Gehry rose to prominence in the 1970s with his distinctive style that blended everyday materials with complex, dynamic structures. Gehry's approach to architecture has been described asdeconstructivist, though he himself resists categorization. His works are considered among the most important ofcontemporary architecture in the 2010World Architecture Survey, leadingVanity Fair to call him "the most important architect of our age".[2]
Gehry is known for hispostmodern designs and use of bold, unconventional forms and materials. His most famous works include theGuggenheim Museum Bilbao in Spain, theWalt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, and theLouis Vuitton Foundation in Paris. These buildings are characterized by their sculptural, often undulating exteriors and innovative use of materials such as titanium and stainless steel.
Throughout his career, Gehry has received numerous awards and honors, including thePritzker Architecture Prize in 1989, considered the field's highest honor. He has also been awarded theNational Medal of Arts and thePresidential Medal of Freedom in the United States. Gehry's influence extends beyond architecture; he has designed furniture, jewelry, and liquor bottles.
Frank Owen Gehry was born Frank Owen Goldberg on February 28, 1929, atToronto General Hospital inToronto, Ontario,[3][4][5] to parents Sadie Thelma (née Kaplanski/Caplan) and Irving Goldberg.[6] His American father was born inNew York City toRussian-Jewish parents, and hisPolish-Jewish mother was an immigrant born inŁódź, Poland.[7][8][9] A creative child, he was encouraged by his grandmother, Leah Caplan,[10] with whom he built little cities out of scraps of wood.[11] With these scraps from her husband's hardware store, she entertained him for hours, building imaginary houses and futuristic cities on the living room floor.[6]
Gehry's use ofcorrugated steel,chain-link fencing, unpaintedplywood, and other utilitarian or "everyday" materials was partly inspired by spending Saturday mornings at his grandfather's hardware store. He spent time drawing with his father, and his mother introduced him to the world of art. "So the creative genes were there", Gehry says. "But my father thought I was a dreamer, I wasn't gonna amount to anything. It was my mother who thought I was just reticent to do things. She would push me."[12]
He was given theHebrew name "Ephraim" by his grandfather, but used it only at hisbar mitzvah.[13] In 1954, Gehry changed his surname from Goldberg to Gehry, after his then-wife Anita expressed concern aboutantisemitism.[14]
In 1947, Gehry's family immigrated to the United States, settling in California. He got a job driving a delivery truck and studied atLos Angeles City College.
According to Gehry, "I was atruck driver in L.A., going to City College, and I tried radio announcing, which I wasn't very good at. I tried chemical engineering, which I wasn't very good at and didn't like, and then I remembered. You know, somehow I just started wracking my brain about, 'What do I like?' Where was I? What made me excited? And I remembered art, that I loved going to museums and I loved looking at paintings, loved listening to music. Those things came from my mother, who took me to concerts and museums. I remembered Grandma and the blocks, and just on a hunch, I tried some architecture classes."[15]
Gehry went on to graduate from theUniversity of Southern California'sSchool of Architecture in 1954, where his professors includedWilliam Pereira.[16] During that time, he became a member ofAlpha Epsilon Pi.[17][18] He then spent time away from architecture in numerous other jobs, including service in theUnited States Army.[11] In the fall of 1956, he moved his family toCambridge, Massachusetts, where he studiedcity planning atHarvard University'sGraduate School of Design. Gehry had always expressed a socialist philosophy for architecture, something that was influenced by political views as he expressed a more leftist attitude to the world. These progressive ideas about socially responsible architecture were under-realized and not respected by his professors at Harvard, leaving him to feel disheartened and "underwhelmed".[19] Gehry's distaste for the school culminated after he was invited by his architecture professor to engage in a discussion revolving around a "secret architectural project in progress", which was ultimately revealed to Gehry as a palace that he was designing for Cuban dictatorFulgencio Batista.[6][20]
Gehry ultimately dropped out of his graduate program at Harvard University (where he studied urban planning) to start a furniture manufacturing company Easy Edges, which specialised in creating pieces with cardboard.[21][22][23]
He returned to Los Angeles to work forVictor Gruen Associates, with whom he had apprenticed while at USC. In 1957, at age 28, he was given the chance to design his first private residence with friend and old classmate Greg Walsh. Construction was done by another neighbor across the street from his wife's family, Charlie Sockler. Built inIdyllwild, California for his wife Anita's family neighbor Melvin David, the over 2,000 sq ft (190 m2) "David Cabin"[24] shows features that were to become synonymous with Gehry's later work, including beams protruding from the exterior sides, vertical-grain douglas fir detail, and exposed unfinished ceiling beams. It also shows strong Asian influences, stemming from his earliest inspirations, such as theShōsōin inNara, Japan.
