CASE STUDY WALT DISNEY CONCERT HALL111 South Grand AvenueLos Angeles, California U.S.A.

34°03′19″N   118°15′00″W

REPORT BYJagan Kumar (114ar0005)

Rajat Rana (114ar0013)Shritam Selma (114ar0016)

INTRODUCTIONFor 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.

CONCEPTCapturing 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.

EXTERIORThe 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 ACOUSTICSA 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

STANDARDSAisles 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.

SUMMARYThe 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.