David Dillon writes that Disney Hall “confirms Mr. Gehry’s standing as the boldest and most inventive architect of his generation. Looking at the hall’s billowing facade – a sail, a kite, a lotus blossom, the visual analogies are endless – it’s easy to forget that Mr. Gehry started out designing shopping malls and spec office buildings for James Rouse and other developers. And when he won the competition for Disney Hall, he was known primarily as the kooky guy who put chain-link fence on his house and asphalt on his kitchen floor – not the sort of architect who should be trusted with a major civic building, thought the culturati. The breakthrough came with CATIA, a computer program used to design the French Mirage fighter.”