Frank O. Gehry: Selected Works: 1969 to Today - Hardcover

Casey C. M. Mathewson; Frank O. Gehry

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 155407276X ISBN 13: 9781554072767

Publisher: Firefly Books, 2007

Synopsis

A stunning 600-page survey of an architectural genius' building designs.

Frank 0. Gehry is one of the world's most innovative and acclaimed architects, with an active career spanning nearly four decades. His heart-stopping designs can be seen across the globe, and while the buildings' functions vary, all share Gehry's signature elements: ingenious manipulations of light, shadow and geometry.

This exciting retrospective of Gehry's work is the first published in more than a decade and features hundreds of superb full-color photographs illustrating a selection of of the architect's most important designs. Five introductory essays detail his inventive use of cutting-edge technology and diverse materials, and his mastery of light, form and sculpture. Informative chapters come together with striking photographs to reveal the precision and poise of Gehry's buildings.

The selected projects range from the architect's tentative start in Los Angeles to his most famous commissions worldwide. They include:

• Edgemar Project (Santa Monica)
• American Center (Paris)
• Vila Olimpica (Barcelona)
• Walt Disney Concert Hall (Los Angeles)
• Goldstein Housing (Frankfurt)
• Guggenheim Museum (Bilbao)
• Pa riser Platz 3 (Berlin)
• Richard B. Bard Fisher Center (Bard College, New York State)
• Maggie's Centre (Dundee, Scotland)
• Millennium Park's Pritzker Pavillion (Chicago).

There are also photographs of Gehry's furniture designs plus discussions of his preferred materials and specific features: windows, metal, wood and natural light. Stimulating text and images by premier architectural photographers provide exclusive insight into one of the most creative minds in architecture.

About this title

About the Author:

Casey C. M. Mathewson studied architecture in Oregon and Stuttgart. In 1988 he founded mab -- mathewson architektur berlin -- an institute devoted to building and research in architecture. He is the author of XXsmallHouses and Beach Houses.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.:

Form, Function, Sculpture

In the 1960s, when Frank Gehry decided to leave the rigidity of then dominant late modernism behind, nobody, least of all the architect himself, could know where the path would lead.

Rather than accepting the drab conventionality of the architectural marketplace, Gehry seeks creative dialogue with artists. The work of people like painter Mark Rothko, whose paintings are abstract yet deeply spiritual, convinced him that architecture can do more than fulfill mere pragmatic functions.

He uses the artist's devices, especially the sculptor's, to imbue his buildings with a holistic depth that never derails into rigidity. His is an architecture that elevates the chaos, fast-lane superficiality and eternal sunshine of his hometown, Los Angeles, to poetry.

With the demise of postmodernism in the early 1990s, Gehry offered an alternative. By rejuvenating the guiding paradigms of modernism, he shows that the long-dead believed principle "form follows function" can be interpreted in a myriad of new ways. Additionally, Gehry skillfully uses new technologies to realize expressionistic forms that allow the visionary utopian visions of early modernism to become reality.

Armed with ebullient yet uncompromising creativity, Gehry continues his ceaseless search for new solutions. As such, this book documents the inquisitive exploration of an architect for whom "architecture is an obsession."

About this edition

• Publisher: Firefly Books
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 155407276X
• ISBN 13: 9781554072767
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 600