{"id":328700,"date":"2025-12-06T11:44:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-06T11:44:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/328700\/"},"modified":"2025-12-06T11:44:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-06T11:44:09","slug":"canadian-born-renegade-architect-frank-gehry-dies-at-96","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/328700\/","title":{"rendered":"Canadian-born renegade architect Frank Gehry dies at 96"},"content":{"rendered":"

Frank Gehry, the Canadian-born renegade architect behind some of the world\u2019s most recognizable buildings, has died at 96.<\/p>\n

Meaghan Lloyd, chief of staff at Gehry Partners, LLP, said he died on Friday morning at his home in Santa Monica, Calif., following a brief illness.<\/p>\n

Known for his unconventional style and daring designs, Gehry brought unique life to cultural spaces including Toronto\u2019s Art Gallery of Ontario, the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao in Spain, the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles and Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif.<\/p>\n

His unusual work on museums, office spaces and private homes generated the sort of attention that\u2019s rarely experienced by architects, making his structural creations among the most recognizable in the world. He was even immortalized with a cartoon version of himself in an episode of \u201cThe Simpsons.\u201d<\/p>\n

Listening to critics lambaste his trademark out-there designs was just part of the job, Gehry said in 2012 while introducing the initial concept for a trio of condo buildings in his hometown of Toronto.<\/p>\n

The buildings drew harsh criticism from some Torontonians when the models were unveiled and went through some redesigns before construction began. A revised plan for the project, which is still in the process of being built, includes two residential skyscrapers in the city\u2019s entertainment district.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Bilbao, Spain they wanted to shoot me when they saw the (Guggenheim design) and now they get $500-million a year in revenue to the city. I don\u2019t know how to overcome (critics), it\u2019s just part of the thing,\u201d he said, noting the Walt Disney Concert Hall was also mocked as \u201cbroken crockery.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Athletic Bilbao fans wait in front of the Guggenheim museum as support boats pass before team celebrations on the Nervion Estuary in Bilbao, Spain, Thursday, April 11, 2024. (AP Photo\/Alvaro Barrientos, File)<\/p>\n

Gehry was born Frank Owen Goldberg Feb. 28, 1929 to Polish immigrant parents who lived in Toronto. His childhood had a strong emphasis on family, with his grandparents often credited as the earliest influence for his celebrated career.<\/p>\n

His grandmother, Leah, would scatter oddly shaped wood scraps she bought at a nearby furniture shop across her kitchen floor and encourage the young Gehry to use them to construct imaginary buildings, bridges and cities before they went into the family\u2019s wood stove.<\/p>\n

\u201c(It was) the most fun I ever had in my life. I realized it was a licence to play,\u201d Gehry is quoted as saying in the 2015 biography \u201cBuilding Art: The Life and Work of Frank Gehry,\u201d by Paul Goldberger.<\/p>\n

As a teenager, Gehry attended Friday lectures at the University of Toronto and became particularly fond of one speaker, who he later concluded was probably Finnish architect Alvar Aalto, another modern designer who thrived on breaking the rules.<\/p>\n

Gehry and his family relocated to Los Angeles in 1947 and he became a U.S. citizen three years later. His early years in the U.S. were spent as a truck driver by day, while he took sculpture classes at night school and later got an architecture degree from the University of Southern California.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t until the mid-1950s that Gehry reluctantly changed his last name at the urges of his first wife. She feared the name Goldberg would expose their children to antisemitism. He later said he regretted doing so.<\/p>\n

Those years were filled with professional volatility as he balanced his aspirations with a tight budget and the responsibilities of raising his two children. He served in the U.S. army while building his contacts within the architecture community on weekends, and studied urban planning at Harvard University before dropping out.<\/p>\n

His career began with a bang: he opened his Los Angeles business in 1962 and two years later worked on the Danziger Studio and Residence, a highly regarded Los Angeles landmark. Most of his early projects adhered to the modernist styles, which favour geometric lines and simplicity.<\/p>\n

By 1967, Gehry\u2019s reputation in the architecture community was at new heights. He was hired to design the Merriweather Post Pavilion, an amphitheatre in Columbia, Md. It became his first project to be featured in the New York Times, which called it \u201can unqualified architectural and acoustical success.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"In this photo taken March 17, 2010 architect Frank Gehry\u2019s latest creation, the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health, is pictured in Las Vegas. THE CANADIAN PRESS\/AP-Isaac Brekken<\/p>\n

Gehry focused most of his attention on projects in Southern California during those early years, including his first shopping mall, Santa Monica Place (1980), an expansion of the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium (1981) in San Pedro, Calif., and most notably his own private residence, which used plywood planks, chain-link fence and corrugated steel materials in a deconstructivist style (1978).<\/p>\n

By the 1990s, Gehry\u2019s daring designs were taking shape in cities around the world. The Frederick Weisman Museum of Art, his Guggenheim Bilbao and El Peix, the fish-like structure Gehry designed for the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, all showcased his playful and unconventional attitudes.<\/p>\n

In giving him the prestigious Pritzker Architecture Prize in 1989, art critic and juror Ada Louise Huxtable wrote that Gehry allowed delight to break through in each structure he designed.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne cannot think of anything he has done that doesn\u2019t make one smile,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are light and lively designs and buildings that lift the spirit with revelations of how the seemingly ordinary can become extraordinary by acts of imagination.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gehry\u2019s projects are too numerous to name, but among his other notable works are the redesign of the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto, the Gehry Tower in Hannover, Germany, and the Louis Vuitton Foundation for Creation in Paris.<\/p>\n

\"\"A person overlooks the wooden structure in the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto on Thursday, Nov. 13, 2008, which was designed by architect Frank Gehry. THE CANADIAN PRESS\/Nathan Denette<\/p>\n

The enduring influence of Gehry\u2019s grandmother inspired him to take a more active role in the next generation of creators. He joined Turnaround Arts, a U.S. program run by the Kennedy Center that aims to improve the academic performance of the country\u2019s lowest-achieving schools by increasing engagement with the arts.<\/p>\n

Gehry was among the leaders who taught classes on architecture to students he says were often uninspired by academia otherwise. He would put physical materials in front of them, just like his grandmother once did, and ask them to use their imaginations.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can get them involved with painting and making things \u2014 that tactile stuff,\u201d he told The Canadian Press in a 2019 interview.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen they make a little building, or a city\u2026 you can say, \u2018If you put them together who runs the city?\u2019 So you can teach civics and all that stuff. So, I think my grandma\u2019s idea was perfect.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gehry was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, America\u2019s highest civilian honour, in 2016 by former U.S. president Barack Obama.<\/p>\n

In his speech, Obama said Gehry inspired others through his advocacy for arts education and philanthropy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe idea of what architecture could be, he decided to upend,\u201d Obama said.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrank\u2019s work teaches us that while buildings may be sturdy and fixed to the ground, like all great art they can lift our spirits. They can soar, they can broaden our horizons.\u201d<\/p>\n

-With files from Nicole Thompson and Lauren La Rose<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Frank Gehry, the Canadian-born renegade architect behind some of the world\u2019s most recognizable buildings, has died at 96.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":328701,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[76,354,355,49,48,356,75],"class_list":["post-328700","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-design","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328700","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=328700"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328700\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/328701"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=328700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=328700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=328700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}