Colburn's 100,000-square-foot campus expansion, designed by Frank Gehry, will open on September 25, 2027, with an event in the new 1,000-seat Terri and Jerry Kohl Hall, a round concert hall. Colburn is a school of music and dance in Los Angeles, on a downtown campus that welcomes an estimated 10,000 people weekly. The institution provides performing arts education, and more than 500 music and dance performances open to the public each year. The first images of the design were released in 2022. The expansion triples the facilities currently dedicated to dance and will house Colburn's Trudl Zipper Dance Institute. The building, finished in a metallic pink coating, is located adjacent to Colburn's Grand Avenue campus in downtown Los Angeles and is expected to reach substantial completion in summer 2027.
Frank Gehry's design is composed of opaque and transparent interlocking volumes that step down with the contour of the site. The opaque volumes are covered with metal cladding in a pink paint finish called Pink Kandi, a fluoropolymer resin-based coating with aluminum flake, developed specifically for the building and inspired by automobile Kandy paint. A wide, light-filled entrance connects the building components and the gardens at street and rooftop level. The new building will complement Colburn's existing 428,137-square-foot facilities, which include administrative offices, a residence hall, the 430-seat Zipper Hall and the 189-seat Thayer Hall, as well as rehearsal areas, practice rooms and studios.
The building's 1,000-seat hall has an in-the-round design and features an orchestra pit and a stage large enough to accommodate large-scale works and orchestrations. The interior of the hall features natural light and adjustable acoustic elements in the shape of floating clouds, hovering above the performers. The space will be equipped for large-scale orchestra, dance, opera, jazz, and other productions, and will welcome both established and emerging performing arts organizations. For the acoustic design, Gehry collaborated with Yasuhisa Toyota of Nagata Acoustics, his collaborator on the Walt Disney Concert Hall, and with Michael Ferguson, who previously consulted on Gehry's New World Center in Miami Beach and the Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College.
In addition to the concert hall, the building integrates the Dance Center, the new home of Colburn's Trudl Zipper Dance Institute, which triples the space currently dedicated to dance at the school. It includes a 100-seat Studio Theater and four professional-sized studios, which will allow for expanded dance instruction, rehearsals, and performances. This area of the building is expected to open with the 2027-28 academic year, in August 2027. Programming for the hall and the Dance Center will be announced in spring 2026, including artist residencies, festivals and a mix of performances featuring students and faculty, guest artists and ensembles, and resident and rental organizations. Terri and Jerry Kohl Hall will become the permanent home of the Colburn Orchestra, the flagship ensemble of the Conservatory of Music.
The hall will be inaugurated with a gala concert on September 25, 2027, and a community celebration and ribbon-cutting ceremony will follow the next day. Free performances will be held throughout Colburn's campus, including inaugural performances at the Dance Center, and a grand finale concert will take place in Terri and Jerry Kohl Hall. The project adds to the recently announced opening of a new Gehry-designed Guggenheim Museum on Abu Dhabi's Saadiyat Island, expected on December 11, 2026. In late September, Los Angeles also saw the opening of MAD's Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, a 27,900-square-meter structure featuring galleries, two theaters, a retail store, a library, a café, a restaurant, and event spaces. Earlier this year, Peter Zumthor's LACMA David Geffen Galleries opened, offering a flexible art space that accommodates diverse curatorial projects as well as visitors' individual paths.
