WALT DISNEY CONCERT HALL: ANALYSIS

THESIS

INTRODUCTION
Frank Gehry broke away from the ideals of modernism
and changed from the use of composition into an
“assemblage of different fragments” (Curtis 662), known
as deconstruction, to form unconventional spaces
using fragmentation and metaphors to form the Walt
Disney Concert Hall into a “living room for the city.”

BACKGROUND
Frank Gehry was born in Toronto, Ontario to
parents who did not really appreciate his creative
side. Encouraged by his grandmother he pursued his
dreams, went to school to get a degree in architecture
and moved on to set up his own practice in Los Angeles
in 1962 that eventually became Gehry partnership.

COMMUNICATION IDEA
The traditional starting point for a designer is to begin
sketching until a clear idea forms and then to move on
to modeling and finally create any documents that will
be needed to build the piece. Gehry’s approach is very
similar to the conventional method but he has a twist
to it. Like all designers he begins with a sketch. These
sketches are often very crude line drawings that look
like a lot of scribbling to anyone other than Gehry. He
works with them until his idea forms and then moves
straight into model building where all of the kinks are
worked out with three dimensional shapes instead of on
paper or on a computer. Gehry’s designs are often so
complicated that it is impossible to create on a computer
so he and his team developed a special software with
a light pen that would be touched to the corner of the
model and automatically transfered onto the computer
software, making the process much smoother.
As part of the after modern movement Frank Gehry
is generalized as a post modern architect who, after
further analysis, is more accurately categorized as a
deconstructionist. Architects in the deconstruction
movement use a method of fragmentation to create
their buildings. Fragmentation is taking different
volumes and shapes or pieces of volumes and shapes
and putting them together in unrecognizable fashions.
Curtis describes this approach to architecture by
saying “They did not rely on ‘composition’ but were
rather assemblage of different fragments held together
by force.” (Curtis 663). Instead of taking conventional
shapes and rooms and composing them in new and more
interesting ways, he takes new shapes and assembles
them so that the spaces are made out of the resulting
shapes formed by the collision of the volumes.
Along with the fragmentation of his buildings Gehry
is most known for his use of metaphor in his works.
The most common theme throughout his designs is
the metaphor of a fish. The fish metaphor is shown in
very visible ways in some cases like the fish lamp and in
less visable ways in cases where he uses titanium scales
or fluid fish like shapes. In special cases like the Walt
Disney Concert Hall a building may hold a different
metaphor but all seem to be water related. In the Walt
Disney Concert Hall he uses a sail metaphor that is
most apparent in the exterior but actually originated on
the interior of the building and moved to the exterior.

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OVERVIEW

CASE STUDY
The Walt Disney Concert Hall was built as a
commemoration to the famous Walt Disney to house
the LA Philharmonic. The building was commissioned
by Walt’s wife Lillian Disney who donated $50 million
dollars to fund the building. Construction began in
1987 and lasted 16 years until its grand opening on
October 24, 2003. To decide who would be in charge
of the design of the building there was a competition
from which Gehry was picked out the four finalists.

FRAGMENTATION
Fragmentation is a part of the Deconstruction
movement of Post modernism. The idea of this
movement is to take different shapes and volumes
and put them together in unconventional ways so that
they collide to form different shapes that in turn make
the spaces of the buildings. In contrast to modernism
that uses composition of spaces Frank Gehry uses a
technique refereed to as “assemblage”. (Curtis 605)
Assemblage gives his buildings a design language of
“...angles and tilted volumes introduced visual tension
and ambiguities.” (Curtis 663) The idea behind using
the forms was to “let the forms be the thing and to
replace decoration, to get passion and feeling into the
building without resorting to 1900th century models”
(Gehry - Bringing Movement to Architecture).

Unlike other architects Gehry begins his buildings on Interior: The idea behind the interior of the Walt Dis-
the inside and works his way out. “Forget the exterior, it ney Concert Hall is that there is “a box and on either
starts with the inside. That inside is the key issue.” (Gehry side of the box you have toilets and stairs with a foyer”
on Architecture of Walt Disney Concert Hall). The Walt (Frank Gehry on Architecture of the Disney Concert
Disney Concert Hall follows the same pattern. Since this Hall). To make up these spaces there are a variety of
building was to be used as a concert hall as well as the shapes that Gehry cleverly crammed together. The cir-
home of the Los Anglos Phil Harmonic there were cer- cular spaces run into the rectangular wooden pieces to
tain acoustical requirements that needed to be followed create interest no matter where a person looks. All of
to make the space a success. “Inside of the hall follows this is covered in natural Los Anglos light that Gehry
the acoustical requirements and it started to become took advantage of by adding skylights to the building.
sail like, I wanted to make the outside look the same.”
Object: One of the major attractions to the main
Exterior: The iconic shapes known to the Walt Disney performance space is the very large unconventional
Concert Hall display Gehry’s use of metaphor in looking organ. The pipes of this organ are wooden
this building. The metal peaks are reconstructed sail rectangles instead of the traditional circular metal ones.
like shapes that are put together to form an entirely Each pipe is strategically placed to give the instrument
new shape that is chaotic and calm at the same time. a chaotic look that when all put together works well.

