A New Take on L.A. Civic Life

The brass fanfare played by members of the Los Angeles Philharmonic to open Monday’s press conference at the Music Center could herald something bigger than even the Walt Disney Co.’s munificent grant to the Walt Disney Concert Hall project. What was trumpeted may be no less than the building of a new bridge linking Hollywood and the Los Angeles civic community. The broader symbolism of what the entertainment giant did Monday--assume leadership alongside its corporate and civic neighbors--may finally bring an end to a dated and divisive way of looking at Los Angeles: Westside versus downtown, Jew versus WASP, new money versus old money. The new Disney Hall won’t be burdened by such nonsense. Those labels and the old feelings that go with them are antiquated in the racially, ethnically and culturally diverse Los Angeles of the 1990s.

Not that the $25-million challenge grant announced by Disney Chairman Michael D. Eisner isn’t reason enough for musical ruffles and flourishes. Eisner’s decision to put big bucks from the company--Walt’s company--into this floundering project was long hoped for, and it was the right thing to do.

The planned new home for the L.A. Philharmonic began with a gift of $50 million from Disney’s widow, Lillian B. Disney. Her subsequent gifts and accumulated interest should have been enough to build the 2,350-seat hall with Frank Gehry’s soaring exterior design. But spiraling costs and poor management more than doubled the original construction estimate and brought the project to a standstill.

The county, which owns the hall’s Grand Avenue site, has already built the parking garage promised to serve the facility. Last year, the county imposed a rigid timetable to raise the additional $150 million in private funding needed to begin work.

In the 18 months since, a roster of corporate benefactors has come forward. Arco, Ralphs/Food 4 Less, Bank of America and Times Mirror Corp., which owns the Los Angeles Times, are among them; last month saw Edison International and Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. step forward as well.

The Disney Company’s $25 million in the form of a challenge grant is the largest corporate gift. And by donating $5 million, Roy E. Disney, the company’s vice chairman and Walt’s nephew, along with Roy’s wife, Patty, became the first to contribute toward meeting the challenge.

Thanks to these contributions--and yeoman fund-raising efforts by developer Eli Broad, Music Center board Chairwoman Andrea Van de Kamp and many others--80% of the money needed is in hand. The presence Monday of Philharmonic music director Esa-Pekka Salonen, Gehry and others spoke powerfully of their confidence that the Disney contribution will prompt others, perhaps also from the entertainment industry, to follow the lead, not just for Disney Hall but for a wide variety of worthwhile, broad-based projects.

In a rare exception more than 30 years ago, Dorothy Buffum Chandler wisely brought together the entertainment and corporate communities in her fund-raising efforts for the Music Center. Now, finally, we hope the gap is forever closed. There’s so much that must be accomplished in Los Angeles; the perpetuating of old schisms is happily giving way to the nurturing of new relationships for the benefit of this dynamic region.