Frank Gehry

Frank Gehry, born in 1929, American architect, a leader in the later phases of the postmodern movement in architecture (see American Architecture; Modern Architecture). Gehry's distinctive style emerged in the 1970s with his dramatic use of ordinary building materials, such as chain-link fencing, plywood, and corrugated metal. Gehry continued to experiment with industrial materials and bold sculptural forms as his work evolved. In 1989 he was awarded the Pritzker Architecture Prize, an international award recognizing professional excellence in architecture.

Born Ephraim Goldberg in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Gehry moved with his family to Los Angeles in 1947. There he studied architecture at the University of Southern California and worked for the architectural firm of Victor Gruen Associates. In 1956 Gehry studied urban planning at the Harvard School of Design and then returned to Los Angeles to work for Victor Gruen until 1960. After spending a year at the Paris office of French architect André Remondet, Gehry returned to Los Angeles where he opened his own practice in 1962.

Gehry's earliest independent designs reveal the strong influence of Swiss French architect Le Corbusier. By 1972, however, he had begun to use nontraditional geometric forms in simple buildings constructed of corrugated metal and other ordinary materials. For example, the Ron Davis house in Malibu, California (1970-1972), has a trapezoid-shaped roof. Gehry's remodeling of his own house in Santa Monica, California, in 1979, became the focus of intense professional and journalistic attention. Gehry's new rooms were formed by sharp angular roofs sided with corrugated metal and decorated with angled panels of chain-link fence. He designed numerous private residences, each exploring the discordant possibilities of angled, colliding planes, bright colors, and ordinary industrial materials.

While continuing to design private residences, Gehry received important public commissions. They included a new campus (1981-1984) for the Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, the California Aerospace Museum (1982-1984) in Los Angeles, and the Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum at the University of Minnesota (1990-1993) in Minneapolis. His playful configuration for the Vitra Design Museum (1990) in Weil am Rhein, Germany, features an array of geometric volumes joined at unusual angles so that they appear to collide with one another.

Gehry produced a strikingly original design for the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao in Bilbao, Spain, which opened in 1997. The dramatically curved forms of the museum are accentuated by a shiny titanium surface. The gleaming titanium reflects a nearby river and shimmers as light strikes it. Gehry’s next museum was the Experience Music Project (1999-2000) in Seattle, Washington. The museum’s exterior has no right angles, and its wavy forms are covered in brightly painted panels of sheet metal. In 2003 the Walt Disney Concert Hall opened in Los Angeles to widespread acclaim. Gehry’s design features his trademark curved metal forms. Inside, the auditorium is of wood, and seating for the audience surrounds the concert stage. Gehry has compared the design to a ceremonial barge taking orchestra and audience on a journey through music.