Walt Disney Concert Hall erupts from the corner of Grand and First in crumpled stainless steel. Walt Disney Concert Hall was designed by Frank Gehry and completed in 2003, its crumpled stainless-steel facade erupting from the corner of Grand and First like a sail or a flower or a controlled explosion, depending on your mood. Lillian Disney, Walt's widow, donated fifty million dollars to build a world-class concert hall for the Los Angeles Philharmonic in her husband's memory; the building took sixteen years and more than two hundred and seventy million dollars to complete.
Inside, the Douglas fir-paneled auditorium seats 2,265 people in what Gehry called a vineyard configuration, with seating on all sides of the stage, creating one of the finest acoustic spaces built in the twentieth century. The pipe organ at the rear of the stage, nicknamed French Fries, was also designed by Gehry, its 6,134 pipes assembled in undulating wooden curves. Walk around the exterior and notice how the steel panels shift color with the sky; on bright days they throw blinding reflections onto neighboring buildings and the street below.