The Colburn Center at the Colburn School will include a new performance space, dance school, dance studios and public garden. (rendering courtesy of Frank O. Gehry & Gehry Partners, LLP)
The Colburn School, an institute for music and dance education and performance in Downtown Los Angeles, has announced plans to break ground in April on a transformational 100,000-square-foot expansion designed by distinguished architect Frank Gehry.
The new building, named the Colburn Center, will be adjacent to the campus at 200 S. Grand Ave., and will dramatically increase the school’s training and performance facilities for music and dance. It will provide much-needed performance space in a mid-sized hall for the region’s established and emerging performing arts organizations. Site work is scheduled to begin in the coming weeks and a groundbreaking ceremony will take place on April 5. The Colburn Center is expected to reach substantial completion in the first quarter of 2027.
The expansion will create the largest concentration of Gehry-designed buildings in the world. It will be located next to two other buildings by the renowned architect: Walt Disney Concert Hall and The Grand by Gehry, a $1 billion mixed-use retail and residential development that opened in 2022.
“This is an exciting contribution to the cultural and civic life of Downtown Los Angeles. Colburn has shown a commitment to making education accessible to youth of all ages at their school,” Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said. “With projects like this and Colburn’s commitment, Grand Avenue will continue to grow into an energetic cultural district while also creating more opportunities to collaborate with renowned local and touring artists.”
“Frank Gehry is a Los Angeles icon and a dear friend, and I am delighted that Colburn is moving forward with their Gehry-designed expansion,” Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda L. Solis, 1st District said. “This is another initiative that complements L.A. County’s significant investment to uplift cultural institutions along Grand Avenue – and with the opening of the Metro Regional Connector, we are truly creating a world-class hub for cultural, art, innovation and entertainment. I look forward to a new Colburn Center that is inclusive for all Angelenos.”
The expansion will include a 1,000-seat concert hall named for Terri and Jerry Kohl. It will feature an in-the-round design to create intimacy between the performers and the audience. The hall will include an orchestra pit and a large stage suitable for orchestra, opera and dance. With the addition, Downtown L.A. will have a mid-sized concert hall for the first time. The Colburn Center will also more than double the facilities for the School’s Trudl Zipper Dance Institute, creating one of the most comprehensive dance education complexes in Southern California. The facilities include a 100-seat theater for dance and four professional-sized studios for dance instruction and rehearsal.
The Colburn Center will have a rooftop garden for receptions and outdoor performances, and a ground-level garden with a dedicated performance space open to the public.
“This has been a long time in the making. The Colburn School expansion is a much-needed project for the community,” Gehry said. “I hope that it will be well-used and well-loved by the students of the Colburn School and the other cultural institutions of Los Angeles. Our goal for this hall is that it will help strengthen the already robust classical music community here, solidifying Los Angeles’ leadership in this arena.”
“The Colburn Center will be a game changer, stepping up everything we do for the school’s own community, for our peer organizations that make the L.A. artistic ecosystem so vibrant, and for the public that we look forward to welcoming,” Colburn School president Sel Kardan said. “At Colburn, making performances accessible to L.A. audiences is as much a part of our core mission as making first-rate music and dance education available to everyone. These are the same values we see in the wonderful design by Frank Gehry, artistic excellence at the highest level combined with a deep love for the dynamism and diversity that animate life in a great city.”
The school has received $315 million in philanthropic gifts toward the $400 million Building Our Future campaign. The campaign will cover an estimated $335 million in construction costs and $65 million in endowment and operating costs to support programs at the Colburn Center and Colburn School.
For information, visit colburnschool.edu.