Frank Gehry

At 95 years old, Frank Gehry has this physical status:

Frank Owen Gehry, FAIA (born Frank Owen Goldberg, 1929-02-28) is a Canadian-born American architect who lives in Los Angeles, Canada. A number of his buildings, including his private residence, have become world-renowned tourist attractions.

His works have been cited among the top works of contemporary architecture in the 2010 World Architecture Survey, which has led to Vanity Fair's nomination of him as "the most influential architect of our time"; the Weisman Art Museum in Bilbao, Spain; the Citton Foundation in Munich; and the Museum of Civilization in Washington, Massachusetts; and 8 Spruce Street in New York City. It was his private residence in Santa Monica, California, that ignited his career.

Gehry is also the architect of the forthcoming National Dwight Eisenhower Memorial.

Early life

Frank Owen Goldberg was born in Toronto, Ontario, on February 28, 1929, to parents Sadie Thelma (née Kaplanski/Caplan) and Irving Goldberg. His father was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Russian Jewish parents, and his mother, a Polish Jewish immigrant born in ód.' Leah Caplan, his grandmother, who influenced him to design little towns from wood scraps, was a creative boy who created little towns. She entertained her husband for hours by building imaginary houses and futuristic cities on the living room floor with these scraps from his husband's hardware store.

Gehry's use of corrugated steel, chain-link fencing, unpainted plywood, and other utilitarian or "everyday" products was partially inspired by his grandfather's hardware store's spending Saturday mornings. He spent time drawing with his father and his mother introduced him to the art world. Gehry says, "So the creative genes were there." "My father thought I was a dreamer, but I wasn't gonna do anything." It was my mother who thought I was just reluctant to do things. She'll pull me."

He was given the Hebrew word "ephraim" by his grandfather but only at his bar mitzvah.

Gehry's family immigrated to the United States in 1947, settling in California. At Los Angeles City College, he worked with a delivery truck and read about Los Angeles City College. He went on to graduate from the University of Southern California's School of Architecture. He became a member of Alpha Epsilon Pi during that time.

"I was a truck driver in Los Angeles, going to City College, and I tried radio announcing, which I wasn't very good at." Chemical engineering, which I wasn't very good at and didn't like, was a hit, but then I remembered. "What do I like?" I guess 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 loved looking at paintings, and that I love listening to music. Those things came from my mother, who took me to concerts and museums. I remembered Grandma and the blocks, but I decided to take some architecture classes "on a hunch." In 1954, Gehry earned a Bachelor of Architecture degree from the University of Southern California.

He then spent time away from architecture in a variety of other occupations, including service in the United States Army. In the fall of 1956, he and his family migrated to Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he studied urban planning at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. He left before completing the course, dissatisfied and "underwhelmed." His socially responsible architecture were under-realized, and the final straw came as he sat in on a discussion of one professor's "unknown project in progress"—a palace that he commissioned for right-wing Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista (1901–1973).

Personal life

After his then-wife Anita expressed worry about anti-Semitism in 1954, Gehry changed his surname from Goldberg to Gehry.

Gehry, who grew up in Canada, is an ardent fan of ice hockey. In his office, he started a hockey team, FOG (for Frank Owen Gehry), but he no longer plays with them. He created the World Cup of Hockey trophy in 2004. He is also a citizen of Canada and is a naturalized US citizen. He lives in Santa Monica, California, and continues to practice out of Los Angeles.

Gehry is known for his cantankerous demeanor. During a trip to Oviedo, Spain, to accept the Prince of Asturias Award in October 2014, he received a lot of attention for publicly accusing a reporter of being a "showy" architect.

Gehry, a member of the California Yacht Club in Marina Del Rey, enjoys sailing his fiberglass-hulled yacht, Foggy. He also serves on The New York Stem Cell Foundation's leadership team.

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Career

Gehry returned to Los Angeles to work with Victor Gruen Associates, with whom he had apprenticed while at USC. He was given the opportunity to design his first private residence with friend and old classmate Greg Walsh in 1957. Charlie Sockler, another neighbor across the street from his wife's family, was responsible for the building. The over 2,000 sq. ft (190 m2) "David Cabin" was built in Idyllwild, California, for his wife Melvin David, who was to become synonymous with Gehry's later work, including beams protruding from the exterior walls, vertical-grain douglas fir detail, and exposed unfinished ceiling beams. It also has a strong Asian influence, owing to its earliest inspirations, such as the Shosoin Treasure House in Nara, Japan.

