Last calendar month Los Angeles was promised$1.3 billion in federal fundingto transform its river from a cinematic cementum chute to an true - to - goodness urban waterway . That great news program has been tainted by today ’s puzzling announcement that the city has tap architect Frank Gehry to lead the overhaul . It ’s a really defective idea .
Specific details are sparse — there are n’t even any official simulacrum yet — butaccording to the LA Times , Gehry was engage by the Los Angeles River Revitalization Corp. to design a lord architectural plan for the river .
As probably the mostfamous living architect on the major planet , Gehry is a household name who can sure as shooting lend some star mightiness to the project . And that ’s of import , see as most multitude do n’t even know LA has a river . But to me , that ’s one of the first red pin — I occupy that the task will be eclipsed by his fame .
An ikon from the existingLos Angeles River Revitalization Master Plan
But it ’s also a strange choice because the urban center has in reality had a captain program in stead for the river for a very long prison term , one which has guide its developing — or more specifically , it has keep the focus on the born home ground , not on bombastic computer architecture . TheLos Angeles River Revitalization Master Plan , which was created by a team of couturier , shows respect for human - wildlife counterbalance as it sculpt the river ’s path through features like pee - aerate kayaking rapids and flowage plains that double as association football W. C. Fields . Apparently Gehry ’s estimation is a “ broad reworking ” of this design , and that ’s scary .
Not that he ’s go to cloak the integral 52 miles of river in hyper - meditative steel panel OH GOD PLEASE SAY NO . It ’s just that Gehry ’s work so seldom provides true public space and does n’t show many gestures to the natural environment — both of which are the most important things the river will need to do .
Let ’s take some of Gehry ’s well - known workplace : Disney Hall in LA , the EMP museum in Seattle , and the Guggenheim in Bilbao , Spain .
And most recent whole kit : The IAC Building in NYC , the Lou Rovo Center in Vegas , and the Foundation Louis Vuitton in France .
Yes , apparently these abstractionist shapes are pep up by organic things . And many of them have gracious garden tucked into their folds . But wait at the relationship between the buildings and the street . Have you ever walk alongside one of these things ? It ’s not a favorable feeling . There ’s no blank space to sit . There ’s no place to mess about . These are fortresses of alloy and concrete with mere infantry between the paries and the sidewalk . wall which sometimesmelt the trashcans .
And that ’s the other thing — Gehry ’s work has proven to be a liability , and not just from an engineering perspective . Gehry ispolarizingin a way that will not help this very crucial project move forward . multitude often address of Gehry in absolutistic terms ; so much so thathe ’s forced to respond very publically to his critics . But nowhere is he more polarizing than LA . You ’ve probably never see of Grand Avenue , the biggest task Gehry ’s ever designed for the urban center of Los Angeles—3.6 million satisfying feet of shopping and dining plus several spiky residential towers , spreading across three city blocks . That ’s because it hasnever contend to be approveddue to blistering public opinion .
Gehry has done a stack of smashing thing for computer architecture and for Los Angeles . I personally get laid Disney Hall , in all its clitoric tin - foil wackiness . No designer has help to put LA on the globular design mapping more than Gehry , and we certainly can appreciate his desire to design what will be one of the most defining projects in the city for decades , maybe 100 . He also has one of the most progressive firms when it comes to technology , developing itsown proprietary softwarethat I ’m trusted would aid get the job done .
But he is not the proper choice for the river . In fact , no single architect is . A letter by longtime river exponent Lewis MacAdams cautioned against letting one man with such a signature panache mandate the river ’s future : “ Last metre there was a single thought for the L.A. River it involved 3 million barrels of concrete . ” If anything , the hoi polloi go the river ’s master program should be a alinement of illusionist biologists . Not one stigma - name starchitect .
In a urban center that is already stereotyped for prefer celebrity over substance , this is hype fame over function . It ’s a determination that will come to haunt us — perhaps just as much as the 1930s option to cement the river over in the first position .
Update : Gehrygives some item of his planto Christopher Hawthorne : “ I do n’t see bust out the concrete , ” Gehry enjoin . “ It ’s an architectural feature , and I can see shipway of incorporating it into what we ’re doing . ”
Frank Gehry Wants To Preserve the LA River ’s Infamous Concrete Walls
[ LA Times ]
LA River pic bya katzand Disney Hall photo byGerry Boughan ; Disney Hall by Carol Highsmith ; EMP , Wikipedia ; Guggenheim byArdfern ; IAC Building , Wikipedia ; Lou Rovo Center byKirk Gittings ; Fondation Louis Vuitton by Christophe Ena / AP
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