In 1961, Gehry moved toParis, where he worked for architect Andre Remondet.[25] In 1962, he established a practice in Los Angeles that became Frank Gehry and Associates in 1967,[11] then Gehry Partners in 2001.[26] His earliest commissions were in Southern California, where he designed a number of innovative commercial structures such asSanta Monica Place (1980) and residential buildings such as the eccentric Norton House (1984) inVenice, Los Angeles.[27]
Among these works, Gehry's most notable design may be the renovation of his own Santa Monica residence.[28] Originally built in 1920 and purchased by Gehry in 1977, it features a metallic exterior wrapped around the original building that leaves many of the original details visible.[29] Gehry still resides there.
In 1989, Gehry received thePritzker Architecture Prize, where the jury described him: "Always open to experimentation, he has as well a sureness and maturity that resists, in the same way that Picasso did, being bound either by critical acceptance or his successes. His buildings are juxtaposed collages of spaces and materials that make users appreciative of both the theatre and the back-stage, simultaneously revealed."[30]
Gehry continued to design other notable buildings in California, such as theChiat/Day Building (1991) in Venice, in collaboration withClaes Oldenburg, which is well known for its massive sculpture of binoculars. He also began receiving larger national and international commissions, including his first European commission, the Vitra International Furniture Manufacturing Facility and Design Museum in Germany, completed in 1989. It was soon followed by other major commissions including theFrederick Weisman Museum of Art[31] (1993) inMinneapolis, Minnesota; theCinémathèque Française[32](1994) in Paris, originally The American Center in Paris;[33] and theDancing House[34] (1996) inPrague.
From 1994 to 1996 a couple buildings by Gehry for apublic housing project were realized in Goldstein, part ofFrankfurt-Schwanheim (1994)In 1997, Gehry vaulted to a new level of international acclaim[2] when theGuggenheim Museum Bilbao opened inBilbao, Spain. Hailed byThe New Yorker as a "masterpiece of the 20th century", and by legendary architectPhilip Johnson as "the greatest building of our time",[35] the museum became famous for its striking yet aesthetically pleasing design and its positive economic effect on the city.
Since then, Gehry has regularly won major commissions and established himself as one of the world's most notable architects. His best-received works include several concert halls for classical music. The boisterous, curvaceousWalt Disney Concert Hall (2003) indowntown Los Angeles is the centerpiece of the neighborhood's revitalization; theLos Angeles Times called it "the most effective answer to doubters, naysayers, and grumbling critics an American architect has ever produced".[36] Gehry also designed the open-airJay Pritzker Pavilion (2004) inChicago'sMillennium Park;[37] and the understatedNew World Center (2011) inMiami Beach, which theLA Times called "a piece of architecture that dares you to underestimate it or write it off at first glance."[38]
His other notable works include academic buildings such as theStata Center (2004)[39] atMIT, and the Peter B. Lewis Library (2008) atPrinceton University;[40] museums such as theMuseum of Pop Culture (2000) inSeattle, Washington;[41] commercial buildings such as theIAC Building (2007) in New York City;[42] and residential buildings, such as Gehry's first skyscraper, the Beekman Tower at 8 Spruce Street (2011)[43] in New York City.
Gehry's recent major international works include theDr Chau Chak Wing Building at theUniversity of Technology Sydney, completed in 2014,[44] and the Chau Chak Wing, with its 320,000 bricks in "sweeping lines", described as "10 out of 10" on a scale of difficulty.[45] Ongoing projects include theGuggenheim Abu Dhabi onSaadiyat Island in the United Arab Emirates and theForma skyscraper project in his hometown.[46] Other significant projects such as a multi-decade renovation of thePhiladelphia Art Museum are currently in the design stage. In October 2013, Gehry was appointed joint architect withFoster + Partners to design the High Street phase of the development ofBattersea Power Station in London, Gehry's first project there.[47]
In recent years, some of Gehry's more prominent designs have failed to go forward. In addition to unrealized designs for theCorcoran Art Gallery expansion in Washington, DC, and a new Guggenheim museum near theSouth Street Seaport in New York City, Gehry was notoriously dropped by developerBruce Ratner from thePacific Park (Brooklyn) redevelopment project, and in 2014 as the designer of theWorld Trade Center Performing Arts Center in New York City.[48] Some stalled projects have recently shown progress: After many years and a dismissal, Gehry was recently reinstated as architect for theGrand Avenue Project in Los Angeles, and though his controversial[49][50][51] design of the NationalDwight D. Eisenhower Memorial in Washington, DC has had numerous delays during the approval process with theUnited States Congress, it was finally approved in 2014 with a modified design.
