Frank Gehry, the trailblazing architect whose designs seemed to defy gravity and convention, has died at 96.
Known for turning buildings into sculptural art, Gehry shot to international fame with his titanium-clad Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, in 1997.
Who could forget those twisting, gleaming curves that transformed a city and its economy overnight?
Born in Toronto in 1929, Gehry honed his craft in Los Angeles and at Harvard.
He shocked the architectural world by reimagining his Santa Monica home with plywood, chain-link fencing, and corrugated steel.
He went on to pioneer deconstructivism, bending steel and glass into forms that looked almost alive.
“He was all about pushing the envelope… using the most advanced technology to do the most adventurous things,” said architecture critic Paul Goldberger.
Gehry’s Architectural Legacy
Gehry’s creations span the globe: Chicago’s Jay Pritzker Pavilion, Paris’s Louis Vuitton Foundation, and Los Angeles’s Walt Disney Concert Hall.
A “pile of broken crockery” to some, yet undeniably iconic.
Even pop culture joined the chorus: The Simpsons parodied his crumpled-paper inspirations.
Gehry insisted his genius lay in complex computation, not doodles.
Awarded the Pritzker Prize in 1989, Gehry once said his work was like jazz — improvisational, lively, and unpredictable.
Today, that spirit lives on, etched in cities worldwide and in the hearts of those who dare to see buildings not just as structures, but as art.
“His unmistakable vision lives on,” Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said — and indeed, it does.
