The Next "Starchitect"?

In a link I found at kegz.net, the Times of India reports that Brad Pitt will be taking a break from acting for an informal apprenticeship at Frank Gehry's office in Los Angeles. Recently Pitt has been involved with Gehry's efforts to revitalize downtown Los Angeles and wants to spend a year learning CAD with Gehry.

Pitt's love of architecture is well known. He's quoted in a USA Today article, "[architecture] moves me like music. Done best, I can feel it moving. It has rhythms, harmonies -- it's symphonic." David Fincher, friend and director of Pitt's films Fight Club and Se7en, even boasts, "The stuff he's doing is truly great...I think in the end he may be remembered more for what he'll bring to [architecture] than what he'll bring to movies."

Personally, I think it's great and I hope the news brings more attention to architecture, increasing its appeal with the public. Sure, Pitt's way of learning architecture is unique - not just anybody can apprentice at Gehry's office without an architecture degree - but not just anybody can help make Gehry's plans for downtown become a reality.

Mainly, the actors love of architecture seems sincere; he just happens to be a celebrity who pulls down $20 million per picture, but he's also somebody who's found an interest in something outside his current career and decided pursue it headlong.