Architect Frank Gehry has died. His works include the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao.
Frank Gehry, one of the most influential architects of the last century, has died at the age of 96. He gained worldwide fame in 1997 with the design of the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, writes the BBC.
Photo: Presley Ann/Getty Images for The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA
Gehry was born in Toronto in 1929, but as a teenager he moved to Los Angeles to study architecture at the University of Southern California, and then underwent further training at the Harvard Graduate School of Design in 1956 and 1957.
After opening his own firm, he departed from traditional architectural principles of symmetry, using unconventional geometric shapes and raw materials in a style now known as deconstructivism.
"I was rebelling against everything," Gehry said in a 2012 interview with the New York Times.
His titanium-clad design for the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao brought him worldwide fame in 1997.
This work made him extremely sought-after, and he went on to create iconic structures in cities around the world: the Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Chicago's Millennium Park, the Der Neue Zollhof complex in Germany, and the Louis Vuitton Foundation building in Paris.
"He gave Paris and France his greatest masterpiece," said Bernard Arnault, CEO of LVMH, which owns Louis Vuitton.
His style, largely unpredictable, prevented any two of his works from looking alike.
The "Dancing House" in Prague looks like a glass building folding in on itself; his Marques hotel in Spain is decorated with thin sheets of wavy, multi-colored metal; his business school project in Sydney resembles a brown paper bag.
Gehry received the prestigious Pritzker Prize for his contribution to architecture in 1989, when he was 60 years old; his works were characterized as possessing a "highly refined, sophisticated and daring aesthetic."
"His designs, compared to American music, could best be likened to jazz - full of improvisation and a lively, unpredictable spirit," the Pritzker Prize jury said at the time.
Gehry was awarded the Order of Canada in 2002 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom — the highest civilian award in the United States — in 2016. Gehry is survived by two daughters from his first marriage — Leslie and Brina; as well as two sons — Alejandro and Samuel — from his second marriage to Berta Isabel Aguilera.
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