With two major expansions of downtown Los Angeles' cultural institutions underway, Bunker Hill is poised to raise its profile as the region's leading arts center even as the surrounding area struggles with ongoing homelessness and post-pandemic office tenant losses.
Bunker Hill will soon house the largest concentration of Frank Gehry-designed buildings in the world, the architect told the Los Angeles Times, and promises to become a cultural center “unlike anywhere else.”
The Broad recently announced a $100 million project that will increase the gallery space at one of the city's most popular museums by 70%, and the Colburn School of the Performing Arts just broke ground on a $335 million expansion that will include a mid-sized concert venue. The hall – designed by Gehry – is expected to be used semi-permanently for events held by students, professional artists and academics.
Gehry has been a key player in the decades-long resurgence of Bunker Hill, a former residential neighborhood now home to cultural institutions, office skyscrapers, apartment towers and hotels. With the upcoming additions, Gehry said, Bunker Hill will go beyond the vision he, museum founder Eli Broad and other civic leaders had in the 1990s when he began work on the Walt Disney Concert Hall as part of the state-led Grand Avenue Neighborhood Revitalization Project.
Planners at the time hoped to capitalize on the appeal of the Music Center, which was built in the 1960s and served as a popular destination for arts patrons who typically came in and out without leaving its confines.
A view of the vast future expansion as seen from Hope Street.
(Courtesy of The Broad. © Diller Scofidio + Renfro (DS+R))
“We've come a long way since opening the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion and other Music Center venues,” Jerry said. “A lot of great energy has come to the fore.”
He acknowledged that Bunker Hill was still unlikely to feel similar to cultural centers in other major cities, and laughed at the reminder that Broad had suggested that Grand Avenue could become Los Angeles' version of the Champs-Élysées in Paris.
“Los Angeles can't be compared to anywhere else in the world. It's different from other cities,” Jerry said.
John Sicho, who has worked in downtown real estate since the 1980s, said Bunker Hill is somewhat removed from the homelessness and safety concerns that plague the financial district immediately south of it.
“Homelessness is a big problem that prevents office tenants from coming downtown,” he said. Safety issues are considered “real and perceived.”
In the two decades before the COVID-19 pandemic, civic leaders and property owners sought to uplift the financial district, which Sishu described as a “donut hole” between Bunker Hill — with its upscale cultural scene — and the booming new South Park neighborhood near Crypto. .com Arena and LA Live, where sports and entertainment ruled.
Thousands of apartments and condominiums were added to the Financial District — followed by bars, restaurants and shops that thrived on residents and office workers whose bosses took advantage of the relatively low rents in the gleaming towers their owners were upgrading.
The decline in street life due to workers staying home during the pandemic and continuing to work remotely has been a drain on the vitality and sense of security in the Financial District, discouraging office leasing and hindering the neighborhood's comeback, Sishu said.
Declining office values have led to foreclosures on some prominent office towers, including 444 S. Flower St., which was owned by Sischo's firm, Coretrust Capital Partners.
Famed architect Frank Gehry stands in the outdoor lounge area of Sed Bar, part of the luxury Conrad Los Angeles hotel across from the Walt Disney Concert Hall, which Gehry also designed.
(J.L. Clendenin/Los Angeles Times)
“Before Covid, it was really great,” he said of the Financial District.
The most transformative addition to Bunker Hill in recent years has been the Grand, a $1 billion hotel, apartments and retail complex designed by Gehry located across Grand Avenue from the Walt Disney Concert Hall, which he also designed.
“Now Disney has context,” Gehry said in 2022 on a balcony at the Grand Hotel overlooking the home of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. “For me, everything works for me now. Disney Hall doesn't feel so foreign.
The company that owns the Related Cause Hotel said that in the nearly two years since the Grand Hotel opened, its 45-storey residential tower has been almost completely leased.
Nicholas Vanderboom, Related California's chief operating officer, said the Conrad Los Angeles there is “outperforming the market,” in part because it “meets growing interest in Los Angeles arts institutions.”
