Frank Gehry
By: Grace Phillips
About the Artist
• Born on February 28th 1929 in
Ontario Canada
• In 1947 he moved to Los Angeles,
California
• He received a bachelor’s degree in
architecture from University of
Southern California.
• He has been a professor at Columbia
University, Yale, Rhode Island
School of Design, and many more
• In 2011 he went back to University
of Southern California as a professor
of architecture.
His Inspiration
• Use to play with scrap wood
with his grandmother on the
floor
• Drawn to the social issues,
architecture is the panacea for
cities futures
• “For me it's a free association, but it
grows out of a sense of responsibility,
sense of values, human values. The
importance of relating to the
community, and all of those
things...and the client's budget, their
pocketbook, the client's wishes”
Deconstructivism
• Postmodern architecture that began in 1980’s
• Departs from modernist style
• Function follows form
• Non-rectangular, distortion, fragments,
manipulation
• Influenced by French philosopher Jacques
Derrida
• Daniel Libeskind, Christine and Horst Lechner
Formal Qualities
• His work is abstract incorporates movement
• The interaction between space, people, and
building is important
• Reflection and play of light
• Functional building, but with a sculptural twist
His Process
• He starts with scribble sketches
• Then builds a rough model out of thick paper
• Assistance take pictures to load to the computer
• Computer programs provide the math and physics to make it stand
• http://www.youtube.com/movie?v=o49mPHHEiZ4
Beekman Tower,
New York
The Experience Music Project, Seattle
Dancing House, Prague
Guggenheim Museum, Spain
Vitra Design Museum, Germany
Millennium Park, Chicago
Lesson Ideas
• Have students construct small buildings in similar
processes
• Compare and contrast his architecture to traditional
buildings
• Look at other deconstructivist artists
• Write a reflection on overall effectiveness of his style in
communicating his ideas.
References
• Wikipedia. (n.d.). Retrieved from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Gehry
• Wikipedia. (n.d.). Retrieved from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deconstructivism
• Sydney, P. (Director) (2005). Sketches of frank gehry [DVD].
Available from http://youtube.com/movie?v=o49mPHHEiZ4
• Straub, M. (n.d.). Retrieved from
http://matthewstraubdesign.com/483e_web/project04/gehry.html
• Greenberg, J., & Jordan, S. (2000). Frank O. Gehry : outside in /
Jan Greenberg & Sandra Jordan. New York : DK Ink, 2000.