Commentary: Frank Gehry's new Colburn design could transform L.A.

In 2016, Colburn — the community music school, conservatory, academy and dance school — bought a cheerless outdoor parking lot on the corner of 2nd and Olive streets downtown for $33 million. It was on a steep, pedestrian unfriendly hill that led to the Colburn’s Grand Avenue campus, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Walt Disney Concert Hall and the Broad. Now, after many ups and downs, Colburn is announcing plans to build a concert hall, performance plaza and dance studios designed by Frank Gehry on the site. But a sustaining donation from Carol Colburn Grigor, daughter of the school’s founder, Richard D. Colburn, saved the concert hall. Colburn’s president and chief executive, Sel Kardan, told me that the Boulez Saal is very much a model for what the new hall could become, but on a grander scale.