Frank Gehry

10 famous works of Frank Gehry (Toronto, Canada, February 28, 1929)

 

Born of Toronto, Frank Owen Gehry, is a distinguished architect and artist of polish-Jewish descent. He has been given the epithet of “the architect of forms”, his real is Ephraim Goldberg, which he would later change to his current name.

At age of 15 he moved to the United States, where he studied architecture at the University of Southern California (1954) and then urban planning at Harvard University. By 1961 he had done his first architectural works in the studio of Víctor Gruen and associates in Los Angeles. That same year he moved to Paris with his family where he worked in the studio of André Remonder. In 1962 he returned to the United States and opened his own studio in Los Angeles.

When starting this new chapter in his professional life, Gehry began to develop and polish his own architectural style. “Once a building is finished, it must be a work of art, as if it was a sculpture”, this phrase characterizes his way of thinking and is the reason why his projects have become so recognized, his “sculptures” are unique structures and innovative materials, achieving unique creations that are a reference in the world.

10 famous works of Frank Gehry

1. Guggenheim Museum-1991/1997-Bilbao, Spain

Top of 10 famous works of Frank Gehry, this irreverent and dynamic construction was completed in the late twentieth century and is considered one of the iconic works of Gehry to have become one of the most relevant buildings of contemporary architecture. It is one of the three museums currently managed by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation; it extends by the river of Nervión. The forms used give a sense of movement to the building, belonging to the place, as if the space had awaited its construction.

2. Walt Disney Concert Hall-1999/2003-Los Angeles, United States

Second place of 10 famous works of Frank Gehry is this work of great magnificence began as an idea of ​​the widow of Disney, who donated 50 million dolars for the construction of a philharmonic hall. Gehry’s project was chosen after an international contest in which more than 70 proposals were presented. Although the construction of this building is later that the Guggenheim in Bilbao, the design was made before that. Walt Disney Concert Hall is currently the permanent headquarters of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

3. Dancing House-1994/1996-Prague, Czech Republic

The Nationale-Nederlanden Building is the official name of this magnificent building of the Dutch bank, which hired Gehry and Milunic with the original idea of ​​creating an emblematic building in Prague. For some, a symbol of freedom, liberation and democratic beliefs after the fall of communism, for others, a “Drunken House” that does not match the environment in which it is located, despite the fact that it was awarded by the magazine American Time in the design category.

4. Ray and Maria Stata Center-2004 -Massachusetts, United States

It was built in honor of the founder of Analog Devices Inc. and his wife, who donated 25 million dolars for its construction. The authorities of the university wanted an exterior design that showed in a constructive way the work that had to be done inside, for which innovative construction concepts were used that allowed to manufacture a very dynamic space in which the mind is free, the walls are mobile and the rooms can be distributed according to the requirements of the users.

5. Torre Beekman-2006/2010-New York, United States

Located in Manhattan, a few blocks from Ground Zero and the Brooklyn Bridge, with its 267 meters high, it has become a new icon of the New York skyline. Covered with a burnished metallic envelope and resting on a prismatic brick base, with a trapezoidal floor plan and six stories high, which adjoins the alignments of the block. The variable geometry of the cladding contributes to the fact that in the interior distribution of the building all the dwellings are different.

6. Vitra Design Museum-1989-Weil am Rhein, Germany

It is a completely paradigmatic work of deconstructivism that stands out in a collage of towers, ramps and cubes with non-coincidental expressive forms, determined by their function and the conduction of light. Vitra Design Museum was born as a project that would consider a simple building for storage and exhibition. However, in Europe, during the planning, Gehry changed the intended goal and created an independent museum foundation to encourage research and the popularization of design and architecture.

7. Hotel Bodegas Marqués de Riscal-2003/2007-Álava, La Rioja-Spain

Seven of 10 famous works of Frank Gehry, presents an innovative and avant-garde project that turns the Riscal winery into a combination of production and entertainment where the brilliant explosion of color and forms generates a movement through the representations of the building that rises from its foundations to get up and mix in the environment . The work is a composition of rectilinear prisms that float on the ground thanks to three supercolumns that support the entire building all wrapped in cascades of titanium (canopies) colored.

8. Jay Pritzker Pavilion -1998 / 2004-Chicago, Illinois-United States

This spectacular and emotional centerpiece of the Millenium Park, is a monumental recovery work that allows the final design of the Pritzker Pavilion, organic forms to experience graphic and physical fusion to awaken emotions in the viewer, helping it to live an explosion of sensations product of the sounds that emanate from it, converting the concert experience into something that no longer affects only the sense of hearing but also the vision and the environment.

9. Neuer Zollhof-1996/1999-Dusseldorf, Germany

This public project is part of an urban intervention to reformulate a significant and declining area of ​​the city of Dusseldorf. Gehry seeks, in the volumetry and external materials, to give each building its own identity, however, the winnowing is identical in all the facades looking for natural ventilation in the building, which together with the curved walls enhance the visual and allow the large part of the offices have a marvelous view of the river Rhine.

10. Experience Music Project-1995/2005-Seattle, United States

Last of 10 famous works of Frank Gehry, it was commissioned by Paul Allen as a tribute to the musician Jimi Hendrix and the process of creative evolution of American music. The project is inspired by the Fender Stratocaster guitar that Hendrix used to destroy after each concert. Hence, the museum takes the form of a deconstructed electric guitar, to which is added an unusual element in Gehry’s work, the color fused with different textures to symbolize the energy and fluidity of the American song.