The Globe and Mail

Frank Gehry has been called the king of titanium, largely, it seems, because the exterior of his Museo Guggenheim in Bilbao, Spain, is clad in the shiny metal from billowing stem to wavy stern. However, it's also an untruth: The Guggenheim remains the only big Gehry commission to have been finished in titanium. While the Canadian-born architectural superstar has a fondness for metal skins -- witness Seattle's Experience Music Project, the recently completed Disney Concert Hall in L.A., and the Jay Pritzker Music Pavilion under construction in Chicago -- it's usually been satin-finished or sandblasted stainless steel or lead-coated copper. .