douglas fir columns resembling tree trunks that structurally support the building while alluding to the material of musical instruments.

Reminiscent of Gehry's Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, the Walt Disney Concert Hall appears as a massing of warped, steel panels. To create such complex structural systems, Frank Gehry's office uses CATIA (Computer-Aided Three-dimensional Interactive Application) -a software program used in the aerospace industry that determines the exact composition of the structure. 

A public park surrounds the rear of the Walt Dinsey Concert Hall and contains the W.M. Keck Foundation Children's Amphitheatre and the Lilian Disney Memorial Fountain designed by Gehry. The fountain is made of iron beams, stainless steel mesh, and concrete. Hundreds of vases and tiles made of blue and white Royal Delft porcelain, Lilian Disney's favorite, were shattered on site and reconstructed in mosaic form to cover the flower shaped fountain.

The Walt Disney Concert Hall is seen on the LA Architecture Tour and the LA Highlights Tour.