One Thing He Got Wrong

The magnificent Walt Disney Concert Hall has a surprising and distressing omission: none of the doors at box office level are electric. That is, I could not find a door where you push a flat plate with an accessibility symbol on it to open the door. Maybe there's an accessible door there someplace and I just missed it, but I saw a WDCH employee struggling to help a woman who uses a wheelchair get into the lobby. Maybe the accessible entrance is elsewhere; that would be wrong because the building ought not make disabled people feel like second-class citizens having to go around the corner.

It's just not acceptable in a public building constructed well after the passsage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). I hope the omission will be corrected at some point.

At Least WDCH is in a Dry Climate

Frank Lloyd Wright and Frank Gehry: separated at birth?

M.I.T. Sues Architect Frank Gehry

BOSTON (AP) -- The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is suing renowned architect Frank Gehry, alleging serious design flaws in the Stata Center, a building celebrated for its unconventional walls and radical angles.

The school asserts that the center, completed in spring 2004, has persistent leaks, drainage problems and mold growing on its brick exterior. It says accumulations of snow and ice have fallen dangerously from window boxes and other areas of its roofs, blocking emergency exits and causing damage.

[etc.]