redevelopment area, site of the forthcoming Broad museum and a Related Cos. Several sources also said that Molina is unhappy that work on a city-owned parcel in the Grand Ave. It may also be the case that while Related executives in California favored a plan by Gensler and Stern, Ross and the New York headquarters have been planning to trump the West Coast office by deciding to let Gehry take the lead on the design. And it will clarify the fact that the proposal rejected last week was not meant as a complete design but a master plan. It will make an uninspired proposal less likely to win approval or move uninterrupted through the process. The recent turmoil, though it hardly reflects well on the way Related or the Grand Avenue Authority has overseen the project in recent months, is likely to shake up the design process in a helpful way. This is a commercial project, not a museum or a university one.” “We are responding to and will continue to respond to the market. “You can’t legislate the market,” he said of the Grand Avenue Authority’s reaction to the latest plans. “The pressure is on Related to deliver these plans. “There is lots of angst and anxiety around the project,” he said. Gehry added that the designs Related presented to the Grand Avenue Authority last week - the result of a rather hasty collaboration between Gensler and Stern to meet the latest deadline - reflect the nature of the project and its approval timeline. If we do it, we’ll take the lead on the design. “We’ve been asked to work on the next phase” by Related, Gehry said. He said he has been in close touch recently with Stephen M. Reached by phone Monday morning, Gehry, who has been busy in recent weeks with events marking the 10 th anniversary of Disney Hall, sounded relatively upbeat about the prospects for his continued involvement. Their personal relationship, though, is close Gehry has been a regular visiting professor at the Yale School of Architecture, where Stern is dean. Gehry’s work is formally exuberant, Stern’s historically minded and conservative. PHOTOS: Arts and culture in pictures by The Timesįrom an aesthetic point of view, a Grand Avenue project based on a Gensler master plan and including buildings by both Gehry and Stern is very difficult to imagine. Peter Morris Dixon, a spokesman for Stern, also confirmed the firm’s involvement. The renderings, she said, don’t reflect Stern’s final design but are “based on his concept.” According to Barbara Casey, speaking for Related, Stern’s work on a residential tower across from Disney Hall is not complete. Bush Presidential Center in Dallas, has officially joined the project. Stern Architects of New York, who designed the new George W. We had no idea they would react as they did.”įurther muddying the waters is the news that Robert A.M. “We contined to reiterate to them that this is not architecture yet - it’s conceptual design,” Witte said. But Bill Witte, president of Related California, said Monday that it was county officials who requested the more detailed renderings.