Happy Birthday Frank Gehry!

One of the brightest stars in the glittering world of star architects celebrates today his 80th Birthday.

Frank Gehry

Frank Gehry (Photo: Susan King)

Born in Toronto as the son of Jewish migrants, Frank Gehry moved as 17 year old to America and earned his keep working as a lorry driver and airplane washer before studying architecture in Los Angeles and urban planning at Harvard. He first attracted a wider public as he “renovated” his house in Santa Monica. His neighbors “went bananas” after Gehry transformed an old, conservative shingle covered house into a scurrile, avant-garde instillation with a wave-form roof, wire mesh and a tilting glass cube. In the 30 years since the house has not only become a place of pilgrimage for Gehry’s fans, but has also come to symbolize his style: Toppling lines, rooms that cut through and encroach into one another, broken, uneven perspectives. Among his most famous buildings are the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles and the Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein.

Vitra Design Museum (Architect: Frank gehry)

Vitra Design Museum (Architect: Frank Gehry)

“Always the same Gehry, just a different city” say his critics, “Neutrality is not neutral, it devalues art” says Gehry.

Frank Gehry is however much more than just an architect with a problem with convention. He is also a furniture designer with a problem with convention.

In the early 1970s Frank Gehry develop his cardboard furniture series “Easy Edges”, including the Wiggle stool, Wiggle chair and the stool/side table Block. Among his most outrageous creations is Red Beaver – a monstrous red cardboard armchair that symbolizes all that is Frank Gehry…

We at the (smow)blog wish Frank Gehry all the best for his 80th and hope that in the future he can continue to force us to consider “aesthetic” and to challenge our concept of form and functionality.

Red Beaver by Frank gehry (Vitra)

Red Beaver by Frank Gehry (Vitra)

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