$20 Million in Gifts Meet Key Goal for Disney Hall

Walt Disney Concert Hall fund-raisers Monday announced $20 million in new donations that they said will meet Los Angeles County requirements to allow a groundbreaking in April.

The county still must audit all new pledges for the $255-million project and review design changes. However, with a total of $196 million in new funds now certain, the fund-raising campaign has met a crucial county requirement five months ahead of deadline.

Because of spiraling estimates, the county shut down the project in 1995, demanding that firm construction costs be established and that 95% of that money be raised before groundbreaking. Hall officials established that $205 million would be needed to complete the building, and Monday’s announcement that they had raised slightly more than 95% of that further assured that the hall, designed by architect Frank O. Gehry, will open in 2002.

“It is a very positive announcement,” said Sandra M. Davis, chief deputy in the county’s chief administrative office. “We have been working very closely with the Disney Hall representatives to stay on top of their fund-raising efforts; they are providing us with information, and we are continuing our process to make sure that pledges and donation values are truly there. We are very pleased with what we have reviewed to date.”

Because of the anonymous nature of some gifts, Disney Hall officials would not specify the number and size of the new donations but said they total 17 and range in size from $250,000 to $2 million. The new donors include the Ralph M. Parsons Foundation, the Thomas and Dorothy Leavey Foundation, Flora L. Thornton, the Skirball Foundation, Majestic Realty Co. and PricewaterhouseCoopers, the Jefferies Group, the partners of Arthur Andersen, Merrill Lynch, Ambassador and Mrs. Glen Holden, UNOVA Inc., Kathrine and Frank Baxter and Tennenbaum & Co.

“I signed on 2 1/2 years ago, when this thing was dead, ready to be buried,” a jubilant Eli Broad, fund-raising chairman for the new home of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, said Monday. “We have created a new generation of leadership for the city.”

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The Disney Hall project was initiated in 1987 by a $50-million gift from Walt Disney’s widow, the late Lillian B. Disney; to date, the family’s contribution totals about $100 million. In 1992, ground was broken for the site’s parking garage, which was completed in 1996. At the time that the project was shut down, $50 million had been spent on the design process but no actual construction had been done on the hall itself. Since the announcement of a gift of $25 million from the Walt Disney Co. last December, project officials have predicted that construction of the concert hall was finally assured. But until Monday, the county’s requirements had not been met.

Disney Hall officials on Monday also released a drawing by Gehry of the redesigned hall, which will be clad in metal rather than the limestone originally proposed.

The drawing also shows placement and design of the added administration offices for the Philharmonic, which may have a stone exterior, as well as the 200-seat theater to be used by the California Institute of the Arts. Both elements were added in the past six months, and will be paid for by separate fund-raising efforts.

Hall officials said contracts have been finalized for Gehry to complete working plans and to oversee construction. Gehry said his Santa Monica firm has been at work on the drawings on a “good-faith” basis since mid-February, after the hiring of new project construction chief Jack Burnell.

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Gehry has often expressed frustration at delays and has been skeptical about the future of the project, which he designed in 1988 to be built on county-owned land at 1st Street and Grand Avenue. On Monday, however, he expressed optimism that the projected 2002 opening date is realistic.

Gehry also said he is working to find an an appropriate metal for the building’s exterior that will maintain the warmth of the white limestone in the original plan. Metal cladding is less costly because it weighs less than limestone and is easier to bring to earthquake standards. The original decision to work in stone was mandated by the project’s owners, and Gehry said switching to metal initially did not appeal to him.

“The forms were designed for stone,” he said, “but you know, nine years later or whatever it is, if somebody gives you a new thing to do, it re-enlivens the project, I guess. I have been modifying the shapes a little bit, and you wouldn’t be able to do that [with stone].”

Gehry added that he is seeking a type of metal that will maintain the warmth of stone. One possibility might be stainless steel, but he expressed concern that its look might be too chilly. He said he also does not want the building to replicate his titanium-clad Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, which opened to critical acclaim in 1997.

“I’m struggling with it,” he said of choosing a metal. “I’m not negative about it--I’m positive about it. . . . You can do things to the stainless surface, texture it, acid-wash it, to change its character. I haven’t got the right colors, the right materials yet. It took years of fussing with Bilbao to see how different metals play with the light; I don’t want to turn it into a cold refrigerator.”

Broad said the Disney Hall oversight committee and other Music Center fund-raisers plan to raise an additional $75 million toward an endowment for the Music Center. Donations totaling $20 million have already come in for the endowment.