Also in 2014, Gehry was commissioned byRiver LA (formerly theLos Angeles River Revitalization Corporation), a nonprofit group founded by the city of Los Angeles in 2009 to coordinate river policy, to devise a wide-ranging new plan for the river.[59][60]
In February 2015, the new A$180 million building for theUniversity of Technology Sydney was officially opened, whose façade has more than 320,000 hand-placed bricks and glass slabs. Gehry said he would not design a building like the "crumpled paper bag" again.[61]
Notable Gehry-designed buildings completed in the 2020s include theDwight D. Eisenhower Memorial inWashington, DC[66] and theLUMA Arles museum in France.[67] In 2021, noting Gehry's progress on an increasing number of significant projects in his hometown, including the Grand Avenue Project, a concert hall for theYouth Orchestra Los Angeles, and an office building forWarner Bros.,The Architect's Newspaper stated that "Seventy-four years after he moved there from his native Toronto, L.A. is looking more and more like Gehry Country."[68]
Said to "defy categorisation", Gehry's work reflects a spirit of experimentation coupled with a respect for the demands of professional practice, and has remained largely unaligned with broader stylistic tendencies or movements.[69] With his earliest educational influences rooted inmodernism, Gehry's work has sought to escape modernist stylistic tropes while remaining interested in some of its underlying transformative agendas. Continually working between given circumstances and unanticipated materializations, he has been assessed as someone who "made us produce buildings that are fun, sculpturally exciting, good experiences", although his approach may become "less relevant as pressure mounts to do more with less".[69]
Gehry's style at times seems unfinished or even crude, but his work is consistent with the California "funk" art movement of the 1960s and early 1970s, which featured the use of inexpensive found objects and nontraditional media such as clay to make serious art.[70] His works always have at least some element ofdeconstructivism;[71] he has been called "the apostle of chain-link fencing and corrugated metal siding".[72] However, a retrospective exhibit at New York'sWhitney Museum in 1988 revealed that he is also a sophisticated classical artist who knows European art history and contemporary sculpture and painting.[70]
Gehry’s Jewish heritage and immigrant background have shaped his architectural philosophy. He often reinterprets traditional forms in ways that reflect his multicultural experience. His works have been described as embodying"a critique of consumerism"[73]by defying expectations of luxury and focusing on creativity. For Gehry, architecture is not just about creating buildings but about crafting spaces that inspire and challenge societal norms.
A hallmark of Gehry's style is his innovative use of materials. He challenges architectural norms by incorporating unconventional elements such as corrugated steel, chain-link fencing, and plywood. His works are celebrated for their"raw aesthetic"[74] that combines everyday materials in unexpected ways,creating structures that blur the line between functionality and artistry. These material choices also reflect a critique of luxury, emphasizing creativity over opulence.
The term"Bilbao effect" emerged in urban planning to describe the transformative impact of Gehry’s architecture. His design for theGuggenheim Museum inBilbao, Spain, revitalized the city, serving as a prime example of how architecture can drive economic and cultural renewal. The museum’s dramatic curves and shimmering titanium panels are defining features of Gehry’s style, emphasizing movement and fluidity.[75][76][77]
After the phenomenal success of Gehry's design for theGuggenheim Museum inBilbao, Spain, critics began referring to the economic and cultural revitalization of cities through iconic, innovative architecture as the "Bilbao effect".[78] In the first 12 months after the museum was opened, an estimated US$160 million were added to the Basque economy. As of 2014, over $3.5 billion have been added to the Basque economy since the building opened.[79] In subsequent years there have been many attempts to replicate this effect through large-scale eye-catching architectural commissions that have been both successful and unsuccessful, such asDaniel Libeskind's expansion of theDenver Art Museum and buildings by Gehry himself, such as the almost universally well-received Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles and the more controversialMuseum of Pop Culture in Seattle.[80] Though some link the concept of the Bilbao effect to the notion of starchitecture, Gehry has consistently rejected the label of astarchitect.[81]
Gehry has been involved in exhibition designs at theLos Angeles County Museum of Art dating back to the 1960s. In 1965, Gehry designed the exhibition display for the "Art Treasures of Japan" exhibition at the LACMA. This was followed soon after by the exhibition design for the "Assyrian Reliefs" show in 1966 and the "Billy Al Bengston Retrospective" in 1968. The LACMA then had Gehry design the installation for the "Treasures of Tutankhamen" exhibition in 1978 followed by the "Avant-Garde in Russia 1910–1930" exhibition in 1980. The subsequent year, Gehry designed the exhibition for "Seventeen Artists in the '60s" at the LACMA, followed soon after by the "German Expressionist Sculpture Exhibition" in 1983. In 1991–92, Gehry designed the installation of the landmark exhibition "Degenerate Art: The Fate of the Avant-Garde in Nazi Germany", which opened at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and traveled to theArt Institute of Chicago, theSmithsonian Institution in Washington, and theAltes Museum in Berlin.[86][87] Gehry was asked to design an exhibition on the work ofAlexander Calder at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art's Resnick Pavilion, again invited by the museum's curator Stephanie Barron.[88] The exhibition began on November 24, 2013, and ran through July 27, 2014.
