Bamboo and Gehry

The road has taken me to Seattle this weekend, to visit dear friends Karen and John, recently transplanted here from LA.

They've been clever in their exploration of the area, saving visits to the touristy sites for touristy visitors like myself. Thus, yesterday, Karen and I headed down town to the Experience Music Project, a fun few hours of interactive music activities housed in a Frank Gehry creation.

A few months back I saw Disney Hall, LA's own Gehry, so I find that my first impressions of the Seattle building are those of comparison. DH is all silver - EMP has multiple colors. One side is silver, another gorgeous, subtle shades of copper and bronze. But interspersed among the metallic finishes were sections of glossy red, opaque baby blue and iridescent purple. Yuk. It sort of looked like he was testing color concepts on different corners and never really got around to deciding on a final finish. That said, both buildings are marvels of engineering and "How the heck did they do that?" Hats off to the talented folks that make real Gehry's wild visions.

Next to the EMP was a great outdoor sculpture installation of tall, metal bars, abstractly rendering a bamboo fence. They were cleverly created, three layers deep at the base, thinning to one at the top, so they had the ability to flex a little in the wind. As you can see from the picture, it was a lovely, sunny day for such a touristy moment.