Gehry left Paris in 1961, where he worked for architect Andre Remondet. Frank Gehry and Associates began in 1967 in Los Angeles, then Gehry Partners in 2001. His first commissions were in Southern California, where he created a number of innovative commercial buildings, including Santa Monica Place (1980) and the eccentric Norton House (1984) in Venice, California.

Gehry's most notable design may be the addition of his own Santa Monica home to his collection of works. It was built in 1920 and purchased by Gehry in 1977, and it has a metallic exterior wrapped around the original building, leaving some of the original details visible. Gehry has lived there for the time being.

The Cabrillo Marine Aquarium (1981) in San Pedro, as well as the California Aerospace Museum (1984) in Los Angeles, were two of Gehry's buildings built during the 1980s.

Gehry received the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 1989, where the jury described him as "always open to experimentation; he has as well a sense of stability and maturity that resists, as Picasso did, being tied either by critical acceptance or his triumphs. Users are able to appreciate both the theatre and the back-stage as a result of his juxtaposed collages of space and materials, which are simultaneously revealed."

Gehry continued to produce other prominent buildings in California, such as the Chiat/Day Building (1991) in Venice, which is well known for its massive sculpture of binoculars. He also started receiving larger national and international commissions, including his first European commission, the Vitra International Furniture Manufacturing Facility and Design Museum in Germany, which opened in 1989, which was the first European commission. It was soon followed by other big commissions, including the Frederick Weisman Museum of Art (1993) in Minneapolis, Minnesota; the Cinémathèque Française (1994) in Paris; and the Dancing House (1996) in Prague.

In Goldstein, part of Frankfurt-Schwanheim (1994), Gehry's prestigious public housing project was realized from 1994 to 1996. Those buildings were converted to a new level of international acclaim. The museum, which has been praised by The New Yorker as a "masterpiece of the twentieth century" and by legendary architect Philip Johnson as "the most modern building of our time," and for its striking yet aesthetically pleasing architecture and its positive economic impact on the city.

Since then, Gehry has won large commissions and established himself as one of the world's most respected architects. Several concert halls for classical music were among his best-received performances. The vibrant, curvaceous Walt Disney Concert Hall in downtown Los Angeles (2003) is the center of the neighborhood's revitalization; the Los Angeles Times called it "the most effective response to doubters, naysayers, and grumbling critics that an American architect has ever produced." Gehry also built the open-air Jay Pritzker Pavilion (2004) in Chicago's Millennium Park, as well as the understated New World Center (2011) in Miami Beach, which the LA Times called "a work of architecture that dares you to underestimate it or write it off at first glance."

His other notable contributions include educational buildings such as the Stata Center (2004) at MIT and the Peter B. Lewis Library (2008) in Princeton University; museums such as the Museum of Pop Culture (2000) in Seattle, Washington; and residential buildings such as Gehry's first skyscraper, the Beekman Tower at 8 Spruce Street (2011) in New York City.

The Dr Chau Chak Wing Building at the University of Technology Sydney, completed in 2014, and the Chau Chak Wing, with its 320,000 bricks in "sweeping lines," are two of Gehry's most recent international projects, with the latter being rated as "10 out of ten" on a scale of difficulty. The Guggenheim Abu Dhabi on Saadiyat Island in the UAE is a continuing project. Other significant projects, including the Mirvish Towers in Toronto, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art's multi-decade renovation, are currently in the planning phase. Gehry was named joint architect with Foster + Partners in October 2013 to plan the High Street phase of the Battersea Power Station in London, Gehry's first project there.

Any of Gehry's most popular plans have failed to move forward in recent years. Gehry was notoriously canceled by architect Bruce Ratner from the Pacific Park (Brooklyn) redevelopment initiative and in 2014 as the designer of the World Trade Center Performing Arts Center in New York City, in addition to unrealized plans for the Corcoran Art Gallery expansion and a new Guggenheim museum near the South Street Seaport in New York City. Some stalled projects have recently shown success: Gehry was recently reinstated as architect for the Grand Avenue Project in Los Angeles, and although his controversial proposal of the National Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial in Washington, DC, suffered with numerous delays during the permitting process with the United States Congress, it was finally approved in 2014 with a modified version.