In addition to his long-standing involvement with exhibition design at the LACMA, Gehry has also designed numerous exhibition installations with other institutions. In 1998, "The Art of the Motorcycle" exhibition opened at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum with its installation designed by Gehry. This exhibition subsequently traveled to theField Museum of Natural History in Chicago, the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao and theGuggenheim Las Vegas.
In 2014, he curated an exhibition of photography by his close friend and businessman Peter Arnell that ran from March 5 through April 1 at Milk Studios Gallery in Los Angeles.[89]
In 1983, Gehry created the stage design forLucinda Childs' danceAvailable Light, set to music byJohn Adams. It premiered at theMuseum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles at the "Temporary Contemporary", and was subsequently seen at theBrooklyn Academy of Music Opera House in New York City and theTheatre de la Ville in Paris. The set consisted of two levels angled in relation to each other, with a chain-link backdrop.[90] The piece was revived in 2015,[91] and was performed, among other places, in Los Angeles and Philadelphia, where it was presented by FringeArts, which commissioned the revival.[92]
In 2003, Gehry designed the set for the American premiere of Janáček's operaOsud at the Gehry-designed Fisher Center at Bard College.[93]
In April 2014, Gehry designed a set for an "exploration of the life and career ofPierre Boulez" by theChicago Symphony Orchestra, which was performed in November of that year.[94]
In addition to architecture, Gehry has made a line of furniture forKnoll and forHeller Furniture, jewelry forTiffany & Co., various household items, sculptures, and even a glass bottle forWyborowa Vodka. His first line of furniture, produced from 1969 to 1973, was called "Easy Edges", constructed out ofcardboard. Another line of furniture released in the spring of 1992 is "Bentwood Furniture". Each piece is named after a different hockey term. He was first introduced to making furniture in 1954 while serving in theU.S. Army, where he designed furniture for enlisted soldiers.[95][96][97]
In many of his designs, Gehry is inspired by fish. "It was by accident I got into the fish image", claimed Gehry. One thing that sparked his interest in fish was the fact that his colleagues were recreating Greek temples. He said, "Three hundred million years before man was fish....if you gotta go back, and you're insecure about going forward...go back three hundred million years ago. Why are you stopping at the Greeks? So, I started drawing fish in my sketchbook, and then I started to realize that there was something in it."[98]
As a result of his fascination, the first Fish Lamps were fabricated between 1984 and 1986. They employed wire armatures molded into fish shapes, onto which shards of plastic laminate ColorCore are individually glued. Since the creation of the first lamp in 1984, the fish has become a recurrent motif in Gehry's work, most notably in theFish Sculpture atLa Vila Olímpica del Poblenou in Barcelona (1989–92) andStanding Glass Fish for theMinneapolis Sculpture Garden (1986).[99]
Gehry has previously collaborated with luxury jewelry company Tiffany & Co., creating six distinct jewelry collections: the Orchid, Fish, Torque, Equus, Axis, and Fold collections. In addition to jewelry, Gehry designed other items, including a distinctive collector's chess set and a series of tableware items, including vases, cups, and bowls for the company.[100]
In 2004, Gehry designed the official trophy for theWorld Cup of Hockey.[101] He redesigned the trophy for the next tournament in 2016.[102]
He has collaborated with American furniture manufacturerEmeco on designs such as the 2004 "Superlight" chair.[103][104]
In 2014, Gehry was one of the six "iconoclasts" selected by French fashion house Louis Vuitton to design a piece using their iconic monogram pattern as part of their "Celebrating Monogram" campaign.[105]
Gehry's firm was responsible for innovation in architectural software.[108] His firm spun off another firm called Gehry Technologies that was established in 2002. In 2005, Gehry Technologies began a partnership withDassault Systèmes to bring innovations from the aerospace and manufacturing world to AEC and developedDigital Project software, as well as GTeam software. In 2014, Gehry Technologies was acquired by software companyTrimble Navigation.[109] Its client list includesDiller Scofidio + Renfro,Herzog & de Meuron,Jean Nouvel,Coop Himmelb(l)au, andZaha Hadid.
