Frank Gehry
Early Life and Education
Frank Gehry was born Frank Owen Goldberg on February 28, 1929, in Toronto, Canada. His parents were Polish Jewish immigrants, and his father worked in the building materials trade. His childhood was marked by a creative and supportive family environment. His grandmother would build imaginary cities with him on the living room floor using scraps of wood from her husband’s hardware store, an experience that Gehry has cited as a formative influence on his interest in architecture and materials.
He was also exposed to art from a young age, taking classes at the Art Gallery of Toronto and visiting museums with his father. However, his childhood was also marked by the anti-Semitism he experienced in his Toronto neighborhood, which he has said was a motivating factor in his desire to leave the city.
In 1947, at the age of 18, he moved with his family to Los Angeles, California. The move was a difficult one, and he took a job as a truck driver to support himself while attending night classes at Los Angeles City College. It was during this time that he changed his surname from Goldberg to Gehry, in an attempt to avoid the prejudice he had experienced in Canada.
He eventually enrolled in the School of Architecture at the University of Southern California (USC). He was not a natural student at first, and he has said that he struggled with drawing and was on the verge of dropping out. However, a class with the architect Raphael Soriano, who was a student of Richard Neutra, sparked his interest in modern architecture. He graduated from USC in 1954 with a Bachelor of Architecture degree.
After graduating, he worked for the prominent Los Angeles firm of Victor Gruen Associates, which was known for its innovative shopping center designs. He also served for a year in the United States Army.
In 1956, he moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts, to study urban planning at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. However, he was disillusioned with the program’s focus on social engineering and left after a year without completing his degree. He returned to Los Angeles and, after a brief period working in the office of Pereira and Luckman, he established his own firm, Frank O. Gehry and Associates, in 1962.
Architectural Philosophy and Career
Frank Gehry’s architectural philosophy is one of the most distinctive and recognizable in the world. He is a leading figure in the Deconstructivist movement, and his work is characterized by its use of fragmented, sculptural forms and unconventional materials.
His career began with a series of relatively conventional projects, but in the 1970s, his work began to take a more experimental and personal turn. A key moment in his development was the renovation of his own house in Santa Monica, California, in 1978. He took a modest, pink bungalow and wrapped it in a new skin of corrugated metal, chain-link fence, and exposed wood framing. The result was a raw, chaotic, and highly personal building that became a manifesto for his emerging architectural language.
Gehry’s philosophy is rooted in a deep interest in art and the creative process. He has often said that he is more influenced by artists than by architects, and he has collaborated with many artists throughout his career. He sees architecture as a form of sculpture, and he is known for his use of physical models as his primary design tool. He works in a highly intuitive and iterative way, creating dozens of study models for each project, which he then translates into digital form using advanced computer software.
His use of materials is also a key part of his philosophy. He is known for his use of everyday, industrial materials like corrugated metal, chain-link fence, and unfinished plywood, which he uses in a way that challenges our expectations of what a building should be made of. In his later, large-scale projects, he has become known for his use of titanium and stainless steel, which he uses to create shimmering, sculptural facades that seem to change with the light.
Gehry’s work is often described as chaotic or arbitrary, but it is underpinned by a deep concern for the user experience and the social function of architecture. He is interested in creating buildings that are engaging, accessible, and fun. He wants his buildings to be part of the life of the city, and he is a master of creating dynamic public spaces that encourage social interaction.
His career has been a long and gradual evolution, from his early, small-scale projects in Southern California to his later, large-scale international commissions. He has become one of the most famous and sought-after architects in the world, and his work has had a profound impact on the public perception of architecture.
Notable and Famous Works
Frank Gehry’s portfolio is filled with iconic and highly recognizable buildings that have become major cultural landmarks.
The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao (1997) in Bilbao, Spain, is his most famous and influential work. The museum is a spectacular, sculptural building of titanium, glass, and limestone that is located on the banks of the Nervión River. Its swirling, organic forms are meant to evoke the industrial heritage of the city and the shimmering scales of a fish. The building was a huge critical and popular success, and it is credited with revitalizing the city of Bilbao, an effect that has come to be known as the “Bilbao effect.”
The Walt Disney Concert Hall (2003) in Los Angeles, California, is another of his most celebrated works. The concert hall is a dramatic, sculptural building of stainless steel, with a series of curving, sail-like forms that seem to billow out from the central auditorium. The interior is known for its superb acoustics and its warm, wood-lined concert hall.
The Gehry Residence (1978) in Santa Monica, California, is his own house and a key early work. The house is a radical deconstruction of a traditional suburban bungalow, and it was a laboratory for many of the ideas and materials that would come to define his later work.
The Vitra Design Museum (1989) in Weil am Rhein, Germany, was his first project in Europe. It is a small but complex building of white plaster and titanium-zinc alloy, with a series of fragmented, sculptural forms that seem to collide and intersect.
The Dancing House (1996) in Prague, Czech Republic, which he designed with Vlado Milunić, is a playful and irreverent building that is meant to resemble a pair of dancers. The building’s dynamic, curving forms stand in stark contrast to the traditional architecture of the surrounding city.
The Louis Vuitton Foundation (2014) in Paris, France, is a more recent major work. It is an art museum and cultural center that is located in the Bois de Boulogne. The building is a complex composition of glass “sails” that seem to float above a central “iceberg” of white, fiber-reinforced concrete.
Awards, Honors, and Legacy
Frank Gehry has received virtually every major award in the field of architecture. In 1989, he was awarded the Pritzker Architecture Prize. The jury citation described him as an architect who has “made us aware that a building is a work of art.”
He has also received the AIA Gold Medal (1999), the Royal Gold Medal from the Royal Institute of British Architects (2000), the Praemium Imperiale in Architecture from the Japan Art Association (1992), and the Presidential Medal of Freedom (2016), the highest civilian honor in the United States.
Gehry’s legacy is significant and multifaceted. He is one of the most important and influential architects of the late 20th and early 21st centuries, and his work has had a profound impact on the direction of contemporary architecture. His pioneering use of digital technology, particularly the CATIA software that was originally developed for the aerospace industry, has revolutionized the way that complex forms are designed and built.
He has been both celebrated and criticized for his highly personal and sculptural style. His supporters see him as a visionary artist who has liberated architecture from the constraints of modernism and created some of the most beautiful and exciting buildings of our time. His critics argue that his work is arbitrary, expensive, and often disconnected from its context.
Regardless of the debate, there is no denying his impact. He has shown that architecture can be a popular and accessible art form, and his buildings have become major tourist destinations and symbols of civic pride. He has challenged the conventions of the profession and has inspired a generation of architects to be more daring, more experimental, and more personal in their work. At over 90 years old, he continues to be an active and vital force in the world of architecture.