Not content with a striking Concert Hall, architect Frank Gehry plans to rework 9 acres of downtown Los Angeles to "to develop the beginning of a community that has the body language of a community and has the scale of a community." The NY Times says:
Construction of Phase 1 is expected to begin in December, with a projected completion date of 2009. The entire nine-acre Grand Avenue project, which is to unfold in three phases by 2014, will ultimately include 400,000 square feet of retail space, the 275-room hotel and up to 2,600 residences. The goal is to create a new, tightly woven community downtown as well as a fresh destination for the area’s 17 million residents and the 24 million visitors it has each year.
The project, to be built on land leased from the county and the city, is overseen by a joint committee of county and city officials known as the Los Angeles Grand Avenue Authority.
The design calls for plazas and walkways that would connect the Grand Avenue neighborhood to the city’s downtown cultural center, which in addition to Disney Hall includes the Music Center, the Colburn School and the Museum of Contemporary Art.
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i find gehry’s work ugly. for all of his team’s material innovations, they make ugly buildings with pointless protrusions and twists of form that signify nothing. of course, my perceptions are probably coloured by having met the man. i found him surly, obnoxious and unpleasant. as an undergrad i was employed in the school’s av department. i was given the assignment of following and documenting gehry, when he came to deliver a guest lecture. maybe he was having an off day. but on his off days, he’s an ass.
on second thought, no, my perceptions are clear. i do find his work is stark, unfriendly, jarring and unattractive. the triumph of form over substance. gehry loveres may now commence to bashing me. cheers.
April 26th, 2006 at 6:39 pm