Spanish chef José Andrés runs restaurants at the Grand Hotel, and more places to eat are coming to a part of the complex that has been dark since it opened, much to the dismay of neighbors who had been waiting for long-promised retail space on Grand Avenue. One of the features Gehry designed was to provide space for shops and restaurants on the street and on the terraces above that overlook the Disney Concert Hall, but remain mostly unoccupied.
Later this year, Andres will open Bazaar Meat, an upscale steakhouse that originated in Las Vegas, on the second floor. Santa Monica Italian, French and Moroccan restaurant Massilia will also open a branch on Grand Avenue this year, and other tenants will be announced in 2024, Related said.
The additions to Broad and Colburn promise to boost foot traffic on Grand Avenue, said Sil Cardin, president of Colburn School, which opened on Bunker Hill in 1998 with about 2,000 students.
The Broad Museum on Grand Avenue in downtown Los Angeles in April 2019.
(J.L. Clendenin/Los Angeles Times)
Construction has recently begun on an expansion to Colburn School that includes a medium-sized concert hall, which Cardin expects will be used semi-permanently for events organized by students, professional artists and academics. This is the third Gehry-designed building on Bunker Hill, giving downtown Los Angeles the highest concentration of Gehry buildings anywhere, his company said.
The Colburn Center, as the addition will be called, will include a 1,000-seat concert hall with a circular design intended to create an intimate relationship between performers and audience. Cardin said the hall will contain an orchestra hall and a stage large enough to accommodate “the finest works,” making it suitable for orchestra, opera and dance.
The new hall is expected to host more than 200 events annually at different times of the day. The Colburn Center will also double the facilities for the school's Trudl Zipper Dance Institute, creating what the school called “one of the most comprehensive dance education complexes in Southern California.” Dance facilities will include a 100-seat dance theater and four professional-sized studios for dance instruction and practice.
With the new addition, “there might be three or four shows on our campus on any given night,” Cardin said, a mix of educational performances, guest artists and events organized by local arts organizations.
The Colburn Center is scheduled to be completed in 2027. Museum President Joan Heller said the expansive expansion should open a year later, adding to the street life on Grand Avenue.
A model by architect Frank Gehry of an addition to the Colburn School, a private performing arts school in downtown Los Angeles, which will make Bunker Hill the only venue with three Gehry-designed buildings in close proximity to each other, on January 31, 2024.
(Christina House/Los Angeles Times)
Attendance at Broad is back to its pre-pandemic high of more than 900,000 visitors annually, with a new daily record of more than 6,000 set in March, she said.
“With the expansion, we are simply responding to the tremendous enthusiasm of our audience that is now in line with pre-pandemic levels and appears to be increasing,” she said.
“I have no illusions that downtown in general is devoid of challenges,” Heller said. “We as a whole area have a lot to work on, but as a meeting point, a place to enjoy a cultural destination, our experience with The Broad is that things are vibrant. And I know that goes against the typical downtown narrative.”
The Grand was “the next to last piece of the puzzle” for Bunker Hill, said owner Christopher Rising, whose company Rising Realty Partners owns two office buildings there. The final piece will be Angels Landing, a $1.6 billion hotel, residential and retail complex slated to rise next to the historic Angels Flight Railroad at Bunker Hill in time for the 2028 Olympics, he said.
Rising laments that office attendance remains below pre-pandemic levels, especially among nearby government buildings that were packed with public employees who helped bring a sense of activity to Grand Avenue and other downtown streets.
“There are years of vision coming to fruition” at Bunker Hill, Rising said, “but the vision was very dependent on synergy with government workers. Without them, things slow down.”
More can be done to improve Bunker Hill, and streets near Grand Avenue filled with parking lots are now ripe for development, Geary said. The Colburn addition will be constructed next to the existing school on a former asphalt lot at 2nd and Olive streets.
“To continue to raise expectations, we still have work to do,” such as “fixing up” the Chandler Pavilion to make it a better venue for opera performances, Gehry said.
“There are also opportunities to connect to the Arts District, Civic Center and Little Tokyo on East and West Streets,” he said. “This is very exciting for me.”
