Speaking in Las Vegas earlier this week to discuss his design for Vegas' Alzheimer's Center, Frank Gehry took some time to reflect on one of his past works. That being the little bit too shiny Disney Hall.
I had some bum rap at Disney Hall because of glare. That was 2% of the building had reflective stuff, and some pissed off lady (complained). So the County had to respond. (It took) A couple guys with steel wool and in about an hour and a half they fixed it. But it did appear as one of the 10 engineering disasters in the last ten years---talk about exaggerating. The county did a study of downtown LA that found 5 other buildings that were more reflective, but no one complained about them. So, we got to get more pissed off ladies. We're intrigued by Gehry's design for the Alzheimer's Center, which of course looks exactly like one would expect a Frank Gehry designed building to look. The $60 million medical center is intended to evoke feelings of Renaissance paintings of a mother cradling a child. Umm, yeah.
· Gehry on Glare [LATimes.com blog]