MUSIC : Building a Better Bowl (Cont.) : At the renovated Hollywood Bowl, nearly all of the changes are behind the scenes. Now if they could just do something about those airplanes . . .

After the completion of Phase I of a major two- phase, $25.5-million renovation project, the Hollywood Bowl, 1995, looks very much like the Hollywood Bowl, 1994.

Now, $25.5 million is a lot of money--even when compared to the price of a Saturday night box seat at the Bowl. Still, while next year’s Phase II will bring significant visible changes, Phase I--which began Nov. 18--is largely infrastructural. In other words, when you attend the Bowl this summer, do not expect to be, er, bowled over. (The 1995 subscription concert series begins July 11; preseason events are under way.)

But, like the friend who secretly has his face lifted, his teeth capped, his nose jobbed or his lipo suctioned, the Bowl--summer home of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and home of the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra--looks just a little younger, a little shinier, a little newer and smoother than before.

The multiphase project is being paid for by Proposition A, a 1992 voter-approved tax assessment that provides $540 million to improve county recreational facilities (the Bowl is built on county-owned land). Of the $25.5 million allotted for the Bowl, about $14.5 million was spent on Phase I, with the remaining $11 million going to Phase II. Because the project involves improvements and changes in streets and in other areas surrounding the Bowl, as well as on Bowl property, some noticeable renovations are joint efforts of the city, the county and transit authorities.

“The interesting thing is most people are not going to know ,” says Anne Parsons, Hollywood Bowl general manager. “They are going to say: ‘What happened?’ ”

It’s mostly underground, actually.

“We will have better plumbing, better electric, better sewers,” Parsons explained. “Every time you drive over a paved area that is smooth, think about the fact that everything under it is new. A lot of the utilities were very close to the surface, and we finally got them buried. In the old days, we would sometimes cut a plumbing line just mowing the lawn.”

Ernest Fleischmann, executive vice president and managing director of the Philharmonic, emphasizes the importance of such invisible improvements from a musical standpoint.

“There is going to be less chance of electrical failure; the whole electrical system and plumbing and infrastructure haven’t been worked on for decades,” he said.

“Also, there has been a redesign of the speaker system, with the aim of throwing more power into the higher regions of the Bowl without overwhelming the people sitting in the front. We have had to reposition the speakers much higher to accommodate that.”

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It was in July, 1922, that the Bowl introduced its first “Symphony Under the Stars” concerts. Since then, a lot of different renovations have taken place but few records were kept. Renovating the place was a lot like trying to fix an old car with no owner’s manual, Bowl officials say.

“There were a lot of unknowns about what would be found when we went into the ground. You would go to lay a line and find a line that was pre-existing that you didn’t expect to find,” Parsons said. “Every time we turned around, there was a surprise. We would try to lay new sewer lines and run into bedrock, requiring special drills.”

The biggest problem was rain, rain and more rain.

“I saw ‘The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill but Came Down a Mountain,’ ” Parsons said, referring to the current film, “and when it started to rain and I was sitting there watching their dirt pile, all I could think of was our dirt piles in the rain. My whole winter flashed before my eyes, because we had these mounds of dirt and days and days of rain. There couldn’t have been enough tarps and holds or anything. And even when the sun comes out, you’ve got three days of soaked land.”

Despite rain and underground surprises, the county accomplished virtually all of its Phase I goals. And though most of the changes have disappeared under landscaping and paving, a number of visible and experiential improvements will also greet Bowl-goers this year:

FLUSHED WITH PRIDE

Most likely to win rave reviews is the welcome addition of lots and lots of new little Hollywood bowls. That is, the old West Gate restroom has been torn out and a new one built, to provide triple the previous number of--as Bowl officials call them-- fixtures .

Bowl officials were so excited about this change that they held a ribbon-cutting at the new restroom on Tuesday to celebrate all the Phase I improvements. The gleaming new facility has 43 fixtures for men (there used to be 15) and 68 for women (versus 14 in the old facility). This is in addition to other Bowl restrooms.

