One determined newspaper publisher's wife raised over eighteen million dollars - Time magazine called it the most impressive display of virtuoso money-raising in the history of American womanhood - and Los Angeles finally got its great concert hall. The Dorothy Chandler Pavilion at 135 North Grand Avenue, the founding building of the Music Center on Bunker Hill, was dedicated on 27 September 1964 and opened with a gala Los Angeles Philharmonic concert under Zubin Mehta that December. Designed by Welton Becket and Associates and named for Dorothy Buffum Chandler, who willed the 33.5-million-dollar complex into existence, it anchored downtown's claim to cultural capital status. The hall seats 3,156 across four tiers - orchestra, circle, loge and balcony - under crystal chandeliers and wide curving stairways, with continental seating that puts ninety percent of a full house within 105 feet of the stage. That stage is one of the largest and most flexible in the nation: 60 feet wide and up to 240 feet deep, with a three-part mechanical orchestra pit and dressing space below for two hundred dancers and chorus members. For decades it was the Philharmonic's home, until Walt Disney Concert Hall opened across the street in 2003; today it houses LA Opera - whose seasons under directors including Placido Domingo built it into a major international company - and the Glorya Kaufman Presents Dance series bringing the world's ballet and contemporary companies to its boards. Hollywood knows the building from its other career: the Academy Awards were staged here for twenty-five ceremonies between 1969 and 1999, the golden statuettes descending its red-carpeted steps through the industry's defining era. With the Mark Taper Forum and Ahmanson Theatre beside it and Disney Hall glinting opposite, the Pavilion completes one of America's great performing-arts blocks - reachable by Metro at Civic Center or Grand Avenue Arts, crowning the hill above the Civic Center.

Type: Theater / Concert Hall

Address: 135 North Grand Avenue, Los Angeles, CA, United States, 90012

Website: https://www.musiccenter.org

Capacity: 3156

Opening Date: 27/09/1964

Serves Food

Accessible