Urban Research: Frank O. Gehry: Sculptor and Architect for the Twenty-first Century

by Ronald L. Nagel

n 1929, Frank O. Gehry was born in Toronto, Canada. This would be a neutral fact except that his French education served him well later in life when he went to Paris to meet Le Corbusier (Le Corbusier was a leading architect of the time who, unknown to many, took “inspiration” for part of his work, in the non-professional architecture of Ghardaia, in southern Algeria). Gehry later moved to Los Angeles and became an American citizen, his education continued including studies at University of Southern California and Harvard, from which he obtained formal degrees in architecture and, interestingly, in urban planning.
I encountered Frank O. Gehry when I attended a lecture in New York at Town Hall sponsored by the Architectural League in honor of Gehry’s then recently published book, Gehry Talks (Friedman and Sorkin, 1999).
The person introducing Gehry remarked that the lecture had been organized originally at another smaller venue, because they were expecting no more attendees than the total membership of the League, which is close to 600 souls. He added: “Who the hell are the rest of you?!” — for there were 800 additional attendees. Needless to say, the interlopers remained quiet.