Based in Los Angeles, California, Shelter Asset Management (SAM) is a real estate advisory and consultancy firm founded in 2008. Its expertise involves devising and implementing the construction of single-family, subdivision, multi-family, and mixed used buildings. Among its projects, the firm has produced concept developments for mid-rise and high-rise buildings in the reinvigorated downtown LA area. Once neglected downtown LA has been revitalized since the opening of the Walt Disney Concert Hall. When the venue opened its doors in 2003, it quickly became a downtown landmark. The shavings of silver waves that form the building sits next to a leafy parking lot, which has come to be a meeting point or a place where office workers congregate for lunch or a quick break. Meanwhile, the ground-level theater hosts groundbreaking performances.

1. WALT DISNEY CONCERT HALL AND
LEGISLATION REVITALIZES
DOWNTOWN LA
Stuart Hansen

2. INTRODUCTION
Based in Los Angeles, California, Shelter Asset Management (SAM) is
a real estate advisory and consultancy firm founded in 2008. Its
expertise involves devising and implementing the construction of
single-family, subdivision, multi-family, and mixed used buildings.
Among its projects, the firm has produced concept developments for
mid-rise and high-rise buildings in the reinvigorated downtown LA
area.

3. Once neglected downtown LA has been revitalized since the
opening of the Walt Disney Concert Hall. When the venue opened
its doors in 2003, it quickly became a downtown landmark. The
shavings of silver waves that form the building sits next to a leafy
parking lot, which has come to be a meeting point or a place where
office workers congregate for lunch or a quick break. Meanwhile,
the ground-level theater hosts groundbreaking performances.

4. In 2013, Variety referred to the concert hall as LA’s living room,
and per a 2019 LA Times article, 300,000 people attend concerts in
the hall annually. However, downtown LA has not always been so
attractive to its residents.

5. At the beginning of the 20th century, structures such as the
Biltmore Hotel, Grand Central Market, and Braly Block defined
the area. Furthermore, the affluent neighborhood of Bunker Hill
and the residents who patronized its restaurants, theaters, and
department stores all contributed to the vitality of the area.

6. After World War II, though, the freeway system made it possible
for residents to commute. Moreover, wealthier downtown residents
left the area after developers converted once-great homes into
cheap rental spaces, mostly to the elderly and people with low-
income backgrounds. These residents could not afford to frequent
the theaters or dining establishments that littered the downtown
area, and these businesses eventually closed.

7. By 1950, 62,000 people inhabited the area, but 20 years later, the
city’s downtown population dwindled to 18,000. One person
described downtown LA as being desolate because the
establishments that once brought life to it no longer existed, except
for the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, the home of the Academy
Awards, and the Museum of Contemporary Art.

8. In the latter part of the 20th century, construction on the Disney
Concert Hall began, but the public was not excited enough about
the half-finished project to stir momentum and funding stagnated.
However, two pieces of local legislation brought life to downtown
LA and the concert hall.

9. The Adaptive Reuse Ordinance and the Arts Development Fee,
also called the “percent for art” program, were the catalyst for
developing a platform for the arts in downtown LA. The Adaptive
Reuse Ordinance asked developers to renovate historic buildings
and turn them into housing, and in exchange, the city waived
zoning requirements, which sped up the approval process. The
Arts Development Fee, instituted in 1992, required developers of
buildings costing more than $500,000 to pay 1 percent of the
permit costs, which went to fund public art.

10. These two laws were the catalysts for renewed interest in funding
the rest of the construction for the Disney Concert Hall. At the
time of its opening, critics described it as “an architectural triumph
and a cultural landmark.”