Frank Gehry
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I think the blurring of the lines between art and architecture has got to happen.
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When the other products of a culture have faded from human memory, it is the works of architecture that remain to define an era for successive generations. As the 20th century gave way to the 21st, it was hard to dispute that the definitive architect of the age was Frank Gehry, Canadian by birth, a resident of Los Angeles by choice. He first drew notice in his adopted city with works deploying commonplace industrial materials in unexpected ways, but he came to international prominence with works which exploded the geometry of traditional architecture to create a dramatic new form of expression. He deployed cutting-edge computer technology to realize shapes and
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forms of hitherto unimaginable complexity, such as the startling irregularities of his Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, or the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. In these monumental buildings, the uninhibited whimsy of his pencil sketches took shape in powerful structures of gleaming titanium. From Switzerland to Japan, from Santa Monica to Prague, his buildings have transformed human expectations of the designed space. Once mocked for their astonishing originality, his buildings have become the signature structures of the challenging times we live in.
4. Building Originality
10. Guggenheim Museum
16. New Yorkby Gehry
6. Gehry Residence
12. Walt Disney Concert Hall
18. Inspiring the Future
8. Vitra Design Museum
14. MarquĂŠs de Riscal Hotel
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The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, along the Nervión River in downtown Bilbao, Spain.
originality at its
Much of Gehry’s work falls with- are not required to reflect specific called “the apostle of chain-link in the style of Deconstructivism, social or universal ideas, such as fencing and corrugated metal sidwhich is often referred to as post- speed or universality of form, and ing”. However, a retrospective exstructuralist in nature for its abili- they do not reflect a belief that form hibit at New York’s Whitney Musety to go beyond current modalities follows function. um in 1988 revealed that he is also a of structural definition. In architec- Gehry’s style at times seems unfin- sophisticated classical artist, ture, its application tends to de- ished or even crude, but his work is who knows European art histopart from modernism in its inher- consistent with the California ‘funk’ ry and contemporary sculpture ent criticism of culturally inherited art movement in the 1960s and ear- and painting. givens such as societal goals and ly 1970s, which featured the use of functional necessity. Because of inexpensive found objects and nonthis, unlike early modernist struc- traditional media such as clay to tures, Deconstructivist structures make serious art. Gehry has been
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How Frank Gehry’s unique style is defined today
finest Left: Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health in Las Vegas. Above: The Dancing House in Prague, Czech Republic.
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Gehry REsidence Quite plainly, the Gehry Residence is a suburban house totally unconcerned with traditionally pleasing aesthetics. As soon as it was completed in 1978 reactions ranged from hagiography to anathema. Over time, critical reactions mirrored the role the house would play in the larger canon of contemporary architecture. A 1979 review by New York Times architecture critic Paul Goldberger, Hon. AIA, recognized the house as an extremely successful provocation—if not much more.
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A continuous changing swirl of white forms on the exterior, each seemingly without apparent relationship to the other, with its interiors a dynamically powerful interplay, in turn directly expressive of the exterior convolutions. He called the Gehry Residence the most significant new house in Southern California in years, admiring its central conceptual conceit: an old house wrapped in jagged panels of corrugated metal, creating a new band of patio-like indoor/outdoor space on three sides. Windows were inflated into small skylight atriums, canted and distorted into sculptural expressions of transparent mass. A thoroughly collaged composition, plywood and (most infamously) chain-link fence punctuate the house’s roughhewn exterior. Inside the added
indoor/outdoor space, the floor was asphalt, and the now-interior wall was still the original painted (salmon-pink) siding. Throughout the interior, Goldberger appreciated the abundance of natural light and the exposed wood beams Gehry revealed after he gutted the original house, which communicate a sense of structural honesty not often associated with his work.
