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FRANK OWEN GEHRY FAIA (1929-)
Frank Gehry was born Ephraim Owen Goldberg in Toronto, Canada. His father Irving had a heart attack and seeking an easier winter moved the family to Los Angeles in 1947. They became US citizens and Ephraim adopted the first name Frank in his 20s. Goldberg drove a delivery truck while taking courses at Los Angeles City College. He took architecture and became enthralled with the possibilities of the art, although at first he found himself challenged. Sympathetic teachers and an early encounter with Modernist architect Raphael Soriano confirmed his choice. He married Anita Snyder in 1952 and they honeymooned at John Lautner's Desert Hot Springs Motel.
He won an architecture scholarship to the University of Southern California and graduated in 1954. Later that year, he changed his last name from Goldberg. Gehry worked full-time for the Los Angeles firm of Victor Gruen Associates, where he had apprenticed as a student in 1952, and later served in the Air Force. Gehry entered the Harvard Graduate School of Design for city planning. He returned to LA without completing the degree and briefly joined the firm of Pereira and Luckman before returning to Victor Gruen. Gehry got restless. He took Anita and their two children to Paris, where he spent a year working in the office of the French architect Andre Remondet and studying the work of Le Corbusier. Gehry returned to LA from Paris in 1962 and established with Greg Walsh what became known as Gehry Partners.
In the late 1970s, Gehry found a creative outlet in rebuilding his own home, converting what he called "a dumb little house with charm" into a showplace for a radically new style. His Santa Monica neighbors were not happy at all but Gehry's unusual house attracted serious critical attention and he began to employ more imaginative elements in his commercial work. His international reputation was confirmed with the 1989 Pritzker Prize, the world's most prestigious architecture award. Philip Johnson helped Gehry became the most visible of an elite group of highly publicized starchitects. Gehry's most spectacular designs were the 1997 Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, and the 2004 Walt Disney Concert Hall in downtown Los Angeles. He made a 2005 animated guest appearance on The Simpsons. In 2006, Gehry was the subject of a documentary, Sketches of Frank Gehry.
At a press conference in Spain in 2014, Gehry declared "Let me tell you one thing. In the world we live in, 98 per cent of what gets built and designed today is pure shit. There's no sense of design nor respect for humanity or anything. They're bad buildings and that's it." No one has said it better. Bio adapted from achievement.org and Wikipedia.
1954 - The Romm House. Unbuilt.
1958 - The Melvin David Cabin, 52900 Middleridge Drive, Idyllwild CA. Over 2000 sf. Designed with Greg Walsh. Contrary to reports, the house was not altered, other than decks placed on the exterior beams, and the usual upgrades to kitchen and bathrooms. There are separate tiki huts and guest house. Sold in 2008 to Amy and Raymond Boylan. Sold in 2012 to Matt and Mary Norris. Bottom three photos by Matt Norris.
1959 - The Edgar and Mary Lou Steeves Residence, 1313 Casiano Road, Los Angeles CA. Commissioned in 1958. Designed with Greg Walsh. Sold in 1981 to Robert and Joanne Smith, who asked Gehry to add a new wing. Gehry's addition was rejected by the Bel-Air Fine Arts Commission. The Smiths hired Frank Mutlow and John Dimster instead and proceeded with the addition. Bottom photo by Michael Locke. As of 2012 still owned by the Smiths.
1960 - The Josef Marais and Rosa de Miranda Renovation, 3920 Melbourne Avenue, Los Angeles CA. Included a recording studio. Original house built in 1939. Gehry enlarged the living room in 1963 as well as some structural work. Sold in 2017 to William Wieske.
1962 - The Hillcrest Apartments, 2807 Highland Avenue, Santa Monica CA. Developed by Gehry, family, and friends.
1963 - The Sixth and Hill Apartments, Santa Monica CA. Unbuilt.
1963 - The SMIV Apartments, Santa Monica CA. Unbuilt.
1964 - The Kenmore Apartments, 340 South Kenmore Avenue, Los Angeles CA. Designed with C. Gregory Walsh Jr. David Miller was the contractor. Photos by Michael Locke.
