Remembering Frank Gehry

So sad to hear of Frank Gehry's passing, but at 96, he has left us quite a legacy behind. Perhaps best know for the otherworldly Guggenheim museum in Bilbao. A building that totally transforms as the light changes, warmly undulating as well as shear and metallic.

The Guggenheim was pretty revolutionary in 1997 when it opened, heralding a new era in computer-led design. It transformed the northern Spanish town into a tourist destination, adding $400m to the city's coppers.

Of course not everyone's cup of tea, this was architecture that shouted, perhaps a little louder than the works it housed. But you can't deny the impact Gehry's style had on the architecture scene.

Born in Canada to Jewish immigrant parents, he changed his name to try and avoid the anti-semitism he had witnessed, however his roots where a strong part of his identity. He moved to LA, first working as a lorry driver before exploring building design. Gehry worked under Victor Gruen, the inventor of the shopping mall. He tried his hand at city planning but was becoming quite disillusioned with the way modern architecture was heading. It was though through his relationship with the art community where he really found his niche. Collaborating on buildings that brought outlandish concepts to life, like the Binoculars building built in 1991 with Claes Oldenburg. 

His buildings were like giant sculptures, rarely a straight line, vying for your attention against a rather boring urban neighbours. He favoured titanium and stainless steel in many of his designs, how it could be shaped and bent to create forms not previously explored in architectural design.

In 1989 at age 60 he received a great accolade, the Pritzker Architectural prize for lifetime achievement. The panel likened his work to Jazz music and praised his 'improvisational and lively adventurous aesthetic'. 

Not always to my taste, but definitely praise-worthy. Critics described the Walt Disney Concert Hall in LA as looking like a 'pile of broken crockery' or an 'emptied waste basket' but to these he just replied "At least they are looking".

Of course many architects turn their attention to chair design at some point, and we featured one of Gehry's chairs in our 2014 popular poster calendar of classic chair design. The Wiggle Chair, designed in 1972.

It has been a pleasure to look on his works again, you can see the passion and just plain fun expressed at an impressive scale. His is a legacy that will live on, continuing to cause people to stop in their tracks and look up.  

You can see some of Gehry's works pictured here.