1977
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VITRA DESIGN MUSEUM
A spectacular structure made of titanium, glass, and limestone, important building of its time
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The Museum opened on November 3, 1989, and pictures of Frank O. Gehry’s unconventional building - his first work in Europe - circled the globe. Today, the Vitra Design Museum is internationally active as a cultural institution that has made a major contribution to the research and popular dissemination of design. The Museum presents a broad spectrum of topics on design and culture, with a special emphasis on furniture and interior design. Its activities encompass the production of
1989 hailed as the most
exhibitions, workshops, publications, and museum products, and the maintenance of an extensive collection, an archive, and a research library. The travelling exhibitions of the Vitra Design Museum are shown at renowned partner institutions around the world. With regard to its independence and range of topics, the Vitra Design Museum is comparable to a public museum. From a financial standpoint, however, it is largely self-sufficient. Its partnership with the Vitra corporation consists of a basic annual supplement to the Museum budget, the use of Vitra architecture, and organisational co-operation.
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Guggenheim Well before the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao opened its doors to the public on October 19, 1997, the new museum was making news. The numerous artists, architects, journalists, politicians, filmmakers, and historians that visited the building site in the mere four years of its construction anticipated the success of the venture. Frank Gehry’s limestone, glass, and titanium building was hailed by architect Philip Johnson as “the greatest building of our time� and the pioneering collaboration between the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation and Basque authorities was seen to challenge assumptions about art museum collecting and programming.
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Museum bilbao Located on the Bay of Biscay, Bilbao is the fourth largest city in Spain, one of the country’s most important ports, and a center for manufacturing, shipping, and commerce. In the late 1980s the Basque authorities embarked on an ambitious redevelopment program for the city. By 1991, with new designs for an airport, a subway system, and a footbridge, among other important projects by major international architects such as Norman Foster, Santiago Calatrava, and Arata Isozaki, the city planned to build a first-class cultural facility. In April and May of 1991 at the invitation of the Basque Government and the Diputación Foral de Bizkaia, Thomas Krens, Director of the
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Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, met repeatedly with officials, signing a preliminary agreement to bring a new Guggenheim Museum to Bilbao. An architectural competition led to the selection of California-based architect Gehry, known for his use of unorthodox materials and inventive forms, and his sensitivity to the urban environment. Gehry’s proposal for the site on the Nervion River ultimately included features that embrace both the identity of the Guggenheim Museum and its new home in the Basque Country. The building’s glass atrium refers to the famous rotunda of Frank Lloyd Wright’s New York Guggenheim, and its largest gallery is traversed by
Bilbao’s Puente de La Salve, a vehicular bridge serving as one of the main gateways to the city. In 1992 Juan Ignacio Vidarte, now Director General of the Guggenheim Bilbao, was formally appointed to oversee the development of the project and to supervise the construction. Groundbreaking took place in 1993 and in 1997 a gala dinner and reception, attended by an international audience and Spain’s Queen Sofia and King Juan Carlos I, celebrated the inauguration of the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao.
A spectacular structure made of titanium, glass, and limestone, hailed as the most important building of its time
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Walt disney concert hall The world renown concert hall to celebrate the art of music and architecture
Walt Disney Concert Hall, home of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, was designed to be one of the most acoustically sophisticated concert halls in the world, providing both visual and aural intimacy for an unparalleled musical experience. Through the vision and generosity of Lillian Disney, the Disney family, and many other individual and corporate donors, the city enjoys
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one of the finest concert halls in the world, as well as an internationally recognized architectural landmark. From the stainless steel curves of its striking exterior to the stateof-the-art acoustics of the hardwood-paneled main auditorium, the 3.6-acre complex embodies the unique energy and creative spirit of the city of Los Angeles and its orchestra.
