Speaking of celebrities, architect Frank Gehry is as famous as architects can be. Long known by his signature work, the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, he's still wowing the critics and public alike. Witness L.A.'s Disney Concert Hall, completed in 2003.
Washington, sometimes described as the city that hires the world's best architects to do their worst work, recently lost its chance at a stunning Gehry building - an addition to the Corcoran Gallery of
Art. The funding suddenly went away and we can only imagine the frustration of artists whose works are so difficult to realize. Gardeners pretty much have it easy on that score.
So what did you think of the gardens at the Disney Center ?
About 3 years ago I trekked down the coast with The Hortisexuals to check out the gardens and I was left with the impression that a second year horticulture student whose only experience was gardening in a residential back yard planned this garden.
True the architect requested that she give the gardens a 'human feel' to it but when one has such a strong imposing architectural feature to work off of the planting scheme looks like it belongs in Gramma Moses back yard and in no way matches the exploding strength of the architecture , well, it just looks lacking and corn ballish.
The Disney center would have been much better served if they hired a landscape architect vs. a back yard gardener whose understood the importance of strong landscape architectural design.
My impression was " What a missed opportunity ".
Frank should have worked with Nancy Goslee Powers and I bet he regrets this decision every time he walks through the wimpy gasping amateurish perennial garden.
Posted by: Deviant Deziner | February 25, 2007 at 01:22 PM
Deviant, I'm so glad you brought that up. I had no expectation of a garden but damn, you're so right. The plants didn't even catch MY eye - me who hungers for beautiful plants. Now I'm wondering if his buildings ever incorporate the landscape particularly well. Do you know? S
Posted by: susan harris | February 25, 2007 at 04:03 PM
Gehry does understand the importance of good strong landscape architectural design work and in the past has surrounded his buildings with excellent examples it, especially his own home in L.A. which Nancy Goslee Powers did the design for.
I / we were not privy to the full story as to why Mr. Gehry and Ms. Powers did not collaborate on the Disney Center together but there were very evident overtones of a disagreement between the two over this project when myself and others in my group questioned those who were involved in the project.
We thought that not much was being said as a professional courtesy to one another .
Posted by: Michelle Derviss | March 08, 2007 at 11:50 AM