Frank Gehry's Colburn Concert Hall to Open September 25, 2027

Frank Gehry's 100,000-square-foot expansion for the Colburn School will open on September 25, 2027, with a gala concert in the new 1,000-seat Terri and Jerry Kohl Hall in downtown Los Angeles.

The institution announced the date alongside details of a building finished in a metallic pink coating, located adjacent to Colburn's Grand Avenue campus. The project reaches substantial completion in summer 2027. The first design images appeared in 2022.

Colburn is a school of music and dance whose downtown campus welcomes an estimated 10,000 people weekly and hosts more than 500 public performances each year.

What does the building look like?

Gehry's design consists of opaque and transparent interlocking volumes that step down with the site's contour. The opaque volumes carry metal cladding painted in "Pink Kandi" — a fluoropolymer resin-based coating with aluminum flake, developed specifically for the building and inspired by automobile Kandy paint.

A wide, light-filled entrance connects the building components and the gardens at street and rooftop level. The new structure complements Colburn's existing 428,137-square-foot facilities, which include administrative offices, a residence hall, the 430-seat Zipper Hall, the 189-seat Thayer Hall, plus rehearsal areas, practice rooms and studios.

Who shaped the concert hall's acoustics?

Terri and Jerry Kohl Hall uses an in-the-round design with an orchestra pit and a stage large enough for large-scale works and orchestrations. Natural light enters the space, and adjustable acoustic elements shaped like floating clouds hover above the performers.

The hall will accommodate large-scale orchestra, dance, opera, jazz and other productions, and will host both established and emerging performing arts organizations. It becomes the permanent home of the Colburn Orchestra, the flagship ensemble of the Conservatory of Music.

For the acoustic design, Gehry collaborated with Yasuhisa Toyota of Nagata Acoustics — his collaborator on the Walt Disney Concert Hall — and with Michael Ferguson, who previously consulted on Gehry's New World Center in Miami Beach and the Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College.

How much dance space does the expansion add?

The building integrates the new Dance Center, home of Colburn's Trudl Zipper Dance Institute, which triples the space currently dedicated to dance at the school. It includes:

• A 100-seat Studio Theater
• Four professional-sized studios for expanded dance instruction, rehearsals and performances

The Dance Center opens with the 2027-28 academic year in August 2027. Programming for the hall and the Dance Center — artist residencies, festivals, and performances featuring students, faculty, guest artists, ensembles, and resident and rental organizations — will be announced in spring 2026.

What happens at the opening?

A gala concert on September 25, 2027 inaugurates the hall. A community celebration and ribbon-cutting follow the next day, with free performances throughout Colburn's campus, inaugural performances at the Dance Center, and a grand finale concert in Terri and Jerry Kohl Hall.

The project lands amid a wave of major cultural openings. Gehry's Guggenheim Museum on Abu Dhabi's Saadiyat Island is expected to open December 11, 2026. In late September, Los Angeles saw the opening of MAD's 27,900-square-meter Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, and earlier this year Peter Zumthor's LACMA David Geffen Galleries opened with flexible space for diverse curatorial projects.