At the age of 96, the world-famous architect Frank Gehry passed away.
In the early morning hours of December 5, the prolific inventor passed away at his home in Santa Monica, California, after a short bout with respiratory illness. The information was corroborated by Meaghan Lloyd, who serves as his head of staff at Gehry Partners LLP. The news of his death was first reported by the New York Times.
The architect and designer, who was born in Canada and currently resides in California, is responsible for some of the most iconic and instantly recognizable structures in the world. These structures include the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, the Jay Pritzker Concert Pavilion in Chicago’s Millennium Park, and the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. All of these structures feature his signature undulating metal facades, which frequently appear to be more sculpture than building.
In the 1970s, Gehry came to popularity after creating his own unique house in Santa Monica. Shortly thereafter, in 1989, he was awarded the Pritzker Prize, which is considered to be the greatest accolade in the field of architecture. In 2010, when he was 81 years old, Vanity Fair referred to him as “the most important architect of our age.” This was quite a few decades later.
When asked about his artistic attitude in 2012, he said, “I was rebelling against everything.” This was in reference to his creative outlook. “I thought it was snotty and effete,” he said, referring to the prevalent minimalist architectural styles of some of his peers at the time. Simply put, it didn’t seem to be a good match for daily life.
Gehry was one of the first architects in his sector to be referred to as a “starchitect” due to his daring design aesthetic, widespread renown, and unabashedly ambitious designs without reservation.
Moreover, he became well-known for his public presence, which was often unfiltered. In the year 2014, when he was in Spain for an award ceremony, he became renowned for his response to a reporter whose question he did not enjoy. He referred to “98 percent of everything that is built and designed today” as “pure s—.”
It was reported by the Times that he was born Frank Goldberg, but he subsequently changed his surname to Gehry in order to avoid being seen as antisemitic.
As a young man, he served for a short period of time in the military before enrolling in the University of Southern California. He began his academic career by majoring in ceramics, but then shifted his focus to architecture.
The couple had two daughters, Brina Gehry and Leslie Gehry Brenner, both of whom passed away in 2008. He married his first wife, Anita Snyder, and they had two children. Following the dissolution of their marriage in the 1960s, Frank Aguilera wed Berta Aguilera in 1975. Berta Aguilera is the only survivor of Frank, along with their two boys, Sam and Alejandro, and even his elder daughter, Brina.
