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A disturbing kind of satisfaction
The crude, even violent collision of forms seemed to capture the political and generational rifts that had been straining American society, and the American family in particular, since the 1960s, and it established Mr. Gehry as a force in architecture. from Frank O. Gehry, Titan of Architecture, Is Dead at 96 [NYT; ungated]
Legendary architect Frank Gehry dies aged 96 [BBC]
Frank Gehry, whose designs defied gravity and convention, dies at 96 [NPR]
Remembering Frank Gehry: Ten Landmark L.A. Buildings That Defined The Boundary-Shattering Architect's Genius [Secret LA]
posted by chavenet on Dec 06, 2025 at 2:16 AM
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posted by HearHere at 2:40 AM
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posted by GenjiandProust at 3:31 AM
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posted by wicked_sassy at 3:43 AM
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Gehry was a true genius. The later buildings sadden me for many reasons, but one should never forget his early projects up to and including Bilbao.
posted by mumimor at 3:58 AM
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posted by humbug at 4:18 AM
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"You know, what's in my mind's eye is always 10 times better than what I ever achieve because the dream image can leak ..."
posted by brachiopod at 4:21 AM
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posted by Smart Dalek at 4:32 AM
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Great quote - - brings to mind Lloyd Kahn's admission that he was wrong about domes.
posted by fairmettle at 4:39 AM
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The Guggenheim in Bilbao is an amazing building. Well worth a visit.
posted by rory at 4:57 AM
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Disney Hall is a wonderful place to explore in downtown Los Angeles.
At the top of the building is a lovely garden plaza with a rose shaped fountain made of broken shards of Delftware porcelain. In between the petals of the fountain, echoes of water bounce, layered as it flows through the petals.
I attended a concert that featured musicians that work with water as a musical medium. The rosewood interior is beautiful and functional acoustically, and underscored the exquisite design of the exterior fountain.
Highly recommended as a visit if you find yourself in downtown Los Angeles.
posted by effluvia at 5:20 AM
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The later buildings sadden me for many reasons
I would like to hear more about this.
posted by mhoye at 5:59 AM
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A genius, a magician. Turn another corner, see another vista that shocks you with its beauty.
posted by Capt. Renault at 7:47 AM
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The Times ran the obit not just above the fold, but taking up half the real estate with a photo of Guggenheim Bilbao taking up four of the six columns. A giant.
posted by thecaddy at 8:06 AM
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I was lucky enough to work in an early Frank Gehry building for a couple of years. It was truly such a special office - so many neat little quirky spaces. I'm not going to say everything about it was perfect but on most days it made me much happier to show up to work. Every office building I've worked in since has been a total bummer by comparison.
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posted by potrzebie at 8:14 AM
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Visionary.
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posted by the sobsister at 8:25 AM
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In the lates 1970s, I lived a few blocks away from his Santa Monica home as described in this NYTimes article (gift link), "He burst into the consciousness of the architectural world in 1978 with the completion of a Santa Monica, Calif., house that he designed and lived in for four decades — a cheap, wood-frame Cape Cod bungalow that he ripped apart and enveloped in a new skin of plywood, corrugated metal and chain link." Not unexpectedly, it was considered some what bizarre in the neighborhood, although as a teenager I appreciated its audacity. If he had subscribed to the local newspaper (the Evening Outlook), it would have been on my after school paper delivery route where I would have had the opportunity to inaccurately throw rubber-banded newspapers from my bicycle that would as likely bounce off the corrugated metal onto the lawn as it would land by the front door, and get a peek on the inside during my monthly subscription payment collections. Alas, he wasn't a subscriber.
posted by ShooBoo at 8:37 AM
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The later buildings sadden me for many reasons
I would like to hear more about this.
I'm not mumimor, but I had recognized my own feelings in their comment. On my end, here's why:
In my architecture school studio, we had a Gehry book floating around from the early 90s, and the projects in that seemed really experimental and inventive - more like a nimble kind of thing where his office was motivated to come up with a different kind of solution for every problem. After Bilbao, it seemed like a his office was a different kind of business, and think it's possible that it was their own internal decision as well as the expectations that new, big, institutional clients placed on them, shorthandedly referred to as the "Bilbao Effect"; like for every project the design goal was "revitalize the local economy" rather than "we'd like an office building, please". And I felt like things started looking kind of same-y when he was the head of a firm with multiple major international projects going at once rather than some guy doing weirdo stuff around LA.
