KBS  31st Annual Symposium

TOURS!  TOURS!  TOURS!

Here are the KBS 2005 tour options we have arranged.  Please look at each description and decide which tour you would like to go on.  Email Rob Parker, at robnp@aol.com with your reservation and the number in your party, and then be prepared to pay for the tour at the Conference Registration when you check in.  The sooner we know a tour will go, the sooner we can guarantee the tour options and facilities.  Please email with any comments or suggestions.

 

1) - GETTY MUSEUM                                      Cost: $35.00

The collection of art in this relatively new Museum is focused on European Paintings, Decorative Arts, Old Master Drawings, Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts, 19th & 20th Century American & European Photographs.  The museum itself, is a major work of art and architecture, with fantastic views of the City, some expensive Hollywood Celebrity homes, and the Pacific Ocean.

Getty Museum Architecture

The Getty Center's architect, Richard Meier, is an award-winning architect who has been called "the ultimate voice of twentieth century modernism". Meier took a few basic materials: metal, stone and glass, (and a billion dollar budget) and combined them to create a work of art/architecture that excites visitors as much as the art collection inside.

On a docent-led architecture tour, I found myself electrified with excitement, every hair on end. Around every corner and at every turn there was a new view to enchant. And then, just when I thought I'd seen it all, a new fountain or bit of landscaping popped up. According to our docent: "People come here with the idea that they're going to a museum with works of art on the inside, but they're really visiting a work of art with a museum inside".

It's an interesting concept, the idea that an outdoor space can be a completely satisfying artistic experience, and yet my unwillingness to go inside to see the collections reinforces its truth.

The building stone is travertine, from the same source as the coliseum in Rome. A guillotine cutting process exposes fossils long buried inside, their delicacy in contrast to the violence of the process that revealed them. The best twenty four of these are set as "feature" stones scattered about the site, waiting to delight those who find them. The Architecture and Gardens map shows the location of several, with one of the most fantastic located on the restaurant and cafe side of the arrival plaza wall

The trip will be 90 minutes on the bus to get there and 2 hours to get back, with about 3 hours to see the Museum and the collection; admission is free, and there are numerous restaurants and food carts for a late lunch, a snack, or early dinner; return top Mission Inn about 8 pm.

2) - TEMECULA WINERIES                                Cost: $40.00

There is a small but vibrant vineyard and winery area south of Riverside in the town of Temeula.  The Tour will focus on 2 wineries, with a full tour and tasting afterwards.  This is a beautiful area and should make for a relaxing trip; many of the wines are very good, but are seldom seen outside of the area.  Bus ride is about 50 minutes to 1 Hour depending on traffic.

 3) – MODERN ARCHITECTURE AND MODERN ART IN DOWNTON L.A.                    Cost: $40.00

This will involve 1 and ˝ hours drive each way to see the latest in Modern Architecture and modern art in Downtown Los Angeles: 

a. Our Lady of the Angels Cathedral 

What historically took centuries to construct was accomplished in three years in the building of the 11-story Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels. This first Roman Catholic Cathedral to be erected in the western United States in 30 years began construction on May 1999 and was completed by the spring of 2002.

Spanish architect, Professor José Rafael Moneo has designed a dynamic, contemporary Cathedral with virtually no right angles. This geometry contributes to the Cathedral's feeling of mystery and its aura of majesty.

The challenge in designing and building a new Cathedral Church was to make certain that it reflected the diversity of all people. Rather than duplicate traditional designs of the Middle Ages in Europe, the Cathedral is a new and vibrant expression of the 21st century Catholic peoples of Los Angeles.

Just as many European Cathedrals are built near rivers, Moneo considered the Hollywood Freeway as Los Angeles' river of transportation, the connection of people to each other. The site is located between the Civic Center and the Cultural Center of the city.

"I wanted both a public space," said Moneo, "and something else, what it is that people seek when they go to church." To the architect, the logic of these two competing interests suggested, first of all, a series of "buffering, intermediating spaces" -- plazas, staircases, colonnades, and an unorthodox entry.

Worshippers enter on the south side, rather than the center, of the Cathedral through a monumental set of bronze doors cast by sculptor Robert Graham (The cost of these doors was donated to the Church by Arnold Schwarzenegger our current governor, and his wife, Maria Shirver, a member of the famous Kennedy political family of the US). The doors are crowned by a completely contemporary statue of Our Lady of the Angels.

A 50 foot concrete cross "lantern" adorns the front of the Cathedral. At night its glass- protected alabaster windows are illuminated and can be seen at a far distance.