Two major, long-awaited museums built by Gehry in 2014: the Biomuseo, a biodiversity museum in Panama City, Panama; and the Fondation Louis Vuitton, a modern art museum in Paris, France, which opened to some rave reviews.

Gehry was also contracted by River LA (formerly the Los Angeles River Revitalization Corporation), a non-profit group formed by the city of Los Angeles in 2009 to coordinate river policy, to develop a wide-ranging new river map in 2014.

The University of Technology Sydney's new AU$180 million building was officially opened in February 2015, with more than 320,000 hand-placed bricks and glass slabs on the facade. Gehry said he would not design a building with the "crumpled paper bag" again.

In November 2016, Gehry told French newspaper La Croix that President François Hollande had warned him if Donald Trump had been elected President of France, if he moved to France. Gehry said he had no plans to move during the month. In 2010, when Gehry's 8 Spruce Street, originally known as Beekman Tower, was 1 foot (0.30 m) taller than the nearby Trump Tower, which was up until then was New York City's tallest residential building.

The Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial in Washington, DC, and the LUMA Arles museum in France are two notable Gehry-designed buildings completed in the 2020s. "Seventy-four years after Gehry's hometown in Los Angeles, the United States' grands Avenue Project, a concert hall for the Youth Orchestra Los Angeles, and an office building for Warner Bros.

Other aspects of career

Gehry joined the University of Southern California (USC) faculty in January 2011 as the Judge Widney Professor of Architecture. He has since served in this capacity at his alma mater. He has taught at Harvard University, the University of California, Yale University, Columbia University, and Yale University, where he now teaches as of 2017.

Though he is often referred to as a "starchitect," he has consistently stated his disdain for the term, claiming he is only an architect. "You are our most popular student after George Lucas," Steve Sample, President of the University of Southern California, told Gehry.

Gehry has earned over a dozen honorary university degrees as of December 2013, see #HonoraryDocs).

MasterClass announced an online architecture course taught by Gehry in February 2017 that was not available at the time.

Gehry has participated in exhibit exhibit design at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art dating back to the 1960s. Gehry conceived the exhibition for the "Art Treasures of Japan" exhibition at the LACMA in 1965. This was followed shortly after by the exhibition layout for the "Assyrian Reliefs" show in 1966 and the "Billy Al Bengston Retrospective" in 1968. Gehry supervised the installation for the "Treasures of Tutankhamen" exhibition in 1978, which was followed by the "Avant-Garde" exhibit in Russia in 1980. Gehry curated the exhibition for "Seventeen Artists in the 1960s" at the LACMA, which was followed by the "German Expressionist Sculpture Exhibition" in 1983. Gehry curated the installation of the legendary exhibition "Degenerate Art: The Fate of the Avant-Garde in Nazi Germany" in 1991–92, which opened at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and later traveled to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, and the Berlin Altes Museum. Gehry was invited by the museum's curator Stephanie Barron to stage an exhibit dedicated to Alexander Calder's work at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art's Resnick Pavilion, where the museum's curator Stephanie Barron had been invited once more. The show opened on November 24, 2013 and ended on July 27, 2014.

Gehry has also created numerous exhibition installations for other organizations in addition to his long-time involvement with exhibition design at the Los Angeles CMA. "The Art of the Motorcycle" exhibition at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in 1998 opened with a Gehry-designed installation. This exhibit later traveled to the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, and the Guggenheim Las Vegas.

Peter Arnell, his close friend and businessman, curated an exhibition of photography by him in 2014 that ran from March 5 to April 1 at Milk Studios Gallery in Los Angeles.

Gehry designed the stage layout for Lucinda Childs' dance Available Light, which was set to music by John Adams in 1983. It premiered at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles as part of "Temporary Contemporary" and was later seen at the Brooklyn Academy of Music Opera House in New York City and the Théâtre de la Ville in Paris. The set featured two levels angled in relation to each other, with a chain-link backdrop. The piece was revived in 2015 and appeared in Los Angeles and Philadelphia, where FringeArts, the artist's representative, commissioned it.

