Frank Gehry launches designs for YOLA Center at Inglewood

A model of the white Interior view of the center showing the auditorium with gold semi circle platform on the right, and the theatre-like seating area on the left. Silver human shaped objects placed on the seating area and the stage.

Frank Gehry’s deisgn for the YOLA Center in Inglewood, Los Angeles, transforms a former branch office of Security Pacific Bank into a multi-purpose venue for music education and community outreach. Pictured here, an interior model view of the Judith and Thomas L. Beckmen YOLA Center at Inglewood, Rehearsal Configuration. Photo courtesy of Gehry Partners, LLP

(Image credit: Gehry Partners, LLP)

By Harriet Thorpe

last updated 14 August 2022

in News

Frank Gehry has launched new designs for the Judith and Thomas L. Beckmen YOLA Center in Inglewood, Los Angeles, the first permanent, purpose-built facility for Youth Orchestra Los Angeles (YOLA), an initiative of the LA Phil founded in 2007. This new building will join Gehry's Walt Disney Concert Hall and the Hollywood Bowl as a key hub for the LA Phil's cultural activities.

The design transforms the former branch office of Security Pacific Bank, located at 101 South La Brea Avenue, in the civic center of the City of Inglewood. The light-filled, flexible facility for rehearsals, classes, and performances serving as many as 500 students a year, providing a community gathering space and a cultural resource.

Exterior transparent model view of the center with the interior visible. designed against a black background. — Exterior model view of the Judith and Thomas L. Beckmen YOLA Center @ Inglewood, interior concert configuration. Photo courtesy of Gehry Partners, LLP

YOLA currently serves more than 1,200 students in South Los Angeles, the Rampart District, Westlake/MacArthur Park, and East LA, with free instruments, intensive music training and academic support, empowering participants to become ‘vital citizens, leaders, and agents of change’.

The new building will enable YOLA to double its student intake and continue working to bring music education to the communities it serves.

A model of the aerial view of the centre with the hexagon shaped auditorium in the center — Aerial model view of the Judith and Thomas L. Beckmen YOLA Center @ Inglewood, concert configuration. Photo courtesy of Gehry Partners, LLP

Led by Gustavo Dudamel, music and artistic director, YOLA has become one of the most influential community-based music education programmes in the United States.

‘It’s a privilege for me to work with Gustavo to create a place where students can feel comfortable, secure, and welcome as they learn to express themselves through music,’ says Gehry.

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the LA Phil website and the Gehry Partners, LLP website

Harriet Thorpe is a writer, journalist and editor covering architecture, design and culture, with particular interest in sustainability, 20th-century architecture and community. After studying History of Art at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) and Journalism at City University in London, she developed her interest in architecture working at Wallpaper* magazine and today contributes to Wallpaper*, The World of Interiors and Icon magazine, amongst other titles. She is author of The Sustainable City (2022, Hoxton Mini Press), a book about sustainable architecture in London, and the Modern Cambridge Map (2023, Blue Crow Media), a map of 20th-century architecture in Cambridge, the city where she grew up.