Paul Matt, the prominent Los Angeles builder whose firm constructed the Broad art museum and the Hollywood Bowl in the span of his seven-decade career, died last week. He was 85.
Matt Construction was founded in 1991, and went on to score contracts with the Wilshire Boulevard Temple, the Natural History Museum of L.A. County, and more recently, the Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills, according to the Los Angeles Times.
For 25 years, Matt would show up to work at 7 a.m. and wouldn’t leave until 6:30, his son Steve Matt told the paper.
“He worked until he was 85,” he said. It was a fountain of youth for him.”
For architect Brenda Levin, who worked on the Wilshire Boulevard Temple project, Matt was a mentor and an advocate when she started her own firm in 1980, as “a woman in a man’s industry.”
Matt Construction was also the general contractor for the $125 million restoration of the Petersen Automotive Museum in Miracle Mile.
Prior to co-founding his family business, Matt worked for the general contractor C.L. Peck. on the Salk Institute in San Diego and the Crystal Cathedral in Orange County.
Matt died in at Hoag Hospital in Newport Beach after a nine-week battle with cancer. He is survived by his wife, Cathy, three children from his previous marriage, and 11 grandchildren. [LAT] — Cathaleen Chen