Disney Hall Settlement

The Los Angeles Times reports that the lawsuit over excess costs of construction for Walt Disney Concert Hall has been settled, with the builders to receive nearly $18 million, including $4.5 million under architect Frank Gehry's professional liability insurance policy. The contractors sought more than $43 million in their suit, filed in the fall of 2003, alleging that "changes from the original design and flawed construction plans had caused delays and cost escalations." The settlement reportedly includes a non-disparagement clause prohibiting the contractors from criticizing Gehry's work and also prohibits certain of them from using Gehry's name in advertising or marketing materials. Here are some nice images of the building. Here is Paul Goldberger's review in The New Yorker; he called it "the most important thing [Gehry] has built in his home city of Los Angeles—or anywhere else in the United States, for that matter," a "serene, ennobling building that will give people in this city of private places a new sense of the pleasures of public space."