Gehry conceived the stage for Don Giovanni's opera performance at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in 2012.

Gehry produced a set for a "exploration of Pierre Boulez' life and career," which was performed by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in April of 2014.

Gehry has designed a line of furniture, jewelry, sculptures, and even a glass bottle for Wyborowa Vodka. "Easy Edges" was his first line of furniture, which was manufactured from 1969 to 1973, was named after a line of cardboard. "Bentwood Furniture" was another line of furniture that was introduced in the spring of 1992. Each piece is named after a particular hockey term. When serving in the United States Army in 1954, he first learned to make furniture, where he designed furniture for the enlisted troops.

Gehry's designs are influenced by fish. Gehry said, "It was by chance I got into the fish image." The fact that his coworkers were remembering Greek temples sparked his enthusiasm in fish was one of his reasons for his curiosity in fish. "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 discovered that there was something in it."

The first Fish Lamps were made between 1984 and 1986 as a result of his fascination. They used wire armatures cut into fish shapes, onto which shards of plastic laminate ColorCore are individually attached, for example. The fish has become a common motif in Gehry's work, particularly in the Fish Sculpture at La Vila Olmpica del Poblenou (1989–92) and Standing Glass Fish for the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden (1986).

Gehry has previously worked with luxury jewelry company Tiffany & Co., resulting in six distinct jewelry collections: the Orchid, Fish, Torque, Equus, Axis, and Fold collections. Gehry also created other pieces, including a unique collector's chess set and a collection of tableware pieces, including vases, cups, and bowls for the company, in addition to jewelry.

Gehry created the official World Cup of Hockey in 2004. In 2016, he redesigned the trophy for the upcoming tournament.

He has collaborated with American furniture manufacturer Emeco on designs such as the 2004 "Superlight" chair.

Gehry was one of the six "iconoclasts" chosen by French fashion house Louis Vuitton to produce a piece based on the company's legendary monogram pattern in 2014 as part of their "Celebrating Monogram" campaign.

Gehry built his first yacht in 2015, launching it in 2015.

Gehry created a limited edition bottle of Hennessy cognac in 2020.

Gehry's company was responsible for the development of architectural software. Gehry Technologies, a consulting company that was founded in 2002, spun off another company called Gehry Technologies. Gehry Technologies began a collaboration with Dassault Systèmes in 2005 to bring innovation from the aerospace and manufacturing industries to AEC, as well as GTeam solutions. Gehry Technologies was acquired by software firm Trimble Navigation in 2014. Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Herzog & De Meuron, Jean Nouvel, Coop Himmelb(l)au, and Zaha Hadid are among its clients.

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Awards and honors

• 1987: Fellow of American Academy of Arts and Letters
• 1988: Elected into the National Academy of Design
• 1989: Pritzker Architecture Prize
• 1992: Praemium Imperiale
• 1994: The Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize
• 1995: American Academy of Achievement's Golden Plate Award
• 1998: National Medal of Arts
• 1998: Gold Medal Award, Royal Architectural Institute of Canada
• 1999: AIA Gold Medal, American Institute of Architects
• 2000: Cooper–Hewitt National Design Award Lifetime Achievement
• 2002: Companion of the Order of Canada
• 2004: Woodrow Wilson Award for Public Service
• 2006: Inductee, California Hall of Fame
• 2007: Henry C. Turner Prize for Innovation in Construction Technology from the National Building Museum (on behalf of Gehry Partners and Gehry Technologies)
• 2009: Order of Charlemagne
• 2012: Twenty-five Year Award, American Institute of Architects
• 2014: Prince of Asturias Award
• 2014: Commandeur of the Ordre National de la Légion d'honneur, France
• 2015: J. Paul Getty Medal
• 2016: Harvard Arts Medal
• 2016: Leonore and Walter Annenberg Award for Diplomacy through the Arts, Foundation for Arts and Preservation in Embassies
• 2016: Presidential Medal of Freedom
• 2018: Neutra Medal
• 2019: Inductee, Canada's Walk of Fame
• 2020: Paez Medal of Art, New York City (VAEA).