Text - to be included in poster

The Walt Disney concert Hall was gifted to the city of Los Angeles on October 23 2003. The design of the building was done by Frank Gehry, with the acoustics being designed by Yasuhisa Toyota. The shapes of the building are based on sails – much like our opera house, but through more of an inverted way. The entrance has been designed so that you feel like you are at the helm of a great boat, with the sails billowing either side of the entrance. Gehry was upfront in his desires for the building, stating that this building is to be about music and music alone – bringing the importance of the function of the building.

In an interview with Frank Gehry, he is quoted as saying “what makes you forget about all the trivial things, is with how the light hits the material, how the reflections add a dimension that you didn’t have in the models or drawings”. This shows how his design takes on a whole new aspect, quite different from what he had first designed. Not knowing just how each reflection would interact with its surroundings, it can then be seen as something different all together. Something which he describes as a living thing – not bound to the way we see Architecture today.

Gehry describes the process of designing the Walt Disney Concert Hall as like being a good neighbor – taking into account the buildings that are already around in the immediate area and not taking away from them. The building itself is clad in stainless steel panels molded around undulating curved surfaces which flow around the building. The geometry of the building is much like a lot of Gehrys other designs, with a mass of geometry clad with differing materials. Throughout this design there has been no conformity to industry standards or normality – which makes the design that little bit more intriguing.