October Meeting Recap

Our Night at MOCA  

The 6,400 curving stainless steel panels of the new Walt Disney Concert Hall were reflecting another perfect October sunset when the APALA gathered across the street at MOCA last month. Just four days before the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Opening Gala was held, the extraordinary building was polished and poised to soar with the music that would soon fill it. APALA members and friends greeted one another in MOCA’s private patio with near-unanimous delight in Frank O. Gehry’s unconventional new architectural landmark.  

We are production people, after all, so as soon as we gathered our cocktails and hors d’oeuvres, we proceeded to the MOCA exhibit hall to find out just how Gehry and his design team produced such an original structure. The Museum of Contemporary Art titled the exhibit, Frank O. Gehry: Work in Progress. And for that night, the exhibit was open exclusively to the APALA. It included twelve of Gehry’s recent and current projects, from the newly opened Guggenheim Museum Bilbao to expansion plans for the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. But we were most interested in the Disney Concert Hall. Gehry’s preliminary drawings were certainly fluid and free — rather like the scribbles of a three-year-old with a rapidograph — but they accurately predicted the form and feeling of the finished building. Next came a wonderful scale model of Disney Hall. It was constructed of wood with lots of silver paper twisted into the shapes that became the signature silver wings of the building we’d just seen gleaming in the sunset. Then we discovered Gehry’s production secret: CATIA. It’s this French aerospace software that Gehry uses to translate his scale models into architectural drawings.  

We took a break from the Gehry exhibit to gather in MOCA’s Ahmanson Theatre for a preview of the illuminated sculptural drawing created by Circa Publishing from a Gehry sketch to commemorate the opening of Disney Hall. Then APALA’s Fred Hecht introduced Gary Familian, Los Angeles entrepreneur, filmmaker and community activist, who shared his experience working with Frank Gehry and Circa to produce the illuminated drawing, exhibit book, art prints, and gift items for the Gehry show. When asked what it was like to have Gehry as a client, Familian responded, “Frank is a real challenge. One of the most creative minds I’ve ever known.” Judging from the contemporary elegance and originality of the items on display, Gehry’s creative challenge was well met. Many of the pieces produced by Circa utilized the stainless steel and Douglas fir used in the Disney Concert Hall, along with Gehry’s original freehand drawing of the building. Familian said that the true measure of the project’s success was “Getting it all done on time. We had only four and a half months. There’s no limit to what a person can do,” he continued, “if he or she doesn’t care who gets the credit.” Then Familian introduced Circa Publishing’s talented and hard-working design and production team, who fearlessly fielded our compliments and questions when we descended on their production samples.

 The evening held an additional treat for those of us who also toured MOCA’s in-house design studio. The creative staff were gracious hostesses as they opened up their world to APALA. Throughout the night, backstage tours were led by Jennifer Lamping, Julie Johnson and Marci Boudreau. The first stop was the storage and receiving area, which is temperature- and humidity-controlled to protect incoming artwork. We were then led up to the administrative offices, where we got a glimpse of the art library featuring a window made of alabaster — the same material used in the neighboring Los Angeles Cathedral. Everywhere we looked were elements of squares woven into the architecture, designed by Arata Isozaki, from the glass block walls to accents in the offices, conference rooms and corridors. At the end of the hall, a small corner is home to MOCA's design studio, where a lean yet talented staff consisting of a creative director, two designers, a project coordinator and an editor artfully designs and produces all the collateral and promotional materials for the MOCA events and exhibitions, from large-format banners to invitation packages and even MOCA's newly designed corporate stationery. The studio tour culminated in a stop on the building's rooftop, a secret spot hidden from the downtown bustle, for a spectacular view of the city lights and an unobstructed sightline of the Disney Concert Hall.

 A few moments with the enormous cast-fiberglass sculpture installed beneath MOCA’s skylight made a fitting end to an evening of art and architecture. Titled Flowing in all Directions and commissioned especially for MOCA, this sensuous, undulating form is typical of Frank Gehry’s work. Standing inside the piece was like floating under a huge wave, looking up through serene yet powerful layers of green to the light above. It seemed a perfect tribute from a world-class architect to his hometown of Los Angeles.  

Again, a special thank you to Fred Hecht and our friends at MOCA and Circa Publishing for providing an exclusive look inside the museum and the creative genius of Frank Gehry.