Bobbie+Burns

**Frank O. Gehry**



Frank Owen Gehry was born February 28, 1929 as Ephraim Owen Goldberg in Toronto, Canada. In 1947, teenage Ephraim and his family moved to Los Angeles. His father changed the family name to Gehry shortly after. Later, Ephraim changed his own first name to Frank in his early 20’s.

Frank Gehry began by taking architecture courses at Los Angeles City College, then graduated in 1954 with a degree in architecture from University of Southern California. He went to graduate school at Harvard School of Design but never attained his graduate degree.

In 1962 Gehry established his own architectural company in Los Angeles now known as Frank O. Gehry and Associates or [|FOGA] for short.

Gehry’s art style is known as deconstructivism. About.com defines deconstructivism as follows-
 * //"Deconstructivism, or Deconstruction, is an approach to building design that attempts to view architecture in bits and pieces. The basic elements of architecture are dismantled. Deconstructivist buildings may seem to have no visual logic. They may appear to be made up of unrelated, disharmonious abstract forms. Deconstructive ideas are borrowed from the French philosopher Jacques Derrida."// **

Examples of his deconstructive architecture would be the Rasin House in Prague, the Walt Disney Concert hall in downtown Los Angeles and his most famous work, the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain.

Frank now resides in the deconstructed “Gehry House” in Santa Monica, CA. He continues to work on beautiful architecture worldwide.


 * Samples of Gehry's Work**




 * The Gehry House, Santa Monica, CA**



**Subject**

Frank Gehry’s residence, remodeled in 1978, is the perfect model of deconstructivism. As previously stated, the deconstructivist style seems to have no visual logic, which can be interpreted as a subjective style of functional art. The house is asymmetrical due to the fact that no two sides are the same. Gehry’s house is an example of objective abstraction. One could say it is his personal interpretation of a house based upon a real one, which is the very definition of objective abstraction. With that being said, Gehry’s neighbors took a while to come around to appreciating his style. They were not very happy with his home originally, and it is said that someone even shot at it one night.

**Form** I like to describe his house as a birthday cake wrapped in barbed wire. He took a simple pink gambrel-roofed, two-story bungalow and wrapped it in chained-link fencing and galvanized corrugated iron. The many glass windows reflect an ample amount of sunlight during the day and make headlights appear as ghosts at night. Gehry’s home represents the use of plastic space being that it is an actual 3-dimensional house. He employs the use of various metal materials to create actual texture. It gives the home a modern, industrial feel while preserving the “homey” insides by not altering too much of the original house itself.

In contrast to other buildings, like the Guggenheim or the Disney Concert Hall’s flowing structure, the line and shape of his house is geometric. The shapes used in construction are very straight and sharp as opposed to the soft flowing lines of his commissioned work. The color of the house, which is now brown, and the metal “curtain” that surrounds it gives provides feeling of nature mixed with the industry. As stated previously, the corrugated iron and chain-link fence gives a variety of actual textures created by metal patterns. Value becomes difficult to describe because the metal probably reflects light differently at any given time of the day or year. Although the house is essentially wrapped in metal, our eyes focus on the main structure when viewed from the front. The tall height and brown color also help to emphasize the original house. The same brown is used on the large diamond shaped window on the side of the house and creates focus on that particular window when viewing that side. Gehry created movement and variety by making sure he kept no two sides of the house alike. There is always something new for our eyes to absorb. The tall thin original structure is surrounded by the short, wide metal addition. The proportion of wide/short to tall/thin creates a good balance despite the variety of shapes and textures. Nothing is ordinary about how he chose to construct his home. There is a chain-link fence stretched across the top of the entrance for Pete’s sake!

**Content and Conclusion** My overall response is amazement and envy. At first, I saw this house and thought, “What is going on with this place?” Once I had a chance to read about what and why he chose to build this way, it brought to mind the various times my husband and I had discussed someday building our own dream home. I chose analyze Gehry’s home because it is where he put his soul and dedication. When an artist is commissioned to do a work, he may have some influence but it is ultimately the client who makes the final decisions. With that said, I believe that Gehry’s purpose in changing the home the way he did was to “put his foot in it”. It was the one place he could be completely free to do whatever he wanted and he absolutely did. Art that is not commissioned is uninfluenced by opinion and leads to what I believe is the core meaning. Gehry’s home expresses who he really is as an artist and a person. It says, “After creating for others all day, this is where I come to rest. This is my home.” Frank Gehry has redefined the way I see architecture. He creates functional art in building form. His structures are made to be just as interesting as what is housed inside of them. Gehry’s architecture has been the subject of awe, discussion and disdain. He has inspired everything from protests of proposed construction sites to scientific studies of the microclimates surrounding his existing buildings. If Frank Gehry retired today, his influence would continue to live on for years to come.

**My Interpretation of Gehry's Sketchings**



**Works Cited**

Sources: Academy of Achievement: Frank Gehry http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/geh0bio-1

-The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/dsgn3/ho_1987.357.htm

-About.com: Architecture http://architecture.about.com/od/20thcenturytrends/ig/Modern-Architecture/Deconstructivism.htm

-Stories of Houses: Frank Gehry's House In California http://storiesofhouses.blogspot.com/2006/02/frank-gehrys-house-in-california.html

-Great Buildings Online: Gehry House http://www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/Gehry_House.html

-Tim-Zhao-Arch 1930-2009: Gehry House Final Research http://tim-zhao-arch1390-2009.blogspot.com/2009/10/gehry-house-final-research.html = =