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MarquĂŠs de Riscal VIneyard Hotel 19th-century vineyard with dynamic forms and great unfurling ribbons of pink-and-gold-hued titanium
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Before Frank Gehry’s titaniumcoifed boutique hotel arrived in the village of Elciego, at the heart of Spain’s wine-growing La Rioja region, the town already had a landmark: the majestic 16th-century church, presiding over a picturesque valley. But while the church’s paired towers shine as local highlights, Gehry’s building is more of an international beacon, commissioned by the local Marqués de Riscal Winery to promote the growing international interest in Spanish wine. Set beside a stream at the edge of town, Marqués de Riscal is one of the region’s oldest and largest wineries, with buildings dating to 1853. According to Edwin Chan, Gehry’s design partner on the project, the client was initially interested in a “chateau for the 21st century, a kind of bed-and-breakfast for VIPs,” as part of an overall modernization of its facilities. The project eventually grew to 27,000 square feet to include 43 guest rooms (14 junior suites in the main building and 29 rooms or suites in an annex, all managed by an international luxury chain), a wine-therapy spa, and a restaurant run by a local Michelinstarred chef.
The hotel’s site within the winery’s compound was challenging. Set behind the historic stone factories and backed by a steep hill, the new building does not nestle into the vineyards; instead, it stands over a paved plaza that covers a new bottle cave (accessible by direct elevators from the hotel). Gehry’s structure rises on three stone piers to capture views and assert its sculptural presence. Views of the town and valley successively unfold as you ascend from the glazed lobby, with its wine bar and terrace, to the 14 junior suites on the next floor, the restaurant with its ample terraces above it, and the guest lounge with more terraces at the top. Seemingly casual stacks of rectangular volumes, clad in pale sandstone like the masonry of the church and village, house the interior spaces. Floor-toceiling wood-framed windows, many jutting from the corners of the volumes, peek out amid flowing
rolls of mirror-finish stainless steel and pale gold-and-pink-colored titanium (hues inspired, the architects say, by the gold-mesh wrapper, silver cap, and purple contents of the company’s bottles, and produced by passing titanium through an electric current in an acid bath). Exposed steel structures support these metal sheets, forming a capricious shading layer—a cascading succession of canopies—over the stone.
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New york by gehry
At 870 feet tall, New York by Gehry is the tallest residential tower in the Western Hemisphere and a singular addition to the iconic Manhattan skyline. For his first residential commission in New York City, master architect Frank Gehry has reinterpreted the design language of the classic Manhattan high-rise with undulating waves of stainless steel that reflect the changing light, transforming the appearance of the
building throughout the day. Gehry’s distinctive aesthetic is carried across the interior residential and amenity spaces with custom furnishings and installations. Gehry’s innovative tower design has resulted in over 200 unique floor plans that bring the drama of the dynamic exterior wall movement into residents’ private spaces. Where the façade undulates, the residential windows also move into
The 76-story tower with the shimmery, crumpled stainless-steel skin
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2011 the apex of the folds, creating freeform bay windows that are fitted with seating or left open to accommodate dining or reading niches. All interior finishes and fixtures have been selected by Gehry, including cabinetry crafted in his signature honey-colored vertical grain Douglas Fir. In addition, Gehry designed the sculptural residential entry door handles and hardware, which
are inspired by organic forms and movement. All residences are finished with white oak flooring, fitted with solar shades that provide privacy while preserving views, and offer individual washer/dryer units. Building-wide features include water filtration, individually controlled vertical heating and cooling units, and large picture windows throughout to maximize views.
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inspiring Opus, Hong Kong IAC, New York New World Center, Miami
© Edgartista’s Illustration of famous Frank Gehry Buildings
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the future
At 83 years old, Frank Gehry continues to awe the world with creativity and innovation
Across years of architecture design, Frank Gehry has become one of the most well renown and respected men in the business. As he continues to take on projects and designs well into his 80’s, Gehry makes an even larger mark on the landscapes around the world today. After completing breath taking
projects on all ends of the globe, many young architects look up to Gehry, while there still remains critics of his work as there would with any profession. Overall, the nations that have been blessed with structures by his design, will forever keep him in their memories and inspiration for years.
Credits 10.aeccafe.com
laphil.com
design-museum.de
archrecord.construction.com
guggenheim.org
newyorkbygehry.com