HIGH-PRIORITY HALLS

Reviewing David Johnston’s interesting “Arts Centers: Comparing Costs in L.A. and Calgary” (Sept. 29) prompts me to suggest that what the Music Center needs more than anything else is a good music concert hall.

Most music organizations in Los Angeles County must perform in either theaters or churches. The acoustics in the several theaters are terrible, and at best the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion is a compromise. Thus, a hall for the Los Angeles Philharmonic and other strictly music groups should be of the highest priority.

We don’t need “crystal chandeliers, marble and paneled walls” in a good music hall. The object of the hall is to hear it, not to look at it, and the more Spartan, I suspect, the better it will sound.

At $17,000 per parking space, the $34-million cost of a parking garage reflects the terrible costs we must pay for not having a public transportation system. Calgary, which puts human values first, is building a very efficient system, and is developing its central district accordingly. Our music center obviously needs developments around it to bring it more into human perspective, but for some reason this seems not to be.

ROBERT A. RAMSAY

Arcadia