1964 - The Melvin Kline Residence, 1100 Somera Road, Los Angeles CA. The original 1951 house, aka the Wife-Saving House, on the site was designed by Cal Straub for Frank and Norma McCauley. In 1955, Norma was killed in the house by UCLA student John Russell Crooker Jr. The house was destroyed by the Bel Air fire, November of 1961. Gehry and associate Greg Walsh produced a new home similar in design to the first. Sold around 1974 to Richard and Betty L. Kalinowski. Sold in 1997 to Edwin L. Solot Jr. and Corrin Lisa Yep, still owners as of 2016. Bottom photo by Michael Locke.
1965 - The Louis Danziger Studio and Residence, 7001 Melrose Avenue, Los Angeles CA. Project architects Greg Walsh and Fred Usher. Sold to Phillip Noyce. Sold to the David Findley Trust. Bottom photo by Michael Locke.
1966 - The Hotchkiss Garden Remodel, Santa Monica CA. Designed with Greg Walsh.
1967 - The Richard and Donna O'Neill Hay Barn, San Juan Capistrano CA.
1967 - The Bixby Green Apartments, 6880 Lampson, Irvine CA. Designed with Greg Walsh. Photo by Alan Hess.
1968 - The Clark County Family Housing, Henderson NV. Unbuilt.
1971 - The University Park Apartments, 3883 Parkview Lane, Irvine CA. Later renamed the Park West Apartments. Designed with Greg Walsh. Photo by Alan Hess.
1971 - The Handler Residence, Santa Monica CA. Unbuilt, according to Greg Walsh.
1971 - The Hollydot Park Townhouses, Hollydot Park CO. Unbuilt by their design, according to Greg Walsh.
1972 - The Ronald (Ron) Davis Studio and Residence, aka the Tin House, 29715 Cuthbert Road, Malibu CA. Commissioned in 1968. 5547 sf. Sold in the 1990s to Ronald and Ellen Meszaros. Sold in 2003 to Alex and Sue Glasscock who did a renovation. Sold in 2010 to the Tin House Farm Trust, aka Patrick Dempsey. Featured in GA Houses 2. Vividly featured in Architectural Digest, March 2014. Bottom photo by Roger Davies. Sold in 2015 to Surf Dog LLC (Sid R. Bass) for his daughter Samantha. Destroyed in November 2018 by wildfire.
1975 - The Edwin (Ed) Janss Jr. and Ann R. Howe Residence, 1945 Purdue Avenue, Los Angeles CA. Commissioned in 1972. Sold in 2014 to James and Liang B. Jean. Renovation by Dan Brunn.
1976 - The Harper House Condos, 111 Hamlet Hill Road, Village of Cross Keys, Baltimore MD. Bottom photo is an example unit.
1976 - The Norton and Jennifer Jones Simon Guest House, aka Residence at the Beach Renovation, 22568 Pacific Coast Highway, Malibu CA. Commissioned in 1974. The interior of an 8,000 sf Spanish-style building was gutted to house the client's vast collection of Asian art and provide guest rooms and entertainment areas for the owner's adjacent beach house. The Simons gave it to UCLA around 1990, according to Greg Walsh. Featured in GA Houses 6. Status unknown. Address needs verification; a large condo building is there now.
1977 - The Ed Ruscha House, near Ross Valley Road, Twentynine Palms CA. Actually conceptualized and designed by Ruscha with technical advice from Gehry, his longtime friend. Featured in Vanity Fair, February 1986.
1977 - The Frederick R. (Fred) and Marcia Simon Weisman Beach House Remodel, aka the Trancas Beach House, Malibu CA. She was the sister of Norton Simon. Completed. Featured in GA Houses 6. Located next door to producer Douglas S. Cramer. Address unknown, do you know where it is?
1977 - The Frank Gehry Residence Remodel, 1002 22nd Street, Santa Monica CA. Essentially a new house around an existing one. Featured in GA Houses 6. Addition in 1991-1994. Still owned by the Gehry family as of 2017. Bottom photo by Grant Mudford.
