Frank Gehry, the renegade Canadian-born architect behind some of the world's most recognizable buildings, has died aged 96.
Meaghan Lloyd, chief of staff at Gehry Partners, LLP, said he died Friday morning at his home in Santa Monica, California, after a short illness.
Known for his unconventional style and bold designs, Gehry has breathed unique life into cultural spaces including the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto, the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao in Spain, the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles and Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park, California.
His extraordinary work on museums, office spaces and private homes has attracted attention rarely experienced by architects, making his structural creations some of the most recognizable in the world. He was even immortalized as a cartoon version of himself in an episode of The Simpsons.
Listening to critics criticize his unusual designs was just part of the job, Gehry said in 2012 when unveiling the initial concept for three apartment buildings in his hometown of Toronto.
The buildings drew sharp criticism from some Torontonians when the models were unveiled and underwent some changes before construction began. The revised plan for the project, which is still under construction, includes two residential skyscrapers in the city's entertainment district.
Renowned rebel architect Frank Gehry has died after a short illness at the age of 96. In 2017, he shared his thoughts on mortality with IDEAS producer Mary Link.
“In Bilbao, Spain, they wanted to shoot me when they saw (the Guggenheim design) and now they get $500 million a year in city revenue. I don't know how to win over (the critics), that's just part of it,” he said, noting that Walt Disney Concert Hall has also been derided as “broken crockery.”
Grandparents are often considered the earliest source of influence.
Gehry was born Frank Owen Goldberg on February 28, 1929, to Polish immigrants living in Toronto. His childhood focused heavily on family, and his grandparents were often considered among the first influences on his famous career.
His grandmother, Leah, would scatter oddly shaped scraps of wood she bought at a nearby furniture store across her kitchen floor and encourage young Gehry to use them to build imaginary buildings, bridges and cities before they went into the family wood stove.
“(It was) the most fun I've ever had in my life. I realized it was a license to play,” Gehry is quoted as saying in Paul Goldberger’s 2015 biography, “The Art of Construction: The Life and Work of Frank Gehry.”
As a teenager, Gehry attended Friday lectures at the University of Toronto and took a particular liking to one speaker, who he later concluded was probably Finnish architect Alvar Aalto, another modern designer who excelled at breaking rules.
Gehry and his family moved to Los Angeles in 1947, and three years later he became a US citizen. During his early years in the US, he worked as a truck driver during the day, took night school sculpture classes, and later earned an architecture degree from the University of Southern California.
His career began with a bang in Los Angeles.
It was not until the mid-1950s that Gehry reluctantly changed his last name at the insistence of his first wife. She feared that the name Goldberg would expose their children to anti-Semitism. He later said he regretted it.
These years were filled with professional instability as he balanced his aspirations with a limited budget and the responsibilities of raising two children. He served in the U.S. Army, spent his weekends networking with the architectural community, and then studied urban planning at Harvard University before dropping out.
His career started with a bang: he opened his business in Los Angeles in 1962 and two years later worked at the Danziger Studio and Residence, a highly regarded Los Angeles landmark. Most of his early designs adhered to modernist styles, which favor geometric lines and simplicity.
By 1967, Gehry's reputation in the architectural community had reached new heights. He was hired to design the Merriweather Post Pavilion, an amphitheater in Columbia, Maryland. It was his first project, which the New York Times called “an unqualified architectural and acoustic success.”
During those early years, Gehry focused much of his attention on projects in Southern California, including his first shopping center, Santa Monica Place (1980), the expansion of the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium (1981) in San Pedro, California, and most notably his own private residence, which used plywood boards, chain-link fencing, and corrugated steel materials in a deconstructivist style (1978).
By the 1990s, designs had taken shape in cities around the world.
By the 1990s, Gehry's bold designs were taking shape in cities around the world. Frederic Weismann's art museum, his Guggenheim Bilbao and El Peix, the fish-like structure Gehry designed for the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, all demonstrated his playful and unconventional views.
When presenting him with the prestigious Pritzker Architecture Prize in 1989, art critic and juror Ada Louise Huxtable wrote that Gehry allowed delight to permeate every structure he created.
“No one can remember anything he did that didn't make him smile,” she wrote.
“These are light and lively designs and buildings that lift the spirit, revealing how the seemingly ordinary can become extraordinary through imagination.”
Gehry's projects are too numerous to list, but his other notable works include the renovation of the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto, the Gehry Tower in Hannover, Germany, and the Louis Vuitton Foundation for Creativity in Paris.
The enduring influence of Gehry's grandmother inspired him to take a more active role in the creativity of the next generation. He joined Turnaround Arts, an American program run by the Kennedy Center that aims to improve academic achievement in the lowest-performing schools by increasing interaction with the arts.
Gehry awarded the US Presidential Medal of Freedom
Gehry was among the leaders who taught architecture to students who he said were often uninspiring in otherwise academic circles. He placed physical materials in front of them, just as his grandmother had done, and asked them to use their imagination.
“You can get them involved in drawing and making things—those tactile things,” he told The Canadian Press in a 2019 interview.
“When they build a small building or a city… you can say, 'If you put them together, who will run the city?' So you can teach civics and all that stuff. So I think my grandmother's idea was perfect.”
In 2016, former US President Barack Obama awarded Gehry the Presidential Medal of Freedom, America's highest civilian honor.
In his speech, Obama said Gehry inspired others with his advocacy for arts education and philanthropy.
“He set out to redefine what architecture could be,” Obama said.
“Frank's work teaches us that while buildings may be solid and anchored to the ground, they, like all great art, can lift our spirits. They can soar, they can expand our horizons.”
Governor General of Canada Mary Simon and her husband Whit expressed their condolences to Gehry's family, friends and people around the world inspired by his work.
“The death of Frank Gehry marks the loss of a true global architectural titan. He was considered by many to be one of Canada's most brilliant artistic minds,” Simon said in a statement.
Simon said Gehry's “visionary designs” redefined modern architecture.
“His structures didn’t just occupy space; they challenged norms, revolutionized urban landscapes and left an indelible mark on the way we interact with art and culture for generations to come,” Simon added.
“A Member of the Order of Canada, his legacy is a powerful reminder of the incredible innovation and creativity that comes from Canada and is shared with the world.”
Prime Minister Mark Carney also expressed his condolences on social media.
“Frank Gehry was an architectural icon whose bold designs shaped cityscapes around the world,” he wrote.
