A Great Boost for Disney Hall

“It’s about downtown, it’s about the city.”

To its great credit, the Atlantic Richfield Co. heard Eli Broad’s call and responded. Broad, the SunAmerica Corp. president, along with Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan, has been working hard in recent months to close a huge shortfall to make the Walt Disney Concert Hall a reality.

Arco’s $10-million contribution, announced Wednesday, is a giant step toward that goal. Arco’s largess not only burnishes its reputation as one of the area’s leading corporate benefactors, but gives an immeasurable boost to the campaign to revive the concert hall project.

In 1987, Lillian Disney, Walt Disney’s widow, gave the initial $50 million to build a new home for the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Additional gifts plus interest pushed the family’s contribution to nearly $100 million. But ballooning cost estimates for the spectacular and complex Frank Gehry design created the shortfall.

The county, which owns the hall site across from the Music Center, threatened to scuttle the project unless promoters raised an additional $52 million by June. That now seems within reach; Arco’s $10 million brings total new commitments to $37.5 million. These gifts include a $7.5-million anonymous donation, $5 million each from Mayor Riordan and Eli Broad, $5 million from Times Mirror Co. and other smaller gifts. Oddly, the company that bears Walt Disney’s name is not among this group, yet.

Another $115 million must be committed by December 1998 to complete the hall in time for the planned opening in 2001--a daunting hurdle. Toward that end, Eli Broad and his colleagues emphasize that completion of this landmark-to-be is as much about the future of this city and its downtown as about great music. This is no mere sales pitch. The Disney Hall is a key element in an urban revitalization effort now underway downtown that includes a proposed sports arena, the new Roman Catholic cathedral, the Colburn School of Performing Arts and a Japanese American museum. Those who’ve stepped forward to help understand that.