Frank Gehry was the author of famous buildings, including the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, the Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris, or the Dancing House in Prague.
He died this Friday morning at his home in Santa Monica, “after a brief respiratory illness”, according to his team in an email sent to the France Presse agency.
He is considered one of the great names in architecture in the 21st century for his innovative role in crossing the boundaries between architecture and art, but also for the deconstructivism of his creations.
In a documentary recorded in 2018, Frank Gehry talked about how the experience of being next to a work of art – the Chariot of Delphi, in Greece – impacted his view of architecture.
“I was in front of a statue (…) that made me cry. And I thought: ‘This is what an architect should be able to do’. Achieve an emotional response through his work that lasts centuries. That’s what I try to do. I know it’s very pompous, but at least it’s a wish, a hope”, he confessed.
Frank Owen Goldberg was born in Toronto on February 28, 1929 into a Jewish family. At the end of the 40s, the future architect’s family emigrated to the United States.
He studied architecture at the University of Southern California, in Los Angeles, having completed his studies in 1954. At that time, he changed his last name to Gehry, in order to protect himself from anti-Semitism. “My ex-wife was worried about anti-Semitism and thought I sounded less Jewish,” he said in an interview in 2022.
The following year, in 1955, he enlisted in the US army while studying urban planning at Harvard University.
In architecture, his career began at Victor Gruen’s office, seen as a pioneer in the design of shopping centers in the United States. He then moved to Paris in 1961, where he worked with André Remondet. Back in the United States, he opened his own office the following year.
Only in the following decade, in 1972, did he gain national prominence by launching an iconic line of furniture, Easy Edges. In 1974, Frank Gehry was elected a Fellow of the College of the American Institute of Architects.
The increasingly relevant role in California in the 70s and 80s culminated in the achievement in 1989 of the most relevant distinction in the world of architecture: the Pritzker Prize.
One of the most famous works from this period is Gehry’s own house in Santa Monica, California, which stands out for the originality of its roof.
Already in the 90s, the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao brought worldwide acclaim to the architect. At the time, fellow American Philip Johnson called it “the most important building of our time”.
This work was followed by other milestones in the architect’s career, notably the Walt Disney Concert Hall, in Los Angeles (2003), the Lou Ruvo Clinic, in Ohio (2010), the 8 Spruce Street skyscraper, in New York (2011) and the Louis Vuitton Foundation, in Paris (2014).
He worked almost until the end of his life, having completed the construction of Facebook’s new headquarters in Silicon Valley in 2018.
“Pure rubbish”
Rounded shapes, curves and circles, previously considered architectural heresy, mark the work of Frank Gehry. Originality translates, however, into unprecedented complexity that increases construction costs and brings countless headaches to engineers.
His boldness earned him several criticisms, and he was accused above all of disregarding the function of the buildings in favor of the form they took. He downplayed these criticisms in 2007, in an interview with New Yorker: “We ended up thinking: At least they’re looking!”, he said.
Frank Gehry raised his middle finger and replied: “In this world we live in, 98 percent of everything that is built and designed today is pure rubbish. There is no sense of design, there is no respect for humanity or anything else. They are just buildings, nothing more”, he summarized while visiting Spain to receive the Prince of Asturias Award.
Finally, it is worth highlighting the connection to Portugal. In 2003, the then mayor of Lisbon, Pedro Santana Lopes, invited the architect to develop a project for Parque Mayer.
The project never got off the ground, but included a casino, four theaters, a jazz club, a fashion museum, a media library, two residential buildings, a hotel and commercial areas.
Frank Gehry did not intend a “historical reconstruction”, but a transformation of Parque Mayer into a “modern space for the 21st century”.
Years later, Frank Gehry designed the setting for fado singer Mariza’s concert at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, in 2010. He then wanted to represent the image of a tavern in a Lisbon alley, an intimate setting in order to support the Portuguese singer’s performance.
“It won’t be a Frank Gehry decoration. They won’t recognize it,” he said at the time in statements to the Associated Press.
(with agencies)
