Blowhard, Esq. writes:
Since Sir Barken Hyena was unable to get a look inside the Disney Concert Hall, I thought I’d post these pictures I took in December. Besides, while the exterior is famous, I usually see far fewer pictures of the interior.
Here’s the lobby.
The lobby again, to the right of above.
The space is very chaotic and abstract.
There’s a mini-auditorium off to the side.
The main auditorium.
The cafe.
What do you think?
Blowhard, Esq.
Callowman
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Sir Barken Hyena
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Pretty cool, though there’s something nurseryish – Disneyish – about the big swoopy shapes, and especially the overwhimsical organ.
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You think so? I can’t say either of those things read “Disney” to me.
Fun fact: it was Lillian Disney’s (Walt’s wife) idea to build a concert hall for the city. Her original vision? “A brick building covered with vines.” LOL
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The Fantasia-style stars framing the organ are especially Disney, but so’s the organ itself – it’s Captain Nemo’s organ sweetened for children and then taken off its meds to look postmodern. The giant shapes around the café feel Disneyish, too … or maybe it’s just that everything’s so big it makes me feel like I’m in kindergarten.
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The Jetsons would have loved it.
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>>The Fantasia-style stars framing the organ are especially Disney, but so’s the organ itself – it’s Captain Nemo’s organ sweetened for children and then taken off its meds to look postmodern.
Great line.
>>The giant shapes around the café feel Disneyish, too … or maybe it’s just that everything’s so big it makes me feel like I’m in kindergarten.
Ha!
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Nice snaps. As for the space: Zany! Playful! Offbeat! (If also relatively subdued and dignified for Gehry, as befits a classical music venue, I guess.) I liked Gehry’s work quite a lot back when he was scrappier, less-celebrated and more L.A. L.A. isn’t a traditional city anyway, and life there is often about being a Big Overgrown Kid, so his playpen approach to architecture seemed fun in an appropriate way. It was like great L.A. junk food, or a crazy L.A. style-fad. Now that he’s gotten bigger, now that his brand has engulfed the world, including many traditional cities, and now that his forms and materials have gotten bigger, sleeker and less rough-hewn, I find myself not liking his work at all. He seems to churn it out by the yard at this point, for one thing.
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Going back to the exterior for a second, the building was originally going to be white limestone. It was only after Bilbao became popular that the city/Disney/whoever asked him to redo it in aluminum.
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Interesting. They wanted their own icon to be shiny too, I guess.
How’d you react to the interior? People say the acoustics are good, which is a big plus in a concert hall. That mini concert hall, though, looks like a dreadful space.
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My traditional forms and classical music-loving architect brother loved the exterior and was very impressed by the acoustics.
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