Architect Frank Gehry: biography, photo

Frank Gehry, whose photo you will see below, is the most famous American architect, whose line of work is deconstructivism. His real name is Ephraim Owen Goldberg.

The architect was born on February 28, 1929 in Canada, Toronto. The Ephraim family consists of Polish Jews. They lived in the city of Timens (this is the province of Ontario). There, Goldberg's grandfather was engaged in the sale of building materials, and Frank's father owned a store with vending machines (trading and gambling).

From Canadian with Polish roots to Americans

When Gehry was 18 years old, the family moved to California, the city of Los Angeles. A little later, Frank changed his citizenship to American.

After moving his father changed his name from Goldberg to Gehry, and Ephraim himself changed his name after 20 years to Frank Gehry. The architect, as a teenager, often came across anti-Semitism and beatings. This was the motivation for changing the name.

Training and future profession

In the first years of his stay in America, Frank was difficult to decide on the future profession. He enrolled at the Los Angeles City College and attended many different courses there. Frank Gehry, whose biography is full of many interesting facts, teaches us to rush to success and reach it without stopping at anything.

Visiting the architectural courses, Gehry realized that these are immense opportunities, but were afraid that he would not be able to realize himself as an artist. It helped him to strengthen the belief in himself then known as the modern architect Rafael Soriano. All teachers sympathized with Frank and saw in him a huge potential.

In 1954, Gehry received a bachelor's degree from the School of Architecture of the University of South Carolina (training was held on scholarships). Immediately after that, he goes to work for Victor Gruen's company in Los Angeles, while continuing his education.

Army and continuing education

The training and work were interrupted by the need for compulsory military service in the American army. This took a year, after which Frank Gehry enters Harvard University to study urban planning and urban infrastructure planning. At that time, in the post-war period, there was a construction boom in Los Angeles, and then the works of modernists Richard Neutra and Rudolf Schindler were known.

Upon graduation (in 1957), Gehry receives a master's degree and moves back to Los Angeles. There he takes a job in another firm, Pereira and Lakman, but after a short time he returns to his previous job.

Family and moving to France

In 1952, Frank Gehry was married to his first wife Anita Snyder. It was she who insisted that Frank change his last name. From this marriage Gehry has two daughters.

After 9 years of marriage, the family moves to France, in Paris. There, the architect works for one year as a restoration specialist in the studio of the French architect Andre Reponday. The sphere of activity of Gehry was the church, than he was very impressed. In France, Gehry met the projects of such modernists as Baltazar Neumann and Charles Le Corbusier.

Later, in the mid-60s, Frank divorced his first wife and in 1976 finds his current wife Bertou Isabel Aguilera. From the second marriage, Gehry has two sons - Alejandro and Sami.

Return to Los Angeles

After a year in France, Frank, inspired and motivated, establishes the foundation of his studio, Frank O. Gehry and Associates, founded in 1962. After 15 years, it turns into a big company "Gehry & Krueger Inc", and in 2002 - "Gehry Partners LLP".

Gehry began his activities with projects of various shopping centers and shops, interior design. The beginning of the 70s was marked by a mass of projects for the construction of residential buildings, whose style excluded customary forms and traditionalism.

During the period from 1977 to 1979, Frank Gehry was designing his own house in Santa Monica, whose style was called "antiarchitecture." A lot of energy was invested in this house, and materials were used that were already in use: plywood, pieces of fences and others. The house was rebuilt in such a way that its inner part remained untouched.

Later similar ideas were found in such buildings as "De Mesnil Residence" in New York, "Davis House", built in Malibu, and "Spiller Residence" (Venice, California).

In 1979-1981, large-scale ideas Gehry embodied in a complex of shopping malls in the city of Santa Monica. Also in 1979, the Museum-Aquarium in San Pedro was designed, the area of which is about 2 thousand square meters. Another project of the museum is dated in 1981 - it is an aviation museum in California.

Hot 80's in the life of Frank Gehry

It is worth noting that the most fruitful years in the life of Gehry were precisely the eighties. His projects of construction are being realized all over the world: a museum of furniture and interior (the city of Wile am Rhein, Germany), an eighty-story skyscraper in New York (Madison Square Garden).

In the late eighties, Frank Gehry wins a contest, the main prize of which is the project of the hall of the name of Walt Disney himself in the Music Center. The construction was completed in 1993. The main idea is the structure, above which there is a glass atrium.

In the same period, according to the idea of Gehry, the Japanese restaurant "Fishans" is built, the entrance of which is decorated with a large sculpture of fish.

Well, 1989 is the most significant, because this year Gehry is awarded the Pritzker Prize, which is the most prestigious architectural award. The building, which gave a chance to win - Todayji's temple in Nara, Japan (pictured).

Extraordinary works of Frank Gehry and recognition

The museum in Minneapolis named after Frederick Weismann, the Guggenheim Museum (Bilbao), a dancing house in Prague - the creator of it all is Frank Gehry. The architecture of the master is filled with deconstructionism. All buildings are arbitrary geometric figures: broken broken surfaces, fragile at first glance volumes.

Hand Gary also owns works such as the Seattle Music Museum, the Panama Biodiversity Museum, the MIT large data center, the Louis Viton Art Center in Paris, the Tolerance Museum (Jerusalem), the Cancer Center (Dundee), the Cleveland Brain Health Clinic Larry Ruvo.

For ideology, not all recognize the architectural works of Gehry. The essence is precisely in these refractive ideas. Many architects consider the buildings to be unstable and extremely dangerous for finding in the city infrastructure. But in fact, all projects are well thought out and would not have been embodied in real life, they represent a danger for a large crowd of people.

Today Frank Gehry, whose work is shocked by its forms, is an architect with a world-famous name. He is the owner of more than 100 different awards in the field of architecture, his works are devoted to a lot of articles and monographs.