Schadenfreude
is a German word that (loosely) means taking joy in another's
misery. In one hard to pronounce word it represents how much
fun it can be to watch successful people fail, how jealousy
can taint opinions and views. Frank Gehry is perhaps the most
successful living architect, he is well known outside of the
profession and has created a style in the past ten years that
has captured a fickle public's imagination. On the other hand,
his language and designs are starting to feel somewhat repetitive,
as if his success has forced him into a corner. What made
him once great was a sense of experimentation and surprise
that now feels compromised by clients and a fickle public
expecting just another Frank Gehry building, another Bilbao.
Walt
Disney Concert Hall
(2004) Los Angeles, California, United States
Everyone loves the Walt Disney Concert
Hall. With the possible exception of its cramped, uneventful
lobby it is everything you could hope for. It's shiny, there
are a lot of curves, a wonderful, winding rooftop promenade
and actual (indirect) sunlight inside the surprisingly intimate
concert hall.
Click here to go to the Los Angeles Philharmonic site. Even
if classical music performed by one of the world's great orchestras
puts you right to sleep, at least you'll be falling asleep
inside a really fun building
Guggenheim
Museum Bilbao
(1997) Bilbao, Spain
The people of Bilbao wanted to create
a museum that would attract tourists, what they ended up getting
was the start of a revolution. The Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao
set a precedent that has encouraged good design, created a
lot of work for big name architects and made a superstar out
of Frank Gehry.
Click here for the Guggenheim Bilbao site. It's more than
just curves, there's actual art inside
Gehry
House
(1987) Santa Monica, California, United States
Frank Gehry practiced what he preached,
creatively using inexpensive materials for maximum design
effect. His house on Washington and 22nd Street in Santa Monica
is covered with sections of chain link fence, something which
must have absolutely thrilled his neighbors
Chiat-Day
(1986) Venice, California
The giant binoculars on Main Street
at Chiat-Day would seem like a blatant rip off of the work
of Claes Oldenburg except for the fact that the project was
a collaboration (one of many) between Gehry, Claes Oldenburg
and Coosje van Bruggen.
Norton
House
(1984) Venice, California, United States
There are a lot of early Frank Gehry
buildings in Venice and Santa Monica, examples of what he
was thinking before he got his hands on that aerospace software.
The Norton House (a block away from an Antoine Predock house)
features an office that looks suspiciously like a lifeguard
tower, imagining of course that lifeguard towers normally
look a hell of a lot more fun.
Now
at ArBITAT
Gehry
Partners, LLP
Santa Monica, California, United States
Frank O. Gehry 1929
born Toronto, Ontario, Canada
1954 B Arch Univ of S Calif, CA, US
1958 Harvard Graduate School, US
1963 Frank O. Gehry Associates
1989 Pritzker Prize
1999 AIA Gold Medal
Publications
Frank
Gehry, Architect
by Beatriz Colomina, Jean-Louis Cohen
Publisher: Harry N Abrams;
(May 2001)
Everyone
loves Frank Gehry. This was the catalog to the big Guggenheim
exhibit that closed in New York the week before the September
11, 2001 terrorist attacks... (read
more)
