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Twelve years after Walt Disney's widow, Lillian Disney, donated $50 million toward the construction of a new venue to host the Los Angeles Philharmonic, ground has finally been broken on the $239.5 million Walt Disney Concert Hall - almost four years after the venue's parking garage opened.
Complex negotiations between the Philharmonic and government agencies, compounded by financial difficulties, were behind the delay But now the 2,290-seat concert hall is on track for a fall 2002 opening, even though the project is still $15 million short of being able to pay the final bill.
The Walt Disney Concert Hall will be the fourth venue of the Performing Arts Center of Los Angeles County complex, which includes the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, the Ahmanson Theatre and the Mark Taper Forum. The venues are owned by Los Angeles County in a public/private partnership. Private funding is used to build the facilities on countyowned land. The concert hall is expected to boost attendance at the facilities from 1.6 million to 2.2 million annually.
The Philharmonic will perform 150 concerts at the venue each season, according to Norma Flynn, director of public relations for Walt Disney Concert Hall, then the county can book other kinds of acts during the summer. "We get first dibs," Flynn said. The seven-level, underground Concert Hall Parking Garage opened in March 1996. It is being used to supplement downtown parking,...