CASE STUDY

WALT DISNEY CONCERT HALL

111 South Grand Avenue
Los Angeles, California
U.S.A.

34°03′19″N 118°15′00″W

REPORT BY

Jagan Kumar (114ar0005)

Rajat Rana (114ar0013)

Shritam Selma (114ar0016)

INTRODUCTION
For about thirteen years, Walt Disney concert hall has been a unique locus for
music, arts and architecture. Since its opening in 2003 it has been one of the
most recognizable symbols of Los Angeles and also one of the best known
concert halls of the world.
The establishment of a Concert Hall originally began in 1987 when Lilian Disney
donated $50 million in honour of her late husband. A year later, Frank Gehrywas
selected during the design competition but mismanagement and politics, the project
didn't really start until 1996.
Disney Concert Hall was completed and became part of the Los Angeles California's
performing district on October 23rd 2003.The home of the LA Phil, it has become
widely well known for its unique architectural form and its excellent acoustics.

CONCEPT
Capturing the motion of Los Angeles, and representing musical movement, Gehry
created an exterior composed of curvilinear forms that seem to dance both on
and above the site. The design represents the style of their creator, architects
Frank Gehry, could be considered a work of art in itself. The extravagance of its
forms seems to defy any rules of harmony and symmetry.
The building is essentially a shell which consists of a series of interconnected
volumes, some form of orthogonal coated stone and other forms of organic and
surfaces covered with a corrugated metal skin of steel. The Interior can be seen in
the shape of hull of a boat.
EXTERIOR
The first thing the visitors notice on arriving at the hall is its breathtaking exterior. At
first the building was decided to be made from stone but the use of steel was taken
into account considering the amount and variety of curves of the structure. The
coat, that outer surface used was corrugated of 12,500 pieces of the steel together
on the outside. The areas outside of the rectangle were made from stone. Glass
surface acts as a liaison between the various volumes. The climate of Los Angeles
is quite lower throughout the year and this accounted with the use of materials. The
reflecting surface of the Hall was later made rough because of the complain from the
surroundings.

INTERIOR
This monument to music serves as a study in contrast that manages to find the
balance between imposing and inviting. With its shiny steel clad exterior and warm
expensive interior the design reflects the architect’s vision of being built from
inside out. With pin point acoustics overseen by master acquisition, Walt Disney
concert hall is meant to be seen, heard and experienced by all.

The well lit warm interior begins with lobbies’ Douglas fir wrapped tree columns and
continues until the one takes a seat in the auditory. Just above the main lobby is
one of the Walt Disney’s concert hall’s two interior performance spaces the dramatic
yet intimate BP Hall. Like the main auditorium this hall was built with acoustics in the
mind and hosts pre concert talks, musical performances, reception and private
events. Walking past the BP hall, we come across the space dedicated to thanking
many who helped making the dream of Lillian Disney’s vision a reality and it features
the names of benefactors.

Like the lobby, the main auditorium features the warm tones of Douglas fir and
Alaskan yellow cedar for visual and acoustical purposes and the wild flower design
for the seat covering adds a striking dimension to the light infused openness of the
hall. Inside the warm, Douglas fir-lined interior are 2,265 seats that are steeply raked
and surround the stage. But of all the eye catching features of the auditorium,
perhaps the most iconic is the Walt Disney concert hall’s Organ, a collaborative
design of frank Gehry and Manuel Rosales and it demands the attention of the
audience from every angle
On the third level is the Halls community garden which features and
outdoor performance space and landscaping that evokes southern
California , The
centrepiece of the garden is Lillian Disney fountain inscribed with a rose for lily and is
covered with mosaic artfully broken pieces of delft china
HALL ACOUSTICS

A 1:10 scale model was constructed in order to test and study the acoustics of the
auditorium. The frequency of the sounds used for testing was increased in order to
reduce the wavelengths by a factor of ten. To expel the oxygen and water vapour
that absorb high-frequency sound the model was filled with nitrogen.

One of the challenges Toyota faced was achieving full sound coverage from an
unamplified orchestra that had no volume control. The vineyard design calls for
terraced seating to surround the orchestra allowing for more flat surfaces. This
would increase the area for sound to be reflected-an important feature for the
success of an unamplified orchestra.

Much of Toyota's design is based on the principle that concave shape focuses
sound and convex scatters it. Using this principle, he employed concave shapes
wherever possible. In fact, the "walls" surrounding the Disney Hall are an optical
illusion. They are made of transparent mesh to allow sound to easily pass through
and reflect off
whatever lies behind (row upon row of hidden concave curves). The result of
Toyota's design is a sound described as "acoustical clarity and warmth”. Made
from Alaskan yellow cedar, the stages provide resonance and can be configured to
hold larger performances by removing the first rows in Orchestra

STANDARDS
Aisles are required on both side of every row of seats that has more than 10 seats.
Steps within aisles must be the full width of the aisle, minimum aisle width 1 metre.
It must be uniform in size (both the riser and going). Its Going shall be between
280mm and 355mm.

The Risers shall be between 115mm and 190mm. Minimum seating clearance must
be 300mm if the distance to an aisle is less than 3.5 metres, i.e. 8 seats or 500mm if
the distance to an aisle is more than 3.5 metres. For the rows of seating served by
aisles or doorways at both ends there may be no more than 100 seats per row and
the minimum width of 12 inches clearance between rows shall be increased by .3
inch for every additional seat beyond 14 in a row, but the minimum clear width need
not exceed 22 inches.
For Vertical Sightlines, fixing the eye positions of the front row seats at A and
keeping the last row seats eye position at a distance L from the front row. The
sightline of people at O falls at X. Thus we have to arrange in such a way that
the distance,

AX= L/10

The deviation in the value of AX may cause the fault in sightline, so it must be kept in
mind.

For Acoustics, Reverberation and Echo an important factor that defines the sound
quality. The Recommended mean reverberation time increases as a function of
volume of the room. Recommended RT60 values (in seconds) for auditoria
depend on programme:

(i)Drama theatre 0.85 +- 0.15

(ii)Chamber music 1.55 +- 0.2

(iii)Opera Classicist music 1.7 +- 0.1

(iv)Romantic music 2.0 +- 0.2 Organ >2.5

Sound amplification system can be used to reinforce the sound level when the sound
source is too weak to be heard. It provides amplified sound for overflow audience
and can minimize sound reverberation. To provide artificial reverberation in
rooms which are too dead for satisfactory listening. In many large halls, ceiling
reflectors, sometimes called clouds, are used to direct sound energy from the
stage to the seating area.
SUMMARY
The beauty of this concert hall is the way Gehry was able to remove himself from the
typical form and capture the motion of music, creating an exterior that seems to
dance both on and above the site. The interior then becomes very organic as one
journeys between and into these sculptural forms. The creation of one large volume
auditorium with a center stage and vertical seating allows the patrons to have an
intimate relationship with the orchestra. The calibration with Toyota and many
sophisticated acoustic studies produced a space described as having "acoustical
clarity". This clarity caused the LA Phil to relearn their repertoire to fit the new space.
To accompany the orchestra, Gehry worked with organ builders Manuel Rosales and
Caspar Von Glatter-Gotz, to produce an unconventional organ for the space. An
organ's wooden pipes are often unseen, but these are front and center to connect it
with the wood interior of the hall. The pipes on this organ were curved and bent,
which had not been done before.