GEHRY'S DISNEY CONCERT HALL

Crowning Bunker Hill in downtown Los Angeles, the stainless steel curves of the Walt Disney Concert Hall (WDCH) by Frank Gehry shine in the Southern California sun. They shine in quick flashes glimpsed through nondescript high-rises, throwing fortuitous reflections among the shadows. The taller forms stretch up and out toward the city, while the lower forms bend down toward passersby.

A HOUSE ON PUGET SOUND

For over 50 years, a secluded spot at the bottom of a cliff facing Puget Sound in Washington has been home to a cluster of unassuming cottages and cabins, known locally as "camps." Down here, at the watery edge of an otherwise predictable Seattle suburb, a small group of neighbors and friends have enjoyed salmon derbies, sunsets, and an incredible level of privacy with little change for two generations.

AUSTRIAN ALIEN

Something unexpected has appeared on the bank of the River Mur in Graz, Austria. Between the red brick roofs of neighboring historic buildings, "the friendly alien," as it is locally known, has landed in Austria's second largest city.

TOTALLY TUBULAR KOOLHAAS

As a commuter train roars into a college campus in Chicago, its noise is suddenly muffled when it enters a stainless steel tunnel that sits atop the new student center. The tube and the building below it are the work of Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas and his firm, the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA). The school is the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT), still bearing the stamp of its mid-20th century modernist origins.

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