Photo Pest: Walt Meets Frank

Frank Gehry designed the Walt Disney Concert Hall. It opened in 2003, just a couple of years after my last visit to Los Angeles. Subtle branding doesn't get much better than this.

A small park behind the hall is great place for DTLA workers or tourists to hang in the shade.

There's an unusual fountain, too.

Thom couldn't understand my obsession with taking pictures of the building from every angle but its size, reflective surfaces and shadows make photography challenging, especially on a sunny day.

Gehry wasn't the obvious "starchitect" choice but his design, considerably facilitated by computer technology, charmed Walt's widow. The Disney family and company ended up paying 60% of its $274 million cost. Private donations covered the rest.

We couldn't get tickets for a concert while we were there, but we did catch a glimpse of what appeared to be a children's orchestra rehearsal. Critics have good things to say about the acoustics. No-longer wunderkind Gustavo Duhamel, who has been conducting the Los Angeles Philharmonic at its home since 2009, will soon find out if the prestige of leading the New York Philharmonic can compensate for the iffy acoustics of David Geffen Hall.

Duhamel will be around in October to celebrate the building's 20th anniversary in October with Gehry, who is 94. The program also includes Esa-Pekka Salomen, the LA Phil's Conductor Laureate (check out their superb recording of Bernard Hermann's film scores) , Herbie Hancock and H.E.R. Book now!

I think it's safe to safe that Disney Hall anchored DTLA's redevelopment.

Gehry designed the Grand, too, where Disney Hall looms above the pool deck on the tan roof. But millionaire renters beware: only ghosts populate the 'hood after the worker bees go home. It's funny how a "family" exhibit of Jean-Michel Basquiat's work is practically across the street from the curated Keith Haring retrospective at the Broad. West Coast proximity, even in death, and a far cry from the scuzzy East Village where both artists lived, loved and died more than 30 years ago.

As much as I admire the Gehry's work--we to Bilbao just to see the satellite he designed for the Guggenheim Museum in Spain--neither building made as big an impression as the Sydney Opera House, an obvious influence on both. That may have as much to do with its spectacular harbor setting as Jørn Utzon's breathtaking design, with no help from a computer.

Of course sailboats are much more graceful than cars, although LA traffic does add some welcome color to the setting. Would you believe the parking garage ate up nearly half the budget?

Afterward, we had cocktails on the roof of the United Artists Theater that Steve, our Art Deco guide, had recommended. It's now an Ace hotel. Sunglasses definitely required, even if you're not a hipster.

That's my merch bag from the Broad, where I bought a Keith Haring t-shirt, next to a watermelon margarita which looks better than it tasted.

We had an hour to kill before Thom treated me to a dinner at Bavel, a packed restaurant in the Arts District, which borders Skid Row! His Terani Couture colleagues had taken him to eat there his first night in LA.