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 CASE STUDY
USE OF METAPHOR
Gehry’s work is commonly known for having a fish
metaphor throughout and even though this is not
the main metaphor for the Walt Disney Concert
Hall it is still visible in some aspects of the building.

The idea behind the metaphor came when some of

Gehry’s colleagues began to look back to the Greek
temples for inspiration. To Gehry this idea was not ac-
ceptable. He said “if you’re gonna go back, why not go
back to fish?” and the idea stuck. From there he applied
the theory of deconstruction and began to distort the
shape as far as he could before he lost the sense of it.

“From there I learned to work

with those kinds of forms
and capture that feeling”
- Frank Gehry
In different designs there are different elements of the
fish. In the museum he built in Spain the metal sheets
on the exterior are put together in a way that look like
titanium fish scales. This idea is mimicked in the ceiling
of the Concert Hall performance space. The ceiling tiles
are layered together to look like the actual scales on a fish.

Aside from the obvious elements of the fish in his de-
signs there is a constant feeling of fluidity and water like
movement. In the curves of the stair cases of the Walt
Disney Concert Hall a person almost gets the sense of
the circular tornado motion that water gets as it rushes
down the drain. In the peaks of the exterior rood on
the concert hall one can see the sail metaphor and also
waves like you would see in the ocean when the water
was rough. The slight curve up to the tip of each peak
is very smooth and fluid very reminiscent of water.
In some of his more famous pieces the fish is also
very prominent. Gehry designed a teapot for a well
known website and situated on the end of the kettle’s
spout was his signature fish. This was the most straight
forward approach to the metaphor that can be seen
in Gehry’s work. Most of the time there are smaller
less obvious hints to the fish or any other metaphor
that Gehry may use. The idea of the use of metaphor
along with deconstruction and fragmentation is to take
the object of inspiration and translate it into an ab-
stract form onto the project. In the Guggenheim Mu-
seum in Bilbao, Spain Gehry took the idea of the fish
and translated it with the fluid curves and movements
of the exterior and the use of the titanium “scales”. In
the Walt Disney Concert Hall Gehry took the idea of
the sail and made sail like shapes on the exterior as
well as references to it on the interior of the building.

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SAIL METAPHOR
The Walt Disney Concert Hall is said to be “capable of
evoking multiple associations, musical and nautical”
(Curtis 664). These are the two major themes of the hall.
When designing the inside based on the requirements for
the acoustics Gehry began to see sail like features form.
He took that idea and translated it throughout the rest of
the building to keep to look and feel uniform. Gehry en-
joyed sailing and had a good knowledge of the sport so
he took his knowledge and translated it into the building.
Exterior: The exterior was originally supposed to be
made of stone so that it would absorb the light better
and look more appealing at night be after the titanium
sheets were used on the Guggenheim Museum it was re-
quested that the same material be used on the Walt Dis-
ney Concert Hall. The shape of the peaks are fashioned
after a sailing term “wing-on-wing” which “‘In sailing
terminology, when a sailboat opens both the foresail
and the main sail to a 180-degree angle to produce the
maximum amount of sail area.” (Esa-Pekka Salonen)
Interior: The interior is where the sail metaphor in
this building began. As the interior took shape the idea
for the exterior fell into shape. The white of the spaces
in the foyer resemble the white of a sail and the wood
seems to allude to the wood of a boat. Not only is the sail
reference apparent but the fluid movement of the shapes
in the foyer alludes to the fluidity of the music meant
to be performed in this building. Here Gehry’s love for
sailing and music combine to make a beautiful space.
CASE STUDY
“Inside the hall follows the
acoustical requirements
and it started to become
sail like, I wanted to make
the outside look the same.”
- Frank Gehry
Object: The organ in the performance space of the hall
encompasses all of the metaphors like the rest of the
space. The wooden pipes of the organ resemble masts or
other poles that exist on the structure of a boat while the
idea of music is clearly carried out in the fact that the
object itself is a musical instrument. While the organ
doesn’t retain the fluidity of the rest of the space the
idea of deconstruction and assemblage are accurately
displayed in the chaotic yet structured set up of the pipes.
In this building there is not one specific metaphor but
a combination of ideas that have different prevalences
in the design. The sail metaphor is the major idea
followed by smaller accompanying ideas of music,
water, the fish, and fluidity. All of these ideas are
assembled just like the rest of the building so that they
intersect and create unconventional combinations.
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 CASE STUDY
“LIVING ROOM FOR THE CITY”
Los Anglos is one of the most diverse cities in America
when it comes to entertainment and things to do. Adding
the Walt Disney Concert Hall just added one more thing
to this list of attractions so Frank Gehry had to find a
way to make this attraction more appealing to more
groups. His way of doing this was the idea of creating a
“living room for the city”. This meant that he wanted a
place that was inviting on all levels possible to as many
different groups as possible. The regular patrons to the
LA Phil Harmonic would still come but the idea was to
now attract more people and expose more groups to the
art of music, mainly the younger generation. He wanted
“an iconic destination people would identify with and
feel like it was theirs.” (WDCH 10th Anniversary) All
levels of the building had to be carefully planned so
that they would reach out to all groups and could foster
a connection with each person one way or another.

