The Los Angeles Music Center has collected $262 million in donations for Walt Disney Hall, leaving it just $10 million short of the building's $272 million estimated cost, the Los Angeles Times reports.
The swooping, shimmering Frank Gehry-designed concert hall, which will house the Los Angeles Philharmonic, opens on 23 October.
The Music Center has been raising funds for the hall since 1987, starting with a $50 million gift from Lillian B. Disney, the widow of Walt Disney. Officials said that donations had accelerated in the first two months of 2003.
Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Board of Supervisors voted to fund last-minute road, sidewalk and landscaping improvements in the area around the hall. Finishing in time for the opening is "going to be quite a challenge," said Lyn Wallensak, principal analyst for the county chief administrative officer. But, she said, "everybody's confident we can make it."
— Ben Mattison
"Disney
Concert Hall nears funding goal"
Christopher Reynolds - Los Angeles
Times - 5 March 2003
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