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 tinsel town: brad pitt the builder
This week, The Office and Brad the builder. Downtown Los Angeles is in the midst of one of its constant self-reinventions. Now that Frank Gehry’s Disney Concert Hall is finally finished, the city is pushing the redevelopment of a retail and cultural centre along Grand Avenue, adjacent to the hall. Five teams of architects and developers are in the running to design and build the project. One of those, led by Frank Gehry, calls itself The Dream Team. A few weeks ago, Gehry unveiled the newest member of the team – Brad Pitt.Pitt’s interest in architecture is well known. In interviews he often talks about how Gehry is his hero. He’s even been dabbling in design, working with a local group of hotshot young architects called GRAFT on his own house - a spare, modernist structure that is very much in the tradition of Californian residential design. A friend of mine who was ready to dismiss Pitt talked to him at the symposium and came away impressed by his enthusiasm. Now the speculation - fuelled by an article in a most unlikely place, The Times of India – is that Pitt plans to leave the movies for a while so that he can serve an apprenticeship with Gehry, which might mean that he’d stop after completing Oceans Twelve this year. Apparently, Pitt wants to learn how to use the same computer programmes that Gehry’s office uses to create the sleek shapes that make the Guggenheim in Bilbao and the Concert Hall in LA stand out. Funny thing is, Gehry admits that he doesn’t actually know how to use those programmes himself. At a recent design conference in LA, Gehry said that work was progressing on everything besides his own house, which no one in the office has time to work on. “I can’t get too far with it,” he said. “I don’t know how to use the computer… I asked them to go out and get me a T-square.” Maybe that can be Brad’s job.
Jade Chang
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