The new West Gate restroom was built despite huge odds--actually, despite something huge and odd. When construction crews tore down the original, they discovered an enormous concrete foundation, much larger than could possibly be needed for the small facility. In fact, Parsons said, the thing could have accommodated an airplane hangar.

“Everyone was scratching their heads, saying: ‘Why did they build this?’ ” Parsons said.

Research revealed that the foundation had been built about 50 years ago, before the advent of trash pickup, as the base for incinerators.

“In those days, you had 50,000 people coming here, and they picnicked,” Parsons said. “So [the trash] was burned on the site. After they started having garbage pickup, they decided to put in a restroom and said: ‘Let’s build it here.’ ” The unexpected concrete was ripped up to accommodate the new restrooms.

IMPROVED ACCESS

Odin Street has been realigned-- workers actually moved a whole street 200 feet south--to provide easier access to the Hollywood Freeway from the Odin Street parking lot. It will now be much easier to leave that lot and head north toward the San Fernando Valley.

Ed Tom, Hollywood Bowl superintendent, describes the new route this way: If you wish to get on the 101 north to the Valley, you just go straight from the parking lot on the new Odin Street, cross Highland Avenue and at the next block, Cahuenga Boulevard, make a left and enter the freeway at the Hollywood Freeway north sign. To go downtown, turn right (south) off Odin onto Cahuenga and follow it to the Hollywood Freeway south entrance.

Before, cars that wanted to head north on the 101 had to go south on Highland and fight traffic all the way down to Hollywood Boulevard before being able to turn left and head back up north to the 101.

PEOPLE ACCESS

Bowl ’95 boasts major improvements for patrons with disabilities. There are now graded pathways, accessible to wheelchairs and patrons with mobility impairments, from the Odin lot to the box-office area and adjacent Picnic Area No. 1, from the West Gate parking lot to the West Gate entrance and from Promenade 1 into the ramp seating areas, which have long been set up to accommodate people who use wheelchairs.

For those patrons, the Bowl has also added parking spaces accessible to the box-office circle at the Odin Street parking lot (a fleet of four carts is available for taking patrons to other areas). There are also new accessible parking spaces at the West Gate, with valet parking optional, and in the valet area.

Another upgrade: After a concert, patrons with mobility impairments planning to take BowlExpress buses will now have the option of being picked up at the Odin Street lot, rather than going down to the island between southbound and northbound Highland, further south. Buses will first pick up riders at the island, then be available on request (just ask an attendant with a walkie-talkie) to come back up to the Odin Street lot to pick up patrons requesting the service. The new traffic patterns resulting from the moving of the street make it all possible.

Also, BowlExpress services--scheduled buses to and from outlying areas and shuttle service every 10 minutes at close-in parking lots--has been expanded. For example, for the first time there will be Park & Ride service from East Los Angeles, departing from the East L.A. Courts Building, 4837 E. 3rd St. (enter lot off Fetterly Avenue), at 6:30 and 7 p.m. For information on BowlExpress locations, call (213) 850-2000; tickets are available at the sites and through Ticketmaster, (213) 480-3232.

BETTER BOXES

As a way to increase revenue for the Bowl, a new set of “pool boxes” has been added that will provide special amenities--at twice the price of the “regular” boxes that occupied the area nearest the stage in past years. Regular box seats range from $62 to $92 apiece, depending on the night; you do the math. A portion of that double cost will be considered a donation to the Philharmonic and is tax-deductible. Because the new boxes are roomier, though, there are now fewer total box seats.

“Let’s face it--we have to think of ways to raise more funds as government and other funding decreases,” said the Philharmonic’s Fleischmann.