1977 - The Frederick R. (Fred) and Marcia Weisman Renovation, aka the Cheviot Hills Residence Garden and Interiors, 1140 Angelo Drive, Beverly Hills CA. Original house built in 1958. Gehry's alterations included the addition of a room and kitchen alterations. In 1984, Marcia Weisman engaged Gehry to design a second story addition which included 2 new bedrooms. After Marcia's death in 1991 the house was deeded to son Richard. Sold in 2020 to Joan Quinn. Deeded in 2020 to Eric Gowey and Jennifer Quinn Gowey.
1978 - aka the St. Ives Residence Addition, 8952 St. Ives Drive, Los Angeles CA. Commissioned in 1976. Addition around three sides of a white 1939 Modernist stucco house. Sold to the St. Ives Trust. Actor Al Pacino lived there at one time. Sold in 2001 to Mikko Koskinen and Margaret Maldonado. Photos by Michael Locke. Sold in 2021 to Niki Khatibian and Amir Zohrenejad.
1978 - The Doreen Nelson Kitchen Renovation, 235 South Westgate Avenue, Los Angeles CA. Designed for Gehry's sister. Original Spanish-style house built in 1928. Kitchen renovation featured in GA Houses 6 and The Los Angeles Times, 5/20/1979. Sold in 1988. Kitchen renovated again, bottom photo. Sold in 2014 to Miam Ammer and the Lloyd Rogers Trust. Kitchen renovated again, bottom photo. Sold in 2016 to Daniel and Sandra Allen.
1978 - The Wagner Residence, Malibu CA. A residence for a family above and a psychiatrists office and a carport below. The nonorthogonal, corrugated metal-sheathed box (similar to the Davis project) was to have 3 living areas. Because of the coastal regulations, the house was never built. Featured in GA Houses 6.
1978 - The Richard and Lois Gunther Residence, 31972 (formerly 31952 1/4) Pacific Coast Highway, Encinal Bluffs, Malibu CA. Unbuilt. Located on a narrow bluff with a prize view of the Pacific Ocean. Project was stopped due to spiraling projected costs. Featured in GA Houses 6. See Hendrix house below.
1978 - The Familian Residence, Santa Monica CA. Unbuilt. Designed as two main area, one for entertaining and one for living quarters. According to Greg Walsh: "The house was very celebrated because Jeffrey Kipnis and Philip Johnson organized a deconstruction exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art and they picked this house as a perfect example. It wasn't - but it looked like it was. It was all about flying 2 x 4s. At that time we were looking at subdivisions before the stucco went on and saying how great the subdivision looks until they put the finished walls on it. Frank said 'how can I build a stud wall and just put glass on it?'" Featured in GA Houses 6.
1978 - The Jane M. Spiller Houses, 39 Horizon Avenue, Venice CA. Featured in Architectural Record Houses of 1983; GA Houses 6. Apartment in the front and the main residence in the rear. Built by Carde-Killefer; engineers, Kurily and Szymanski. For rent in 2011.
1981 - The John Whitney House and guest house, aka House for a Filmmaker,
600 East Rustic Road, Santa Monica CA. Commissioned in 1980. The house
was re-designed by architect, Mark Mack, and built by John Whitney. Sold several times. Bottom two photos by Michael Locke.
Sold in 2005 to Keith Brackpool. Sold in 2020 to Craig Tessler.
1981 - The Christophe deMenil Residence Renovation, aka Carriage House, 147 East 69th Street, New York NY. Commissioned in 1978. Featured in GA Houses 6. Unbuilt.
1981 - The 14th Street Housing, Atlanta GA. Unbuilt, according to Greg Walsh.
1981 - The Binder House, Los Angeles CA. Address unknown, do you know where it is?
1981 - The Charles Arnoldi-Laddie Dill Triplex, 326 Indiana Avenue, Venice CA. Three two-story condominiums. Collaboration with two local artists, Laddie Dill and Chuck Arnoldi. Sold in 2013 to Mericos Real Estate Corporation. Bottom three photos by Michael Locke.
1981 - The Robert and Lesley Benson Residence, 23685 Clover Trail, Calabasas CA. The roof deck was completed in 1984. 1719 sf. Commissioned in 1979. Sold in 2013 to the Ali Zial Trust.
1982 - The Traci House, location unknown.
1982 - The Glen Fleck Residence, Los Angeles CA. Unbuilt.
1982 - The Tract House Development. Unbuilt.
1983 - The Boxenbaum Remodel, New York NY. Address and status unknown, do you know where it is?