But for my part, that's all a fairly loose impression - I'm in the design industry so I know some stuff, but I don't have much direct experience with being in or using Gehry's actual buildings.
posted by LionIndex at 8:46 AM
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Oh wow. A friend just sent me a "sandwich designed by Frank Gehry" post yesterday.
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posted by limeonaire at 9:36 AM
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Gehry, along with Chris Bangle (head of BMW's design from 1995-2008, responsible for some of the most controversial, if not outright hated at the time, cars ) were major inspirations in my early design education and career.
I've only been in one of his buildings, the Weisman Museum in Minnesota. It's absolutely striking, at one end of a huge bridge on the high bluffs of the Missippi River. Even in the grey of winter, it glowed. And then, once you get inside, the spaces are gorgeous, and the window placement and resultant flood of natural light, made it just seem magical. Someday I really want to see Bilbao.
Much like Bangle's BMWs, his work was controversial, even reviled. And as time has passed, they not only stand up, they have appreciated.
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RIP, and thank you.
posted by rp at 9:53 AM
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My first Gehry in person was in Montreal's Musee des Arts Decoratifs, which was literally in the basement of the Musee des Beaux-Arts. At the time, it may well have been his only work in Canada, just on the verge of Bilbao. He'd 'only' made a series of plywood display cases, but it was astonishing how he took this nothing basement space and made it soar.
posted by Capt. Renault at 9:55 AM
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The only Gehry building I've seen in person is what is now MOPOP in Seattle (I have not been inside). I also have not seen it in many years. It's an interesting structure, though I always am concerned about how these type of buildings age: It's relatively easy to look amazing when everything is new and shiny, what does it look like after decades of Seattle rain and city grime? I don't know the answer to that. Is Bilbao still holding up?
posted by maxwelton at 11:18 AM
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I am familiar with the Gehry building at Case Western Reserve University. While I was working there in 2003, a gunman barricaded himself in this building and shot several people, including a graduate student who died. "The irregular design of the building by architect Frank Gehry provided the shooter with places of concealment, and he proceeded throughout the building, shooting at anyone he encountered." This building is still in use by the business school but now requires and ID to enter. As an aside, it is said that people who worked in the building next door regularly complained that certain rooms would get insanely hot due to light reflecting off of the shiny metal roof of the Gehry building into their windows.
posted by waving at 11:32 AM
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Is Bilbao still holding up?
Looked great when I saw it in 2017, when it was twenty years old.
posted by rory at 11:43 AM
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I really enjoyed this doc on the creation of the Bilbao Museum a week ago.
posted by billsaysthis at 11:50 AM
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what does it look like after decades of Seattle rain and city grime?
On slippery surfaces the one cancels the other... still fun to go through on the Monorail, and where it's visible from a distance it's still colorful as "the Space Needle dropped her dress".
posted by clew at 12:17 PM
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posted by JoeXIII007 at 12:19 PM
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posted by Mitheral at 12:31 PM
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posted by Token Meme at 12:40 PM
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Oh wow. A friend just sent me a "sandwich designed by Frank Gehry" post yesterday.
Would it have been this one from The Onion?
posted by Greg_Ace at 1:49 PM
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"Yo, Frank Gehry. Like curvilinear forms much?"
posted by infinitewindow at 4:17 PM
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posted by drworm at 4:19 PM
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An old friend was building manager of the Weisman Museum for a bunch of years, and while he appreciated the overall design, he was frustrated by shit like leaky window frames that were specified to be wood which rotted away because they were in this area that couldn't be cleared of leaves and so accumulated standing water, etc, etc.
The aesthetic drowned out the practical necessities of juat keeping the place useable.
I worked in a very Boston Brahmin architectural firm for a couple of years, and I was very impressed by how they balanced aesthetics with practicality.
posted by wenestvedt at 7:40 PM
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posted by detachd at 8:58 PM
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posted by May Kasahara at 6:41 AM
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I've been at MIT's State building, which is. Gehry.
It's a fascinating space to explore. And a terrible place to get work done.
posted by ocschwar at 11:18 AM
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posted by foxtongue at 4:10 PM
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