Unimpressed With New Concert Hall

Sorry, but I’m not even briefly infatuated with the design of the new Walt Disney Concert Hall (“A Lasting Love Affair or a Brief Infatuation?” Metropolis, by James Ricci, Jan. 20). The Opera House in Sydney is beautiful, and I can deal with the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, but the Disney hall will always look like a bunch of trash swept into a pile after a Magic Kingdom parade.

Richard Showstack

Newport Beach

* Ricci’s article deals with the exterior of the building and glides over the interior as though it is of no importance. He buys into and supports the trendy but sad notion that architecture is sculpture, that its main function is to decorate the skyline. If it is original, creative, sensationalistic, eye-catching and self-serving, it’s not merely OK; it’s terrific.

I’d like to know what Ricci has to say about the interior of the concert hall. Frank Gehry has designed seats behind and to the sides of the orchestra, defying tradition (which in itself is not always bad) and creating a bizarre situation internally. To what end?

Fashions in architecture are as certain as fashions in couture, albeit the cycle is somewhat longer. Some of us hope that the current cycle of deconstructed, self-aggrandizing architecture is the shortest on record.

Wilbert B. Buchman

Redondo Beach