Frank Gehry just wrapped up a remarkable exhibit at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. I managed to squeeze in the day before it closed and was wowed beyond belief. I found myself feeling completely giddy, like a grown kid in a candy store. I absolutely wanted to touch everything and feel all of those amazing textures under my fingers, but I refrained.
Having built architectural models during my interior design studies at UCLA, I have a tremendous respect for what it takes to create these massive pieces by hand. It’s an art form, in and of itself. Looking at Gehry’s six decades of models, you can see both the evolution of his work, as well as the evolution in the types of materials used. I love how crumpled up green and red construction paper was used to represent trees. Foam core, balsa wood and sheets of plastic were also used in increasingly sophisticated ways as the exhibit evolved. And Seattle’s Experience Music Project was a stunning replica of the original, with exterior high gloss paint used as a nod to the guitars of famous musicians.
While walking through such a large scale exhibit, it proves the point that only so much computer rendering can be done to see how a proposed building will fit into its surroundings. With an actual built model, you can walk around it and see it from multiple points of view. As light shifts, nuances in the structure will reveal itself. This will allow the architect and his team to make observations, and then make adjustments prior to the start of construction. This is very relevant when millions of dollars are at stake. I’m guessing that many of these models were made after some of the buildings were built. That said, there were several architectural models created for structures that were never built. This would at least give their design team a sense of satisfaction to see their concept realized in some form. It also works as a fantastic selling point when making presentations to communities that might be unsure of the need for a ‘Gehry’ building in their neighborhood.
Below is one of the models I made for my Drawing and Drafting class at UCLA. I was so excited about what I’d created on paper, that I simply had to build a scale model to present to our final class. I don’t think it was in any way required, I was just so enthusiastic that I built it. You should have seen the look on the other students faces when I walked into class that day. Yep, I got an A+ for my extra effort. Not an easy feat for a UCLA design class. #Winning
