Frank Gehry

Some of the most interesting architecture I have ever seen has been created by someone I had never heard of before.  I had seen his work in movies such as Get Smart, and the work is beautiful.  Frank Gehry although only mentioned in a very small section of the book on page 148.  His work was much more sculptural and one thing that made me want to blog about this was because in my opinion good art is eye catching.  If I was traveling through Los Angeles, California, I would not turn my head at any of the sky scrapers or other huge buildings.  Architecture such as the Walt Disney Concert Hall which was the architecture that was in the movie Get Smart, definitely turns heads.  And this was one of many creations by Frank.

After working for different companies Gehry had begun his own firm and when he first started out he built large residential, commercial, office, and institutional projects.  “During the 1960s, Frank Gehry began to redirect his architecture by fusing the Japanese and vernacular elements in his early work with the influence of painters and sculptors in a sophisticated manipulation of perspectively distorted shapes, sculptural masses molded by light, and buildings that reveal their structures.”  Gehry began to practice these new methods on his own home shown here as well as others. 

By learning from these homes he began to apply his new methods to larger projects. 

California Aerospace Museum

Cabrillo Marine Museum

Inhabitable Fish

These all display Frank Gehry’s amazing talent as an architect.  He has a clear skill that you do not see in any other architecture around the world unless it is by him.  He has not only done work in the United States but the fish restaurant shown was in Japan.  He has a very unique style and really creates a piece of art with each individual creation of his.  The way the buildings curve and how he fits the structure together makes it look like it should not be able to stand up.  This makes his architecture even more interesting to me because I can spend quite a while looking at the structures wondering how they are put together to form the different shapes they do.  He takes ideas that have never been done before and has created a new medium in which to apply his ideas.  Now that I know who Frank Gehry is, I could pick out one if his buildings if I saw it.  His use of shape and materials is what has made him an innovator in architecture.  His buildings are not only aesthetically pleasing but structurally sound and I hope to be able to see one of his structures in person.