The musical fabric of Los Angeles is about to get a significant boost from one of its most famous creative backers after Frank Gehry’s updated plans for the Colburn School were made public for the first time in a live-streamed ceremony at its downtown campus earlier today.

Renderings reveal a 100,000-square-foot expansion of the school’s existing facilities into what will be called the Colburn Center, a dynamic new set of interlocking performance venues and public spaces that will couple with a generous set of scholarship programs to further enhance the 72-year-old school’s educational and artistic offerings.

The project is an integral part of the architect's mission to transform the Downtown Los Angeles landscape beginning with his iconic Walt Disney Concert Hall up the street and culminating with his latest, directly adjacent mixed-use addition called The Grand. Gehry worked together with longtime collaborators Michael Ferguson and Yasuhisa Toyota of Nagata Acoustics and TheaterDNA respectively. 

At the centerpiece of the new complex is the 1,000-seat Terri and Jerry Kohl Concert Hall that features a Vineyard Style seating arrangement with an orchestra pit and sizable stage framed brilliantly by the suspension cloud-like acoustical ceiling panels which appear to float listlessly underneath a pair of complementary skylights.

Next to the larger concert venue is a smaller, 100-seat theater which sits on top of a two-story stack featuring four separate dance studios each inside a transparent glass envelope that is meant to provide the passersby with an up-close and engaging look at the beauty and rigor of the different specialties of professional dance.

Each artistic space is supposed to tie together seamlessly with two different gardens on the roof of the dance theater and alternatively facing 2nd Street at ground level with space in both for a bevy of musicians or even more intimate pre-recital receptions and other public gatherings. 

The entire complex is located directly across from the exiting facilities on a slope connecting Olive to Hill Street. Construction is slated to begin next year, with an anticipated completion date set for the fall of 2025.