The other night, some friends of my mother’s were in town, a kind of last minute decision to travel from New Jersey to Los Angeles for a week. Their son, a childhood friend, let me know they were here and we made plans to meet for dinner in downtown L.A. At Ciudad, we talked about what they had been doing for the first few days they were here… Santa Barbara, Malibu, Hermosa Beach, San Diego. But they hadn’t yet explored Los Angeles and they were staying at the Westin-Bonaventure, in the heart of downtown. I told them the must-sees… the Central Library, the Bradbury Building, the Biltmore (be still my heart!), Grand Central Market, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chinatown, maybe even Pasadena, with its funky old downtown and beautiful historic homes. But there was one thing I wanted to show them… the most magnificent building in L.A. — Disney Hall.

I’d heard of Disney Hall long before it was built in 2003. Frank Gehry, the architect, finished his plans in 1991 and it took years before the funding was locked down. I remember seeing models of the hall, this bizarre looking building with few straight lines in sight.

Then the frame went up. It looked like the skeleton of a prehistoric animal. I bought season tickets to the first year of world music and was invited to preview the hall before it opened. It was spectacular.

So last Friday, we headed to my car and did a drive-by of Disney Hall. Wow. It still takes my breath away.

Walt Disney Hall, Los Angeles