Experience Music Project (EMP) derives its name from the Jimi Hendrix Experience. The client approached Gehry to design a "swoopy" building dedicated to the celebration of popular music. The architect captures the vibrancy of the subject while also reflecting the cacophony of the Seattle Center and the neighboring amusement park. Like Gehry's Aerospace Hall (1982–84) in Los Angeles, which is also located in an exposition park, EMP's exterior—with its exuberant forms and vibrant colors—communicates the program of the exhibitions inside. An existing monorail that sweeps through the building to the Seattle Center enhances the sense of movement that has long been a hallmark of Gehry's work.
The curved forms were sparked by the client's admiration for the horse-head shaped conference center at the DG Bank Building (1995–2001) in Berlin, and grew out of the architect's experiments with broken guitar pieces. The allusion to a shattered Fender Stratocaster is carried through in a glass sculpture that rides the crest of the building, suggesting the strings and frets of a guitar neck as well as the roller coaster nearby. The colors—a riot of gold, pale blue, purple, red, and silver—are symbolic references to various songs and events from the history of rock and roll, including Hendrix's song "Purple Haze." The vibrant exterior is clad in some 21,000 pieces of stainless steel and aluminum whose outlines and random configurations are computer generated. |
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