Canadian-born American architect Frank Gehry, world-famous for his innovative and daring designs, has passed away aged 96. His significant body of work, which includes one Australian building, is instantly recognisable for its dramatic, sculptural forms.
Gehry’s career, which began in Los Angeles in the early 1960s, built momentum locally and internationally with projects such as his own residence (1978) in Santa Monica, California; the Vitra Design Museum (1989) in Weil am Rhein, Germany; the Weisman Art Museum (1993) in Minnesota; and the Dancing House (1996) in Prague, Czech Republic.
In 1989, at age 60, Gehry was honoured as the twelfth Pritzker Architecture Prize Laureate. In granting the award, the jury praised his risk-taking, his forward-thinking approach, describing it as “refreshingly original and totally American.”
“Gehry’s work is a highly refined, sophisticated and adventurous aesthetic that emphasises the art of architecture,” they said.
This sentiment rings true in Gehry’s design for the renowned Guggenheim Museum Bilbao (1997) in Spain’s Basque region. Conceived at a pivotal moment in the transition from analogue to digital practice, using software originally developed for aerospace industries, the museum’s striking silver form upended conventions around the art museum typology. Given the influx of tourism to Bilbao following the building’s completion, it was also credited with revitalising the city’s economic prospects.
The museum won the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Twenty-Five Year Award in 2023, with the jury noting its persistence “as a symbol of the power of good, human-centered design’s ability to embolden creativity and fundamentally reshape communities.”
Gehry won the AIA Gold Medal in 1999 followed by the Royal British Institute of Architects Royal Gold Medal a year later.
In 2015, Gehry opened his first and only building in Australia – the Dr Chau Chak Wing Building at the University of Technology (UTS) in Sydney, designed in collaboration with local architecture firm Daryl Jackson Robin Dyke. Home to the institution’s business school, the undulating brick and glass building was conceived by Gehry as a cluster of treehouses; “a growing learning organism with many branches of thought, some robust and some ephemeral and delicate,” he said.
In her review of the building for Architecture Australia (May/June 2015), Jennifer Calzini described it as “a wildly irreverent, lifelike being,” whose “undulations of the brick facade and … abundance of idiosyncratic visual and tactile detail make ‘being there’ [in the presence of the building] a highly engaging and personal experience.”
“This project raises the profile of architecture for the benefit of all architects, promotes the UTS brand worldwide while also enhancing the local university community, and delivers a richly layered building for the benefit of the people who interact with it as a piece of the city,” said Calzini.
Reflecting on Gehry’s passing, the American Institute of Architects interim executive vice-president and CEO Stephen Ayers reflected, “We mourn the loss of a visionary.”
“Frank Gehry … redefined architecture, transforming buildings into works of art that inspire and uplift,” Ayres said. “His courage to challenge tradition shaped skylines and minds alike, setting a new standard for creativity in our field. Frank’s legacy lives on in every architect he inspires and every city is forever changed by his work.”
Source: Architecture - architectureau
