rantlust

Posted by meerkat on November 06th 2007 in Architecture, Art, Design
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Frank Gehry has been blamed for serious design flaws at Stata center in Cambridge. This seems to be the price you pay for having an unconventional building which looks stunning and for sure, breaks the monotony of the buildings.

From the article-
“Because Gehry’s so daring, you figure you’ve got to be daring, too, if you’re a client,” Campbell said. “You know if you hire Frank Gehry there are going to be new kinds of problems.” But he said clients accept the risks because “they’ll get a building like no other building.”

The Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles too had its share of architectural flaws. The word being used to describe this building is ‘hot’- the glare from the steel was roasting the sidewalk, causing sunburn, and doubling air conditioning bills in the neighborhood. In 2005 these were dulled by lightly sanding the panels to eliminate unwanted glare. At least here, Gehry partners themselves were asked to come up with the solution for the glare. It is deemed ok to pay a small price in flaws for something as magnificent as Gehry’s buildings.

This reminds me of an article that I read during the recent San Diego Wildfire. A resident was asked why he chooses to live there in spite of the knowledge that a wildfire is bound to happen sooner or later, he says it is worth taking that kind of a chance instead of living someplace boring. The reasoning seems similar to that of people in San Francisco bay area. The earthquakes and the skyrocketing housing prices don’t seem to matter for a chance to live in such a beautiful place, as discussed in an older post.

Sketches of Frank Gehry, is an interesting documentary made by his friend Sydney Pollack which captures the artist’s work in an interesting fashion.