The 151 million pound Cathedral rests on 198 base isolators so that it will float up to 27 inches during a magnitude 8 point earthquake. The design is so geometrically complex that none of the concrete forms could vary by more than 1/16th of an inch.

The Cathedral is built with architectural concrete in a color reminiscent of the sun-baked adobe walls of the California Missions and is designed to last 500 years.

b) Disney Hall

Designed by internationally renowned architect, Frank Gehry, the 293,000-square-foot Concert Hall features a wavy, steel exterior designed to look like a ship with its sail at full mast. Gehry wanted to create the feeling of traveling along a ceremonial barge to music. The centerpiece of the Concert Hall, a 2,265-seat auditorium with natural lighting in which the audience surrounds the orchestra, was designed to look and feel like the ship's hull. The auditorium's curved wood ceiling is meant to evoke the feeling of billowing sails. The "vineyard" shape of the Hall with its curved wood ceiling is designed to retain the superb acoustical characteristics of a traditional "shoebox" style concert hall. Audience members surround the orchestra platform for a uniquely interactive and intimate experience.

An extensive backstage technical area, which surrounds the Hall, provides state-of-the-art space for a choral rehearsal hall and other rehearsal areas, as well as a music library, reading room and storage specifically designed for the Los Angeles Philharmonic's instruments.

Walt Disney Concert Hall complex also includes the Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater (REDCAT), a 250-seat multi-use theater and a 3,000-square-foot art gallery operated and programmed by California Institute of the Arts. Located at the southwest corner of Walt Disney Concert Hall complex at Second and Hope Streets, REDCAT is accessible through a separate main entrance, retaining its own distinct identity.

The 17,000-square foot Alfred E. Mann Los Angeles Philharmonic Association Center is located at the south end of the Walt Disney Concert Hall complex and features office space, board and conference rooms, and a reception area. The interior was designed by Chu + Gooding Architects, Los Angeles.

PIPE ORGAN:
A pipe organ with 6,125 pipes, occupies a central position between the seating sections at the rear of the stage. Designed by Los Angeles organ designer Manuel Rosales (sound design) and Gehry (organ form design) and fabricated by Glatter-Götz Orgelbau, GmbH, in Owingen, Germany, the organ will makes its debut one year after the Hall's opening.

BUILDING MATERIALS:
The dramatically curved exterior of Walt Disney Concert Hall is clad in 22 million pounds of primary steel joined out of 12,500 individual pieces that range from 13 inches to 110 feet long. No two pieces are identical, and some weigh as much as 165,000 pounds. Placed end to end, the steel pieces would stretch 49 miles. In contrast to the harsh steel exterior, the auditorium and many of the smaller performance areas in the four-story concert hall are filled with the warmth of Douglas Fir wood featured on floors, walls and ceilings. In addition, the abstracted floral patterned carpet and upholstery were designed in tribute to Lillian's love of gardens and gardening.

ACOUSTICS:
To design the interior of the Hall with an acoustical quality intended to surpass the best concert halls in the world and to plan for the installation of a stunning 6,125-pipe organ in its main auditorium, Gehry collaborated with world-renowned acoustic expert Yasuhisa Toyota from Nagata Acoustics. The sail-like curves of the ceiling and flow of the interior walls improve the acoustics by scattering the sound and producing more reflections. The Hall went through a rigorous series of tests, the last of which was conducted on a model that was one-tenth the size of the actual Hall. Sound impulses at 10 times the normal frequency were used to verify the final shaping of the walls and ceiling, as well as for tuning the Hall's reverberation by the placement of absorbent material.

PRINCIPALS
MUSIC CENTER:
John Emerson, Chairman and CEO, Board of Directors; Andrea Van de Kamp, Chairman Emeritus; Stephen Rountree, President and COO

DESIGN ARCHITECT:
Gehry Partners, LLP: Frank Gehry - Design Partner; James Glymph - Project Partner; Terry Bell - Project Manager; Craig Webb - Project Designer; David Pakshong, William Childers, David Hardie and Kristin Woehl - Project Architects

ACOUSTICIAN:
Nagata Acoustics; Los Angeles, California (headquarters: Tokyo, Japan): Dr. Minoru Nagata - Executive Advisor; Yasuhisa Toyota - Director, Project Chief

THEATER CONSULTANTS:
Theatre Projects Consultants

MUSIC CENTER RESIDENT COMPANIES
LOS ANGELES PHILHARMONIC:
Esa-Pekka Salonen, Music Director; Deborah Borda, President and CEO; John Hotchkis, Chairman

c) Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA):

Designed by Arata Isozaki, MOCA Grand Avenue is host to elegant underground galleries, the Patinette café, the flagship location of the MOCA Store, and staff offices.

The Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles is home to one of the country's finest collections of American and European art created since 1940. MOCA currently holds approximately 5,000 objects in all visual media, ranging from masterpieces of abstract expressionism and pop art to recent works by young and emerging artists. Selections from the permanent collection are on view in MOCA's galleries throughout the year.

Key acquisitions and gifts from several major collectors form the cornerstones of MOCA's permanent collection.

The Panza Collection, a 1984 purchase from Giuseppe and Giovanna Panza di Biumo of Milan, encompasses 80 seminal works of abstract expressionism and pop art by Jean Fautrier, Franz Kline, Roy Lichtenstein, Claes Oldenburg, Robert Rauschenberg, James Rosenquist, Mark Rothko, George Segal, and Antoni Tapies.

A 1986 bequest, The Barry Lowen Collection, includes 67 works of minimalist, post-minimalist, and neo-expressionist painting, sculpture, photography, and drawing by artists such as Dan Flavin, Ellsworth Kelly, Agnes Martin, Elizabeth Murray, Julian Schnabel, Joel Shapiro, Frank Stella, and Cy Twombly.

The Rita and Taft Schreiber Collection, a 1989 gift, features 18 superb abstract expressionist paintings, sculptures, and drawings by 13 artists, including Alberto Giacometti, Arshile Gorky, Piet Mondrian, and Jackson Pollock.

Given to the museum in 1991, The Scott D. F. Spiegel Collection focuses on work by established and emerging artists, among them Jean-Michel Basquiat, Mark Innerst, Robert Longo, Susan Rothenberg, and David Salle. Furthermore, the Scott D. F. Spiegel Endowment Fund makes possible the future purchase of exemplary works of art.

The Ralph M. Parsons Foundation Photography Collection, a 1995 purchase of 2,300 documentary pictures by the great photographers Diane Arbus, Brassaď, Robert Frank, Lee Friedlander, Helen Levitt, Danny Lyon, Roger Mertin, John Pfahl, and Garry Winogrand, contributed immeasurably to the museum's photography holdings.

The 1996 bequest of Marcia Simon Weisman brought 83 exquisite prints and drawings to MOCA's permanent collection, including work by Willem de Kooning, Richard Diebenkorn, Sam Francis, David Hockney, Jasper Johns, Robert Motherwell, Barnett Newman, and Clyfford Still. In connection with the gift, MOCA has established a works-on-paper study center at the museum.

The remarkable growth of MOCA's permanent collection received renewed attention in 1997 when the Lannan Foundation made an extraordinary gift of 114 works by 53 artists. This important gift increased the museum's holdings of several significant Southern California artists such as Wallace Berman, Chris Burden, Mike Kelley, Charles Ray, and Jim Shaw. Additionally, within the past two years, the museum has received several individual gifts of video and multimedia installations, including pieces by Doug Aitken, Tracey Emin, Steve McQueen, Pipilotti Rist, and Diana Thater.

MOCA has also been fortunate to receive gifts of work from many artists. Among the most significant of these gifts are 10 paintings from Sam Francis representing the major phase of his development from 1951 to 1992 and a gift from Ed Moses of 11 paintings from pivotal phases of his career. In 1996 the Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation donated six box constructions and 15 collages by Joseph Cornell, one of the most significant American artists of this century.

4) - LAGUNA BEACH                                Cost: $25.00

A beautiful community on the Pacific Ocean, with one of the most attractive beaches on the nearby coast.  In addition, many art galleries and restaurants of all types and cuisines, this is a great place to have lunch, walk on the beach, swim if you dare, and enjoy the beautiful people of upscale Southern California.  About 75 minutes drive each way, depending on traffic.

5) - PALM SPRINGS                                  Cost: $40.00

Now here's a spot for everyone.  History of yesteryear from the 30's, 40's,
and very early 50's from Hollywood.  Time to walk down that famous 'palm
canyon' drive trying to select a favorite restaurant to chow down at. Home of the famous 'Palm Springs' follies extravaganza; plus a 'special' tour guide to point out the old timer's homes - Liberace, Elvis, Kirk Douglas, and other rather famous stars of yesterday.  This tour will probably not return back to the Mission Inn until 'around' 8:00 p.m.

 

This page was last updated:  05/11/05 11:16 AM