The Music Center announced Thursday that the Walt Disney Concert Hall is reopened to the public, and visitors can take free self-guided tours of the Frank Gehry-designed downtown building.
The 60-minute self-guided tours, which tell visitors about the building's construction from conception to completion, begin at 10 a.m. and are available to start until 2 p.m.
The tours are narrated by Emmy/Tony Award-winning actor John Lithgow, and people can access them on their personal smartphones or devices provided by staff.
Lithgow tells visitors about Gehry's architectural choices of interior wooden “tree trunks” and exterior curved stainless steel. The tour also discusses other contributors to the building, including Conductor Laureate Esa-Pekka Salonen; acoustician Yasuhisa Toyota; daughter of principal donor Lillian Disney, Diane Disney Miller; and landscape designer Melinda Taylor.
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Visitors are able to explore the concert hall's BP Hall, the concert hall's space for smaller programs and events; the Ira Gershwin Gallery, which is a collection display from The Library of Congress that rotates every six months; and the garden skylight, the hall's largest skylight, which contrasts the finished surfaces and raw structural elements.
“As The Music Center slowly reopens its doors to the community and tourists alike, we are very pleased to offer an updated audio tour with new, more inclusive options for people to learn about the rich history of one of Los Angeles' most iconic buildings and to get an insider's perspective on the reasoning and rationale behind the building's design and ground-breaking architecture,” said Rachel S. Moore, president and CEO of The Music Center.
All visitors must wear face coverings in accordance with L.A. County guidance. More information about the tours is available at musiccenter.org/visit/Exploring-the-Center.