New boxes occupy an area that was a reflecting pool in the ‘50s and ‘60s--106 feet long, 36 feet wide, 6 feet deep, 100,000-gallon capacity, said Carol Merrill-Mirsky, director-curator of the Hollywood Bowl Museum. In 1959, gas jets were added to the pool, and during intermission they were turned on to create a “fountain of fire.” “The fire-and-water effect was a big deal,” Merrill-Mirsky said.

But, in 1970, the pool was removed because the dampness was affecting the instruments, making it especially difficult to keep strings in tune. The area was appropriated for boxes.

In the new larger, more comfortable boxes, patrons will have linen tablecloths, flowers and full food service, either pre-ordered or from a menu, and continual free coffee service. In addition, valets will be available to tote your picnic basket to the box. Rather than push into the Bowl with the crowds, pool-area boxers will also have a private entrance.

George Sebastian, acting marketing director for the Philharmonic, said subscribers who had the old pool-area boxes were given first right of refusal for the new ones. Next, they were offered to subscribers based on the number of years they had been associated with the Bowl.

“We have so many subscribers who have been with us more than 20 years,” Sebastian said. “We just tried to be as fair as possible. Since then, we have been sort of jockeying people around to make sure everybody’s happy.”

Throughout the Bowl’s history, box seats have been held by some of Los Angeles’ most prominent figures; in the 1920s, ticket-holders included Charlie Chaplin and Cecil B. DeMille. The boxes are handed down through the generations, making it difficult for new patrons to get season tickets.

This year, the Bowl is trying to make amends (and a little extra cash) by publicizing the new “Bowl Box Alert.” Although this year’s box seats are once again sold out on subscription, the Bowl is urging subscribers not planning to attend a given concert to release their box seats. While the subscriber still pays for the seats, the amount becomes a tax-deductible donation to the Philharmonic. Another patron then may buy the ticket and sit in the box.

All of this was possible in years past, but, Sebastian said, “it was never really advertised.” This year, the Philharmonic is trying to make the process more user-friendly by offering a special Bowl Box Alert number, (213) 850-2000; if there are no boxes available for the concert of your choice, your name will be taken and you will be notified if anything opens up.

Better publicity, Bowl officials hope, should ameliorate the annoyance of sitting in the back benches wondering why there are so many empty boxes.

LET’S EAT

As part of a continuing Parks and Recreation-funded project--not an official part of Phase I but fun anyway--attractive picnic areas at Highland Camrose Park, which replaced an area of urban blight due south of the Bowl, have doubled in space this year.

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The second phase of the Bowl renovation project will begin in October, after the 1995 Bowl season has ended, and will be completed before the 1996 season opens. Another unrelated but potentially traffic-snarling project--the construction of the Highland Avenue-Hollywood Boulevard subway station, will begin after Labor Day. Fortunately, city officials were able to delay the planned July 1 construction start date to accommodate the Bowl.

Phase II will also bring the completion of the expansion of the Edmund D. Edelman Hollywood Bowl Museum that began this year. The project--the building will double in size--was supposed to have been completed during Phase I, but the aforementioned underground surprises and bad weather slowed construction.

For 1996, there will be a new ticketing building, with elevators providing access to all three levels of seating for patrons with mobility impairments. There will be expanded, accessible restrooms near the main entrance and at the third promenade level. New gift shops and concession areas will spring up in four locations. Coinciding with Phase II, the ever-expanding Camrose Park picnic areas will grow once again, and the restoration of the historic Camrose Bungalows in the park will be completed.

Despite the changes, some things will probably remain constants at the Bowl. Though improved freeway access now sends you zooming north, there is still the tedious inconvenience of stacked parking. Each year, Bowl-goers will continue to wonder why the season officially opens weeks after the first events begin (the distinction between preseason and season means something to the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra and the Philharmonic but mystifies most of the rest of us). And, Fleischmann assures us, the changes won’t do anything to spoil “the Bowl experience.”

“The tone is really made by the audience and the performers,” he said. “That atmosphere that’s created by the picnickers, you can’t change. What is happening is that it will be a little more convenient, a little easier.”