For more than 100 years, the Hollywood Bowl has been a public park1 managed by Los Angeles County and operated by the Hollywood Bowl Association (which later became part of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association). Through this partnership, the venue has remained open to everyone, every day, all year long.
Few people understand the responsibility of preserving the Bowl and its grounds more intimately than Mark Ladd, who is, in many ways, the embodiment of the partnership between the LA Phil and LA County.
As Director of Operations at the Bowl and its county-appointed Superintendent, Ladd has been a devoted caretaker of the venue going back to 1979. From managing the grounds and helping write the Bowl’s design guidelines2 to monitoring wildlife activity and advocating for more efficient transportation, Ladd oversees the many moving pieces that help the Bowl look and feel as durable, useful, and beautiful as it is.
“From the very beginning, we’ve had a cavalcade of incredible stars perform here, and we always want to have respect for what they did by sustaining this place,” Ladd says. But if you look around, you’ll notice some factors that can make this work a challenge.
“We’ve shoehorned this venue in a tiny little canyon, in a neighborhood, in a mountain fire zone, next to a giant freeway [the 101], and the second-busiest street in Los Angeles [Highland Avenue] intersects our property,” Ladd says. The Bowl was here before most of those things, of course, but they’re all part of what makes this venue both a local treasure and a global destination.
People love coming here, so we need to make sure that we treat [them] like you would welcoming people into your home.”
A fifth-generation Californian, Ladd comes from what he calls a “real pioneer family”3 that values community, the environment, and the relationship between the two. In a way, Ladd “inherited” his dedication to the area and nature. Growing up in a remote area of the Cleveland National Forest in the Santa Ana Mountains, Ladd says, “you couldn’t get TV out there! You had to make your own fun.” His front yard sat at the base of a steep, narrow canyon where he played with the neighborhood kids by the creek, caught and released animals, and learned firsthand about the spectacular native plants. (That included the not-so-spectacular ones. “You don’t want to play with poison oak!” Ladd says.)
Under Ladd’s supervision, the LA Phil and LA County are continuing their century-long collaborative stewardship of this iconic site while welcoming over 1 million annual visitors to one of the most biodiverse places in the world. This requires maintaining the world-class performance venue, preserving its native plants, protecting migrating birds, and making sure audiences and wildlife coexist in this special place.4
On the park grounds, you’ll find eco-friendly upgrades like water-saving restrooms,5 carefully managed green waste that’s reused or recycled, and a high-tech irrigation system.6 We even use stainless-steel grates and special filters to clean the runoff water and protect our waterways and local wildlife from pollutants.
Brush rabbits, California quails, and western fence lizards are just a few of the many species that call this natural oasis home. Plus, native plants like the coffeeberry, California sycamore, sugar bush, and monkey flower help keep the habitat healthy and resilient in the face of drought, wildfires, and other environmental threats.
When you take the Bowl Shuttle or Park & Ride,7 you’re also helping us keep thousands of cars off the streets and cut down on carbon emissions in the neighborhood. If you enjoy picnicking here, consider reusing your food and beverage containers, and dispose of any waste in the proper bins.
Whether you’re here for a concert, a morning hike, a picnic, or just a moment of stillness in nature, the Bowl is your backyard. And like any backyard, it thrives when we take good care of it.
1. The Hollywood Bowl sits in the middle of an 88-acre park with 14 picnic areas and over 800 trees. Last year we planted 40 more—keep an eye out for them over the next 10 years! They’ll be around for at least a century.
2. The 2002 Hollywood Bowl Design Guidelines is a 169-page document that includes everything from dimensions and detailed sketches of the bench seats to tile and grout treatments for the fountains to aesthetic rulings on when and where primary colors, pastels, and earth tones can be used. The 15-page landscape section—written entirely by Ladd—also outlines the proper way to hang vines on sound walls, use lighting to emphasize texture and silhouettes, and nurture plants native to the Hollywood Hills.
3. Among Ladd’s relatives are founding elders of the three oldest Presbyterian churches in Southern California, the first mayor of Inglewood, a member of the State Assembly, a University of California Regent, trustees at Pomona and Occidental Colleges, president of the Irvine Company, and founders of Orange County and Newport Beach. The city of Lamont, near Bakersfield, is named after his great-great-great grandmother, Effie Lamont. His great-great grandmother Flora Babcock graduated from Los Angeles High School in 1875!
4. In 2010, the Bowl became California’s first amphitheater—and the 58th property in the world—to become a Certified Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary. That means we’re an official champion of energy and natural resource conservation, waste reduction, and other sustainability efforts.
5. Our waterless urinals and low-flush toilets reduce our annual water consumption by about 3.5 million gallons!
6. This satellite-controlled irrigation system responds to rainfall, helping us reduce our water use by 10%.
7. Up to 165 buses bring patrons to the Bowl from locations throughout the county. In 2024, 36% of Bowl attendees arrived via Bowl Shuttle or Park & Ride.