Iron: Erecting the Walt Disney Concert Hall (Hardcover)

by Gil Garcetti (Author), Frank O. Gehry (Foreword) "The wondrous geometry of the Walt Disney Concert Hall stops most people who see the iron skeleton of the building..." (more)
Key Phrases: raising gang, Frank Gehry

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
The graceful curves of Frank Gehry's Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles are familiar to anyone interested in contemporary architecture or the work of this great master. They are also famous, if not infamous, to the ironworkers faced with the challenge of building them. With a building skin stretched tight and tolerances shaved to a thousandth of an inch, there was simply no room for typical industry standards. A new breed of ironworker was required, one who relies on modern tools like lasers, yet whose muscular forms wielding hammers hundreds of feet above the ground testify still to the great unchanging tradition of their trade.

Photographer Gil Garcetti had unparalleled free access to the construction site. The personal relationships he developed with the workers over the course of many months and his admiration for their artistry are evident in these moving portraits. Garcetti's evocative images, reproduced in rich duotones, bring to life the romantic ideal of the heavy industry.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 144 pages
• Publisher: Balcony Press; 1 edition (October 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1890449156
• ISBN-13: 978-1890449155
• Product Dimensions: 11.9 x 9.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,017,139 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Iron: Erecting the Walt Disney Concert Hall, April 11, 2003

By	Michael Webb (London, England > Los Angeles, USA) - See all my reviews

In his foreword, Frank Gehry calls ironworkers "the forgotten heroes of architecture," and this book celebrates their courage and skill. Nobody who saw the structural frame going up on Grand Avenue will forget its raw beauty, but most of the bones were covered in a shimmering skin a year before the hall opened. Garcetti, better known as the former DA of Los Angeles County, has captured the physicality of the work in his photos, and in the words of the people who did it. Their pride and solidarity are inspiring. (Michael Webb is the book reviewer for LA Architect magazine.)

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful and Uncommon View of Iron Construction Today, February 24, 2003

By	George D. Girton (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

There were only a few architectural drawings of The Disney in the back of the book: most of this photographic tour de force deals with the iron works, the skeleton of the building. After paging through this entire book, which is on display for sale at the historic Lummis Home off the Avenue 43 exit of the Pasadena Freeway, I had a new appreciation of the new Disney Concert Hall, which I had photographed under contruction against the backdrop of a thunderstorm.

Garcetti takes you close to the massive lattice of ironwork that underlies the curvaceous and apparently delicate hall. "Lattice" , "Skeleton", "frame", none of these words capture in their sense of mere adumbration the massiveness of the iron underneath. Can I say it simply? There's really a lot. Just what you're looking for in a book entitled "Iron."

Garcetti does a great job of capturing the workers, too, with many closeup shots of them as people that really bring out their essential happiness. There's a sign of their union hall, and the wonderful holiday shot of the christmas tree being lifted up to the top on a huge steel beam.

Also shown are some huge ironworking tools.

If you're fascinated with the state of the art in iron-based construction today, I'd say this book is for you.

Something else to remember -- once a building is built, you'll never be able to take photographs of it under construction again. It may sound trivial to say it that way, but after reading this book you probably won't think so.

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Wait a Minute, September 16, 2003

By A Customer

Michael Webb is arcitectural critic for a magazine owned by the publisher of Garcetti's book. Fair's fair.
This is a nice book, but the photography is well, mediocre. The building is astounding.