Frank Gehry, who was instrumental in defining a new era of museum architecture, died on Friday at his home in Santa Monica, California.
Frank Gehry was one of the most influential architects of the last 50 years. Nowhere is his impact more visible than in museum architecture. Before Gehry, museums usually followed only one of the two templates. They are either inspired from the neoclassical pantheons reminiscent of Greco-Roman arcihtecture, or followed the modernist style that made museums indistinguishable from other buildings. However, it was he who brought a fresh, individualistic, and almost abstract style to museums that aligned with the art they represented.
The most important project by Gehry was perhaps the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain. Envisioned by then-director Thomas Krens, Gehry was hired in 1997 to create the latest outpost in the small Spanish town. What followed was a creative marvel. The museum was designed using 33,000 titanium plates in the exterior that had to be installed with the help of mountain climbers. Gehry utilised a computer software called CATIA to design the museum. Upon inaugration (and ever since), the Guggenheim Bilbao was hailed for its design. The museum attracted visitors from across the world, increasing tourism multi-fold and raising the economy of the town of Bilbao.
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Throughout his long career, Frank Gehry led or was involved in the architecture of many projects, from a New York skyscraper to a Berlin bank. He was behind the Walt Disney Concert Hall (2003) in LA, and the Foundation Louis Vuitton Museum (2014) in Paris. One of the last projects he worked on is the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, scheduled to open next year.
