More Bowl Dreams

Re “Thinking Outside the Bowl” (by Diane Haithman, July 1): What we have at the Hollywood Bowl now is a disintegrating, almost unrecognizable, band shell and a lot of history. We also seem to have uninterested audiences either with bad manners or other things on their minds. The Hollywood Bowl is not simply the “set” or the “stage,” but what we experience from both the environment and the artists.

Maybe this is an opportune moment before the necessary rebuilding starts to consider: What is the Hollywood Bowl experience that we truly need to restore and preserve? What should that experience comprise for both the artists who perform there, and the audience that comes to listen and maybe even be inspired?

JOHN CRESSEY

Altadena

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My idea is to relocate the present Hollywood Bowl shell to another location on the Bowl grounds or elsewhere in Griffith Park. This would allow (a) Hodgetts & Fung to do its design thing without compromises to the new Bowl and (b) the opportunity to restore the original Bowl shell as a smaller venue per the original Neutra concept for modest entertainments and religious ceremonies. It already comes with its own baptistery for revival meetings and sunrise services.

ROGER M. YANAGITA, AIA

Los Angeles

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Ask anyone what is the worst thing about going to the Hollywood Bowl (or the biggest reason they don’t go more often), and the answer will be: parking.

Why have passenger car parking at all? Put park-and-ride lots nearby, put shuttles at all exits of the Red Line subway, make the shuttles run often, possibly include the price of them in tickets, publicize how and where to catch them--make it the only way to access the Bowl, and I would predict more people would come.

TOBI DRAGERT

Los Angeles