1983 - The Sally Kellerman and Jonathan D. Krane Renovation, aka the Kellerman Krane House, 7944 Woodrow Wilson Drive, Los Angeles CA. Harrison Ford worked on it as a carpenter before going into acting. 3694 sf. Featured in Architecture Digest, September 1987. Sold to house flippers Richard Sherman and Eric Duffy. Sold in 2015 to LXA LLC. Bottom photo by Michael Locke.
1983 - The Michael B. Hendrix House, 31972 Pacific Coast Highway, Malibu CA. Formerly addressed 31952 1/4. Gehry took the Gunther House design for this site, above, and made it more affordable. However, due to projected costs, the client ultimately built a house substantially different from Gehry's plans, creating a beautiful house but not one recognizable as a Gehry design. Sold around 1993 to Peter and Alice Lasally. Sold in 2018 to the Anthony Graham and Dierdre I. Raffoni Revocable Trust.
1984 - The Miriam and Morris Wosk Penthouse Residence, 440 South Roxbury Drive, Beverly Hills CA. Commissioned in 1981. Sold in 2016 to the Jack Kashani Trust. Featured in Interior Design Magazine; GA Houses 17.
1985 - The Turtle Creek Development, Dallas, TX. Unbuilt. Mixed-use complex with 3 towers, 8 townhouses, with 4 levels of parking underground. An oval, glass-skinned office building plus another gridded office tower and a similar residential condominium building stacked atop a 100-room hotel.
1985 - Bedroom Addition, 780 Latimer Road, Santa Monica CA. Original house built in 1959, not by Gehry. Sold to Jennifer Nicholson.
1986 - The William (Bill) and Lynn Norton House, aka the Venice Beach House, 2509 Ocean Front Walk, Venice CA. Commissioned in 1982. Featured in Architectural Record Houses of 1985; GA Houses 16. Structural engineer, Kurily & Szymanski; built by Chartered Construction Corporation.
1986 - The Jay Chiat Residence, Sagaponack NY. Was to be a huge house. Unbuilt.
1987 - The Burton Borman Residence, 31250 Broad Beach Road, Malibu CA. One of the largest oceanfront houses in Malibu. Sold in 2017 to an LLC representing Isaac Larian, billionaire and chief executive of MGA Entertainment.
1987 - The Mike and Penny Winton Guest House, originally at 1760 Shoreline Drive, Wayzata (Orono) MN. Commissioned in 1984. 2300 sf. Won a 1988 AIA Honor Award. Located next to a Philip Johnson house designed in 1952. Then the land was subdivided with each house on a separate parcel.
The Johnson-designed house was sold to Bob and Carolyn Nelson. The Gehry guest house was sold to developer Kurt Woodhouse and sat vacant for years. He gave it to the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul in 2008 and paid for a 2009 relocation 60 miles south to the Gainey Conference Center in Owatonna MN, bottom photo. The move and reassembly took two years. Gehry was present at the 2011 rededication. In 2014, the University sold the Conference Center with the provision the Guest House must be moved by 2016. Auctioned in May 2015. Will be moved to the Hudson Valley area of NY.
1988 - The Barbara Sirmai and Mark Peterson Residence, aka the Sirmai-Peterson House, 970 Calle Arroyo, Thousand Oaks CA. Commissioned in 1983. As of 2013 still owned by Sirmai and Peterson.
1989 - The Marna and Rockwell Schnabel Residence, 526 North Carmelina Avenue, Los Angeles CA. Commissioned 1986. Sometimes reported as located on North Cliffwood, which is incorrect. Selected for an AIA Honor Award in 1990. Sold in 2006 to Tony-award-winning producer (Angels in America) Jon and Jill Platt, who did a large renovation with Gehry's guidance. Sold in 2013 to Michael LaFetra. Sold in 2016 to the Thomas L. Safran Trust. Bottom two photos by Elizabeth Daniels. Last photo by Michael Locke.
Rockwell Schnabel is a Dutch-American businessman who served as the United States ambassador to the European Union from 2001 to 2005. He previously served as the United States ambassador to Finland from 1986 to 1989; Marna worked briefly for Gehry. Gehry has said, "This is the design I had fantasized about for my own house."
