Frank Gehry

Using unorthodox materials like corrugated metal and chain link, Gehry creates unexpected, twisted forms that break conventions of building design. His work has been called radical, playful, organic, and sensual. Early in his career, Frank Gehry designed houses inspired by modern architects such as Richard Neutra and Frank Lloyd Wright. As Gehry's career expanded, he became known for massive, iconoclastic projects that attracted attention and controversy. Many buildings by Frank Gehry have become tourist attractions, drawing visitors from around the world. Gehry had success in the 1970s with his line of Easy Edges chairs made from bent laminated cardboard. By 1991, Gehry was using bent laminated maple to produce the Power Play Armchair. These designs are part of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) collection in NYC. Because architecture takes so long to become realized, Gehry often turns to the "quick fix" of designing smaller products, including jewelry, trophies, and even liquor bottles. In 2003 Gehry established a partnership with Tiffany & Co. to create an exclusive jewelry collection that launched in 2006. In 2004 the Canadian side of Gehry designed an ice hockey trophy for the international World Cup of Hockey tournament. Also in 2004, the Polish side of Gehry designed a twisty vodka bottle for Wyborowa Exquisite. 

Much of Gehry's work falls within the style of Deconstructivism, which is often referred to as post-structuralist in nature for its ability to go beyond current modalities of structural definition. In architecture, its application tends to depart from modernism in its inherent criticism of culturally inherited givens such as societal goals and functional necessity. Because of this, unlike early modernist structures, Deconstructivist structures are not required to reflect specific social or universal ideas, such as speed or universality of form, and they do not reflect a belief that form follows function. Gehry's own Santa Monica residence is a commonly cited example of deconstructivist architecture, as it was so drastically divorced from its original context, and in such a manner as to subvert its original spatial intention.

In the summer of 1988, architect Philip Johnson was instrumental in organizing a Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) exhibit called  

"Deconstructivist Architecture." Johnson gathered works from seven architects, including Frank O. Gehry, who "intentionally violate the cubes and right angles of modernism." Gehry's Santa Monica house was exhibited as an example of deconstructivisim.
"The hallmark of deconstructivist architecture is its apparent instability. Though structurally sound, the projects seem to be in states of explosion or collapse....Deconstructivist architecture, however, is not an architecture of decay or demolition. On the contrary, it gains all of its force by challenging the very values of harmony, untiy, and stability, proposing instead that flaws are intrinsic to the structure."

Famous Buildings by Frank Gehry:

• 1978 and 1987: Gehry House (Gehry's private home), Santa Monica CA
• 1993: Weisman Art Museum, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis
• 1997: Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, Spain
• 1999: Maggies Centre, Dundee, Scotland
• 2001: Fisher Center for the Performing Arts, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY
• 2004: MIT Stata Complex, Cambridge MA
• 1989-2004: Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles CA
• 2004: Jay Pritzker Music Pavillion, Chicago, Illinois
• 2005: 'MARTa' Museum, Herford, Germany
• 2007: IAC Building, New York City
• 2010: Dr Chau Chak Wing Building Design, the "Treehouse,", University of Technology, Sydney, Australia.

Awards:

• 1977: Arnold W. Brunner Memorial Prize in Architecture, American Academy of Arts and Letters
• 1989: Pritzker Architecture Prize
• 1992: Wolf Prize in Art, the Wolf Foundation
• 1992: Praemium Imperiale Award, Japan Art Association
• 1994: Dorothy and Lillian Gish Award for lifetime contribution to the arts
• 1998: National Medal of Arts
• 1998: Friedrich Kiesler Prize
• 1999: Lotos Medal of Merit, Lotos Club
• 1999: Gold Medal, American Institute of Architects
• 2000: Lifetime Achievement Award, Americans for the Arts
• More than 100 awards from the American Institute of Architects
• Numerous honorary doctorates and honorary titles