Exterior: The exterior of the building is the most iconic

element of the design. The shapes created would not
easily be forgotten and a person would know exactly
what building they were looking at as soon as they saw
them. Besides being easily recognizable they had to
be easy to relate to . If a person could not relate to the
building they were at least intrigued by the shapes and
might make their way into the building out of curiosity.
Interior: The interior of the concert hall is a very
inviting environment. There is elegance and class to the
space that one would expect out of a concert hall but
it does not hold any of the elaborate ,and sometimes
gaudy, ornamentations that similar buildings from
older movements would have had. The shapes flowed
freely and guided you through the space inviting you in.
Object: The organ in the auditorium was a very
intriguing piece in this building. At first glance it
may not be apparent what they giant mass of wooden
pipes is so a person may want to venture closer for
a better look. In the act of getting a closer look the
person would have to enter the auditorium and
be exposed to the main purpose of this building.
When Lillian Disney had this project commissioned
she wanted a place that would commemorate her
husband while also giving back to the community.
Gehry accomplished this by making a classically post
modern building that was easily relatable to all. The
older generation would come to this building to see the
music they already love as well as see the advancements
that were made in the design. The younger generation
would feel more comfortable in this space because it was
not as old an dated as some other concert halls are. The
more up to date feel of the Walt Disney Concert Hall
makes it feel more welcoming to a younger generation
because it seemed to be built more towards them. The
overall idea was to bring the city together and make
music more accessible to all which Gehry accomplished.

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 CONCLUSION
EXTERIOR INTERIOR OBJECT
• Abstracted sail shapes • Collision of • Pipes are fragmented
FRAGMENTATION • Shapes and volumes 3-dimensional forms and assembled
“assembled” to make • Chaotic but
composition structured
• Sail metaphor • Fluid like water and • Sense of structured
• Scales like in the fish music chaos
USE OF metaphor • Sail like shapes began
METAPHOR • Fluidity like water to form

• Wing-on-wing styled • White and wood point • Wooden pipes

peaks to boat materials mimmick masts
• Translated from interi- • Fluid movements
SAIL METAPHOR
or shapes looking sail relate to water
like • Began to look sail like

• Creates curiosity • Fluid movement • Creates curiosity and

• Welcoming to all guides you through invites you in to look
“LIVING ROOM groups the space closer
FOR THE CITY” • Elegant and classic
while still being post
modern

SUMMARY
Through the use of deconstruction, fragmentation, and metaphors he assembled an inviting space that would
serve the community for years to come. The post modern look appealed to the younger generation while still
keeping some elements very classic and elegant to continue to attract an older generation as well. “Assem-
blage” works very well in this building to create interest that the older idea of composition could not achieve.

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Text

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Jone, Rennie. (October 23, 2013). AD Classics: Walt Disney Concert Hall / Frank Gehry.
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Walt Disney Concert Hall 10th anniversary. Retrieved November 21, 2013. http://www.
laphil.com/wdch10/wdch/vision.html

Video
Miguel Andrade, 2008. Frank Gehry on Walt Disney Concert Hall. Retrieved from http://
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Geekroller, 2007. Frank Gehry on the Walt Disney Concert Hall. Retrieved from http://
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ForaTV, 2009. Frank Gehry on the Architecture of LA’s Disney Concert Hall. Retrieved
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ForaTV, 2009. Frank Gehry - Bringing Movement to Architecture. Retrieved from http://
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Image

Concert Hall night scene (page 1)

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yachtworld. com. Wing Sail Cup Winner. Retrieved December 4th, 2013. http://www.
yachtworld.com/boat-content/2010/05/wingsail-cup-winner/

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Image (continued)

REFERENCES
Interior of ceiling and stairs (pages 1-3)
The Walt Disney Concert Hall. Retrieved December 3, 2013. http://wideworldofgeometry.
pbworks.com/w/page/14141562/CEOs%205

Organ and auditorium (pages 1,2,3,5)

A forest of pipes: The story of the Walt Disney Concert Hall Organ. Retrieved December 4,
2013. http://aforestofpipes.com/

Foyer and Dining Spaces (1 and 5)

The Guide: Walt Disney Concert Hall. Hopscoth press INC. Copyright 1995-2013. Re-
trieved December 4, 2013. http://www.herecomestheguide.com/southern-california/wed-
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Concept Sketch (page 1, 2, amd 6)

Jeremiasz Siezkco (ARCH1390). October 8th, 2010. Retrieved December 4th, 2013. http://
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