Location: Los Angeles, California, USA
Architect: Frank Gehry
Completed: 2003

11 Photographs

The original Gehry masterpiece, the Guggenheim Bilbao, was completed while I was a university student and at the time, this twisted crumpled collision of titanium seemed to turn things upside down. What was not immediately apparent was that the museum was an iteration of a previous design, at that moment unbuilt, for a concert hall for the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Perhaps appropriately it was in the order they were designed that I visited them, rather than the order in which they were built. And thus, they are presented here, in the same sequence.

Unusually with a building like this, we were able to wander freely around all the spaces despite it being ‘closed’, except for the main hall, which required the accompaniment of a tour guide.

My favourite space was a roof garden on the top, nestled among the folds, where each tile of the titanium skin reflected the sky and sunlight in every possible direction, including within the slot, which felt enclosed but open at the same time.

I loved the way the inside of the building is made of a tumbling matrix of knitted timber strips, like a bizarre woven wicker doll from another dimension, all of which is enveloped in a crumpled metal fabric skin which billows in the breeze. I have seen quite a few of Frank Gehry’s buildings, many of which are variations on a theme, but as far as that theme goes, none feel quite as comprehensive and coherent as this one.

HWLK