In LA, building excitement

LOS ANGELES -- Downtown Los Angeles has long been known as mostly a part-time city -- a place hustling and bustling during the week with workers who disappear come weekend.

That's no longer the case at First Street and Grand Avenue. Throngs of people have been gathering at the corner daily, with cameras flashing and eyes glued to the city's shiny, new attraction: Walt Disney Concert Hall.

The 2,265-seat venue is drawing crowds for its architecture in addition to its music. Proof of the public's fascination with architect Frank Gehry's steel-and-glass extravaganza can be seen in the hundreds of fingerprint smudges visitors have left on Disney Hall's otherwise sleek exterior.

"People actually feel the need to touch the building," said Mark Slavkin, the Music Center's vice president for education. "It's a nice problem."

An average of 1,000 people a day toured Disney Hall, the Music Center's fourth venue, for free when it opened to the public in November. About 7,000 people stopped by in December even after fees were instituted for guided and self-guided tours.

Countless visitors, meanwhile, have enjoyed the outdoor gardens, which are open to the public, as is the first-floor lobby, which features a cafe and gift shop.

"I think some of Frank's thought about it being the living room for the city is in fact true," said Catherine Babcock, a spokeswoman for the Music Center. "The garden is used regularly by downtowners to take a break from the workday."

"I've never made it to Bilbao, and I just wanted to see a piece of this spectacular brand of architecture," said Debvvy Altman of Denver, referring to a museum in Spain designed by Gehry that has become a site of architectural pilgrimage. "It's such a dynamic building, from every angle you look. It's fun seeing so many different types of people walking about, to see such excitement about a building."

Peering through the windows, she said the mixed use of metal and wood created a refined warmth that could only be sensed from up close.

Alix Maultiz, a student at the University of Southern California, said the hall's location made it even more remarkable. "It's an amazing building, and it adds badly needed life to downtown," she said.

The place was teeming on a Saturday morning in January with several hundred children and parents who showed up to catch a performance of "Pillow Theatre," which was moved from the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion to Disney Hall. After a performance by a group of mimes, the children retreated to the gardens to make puppets. Not even mimes and crafts could upstage Disney Hall, however. Christy Schnabel said her daughter, Isabella, 2, was more "enamored with the building than the theater."

Long Beach resident Yolanda Johnson, a self-described "Disney person" who holds an annual passport to Disneyland, came with her son, Christopher, 5, and husband, Sanford. She snapped a picture of a fountain fashioned from broken blue and white Delft porcelain into the shape of a rose -- a tribute by Gehry to the late Lillian Disney, whose $50-million gift in 1987 set in motion what would become Disney Hall. "I love it. It's great. It's wonderful," Johnson said. "My husband was just commenting how downtown is shaping up and getting better."

"I work downtown, but I don't often bring the kids here," said Caprice Young, a former Los Angeles school board president.

Young, who visited Disney Hall with her mother, husband, and three children, said her family also planned to swing by the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels and have lunch at Grand Central Market.Nearby restaurants have reported a modest ripple effect.