Architect Frank Gehry: biography, photo

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Frank Gehry, photo of whose work you will see below, is the most famous American architect whose line of work is deconstructivism. His real name is Ephraim Owen Goldberg.

The architect was born on February 28, 1929 in Toronto, Canada. Ephraim's family consists of Polish Jews. They lived in the city of Timens (this is the province of Ontario). There, Goldberg's grandfather was engaged in the sale of building materials, and Frank's father owned a store with machines (vending and gaming).

From Canadian with Polish roots to American

When Gehry was 18 years old, the family moved to California, Los Angeles. A little later, Frank changed his citizenship to American. After moving, his father changed his last name from Goldberg to Gehry, and Ephraim himself changed his name to Frank Gehry after 20 years. The architect, as a teenager, often faced anti-Semitism and beatings. This was the motivation for the name change.

Education and future profession

In his early years in AmericaIt was difficult for Frank to decide on a future profession. He enrolled at Los Angeles City College and attended many different courses there. Frank Gehry, whose biography is filled with many interesting facts, teaches you to rush to success and achieve it without stopping at anything.

After attending architecture courses, Gehry realized that these were immense opportunities, but he was afraid that he would not be able to realize himself as painter. The then-famous modernist architect Rafael Soriano helped him strengthen his faith in himself. All teachers sympathized with Frank and saw great potential in him. In 1954, Gehry received a bachelor's degree from the School of Architecture at the University of South Carolina (training took place on a scholarship). Immediately afterwards, he goes to work for Victor Gruen's company in Los Angeles while continuing his education.

Army and continuing education

Training and labor were interrupted by the necessity of compulsory service in the American army. It took a year, after which Frank Gehry entered Harvard University to study urban planning and urban infrastructure planning. At that time, in the post-war period, there was a building boom in Los Angeles, and then the works of the modernists Richard Neutra and Rudolf Schindler were known. After graduation (in 1957), Gehry receives a master's degree and moves back to Los Angeles. There he gets a job in another firm, Pereira and Lackman, but after a short time he returns to his previous job.

Family and moving to France

In 1952, Frank Gehry was tied by the knot with his first wife, Anita Snyder. It was she who insisted that Frank change his last name. Geri has two daughters from this marriage.

After 9 years of marriage, the family moves to France, to Paris. There, the architect works for a year as a restoration specialist in the workshop of the French architect Andre Remonde. Gehry's field of activity was churches, which he was very impressed with. In France, Gehry got acquainted with the projects of such modernists as B althasar Neumann and Charles Le Corbusier.

Later, in the mid-60s, Frank divorced his first wife and in 1976 found his current wife, Bertha Isabel Aguilera. Geri has two sons from his second marriage, Alejandro and Sami.

Return to Los Angeles

After a year in France, Frank, inspired and motivated, sets out to found his studio "Frank O. Gehry and Associates", founded in 1962. After 15 years, it grows into a large company "Gehry & Krueger Inc", and in 2002 - "Gehry Partners LLP".

Geri started his career with projects of various shopping centers and shops, interior design. The beginning of the 70s was marked by a mass of projects for the construction of residential buildings, the style of which excluded the usual forms and traditionalism.

During the period from 1977 to 1979, Frank Gehry designed his own house in Santa Monica, the style of which was called "anti-architecture". A lot of effort was invested in this house, and materials were usedthose that were already in use: plywood, pieces of fences and others. The house was rebuilt in such a way that its interior remained intact.

Later, his ideas found expression in buildings such as the De Mesnil Residence in New York, the Davis House built in Malibu, and the Spiller Residence in Venice, California.

From 1979-1981, Gehry's large-scale ideas were embodied in a complex of shopping malls in the city of Santa Monica. Also in 1979, the San Pedro Aquarium Museum was designed, with an area of about 2 thousand square meters. Another museum project dating back to 1981 is the California Aviation Museum.

Hot 80s in the life of Frank Gehry

It is worth noting that the most fruitful years in Gary's life were precisely the eighties. His building projects are implemented all over the world: the Museum of Furniture and Interior (Weil am Rhein, Germany), an eighty-story skyscraper in New York (at Madison Square Garden).

In the late 1980s, Frank Gehry wins a competition, the main prize of which is the design of the W alt Disney Hall at the Music Center. The construction was finally completed in 1993. The main idea is a building with a glass atrium above it.

During the same period, Gehry planned to build a Japanese restaurant, Fishance, whose entrance is decorated with a large sculpture of a fish.

Well, 1989 is the most significant year, because it was in this year thatGehry is awarded the Pritzker Prize, which is the most prestigious architectural prize. The building that gave the chance to win is Todaiji Temple in Nara, Japan (pictured).

Frank Gehry's extraordinary work and recognition

The Frederick Weissmann Museum in Minneapolis, the Guggenheim Museum (Bilbao), the dancing house in Prague - the creator of all this is Frank Gehry. The architecture of the master is filled with deconstructivism. All buildings are arbitrary geometric shapes: broken decaying surfaces, fragile at first glance volumes.

Gehry also owns works such as the Seattle Music Museum, the Panamanian Museum of Biodiversity, the data center of the large MIT company, the Louis Vuitton Center for the Arts (Paris), the Museum of Tolerance (Jerusalem), the Cancer Center (Dundee), Cleveland Larry Ruvo Brain He alth Clinic.

Not everyone recognizes Gehry's architectural works as an ideology. The essence is precisely in these refracting ideas. Many architects consider buildings unstable and extremely dangerous to be in urban infrastructure. But in fact, all the projects are well thought out and would not be implemented in real life, if they were a danger to a large crowd of people.

Today, Frank Gehry, whose work impresses with its forms, is an architect with a world-famous name. He is the owner of more than 100 different awards in the field of architecture, many articles and monographs are devoted to his work.