I just drove by a prescholl building, designed by Frank gehry-what a mess! The whole building is asymmetric, and the windows and doorways are all different sizes and shapes. I do not see anything pleasing at all in this hideous design! So how did this guy become a major architect-do some people actually like this dreck?
I hope this guy never gets around to designing houses-one of his would be MORE than sufficient to ruin a neighborhood!
He’s both.
His moments of brilliance are buildings such as the Guggenheim in Bilbao, Spain and the Experience Music Project in Seattle, Washington. He defies gravity and logic in his designs, yet can capture movement and light unlike any other architect. This is all fine and lovely for large buildings that make a certain statement–such as museums. But for a preschool? That’s over the top.
I’ve had the “pleasure” of working with his office before, when I worked for a glass company in L.A. All I have to say is the guy is a mad genius.
Isn’t he the guy who designs buildings that look like crumpled-up bits of tin foil?
Jesus. Where’s Harry K. Thaw when you need him?
[Warning: above post contains obscure early 20th-century pop culture reference. For information on deciphering, contact Ukulele Ike or Dennis Miller]
I’d never heard of Frank Gehry before I read this thread, but when someone posted about his buildings looking like crumpled bits of tin foil, the first thing I thought of was the Weisman Museum on the University of Minnesota’s Twin Cities campus. And I go looking for examples of his work on the web and lo and behold! What’s the first link on the page? The Weisman Museum.
Synchronicity and the view from an MTCO crosstown bus window collide…
I haven’t seen it since it was finished, but from talking to one of my Seattle friends I can tell you that the EMP is not universally admired.
I’m not much of an admirer of the EMP building myself, although I thought the building in Bilbao was fantastic.
I’m still wondering to what extent Gehry’s famous patron (one Mr. Paul Allen) may have influenced his original conception. I know Allen had strong feelings about what the building should look like and did ask Gehry to make changes. Yikes.
Legend has it that Thaw was on a business trip to Tokyo, where he was to stay at the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Imperial Hotel. He entered the lobby, looked around, set down his bag (ok, poetic license there), and said, “My God. I shot the wrong architect.”
Cheers!
I’ll say he’s both. Brilliant within the definition of the Modernist style, but hopeless because he remains within those confines - which makes him not really different from most other famous architects today.
Time for the predictable diatribe about the Modernists using glass and aluminum, and weird shapes, simply for their own sake. The hallmark of the style seems to be cleverness for its own sake, with the people actually using and building, and existing with its context, its in having to put up with whatever whims the brilliant architect comes up with. I’ll give Gehry credit for not making everything a simple Bauhaus block, like most of Philip Johnson’s work for example. But I’m on his case for being contemptuous of his buildings’ surroundings and even their very purpose.