1989 - The Peter B. Lewis Residence, Lyndhurst OH. This was to be a $5M project. According to architecture critic Jeff Kipnis, "after millions of dollars in design fees, a warehouse full of models, and a budget that had 'spun out of orbit' before the land was even cleared, the project was finally, reluctantly terminated by Lewis some years later." Lewis later commissioned Philip Johnson for a project but it was not built, either.
1991 - The Bonames Housing Project, Frankfurt, Germany. During subsequent years planning came to a halt. In 2012 the municipal authorities took up the plans once again and a Frankfurt architectural firm BS+ was commissioned to do revisions. Still unbuilt as of 2014.
1991 - The Goldstein Housing Project, Strasburger Strase 7, Frankfurt, Germany. Photo by Thomas Mayer.
Around 1992 - The Eli and Edythe Broad House,
910 Oakmont Drive East, Los Angeles CA. Shares a driveway with
Craig Ellwood's Rosen House. Eli Broad and Gehry had many disagreements; eventually Gehry recommended architect Langdon Wilson to finish up the project, which he did.
Deeded
to the Edythe Broad Trust.
1996 - The Nationale-Nederlanden Building, aka Ginger and Fred, aka the Dancing Building, aka the Dancing House, Rašínovo nábřeží 80, 120 00 Praha 2, Prague, Czech Republic. Designed with Vlado Milunić. Commissioned in 1992.
1996 - The Jay Chiat House, aka the Telluride Residence, Telluride CO. Unbuilt. Commissioned 1995. Designed for Gehry's long-time friend and previous corporate client, Jay Chiat, who died before it could be realized. Gehry said that the way the Telluride house steps down the hill was inspired by the Duchamps painting, "Nude Descending a Staircase." The house is alone - exposed on its 35 acre site. One Colorado neighbor sold his house when he learned about this plan. The house has complex forms, which were a direct response to the rocky landscape. The curvilinear sculptural roof was to be black copper.
2005 - The Tower/Virgin Records Store Renovation, 360 Newbury Street, Boston MA. Converted to condos with interiors by Gehry, Robert Stern, and Richard Meier. Gehry did the Penthouse, owner unknown.
2011 - aka New York By Gehry, aka Beekman Tower, 8 Spruce Street, New York NY. 76 stories containing 903 rental apartments. In addition, Beekman Tower contains a public school for 630 students designed by Swanke Hayden Connell Architects and a 21,000-square-foot medical center.
2012 - The Make It Right Houses, 1750 Tennessee Street, New Orleans LA. Funded by Brad Pitt's Make It Right Foundation.
2012 - The Swire Apartments, 53 Stubbs Road, The Peak, Hong Kong. Commissioned 2004; design unveiled in 2009. In 2012, the most expensive real estate in Hong Kong at $3400 per sf.
2017 - The Frank and Berta Gehry Trust House, 908 Harding, Venice area of Los Angeles CA. Unbuilt.
2017 - The Adelaide Investments LLP House, aka the Frank and Berta Gehry Residence, 316 Adelaide Drive, Santa Monica CA. Project architect, Sam Gehry. Commissioned in 2013. Bottom photo by Michael Locke.
2017 - The John Baldessari House and Gallery, 898 Commonwealth Avenue, Venice CA. Commissioned in 2015. Gehry Partners did the original design. Designed with (fer) Studio; Douglas Pierson was the partner in charge. Photos by Michael Locke. Sold in 2024.
2018 - The Roy and Carol Doumani House, aka the Floating Beach House, 15 Yawl Street, Marina Del Rey CA. 3000sf. Gehry Partners did the original design. Designed with (fer) Studio; Douglas Pierson was the partner in charge. Engineer, John Labib. Photos by Michael Locke.
2023 - The Massy Medhipour Residence, 55 Camino Por Los Arboles, Atherton CA. 30,000sf.
2024 - The Mansur House, Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. 50,000sf compound.
2028 - The Mirvish-Gehry Project, Toronto, Canada. Initially three, then two tall condo towers. Commissioned in 2012.
Sources include: Frank Gehry: The Houses by Mildred Freeman; Building Art: The Life and Work of Frank Gehry by Paul Goldberger.