THE PLACES TO BE; STAPLES CENTER ISN'T THE ONLY NEW VENUE THAT'S COMING TO TOWN.

Byline: Marla Matzer Staff Writer

The Staples Center will open tonight with great fanfare and throngs of Bruce Springsteen fans streaming in for their first look at the lavish new arena. But Staples Center is just the beginning: over the next two years, Los Angeles is expected to undergo a major changing of the guard in sports and entertainment venues.

Imagine Madison Square Garden, Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall all being replaced by newer venues within a couple of years of each other. Welcome to Los Angeles, circa 2000 - we've just gotten a new arena (Staples Center), and a new classical music hall (Disney Hall) and sparkling new theater that will house the Academy Awards and live shows (TrizecHahn's Hollywood and Highland project) are on the horizon.

All told, these venues will cost about three-quarters of a billion dollars to build. But there's more than money at stake: These projects hold the promise of finally making real the long-discussed ``revitalization'' of the down-at-the-heels neighborhoods of Hollywood and downtown Los Angeles.

Why the building boom? The truth is, L.A. is overdue for a major overhaul of its concert sites. Despite the legendary reputations of some grand old theaters, the truth is that theaters and arenas get old fast as new innovations in sound and design come along. Even if they're not totally replaced, theaters such as Carnegie Hall need periodic acoustical updates to stay current with technology and audience expectations.

``The Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, where the Los Angeles Philharmonic performs now, is a multipurpose room,'' explains Craig Webb, a design architect with Frank Gehry and Associates, working on Disney Hall. ``It's designed to accommodate opera, the orchestra and large stage productions.

``The Philharmonic's music suffers the most,'' Webb continues. ``People liken hearing the orchestra there to the sound of the orchestra being in the dining room while they're sitting in the living room listening. It's like they're in a totally different room.''

Disney Hall will be a ``surround'' hall, where the stage is actually surrounded by the audience. This type of hall, Webb says, has really only become popular since the 1960s. Dorothy Chandler Pavilion was built in 1964. Disney Hall will also be more intimate, creating a better sound for the orchestra: there will be 2,250 seats vs. the Chandler's 3200.

A convergence of economic, political and social factors is also credited with the synchronicity of these projects moving forward. Mayor Richard Riordan is credited by the developers of the various projects with making development and revitalization a priority. Riordan has personally given money to the Disney Hall fund-raising campaign, as well as to the nearby Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels.

Riordan isn't shy about taking a good share of the credit for the apparent renaissance in development. Asked why he thought all these projects were happening now, he replies with a hearty laugh: ``You have a great mayor!'' He quickly backed up his statement: ``We've cut down on the time it takes to do things by 80 percent ... The economy's doing well, and I think there's also a real confidence in government. Before I was mayor, they'd made it incredibly hard for business.''

Indeed, there's a general buzz among civic boosters that, after years of economic recession and disasters both natural and man-made, the time is finally right for L.A.

``We've pretty much recovered from the huge recession of the early '90s now ... and I think a lot of people are now recognizing this as the city of the Pacific Rim and want to really make something out of our city,'' says Andrea Van de Kamp, a director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

It certainly didn't happen overnight. The Staples Center moved forward very quickly, but other projects have taken years to happen. Hollywood and Highland had a protracted, stop-and-start development history: At one point, the Walt Disney Co. planned to back a similar development on the same site (the company already owns the El Capitan theater building across the street). That fell through for several reasons, including the fact that the motion picture academy reportedly thought it politically imprudent to hold its annual awards in a venue owned by one of the major movie studios.

The Phil's soon-to-be new home, Disney Hall, has taken a decade or so longer to get off the ground than anticipated. Not atypical of such philanthropic projects, this delay was due to funding shortfalls. Now, with the robust economy and the Philharmonic enjoying its greatest-ever international reputation, Disney Hall is expected to open by fall 2002.

How will new venues such as Disney Hall affect the way Angelenos spend their leisure time and their entertainment dollar? Van de Kamp says the Philharmonic's board hopes Disney Hall will be just one of several attractions that begin to make downtown L.A. a place people will want to spend time.

``We are looking for a `destination place,' in Disney language,'' Van de Kamp says. Though architect Frank Gehry's postmodern design for the hall has been controversial, Van de Kamp praises the plan and says the building is sure to draw interest in itself. ``Gehry is one of the world's leading architects. He creates worldwide events,'' she says.

``Along with Arata Isozaki's Museum of Contemporary Art and Jose Rafael Moneo's cathedral (of Our Lady of the Angels, expected to be completed by December 2001),'' Van de Kamp continues, ``we will have almost a triangle of ... prize-winning architects in (downtown) Los Angeles.

``It used to be considered that we didn't have any great architecture,'' Van de Kamp says. ``It also creates opportunities for restaurants, sidewalk cafes and the like in the area ... It's to all our advantages to have a walking kind of feeling between the cathedral, MOCA and Disney Hall.''

Quite simply, size matters in all these current projects. Developers have seen what happens when a single building is plopped in the middle of an urban war zone: nothing. People don't want to come there. Downtown is a big, mostly down-at-the-heels area, but there are a number of other big, planned projects - including a revitalization of the old bank district along Fourth Street - that boosters hope will create a halo effect that will pull up the rest of downtown.

