Frank Gehry, the visionary architect whose sculptural, often metallic buildings reshaped skylines and public imagination, has died at 96, Meaghan Lloyd, chief of staff at Gehry Partners LLP, said. Gehry died at his home in Santa Monica after a brief respiratory illness.
Gehry, whose work fused modern pop art sensibilities with engineering daring, won virtually every prize in his field, including the Pritzker Prize, the Royal Institute of British Architects gold medal, the Americans for the Arts lifetime achievement award and Canada’s Companion of the Order of Canada. The Pritzker jury praised what it called “refreshingly original and totally American” work.
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His career produced landmark buildings that became instant icons: the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris, the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, the Dancing House in Prague (a collaboration with Vlado Milunić), the IAC Building in Manhattan’s Chelsea district and the 76‑story residential tower New York by Gehry in Lower Manhattan. He also gained acclaim for an early commercial project, the Santa Monica Place mall, whose later remodeling he watched with wry amusement.
Gehry’s designs—undulating facades, crumpled-looking metal surfaces, and unexpected forms—recast what an office tower, museum or concert hall could be. The IAC Building, finished in 2007, drew attention for its shimmering, honeycomb-like frontage; New York by Gehry, opened in 2011, altered the Lower Manhattan skyline with its rippling stainless steel cladding and bold silhouette.
He remained active late into life, teaching at his alma mater, the University of Southern California, and holding appointments at Yale and Columbia University. Gehry’s influence extended beyond individual buildings; he helped make the architect’s signature style culturally legible, turning many of his works into tourist destinations and civic symbols.
Not everyone embraced that transformation. Princeton art critic Hal Foster called many of his later efforts “oppressive,” arguing they often functioned as attractions designed to draw visitors more than to meet urban or civic needs. Some critics dismissed Disney Hall as resembling “cardboard boxes” left in the rain, and the Eisenhower family objected to a proposed, highly sculptural memorial Gehry designed for the 34th president. That memorial remained unbuilt as of 2014 after repeated requests for revisions from planning officials.
Gehry was no stranger to compromise when necessary: he agreed to scale back a proposed expansion for Facebook’s northern California campus at the request of the company’s chief executive, who sought a less conspicuous look.
Even as debate over his work’s merits continued, Gehry’s impact on contemporary architecture was unmistakable. He challenged conventions of form and material, pushed collaboration between architects and engineers, and made bold, often playful statements about the role of buildings in public life.
Reflecting on a project that had jump‑started his career, Gehry once laughed at news that the shopping center in Santa Monica might be razed. “They’re going to tear it down now and build the kind of original idea I had,” he said, amused by the irony even as he continued to pursue larger, riskier work.
Gehry’s adventurous spirit and unmistakable silhouettes leave a body of work that will be studied, debated and admired for decades to come.
By Abdiwahab Ahmed
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
