kcoleman@usc.edu
Graduate Research Scholar Program
University of Southern California School of Architecture

student:
faculty:
contact:

Elizabeth Valmont, MBS
Marc Schiler
marcs@usc.edu
  RESEARCH summary 
title:
 Disney Hall Glare Report
  The iconic Walt Disney Concert Hall built at the Music Center of Downtown Los Angeles glistens in such a way as to set itself apart from the rest of its urban fabric. Although, the famous curvilinear shapes which make this Concert Hall so well known has given Los Angeles another reason to speak out about its design. Direct light from the sun reflects off the Concert Hall to neighboring buildings requiring the County of Los Angeles to launch an investigation for immediate remediation. Consequently, the commission has involved me to document this process and to take a series of digital photographs of specific parts of the building to observe when the direct sun angles reflected the strongest glare from the polished steel membrane.

The photographs were used to establish glare levels and were comparatively used by the computer simulations from programs such as Lightscape, AGI32 and Radiance to finally predict what course of action is necessary. Currently there is fabric close in color to the steel to eliminate the glare temporarily.




 
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