Frank Gehry, the architect who designed Spain's Guggenheim Museum among other internationally renowned buildings, has died.
The cisionary architect was known for bold and unconventional designsImage: Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images
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Frank Gehry, the most celebrated architect of his time, has died at the age of 96, after a brief respiratory illness, said Meaghan Lloyd, chief of staff at Gehry Partners LLP.
Gehry's masterpieces include the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain and the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles in the United States.
"You know, I went there just before the opening and looked at it and said, 'Oh, my God, what have I done to these people?'" Gehry told Vanity Fair magazine, speaking about his Guggenheim design. "It took a couple of years for me to start to like it, actually."
He has won every major prize that architecture has to offer.
Some of Gehry's most memorable designs
Guggenheim, Bilbao: Gehry used aviation software to design his massive stone-and-glass building, featuring flat facades covered in gleaming gold-titanium.Image: Bruno Fava/Maxppp/picture alliance
Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles: The cultural hub in downtown Los Angeles eventually cost $274 million and has been hailed by the New York Times in 2003 as "the most gallant building you're ever likely to see".Image: Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images
Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris: Hailed as one of Gehry's most innovative designs, this $135 million building houses the private art collection of French billionaire Bernard Arnault.Image: Eliot Blondet/ABACA/picture alliance
Who was Frank Gehry?
Born Frank Owen Goldberg in Toronto on February 28, 1929, Gehry moved with his Jewish family to the United States in the late 1940s and changed his name to avoid anti-Semitism.
He studied architecture at the University of Southern California, graduating in 1954, then briefly joined the US Army and later pursued city planning at Harvard without completing the program.
Gehry began his career in Los Angeles with Victor Gruen, worked in Paris in 1961, and opened his own practice the following year.
By the 1970s and 1980s, his bold, experimental designs, often featuring irregular metal facades resembling crumpled paper, made him a leading figure in deconstructivist architecture.
Shapes and style: Frank Gehry's spectacular architecture
The Canadian-American star architect'shas created many impressive buildings worldwide.
Image: Frank Rumpenhorst/dpa/picture alliance
The Luma Arles Tower (2021)
Arles has been attracting art lovers for a long time. Now, the city in southern France also houses Frank Gehry's latest creation: the Luma Arles Tower. The 56-meter-high (184-foot-high) "Tower" took 10 years to complete and is the centerpiece of a huge exhibition park owned by the Swiss billionaire Maja Hoffman. The building also houses a cafe and restaurant.
Image: Aventurier Patrick/ABACA/picture alliance
Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao (1997)
Titan, sandstone and glass — the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao opened in 1997 after only four years of construction. The museum on the banks of the Nervion River has become the Basque city's landmark, drawing 20 million visitors to what was once a decrepit city. Visitors come for the art, but also to admire the Gehry building.
Image: picture-alliance/ZB/W. Thieme
Dancing House, Prague (1996)
This office building on the Vitava River is about a kilometer further north from the tourist masses that snake through the narrow streets of Prague. Frank Gehry and Croatian architect Vlado Milunic teamed up to create a structure that is reminiscent of a dancer nestling up against her dance partner, hence the nickname "Ginger and Fred."
Image: picture alliance/dpa/Arco Images GmbH
Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein (1989)
The small town of Weil am Rhein in southwestern Germany is the German headquarters of the Swiss Vitra furniture company. Vitra turned to the Canadian star architect to build a home for its designer furniture. The building correlates design with architecture, art and everyday culture. Gehry built the manufacturer's factory building in the same style.
Image: picture alliance/dpa/robertharding
Neuer Zollhof, Düsseldorf (1999)
The Rheinhafen Center of Arts and the Media has three complexes that may be a bit less curved and interlaced, but are signature Gehry architectural works nonetheless. Using various materials, Gehry placed the buildings in a manner that allows the structures on the northern and southern side to mirror each other.
Image: DW/N. Aubel
Museum of Biodiversity, Panama City (2014)
Panama is home to a remarkable diversity of species – a perfect choice for Gehry's first project in Latin America, the Museum of Biodiversity. The colorful facades and roofs are reminiscent of local Caribbean homes. The museum shocases the "origin of the Panamanian isthmus and its gigantic impact on the planet's biodiversity."
Image: Getty Images/AFP/R. Arangua
MARTa, Herford (2005)
The red brick and steel "MARTa" museum for contemporary furniture art and design is another typical Gehry building. The small town of Herford was initially wary of the extravagant building with light wells built into the roofs: the citizens felt it was too costly. They have come to terms, however, with what has become a veritable tourist magnet.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/Franz-Peter Tschauner
Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris (2014)
Consisting of 12 individual spatial elements that recall ship sails, Gehry called this museum building a "cloud of glass." Built of wood, steel and large amounts of glass, the building allows a lot of light into the interior. The foundation for the Louis Vuitton luxury brand includes a museum that shows contemporary art from the likes of Warhol, Richter and Koons.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/B. Guay
Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles (2003)
Though renowned for his temples to art, when Gehry was contracted to construct a new LA concert hall, there were many skeptics. Gehry's deconstructivist architecture is not for everyone. And could he create a building that would actually sound good? The Disney Concert Hall has since become one of the most important concert halls in the world – due both to the architecture and acoustics.
Image: picture-alliance/Photoshot
Gehry Residence in Santa Monica
Gehry's house in Santa Monica, California, is a reflection of his artistic leanings. Since buying this house in 1977, he has radically redesigned it by constantly adding oblique new elements and sections. The house is self-described by Gehry as his "ideas laboratory."
Image: Flickr/IK's World Trip
Frank Gehry: The value of experience
The nonagenarian architect's career as a star architect began late: It was not until 1989 that he became internationally known. For Gehry it was perfect timing. "Architects will only be really good at 50 or 60 because their work depends on experience and they need many years to develop a unique language," he told the Zeit magazine.
Image: Bertrand Langlois/AFP/Getty Images
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His 1978 reworking of his Santa Monica home, described as a "collision of parts," became a hallmark of his style.
By the mid-1980s, his stainless steel and aluminum designs, appearing to bend and sway, won international attention.
After receiving the prestigious Pritzker Prize in 1989, Gehry reached global fame with the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, completed in 1997 using advanced software to create its striking, unconventional forms.
He continued to work well into his 80s.
Gehry became a professor of architecture at the University of Southern California, and also taught at Yale and Columbia.