At the other end of downtown, next to the Convention Center, those behind the Staples Center have similar hopes for creating a downtown oasis in what is now a gritty, run-down industrial area. ``Two hundred and fifty thousand people come downtown every day. They're all going home at 5 o'clock. We'd like to change that, give them a reason to stay,'' says Michael Roth, spokesman for the Staples Center.

Riordan admits he was ``skeptical'' when his team first approached him with plans for the Staples Center. ``There were so many problems there,'' the mayor says. ``There was a hotel where they were selling drugs. There were some cheap stores. It was a mess.'' Now, the mayor is extremely enthusiastic. ``These downtown projects have already made a big impact. L.A. will become a true downtown; it will bring about 10 million more people downtown every year.''

Like Disney Hall, the Staples Center isn't just hoping to create a new building to house concerts and events. The owners of the arena - including L.A. Kings owner Philip Anschutz and Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. - also control 30 acres of land around Staples Center that they plan to develop with restaurants, retail shops and a hotel. The idea is to create a complex that capitalizes on the draw of the Staples Center and its next-door neighbor, the L.A. Convention Center.

Besides the popular move toward creating ``multiuse'' developments rather than just stand-alones - a similar new development, for example, is being proposed for San Francisco - Staples Center represents the trend to cater to upscale customers through perks like plush box seating and private ``clubs'' within the arena. The Staples Center features such high-roller perks as $300,000 boxes with waiter service and a private restaurant with annual dues of $10,000.

Sean Brenner, managing editor of the Chicago-based IEG Sponsorship Report, says the premium prices that such amenities command ``has really driven the stadium and arena building boom through the '90s.'' Brenner says that other stadiums under construction in such cities as Indianapolis and Atlanta are taking a similar tack and incorporating sponsorship and advertising opportunities ``from the blueprint stage.''

There's no question the rich will have it better than the common folk at the Staples Center, but there is also a trickle-down effect. The money brought in by catering to the deep-pocketed and selling naming rights to everything from the arena itself to areas and smaller signs within the venue pumps more money into the project that can be used to enhance the experience for all attendees with beautifully appointed common areas and state-of-the-art sound systems. So even those in the cheaper seats for concerts by such acts as Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, the Eurythmics and the Eagles will benefit.

Another way for a venue to guarantee steady income is to secure a big yearly event. The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences has committed to staging its yearly Grammy Awards bash at the Staples Center in 2000 and possibly beyond. To the west of downtown, the Hollywood and Highland project has booked the Oscars, hosted by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, for the next decade.

Like downtown, Hollywood has been long overdue for a makeover. In Hollywood's case, the effects of recession and a general slide into disrepair were exacerbated by protracted work on L.A.'s subway, which tied up traffic, blocked access to merchants and made Hollywood Boulevard sink in some places by an inch or more.

Could Hollywood and Highland finally be the long-awaited catalyst for Hollywood's revitalization? ``Hollywood will finally become the dream that everyone had when they first heard about it,'' says Riordan, who called the TrizecHahn project ``the cornerstone for a Hollywood renaissance'' at its groundbreaking one year ago.

``We've tried to position this (project) as a piece of the larger urban revitalization,'' says David Malmuth, a senior vice president of San Diego-based TrizecHahn. Malmuth says the firm's models were places like Old Town Pasadena and Santa Monica's Third Street Promenade, which have ``become larger than just a block or two ... you have to be big enough to really have an impact on the whole surrounding area.''

Hollywood and Highland has also secured agreements with such successful entertainment entrepreneurs as Quincy Jones - who plans to open a restaurant/nightclub called Q's Jook Joint in the complex - and Peter Holmes a Court of theatrical producer Back Row Productions. This guarantees the venue live, original entertainment, not just prefab touring productions. Though no programming has been announced for the Hollywood venture yet, Holmes a Court's previous credits include the American productions of ``Tap Dogs'' and ``Spirit.''

``Los Angeles has never had a destination like this before,'' says Holmes a Court. ``For the first time, L.A. theatergoers can park, dine and see a fabulous show in a world class venue - all in one location.''

Actually, if the downtown projects have their way, Hollywood and Highland will have some competition for the ``destination dollar.'' Will Angelenos flock to the new venues? Sure - wherever there is highly promoted entertainment, audiences will follow. Will L.A. finally come of age as the top city in the country for not just filmed but live entertainment? Though New York may never concede defeat, it appears that L.A. may be on its way.

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10 Photos

PHOTO (1 -- 3 cover) Existing venues: Shrine Auditorium, Great Western Forum and Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.

(4 -- cover -- color) Staples Center

Gus Ruelas/Staff Photographer

(5 -- cover -- color) Disney Hall

(6 -- cover -- color) TrizecHahn's project at Hollywood and Highland.

(7) A visitor strolls through the Staples Center, which will be home to the Clippers, Kings and Lakers as well as a stop for top music acts.

Gus Ruelas/Staff Photographer

(8) A sketch of TrizecHahn's Hollywood and Highland development shows the complex that will feature a new theater designed to present the Academy Awards and other live shows.

(9) Disney Hall, slated to present concerts by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, is a state-of-the art classical music venue where the stage will surround the audience.

(10) Investors in the Staples Center, including L.A. Kings owner Philip Anschutz and Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. - also control 30 acres of surrounding land that they plan to develop.

Gus Ruelas/Staff Photographer