I am a self professed Frank Gehry junkie.  

Do I love his work?  The swoops and the swirls.  Not so sure I do, but there is something about this Canadian Architect that has drawn me over the years.  

I’ve been to the Dancing House in Prague,  Guggenheim Museum Bilbao in  Spain,  Foundation Louis Vuitton in Paris, the Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park in Chicago,  the New World Symphony in Miami and the EMP Museum in Seattle and from a distance, IAC Building in New York.  Yep, It would make sense that when we planned a trip to L.A. the Walt Disney Concert Hall  would be high on my list.  

I’ve read about the controversies.  People who didn’t like it.  The reflections into homes of downtown residents.  The utter strangeness of it all.  

Had to go.  We signed up for a self guided walking tour and, big surprise, when you do that you don’t get to actually see the performance part of the building.  How weird.  You actually have to go to a concert to see that.  

We took the tour, meandered around the building, learning about the many features and benefits.  

What stood out to me were the interesting angles and forms in the lobby and outside.  Since I’ve been interested in making architectural abstracts with my camera,  this isn’t a surprise.  I looked for triangles, interesting juxtapositions,  circles and lines to focus on.

This sign stopped me.  Be careful.  

My favorite part is the back side where there’s a small garden.  The trees against the building are stunning.  Really lovely.  It is worth spending some time here.  

Next door to the  Walt Disney Concert Hall is The Broad   

Not to be outdone, it has an interesting architectural exterior.  While I’m not so fond of it, I found the shapes and curves an appropriate back drop to the contemporary art collected by this wealthy financier, Eli Broad and his wife, Edythe.   

It is nicknamed  “the veil and the vault.”  The storage for the collections is on a  middle floor of the massive building covered with a honeycomb-like structure that allows filtered daylight to enter. 

The collection includes work from the 1950s to the present day. Attendance is free. One wonders why the Broads didn’t donate their collection  to a bigger museum, but when you have really deep pockets you get to do what you want. 

This collection is very contemporary and it was delightful to see pieces and artists I was familiar with.

Probably more interesting to me is that as you ride the long escalator from from first to the third floor, you pass the 2nd which is the vault.

  It stores all the pieces not on display. Many are open for view.    That is quite fascinating.  Worth enjoying.  

I do wonder if museums like this will survive…..will it have enough to draw the visitor back?  Or are the pockets deep enough that it doesn’t matter.     Time will tell.   

For blog posts about other Frank Gehry buildings

Paris

Miami

Prague