A naturalized U.S. citizen,[110] he also remains a citizen of Canada.[111] He lives inSanta Monica, California, and continues to practice out of Los Angeles.[112] Having grown up in Canada, he is an avid fan ofice hockey. He began a hockey league, FOG (for Frank Owen Gehry), in his office, though he no longer plays with them.[113] In 2004, he designed the trophy for theWorld Cup of Hockey.[114]
Gehry is known for his occasional bad temper. During a trip toOviedo, Spain to accept thePrince of Asturias Award in October 2014, he received a significant amount of attention, both positive and negative, for publiclyflipping off a reporter at a press conference who accused him of being a "showy" architect.[115][116]
Gehry is a member of the California Yacht Club inMarina Del Rey, and enjoys sailing with his fiberglass-hulled yacht,Foggy.[117]
In 2014, Gehry co-founded Turnaround Arts: California, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that expands access to the arts in under-resourced public elementary and middle schools across California.[118][119] In addition to serving as a board member for the organization, Gehry has served as a visiting artist with students.[120] He also serves on the leadership council of theNew York Stem Cell Foundation.[121]
Gehry has also donated his time to design projects pro-bono. In 2014, he began pro-bono work with the L.A. River Revitalization Corp., a nonprofit group founded by the city, to develop the LA River Master Plan.[122] In 2015, he unveiled his design, for which he waved his design fee, for the Children's Institute in Watts, an LA-based social services organization that provides services to families who have experienced violence and poverty.[123] The Youth Orchestra Los Angeles (YOLA), which is an educational center and performance space that provides free instruments, music training, and academic support to students from disadvantaged neighborhoods, was also designed pro-bono by Gehry and was completed in 2021.[124]
In 2004, Gehry voiced himself in an episode of the children's TV showArthur called "Castles in the Sky", where he helped Arthur and his friends design a newtreehouse.[125] He also voiced himself in a 2005 episode ofThe Simpsons, "The Seven-Beer Snitch", where he designs a concert hall for the fictional city of Springfield. He has since said he regrets the appearance, as it included a joke about his design technique that has led people to misunderstand his architectural process.[126]
In 2006, filmmakerSydney Pollack made a documentary about Gehry's work,Sketches of Frank Gehry, which followed Gehry over five years and painted a positive portrait of his character; it was well-received critically.[127]
Gehry participated in the 1980 Venice Biennale'sThe Presence of the Past exhibition, designing an architectural facade for theStrada Novissima installation. He also contributed to the 1985 Venice Biennale with an installation and performance namedIl Corso del Coltello, in collaboration with Claes Oldenburg. His projects were featured in the 1996 event, and contributed to the 2008 event with the installationUngapatchket.
In October 2015,21 21 Design Sight in Tokyo held the exhibitionFrank Gehry. I Have An Idea, curated by Japanese architect Tsuyoshi Tane.[132]
^Verge, Stéphanie (July 2022)."Frank Talk".Toronto Life. p. 55:Gehry's a phony name—I changed it in 1954 because my ex-wife was worried about antisemitism and thought it sounded less Jewish.
^Hawthorne, Christopher (August 9, 2015). "Frank Gehry agreed to make over the L.A. River -- with one big condition".The Los Angeles Times.
^Miranda, Carolina (September 12, 2015). "A Gehry First: The architect sets his sights on Watts in a pro-bono project that bridges his design skills and philanthropy. It was completed in 2022".The Los Angeles Times.
^Bernstein, Fred (August 11, 2021). "Frank Gehry Transforms a Former Bank Building in Inglewood for the Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles: The project marks the latest pro bono gig for the starchitect".Architectural Digest. Condé Nast.
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