Gehry Partners
Frank Gehry
Biography
Raised in Toronto, Canada, Frank Gehry moved with his family to Los Angeles in 1947. Mr. Gehry received his bachelor of architecture degree from the University of Southern California in 1954, served in the US army in 1955, and then studied city planning at Harvard University Graduate School of Design under the GI Bill. In subsequent years, Mr. Gehry has built an architectural career that has spanned over six decades and produced public and private buildings throughout the world. Hallmarks of Mr. Gehry’s work include a particular concern that people exist comfortably within the spaces that he creates, and an insistence that his buildings address the context and culture of their sites and the budgets of his clients.
His work has earned Mr. Gehry several of the most significant awards in the architectural field. He was inducted into the College of Fellows of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) in 1974, and his buildings have received over 100 national and regional AIA awards. In 1977, Mr. Gehry was named recipient of the Arnold W. Brunner Memorial Prize in Architecture from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Mr. Gehry was named a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1987. In 1989, he was named a trustee of the American Academy in Rome and was awarded the Pritzker Architecture Prize, perhaps the premiere accolade of the field, honoring “significant contributions to humanity and the built environment through the art of architecture.” In 1991, he was named a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 1992, he received the Wolf Prize in Art (Architecture) from the Wolf Foundation. In the same year, he was the recipient of the Praemium Imperiale Award by the Japan Art Association to “honor outstanding contributions to the development, popularization, and progress of the arts.” In 1994, he became the first recipient of the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize for lifetime contribution to the arts and was bestowed with the title of Academician by the National Academy of Design. In 1998, Mr. Gehry received the National Medal of Arts, became the first recipient of the Friedrich Kiesler Prize and was named an Honorary Academician by the Royal Academy of Arts. In 1999, Mr. Gehry received the Lotos Medal of Merit from the Lotos Club; that same year, he received the Gold Medal from the American Institute of Architects. In 2000, Mr. Gehry received the Gold Medal from the Royal Institute of British Architects, and he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from Americans for the Arts. In 2002, Mr. Gehry received the Gold Medal for Architecture from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 2003, Mr. Gehry was inducted into the European Academy of Sciences and Arts, and he was designated as a Companion to the Order of Canada. In 2006, Mr. Gehry was a first-year inductee into the California Hall of Fame, and he was awarded Chevalier of the National Order of the Legion of Honor from the French government. Subsequently, in 2014, Mr. Gehry was elevated to the rank of Commandeur of the National Order of the Legion of Honor. In 2008, Mr. Gehry received the Golden Lion Lifetime Achievement Award at the Venice Biennale. In 2010, Mr. Gehry received the John Singleton Copley Award from the American Associates of the Royal Academy Trust, and he received the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art Award in New York. In 2014, Mr. Gehry received the Prince of Asturias Award for the Arts. The third annual Getty Medal was awarded to Mr. Gehry in 2015. In 2016, Mr. Gehry was awarded the Harvard Arts Medal and the Leonore and Walter Annenberg Award for Diplomacy through the Arts from the Foundation for Arts and Preservation in Embassies. In November 2016, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom from US President Barack Obama.
Mr. Gehry has received honorary doctoral degrees from Occidental College; Whittier College; California College of Arts and Crafts; Technical University of Nova Scotia; Rhode Island School of Design; California Institute of Arts; Southern California Institute of Architecture; Otis Art Institute at Parsons School of Design; University of Toronto; University of Southern California; Yale University; Harvard University; University of Edinburgh; Case Western Reserve University; Princeton University; University of Technology in Sydney; and Juilliard School in New York City. In 2017, he will be awarded an honorary degree from the University of Oxford. Mr. Gehry has held teaching positions at some of the world’s most prestigious institutions, including Harvard University; University of Southern California; University of California–Los Angeles; Sci-Arc; University of Toronto; Columbia University; Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich; and Yale University, where he still teaches today.
Mr. Gehry continues to be actively committed to philanthropic work. He is currently engaged in a number of pro bono design projects. These include the Children’s Institute Inc., a headquarters for a children’s nonprofit located in the heart of the Watts area of Los Angeles; the Jazz Bakery, a nonprofit performance space dedicated to jazz music in Los Angeles; and the Pierre Boulez Concert Hall in Berlin, a performance space for the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, uniting young musicians with diverse backgrounds from around the Middle East. Mr. Gehry has also been working on a master plan for the Los Angeles River Revitalization project. Additionally, he continues to support a number of causes particularly close to him, including Turnaround Arts California, a program that works to build arts education in all schools. He is also active in the Hereditary Disease Foundation, which is working to find the cure for Huntington’s disease.
Mr. Gehry’s notable projects include the Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, Spain; Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum, University of Minnesota; Nationale-Nederlanden Building, Prague; DZ Bank Building, Berlin; Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York; Maggie’s Centre, a cancer patient care center in Dundee, Scotland; Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles; Jay Pritzker Pavilion and BP Pedestrian Bridge, Millennium Park, Chicago; Hotel Marqués de Riscal, Elciego, Spain; Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; Peter B. Lewis Science Library, Princeton, New Jersey; Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health, Las Vegas; New Campus for New World Symphony, Miami; Eight Spruce Street Residential Tower, New York City; Opus Residential Tower, Hong Kong; Signature Theatre, New York City; House for the Make It Right Foundation, New Orleans; Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris; Biomuseo, Panama; Dr. Chau Chak Wing Building for the University of Technology, Sydney; West Campus for Facebook, Menlo Park, California; and Pierre Boulez Concert Hall, Berlin.
