Frank Gehry, the Canadian American architect whose bold and fluid designs turned him into a global cultural figure, has died at his home in Santa Monica aged 96. His chief of staff Meaghan Lloyd confirmed he passed away after a short respiratory illness.
Gehry became famous for buildings that looked as if they were folding, leaning or caught in mid-collapse, prompting praise for their originality and criticism for their excess. Even he sometimes doubted the results, once saying of the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao:
«Oh, my God, what have I done to these people?»
The building was later hailed by Vanity Fair’s experts as the most significant work of architecture since 1980.
Although he disliked the label «starchitect», Gehry’s output spanned major cultural landmarks. Facebook opened a Gehry-designed expansion of its Menlo Park campus in 2015, while the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris opened a year earlier. Bernard Arnault praised him as an artist who could «shape forms» and «make glass dance».
His portfolio included the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, the Dancing House in Prague, the Experience Music Project in Seattle and the 8 Spruce Street tower in New York. His more severe critics claimed he prized spectacle over purpose. Gehry often brushed this off yet was blunt when challenged, once responding to claims of showiness by saying that most modern buildings were «pure shit».
Biography
Born Frank Owen Goldberg in Toronto in 1929, he began imagining miniature cities as a child. After studying in Los Angeles and briefly attending Harvard he moved restlessly between jobs, the US Army and a year in Paris. He changed his surname to avoid antisemitism and gained early acclaim in 1978 by remaking his Santa Monica home with ordinary materials such as plywood and chain-link fencing.
International recognition followed in the 1980s as he developed his signature style of metal surfaces and flowing forms. He won the Pritzker Prize in 1989 and cemented his position with the Guggenheim Bilbao in 1997, a project made possible by advanced computer modelling.
Gehry, who married twice and had four children, also designed furniture, jewellery, watches and even a sculptural hat for Lady Gaga.
