The Colburn School has tapped architect Frank Gehry to design an expansion of its campus in Downtown Los Angeles.

Slated for a property bounded by Olive, Hill and 2nd Streets, the project would consist of an approximately 200,000-square-foot building featuring three new performance venues, in addition to classrooms, a dance rehearsal center, and student and guest artist housing.  Plans call for a 1,100-seat concert hall, capable of hosting full-scale orchestra performances, in addition to a 700-seat studio theater for dance and vocal performances, and a 100-seat cabaret-style space.

The Colburn School acquired the development site in 2016, which sits catacorner to its existing campus along Grand Avenue.  The Colburn's current facilities span approximately 430,000 square feet, and includes a Music Conservatory.

The expansion will add to an already-large collection of cultural institutions centered along Grand Avenue, including the Walt Disney Concert Hall, the Music Center, The Broad and the Museum of Contemporary Art.  A new Metro station that will serve these institutions and surrounding businesses is currently under construction just two blocks east at 2nd and Hope Streets.

It also represents a growing cluster of Gehry-designed projects in Downtown, following Disney Hall and the Grand, a two-tower development from Related Cos. that is slated to break ground across the street from the Colburn later this year.  A later phase of the Grand would encompass an L.A. County-owned parking lot next to the Colburn expansion.