GEHRY'S NEW CONCERT HALL

Atop Bunker Hill in Los Angeles, the stainless steel curves of the Walt Disney Concert Hall shine in the Southern California sun (photo by Tom Bonner). The taller forms stretch up and out toward the city, while the lower forms bend toward the ground and to the people passing by. Will the building bestow the "Bilbao effect" of economic rejuvenation on an ailing downtown? Will it provide ideal acoustics for the Los Angeles Philharmonic? Next week architectural writer Leigh Christy will give us a look at the newest creation of Frank Gehry.

DESIGNING STRUCTURES; BUILDING COMMUNITIES

During the summer of 2002, a group of students from Penn State and the University of Washington met to design and build a structure of straw bales. The result, sponsored by the American Indian Housing Initiative, is the Literacy Center at Chief Dull Knife College in Lame Deer, Montana. As the students learned a construction technique, they also learned how a simple and democratic method of building reveals what a community can achieve through shared labor.