Current projects include residential projects in Atherton, Los Angeles, and Cabo San Lucas, California; House for an Artist, Los Angeles; King Street Development, Toronto; United Kingdom; Grand Avenue Development, Los Angeles; Los Angeles River Revitalization project; and Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial, Washington, DC. Projects under construction include the LUMA/Parc des Ateliers, Arles, France; Philadelphia Museum of Art; and Battersea Power Station Development, London.
Gehry Partners, LLP
Background
Gehry Partners, LLP is a full-service architectural firm with extensive international experience in the design and construction of academic, museum, theater, performance, and commercial projects.
Founded in 1962 and located in Los Angeles, Gehry Partners currently has a staff of approximately 130 people. Every project undertaken by Gehry Partners is designed personally and directly by Frank Gehry. All of the broad resources of the firm and the extensive experience of the firm’s senior partners and staff are available to assist in the design effort and to carry this effort forward through technical development and construction administration.
At the heart of the firm’s approach to design is a method in which the client is brought fully into the design process as a member of the design team, making the design a true collaboration between architect and client. Gehry Partners begins work by conducting extensive meetings with the client, and, when necessary, with representatives of user groups, with community representatives, and with representatives of city and state governments, in order to determine and develop overall project goals and requirements. Programming options and site planning options are determined, developed, and presented for review using both written analyses and physical models that permit clear understanding of all options as depicted within the larger context of the site area. Discussions regarding project schedule, project budget, and requirements for specialty consultants are conducted concurrently and continue as work proceeds.
After programming and site planning issues are resolved, the focus of work shifts to architectural design. The architectural design process is based on extensive physical modeling at multiple scales, in which both the functional and formal aspects of a project are explored in detail. Every possible design option is developed using physical models and presented to the client for review. Actual building materials and large-scale mock-ups are employed to promote detailed understanding of the design among all involved parties. As work proceeds, the physical models developed during the early stages of design become more fully refined and as necessary are documented using Digital Project, a highly advanced three-dimensional surface modeling computer program developed by Gehry Technologies for use in the architectural, engineering, and construction industry. Digital Project permits detailed surface area and quantity calculations during the design process, and allows Gehry Partners to provide accurate construction cost calculations and consistent cost control as work proceeds. As the design approaches final development, a thoroughly detailed Digital Project model is produced to serve as the primary source of project information during the bidding, fabrication, and construction stages, rationalizing and permitting close control of the construction process.
At any given time the partnership has as many as twenty-five projects in various stages of development from design through construction. These projects vary in size from the very large-scale Guggenheim Abu Dhabi Museum to projects as small as the Ohr-O’Keefe Museum in Biloxi, Mississippi. The staff is carefully trained, and the firm hires many architects directly from school and retains them as the core of our design and technical teams.
The work of Gehry Partners has been featured widely in national and international newspapers and magazines, and has been exhibited in major museums throughout the world. Notable projects include the Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, Spain; Vitra International Furniture Museum and Factory, Weil am Rhein, Germany; Chiat/Day Office Building, Venice, California; Vila Olimpica Retail and Commercial Complex, Barcelona; University of Toledo Center for the Visual Arts; Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum, University of Minnesota; Vitra International Headquarters, Basel, Switzerland; EMR Communication and Technology Center, Bad Oeynhausen, Germany; Nationale-Nederlanden Building, Prague; Vontz Center for Molecular Studies, University of Cincinnati; Der Neue Zollhof, an office complex in Düsseldorf; Team Disneyland Administration Building, Anaheim, California; Experience Music Project, Seattle; DZ Bank Building, a mixed-use building adjacent to the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin; the Peter B. Lewis Campus of the Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland; Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York; Maggie’s Centre, a cancer patient care center in Dundee, Scotland; Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles; Stata Center, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in Cambridge, Massachusetts; Jay Pritzker Pavilion and BP Pedestrian Bridge, Millennium Park, Chicago; Hotel Marqués de Riscal, Elciego, Spain; Transformation Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; Peter B. Lewis Science Library, Princeton, New Jersey; Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health, Las Vegas; New Campus for New World Symphony, Miami; Eight Spruce Street Residential Tower, New York City; Opus Residential Tower, Hong Kong; Signature Theatre, New York City; House for the Make It Right Foundation, New Orleans; Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris; Biomuseo, Panama; Dr. Chau Chak Wing Building for the University of Technology, Sydney; West Campus for Facebook, Menlo Park, California; and Pierre Boulez Concert Hall, Berlin. Current projects include residential projects in Atherton, Los Angeles, and Cabo San Lucas, California; House for an Artist, Los Angeles; King Street Development, Toronto; Grand Avenue Development, Los Angeles; Los Angeles River Revitalization project; and Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial, Washington, DC. Projects under construction include the LUMA / Parc des Ateliers, Arles, France; Philadelphia Museum of Art; and Battersea Power Station Development, London.
Gehry Partners, LLP
12541 Beatrice Street
Los Angeles, California 90066
Phone 310-482-3000
Fax 310-482-3006
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