Supervisor Kathryn Barger with Jerry Kohl (left) and Terri Kohl (right) at the groundbreaking ceremony for the future Terri and Jerry Kohl Artists Pavilion at the Hollywood Bowl, October 2025. [David Franco/LA County]Jerry Kohl has called the Hollywood Bowl “a place of legends, a place that stays in people’s hearts for a lifetime.” Now his name, along with his wife Terri’s, will be permanently fixed to one of the Bowl’s newest structures.
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously on Tuesday to designate the venue’s new building the Terri and Jerry Kohl Artists Pavilion, formalizing a naming honor for the Pasadena couple whose $15 million gift is funding the majority of the $25 million project.
Introduced by Fifth District Supervisor Kathryn Barger, the vote also marked the first public disclosure of the gift’s size — a figure that had gone unreported since the pavilion’s groundbreaking last October.
For the Kohls — Brighton Collectibles founders who have lived in the same Pasadena house for more than four decades — the Bowl honor arrives amid a concentrated stretch of institutional giving that has put their name on buildings across the region, including two in their own city.
The 7,500-square-foot, single-story pavilion — designed by architecture collective RIOS with interiors by Frederick Fisher and Partners — is scheduled to open in June, in time for the LA Phil’s 104th summer season at the Bowl. It will include a full kitchen and operate as a public restaurant during concerts, according to the Hollywood Bowl’s 2026 season press materials. Outside of performance season, the space will function as a free community gathering venue for events and meetings, coordinated through the LA County Department of Parks and Recreation.
That dual-purpose arrangement is central to how the project is being framed by county officials. The Hollywood Bowl is owned by LA County and is part of its parks system, though the LA Phil has managed it for more than a century. Any naming of structures on county property requires Board of Supervisors approval. Under the motion’s terms, the LA Phil will cover all costs for signage and commemorative materials — no county funds involved.
“Terri and Jerry Kohl have extended their extraordinary generosity to support one of Los Angeles County’s most iconic performance venues,” Barger said in a statement accompanying the motion. “The Kohls’ support makes it possible to preserve and elevate the Hollywood Bowl as a world-class venue while also helping it remain a welcoming public space for all during financially tough times. This pavilion will carry their legacy for generations.”
The Kohls’ philanthropy runs deep in Pasadena. A medical pavilion bearing their name is under construction at Huntington Health at 786 South Fair Oaks Avenue, where ground was broken in October 2024. Last April, a matching gift from the couple helped Pasadena Playhouse purchase its historic building on South El Molino Avenue. Jerry Kohl sits on the board of MUSE/IQUE, Pasadena’s counter-conventional orchestra. The couple has given to the Pasadena Symphony and Pops, the Pasadena City College Foundation, and donated $2 million for the renovation of the Rose Garden Tea Room at The Huntington. A $7 million gift to what was then Huntington Hospital in 2019 supported expansion of its Heart and Vascular Center. Beyond Pasadena, the Kohls gave $5 million to the LA Opera.
The cumulative pattern is striking in its scale and geographic range. Three major naming commitments — a Hollywood Bowl pavilion, a hospital building in Pasadena, and a role in preserving a 100-year-old theater — are proceeding simultaneously.
The couple’s roots in the San Gabriel Valley go back further than their philanthropy. Jerry and Terri Kohl met in elementary school in Monterey Park and started dating in high school. They opened their first store in Alhambra in 1969. In 1991, they launched Brighton Collectibles, the jewelry and accessories brand now sold through more than 180 stores nationwide. The company is headquartered in City of Industry.
At a beam-raising ceremony for the Huntington Health pavilion last November, Jerry Kohl spoke about what Pasadena means to him. “I’ve lived in the same house for 41 years — and I’m still the ‘new guy on the block,’” he said. “People are born here, and they stay. That’s what makes this place so special.”
The Hollywood Bowl groundbreaking last October drew some 50 guests, including elected officials and project partners. Kim Noltemy, president and CEO of the LA Phil, described the pavilion as “a project several years in the making,” crediting the Kohls’ lead gift along with significant funding from Andrew Hewitt and Bill Silva of Live Nation Hewitt Silva, according to SF Classical Voice. The total $25 million cost is entirely supported by private funding and LA Phil investment, Noltemy said.
The Bowl was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in December 2023.
At the groundbreaking, Jerry Kohl kept it simple. “Terri and I are deeply honored to be part of this extraordinary project that celebrates the artists, the music, and the magic that make the Bowl so special,” he said. The first boards are expected to go up carrying their name when the pavilion opens this summer.
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