“With the Los Angeles Rams and Chargers’ forthcoming stadium certain to transform Inglewood, a $14.5-million renovation of an abandoned bank building a mile away may seem a smaller emblem of civic renewal,” writes Mark Swed in Wednesday’s (8/15) Los Angeles Times. “But at a ceremony Wednesday unveiling architect Frank Gehry’s design for the Judith and Thomas L. Beckmen YOLA Center at Inglewood, Mayor James T. Butts noted that … this new home for the L.A. Philharmonic’s signature music education program, Youth Orchestra Los Angeles … ‘is what has me most excited and proud.’ … YOLA will continue to operate in various youth centers in Central and South L.A. But the Gehry building will be its first dedicated facility…. The YOLA Center … will take about two years to complete…. Gehry said his initial ideas came from the Pierre Boulez Saal he built [in Berlin] for the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra…. The L.A. Phil’s new chief executive, Simon Woods, noted … that the L.A. Phil will no longer be an orchestra with two iconic homes. Along with Disney Hall and the Hollywood Bowl, there will be a third.” Yasuhita Toyota, who designed Disney Hall’s acoustics, is acoustician for the new center.
Posted August 17, 2018
In photo: Edson Nazareno, left, and Dameon Williams, graduates of the Youth Orchestra Los Angeles program, with the model for YOLA’s future home in Inglewood, LA. Photo: Mel Melcon/Los Angeles Times.
