Frank O. Gehry: The Complete Works

For readers who truly want to know about Gehry, The Complete Works is indispensable. It documents 250 works, even early ones that other architects might conveniently omit, and the material is well illustrated on 614 oversized pages. Insightful essays by two eminent architectural scholars set the stage for this massive and unrivaled traversal of Gehry's designs. --John Pastier

This monograph is one of the most complete and visually attractive publications on world-renowned architect Frank Gehry, presenting 243 of his buildings and projects. Gehry's provocative works of architecture are constructed through a unique process of improvisation and display extreme creative freedom, which allows him to work without preconceptions, and with an extraordinarily open mind. This volume traces Gehry's career and creative development and includes all of his most significant works, from his senior thesis at the University of Southern California (1954) to a projected skyscraper in New York City (1997). Included are such high-profile projects as the Walt Disney Concert Hall, the Loyola Law School, and the California Aerospace Museum in Los Angeles; the Nationale-Nederlanden office building in Prague; and the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao.

This book, which includes an introduction by Gehry, traces the history of the hall from its inception through the architect selection process, construction, and completion of the building, which is recorded in acclaimed architectural photographer Grant Mudford's stunning images. Esa-Pekka Salonen, music director for the Los Angeles Philharmonic, recounts his first impressions of Gehry and the models for the new building in an essay that also defines what makes a great orchestra and a great concert hall.

Sure to make headlines and attract visitors from around the world, the Walt Disney Concert Hall is one of the most important and innovative buildings of recent years. This book brings its story to all those interested in modern architecture.

Im Mai 2005 wird in Herford, Zentrum der Möbelindustrie Nordrhein-Westfalens, der von Frank O. Gehry entworfene Museumsbau eröffnet. Die Galerie im bestehenden Gebäude ist neutral gehalten und entspricht der Vorstellung von einem White Cube; der Dom und die umliegenden Galerien weisen dagegen den eigenwilligen Charakter von Gehrys Formensprache auf. Dabei haben die kleineren Seitengalerien geschwungene Grundlinien, während der Dom einen rechtwinkligen Grundriss aufweist, mit Wölbungen erst ab einer Höhe von rund fünf Metern. So finden sich im MARTa Herford ganz verschiedene Ausstellungssäle, jeder mit seiner eigenen Atmosphäre, «den angemessenen Raum für die Ideen, Visionen und Impulse, die MARTa nicht zuletzt durch prospektive Ausstellungen und als Ort der Konfrontation der traditionell getrennten Bereiche Wirtschaft, Design und Kunst entwickeln wird», sagt MARTa-Direktor Jan Hoet, Documenta-Macher 1992 und bis 2004 überaus erfolgreicher Museumsleiter des SMAK in Gent.

With the completion of the celebrated Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, architect Frank O. Gehry has entered the pantheon of twentieth-century masters. In this wholly unique new book, Gehry himself offers extensive and illuminating commentary on various aspects of the proceses involved in developing his revolutionary designs, including his influences, clients, use of materials, and new technologies.

Gehry Talks: Architecture + Process documents all of his new work of this decade, tracing his evolution from a southern California architect known for his idiosyncratic use of materials and collaboration with local artists, to an international figure whose fluid, hitherto undreamt-of forms surge beyond the aesthetic and technical constraints of the twentieth century. From the titanium-wrapped curves of the Guggenheim Bilbao to the binocular facade of the Chiat-Day Headquarters in California, his innovative structural ideas evoke a sense of freedom and spontaneity while, at the same time, displaying the utmot control. Unbound by guidelines of symmetry or the grid's delineation, his structures spring forth, engaged in a seemingly limitless play of ideas--ever-changing in both the multitudinous combinations of shapes suggested by the form and the depth of the conceptual associations implied by the design. Fish and snake motifs birl upon his buildings' rippling surfaces, while light follows the asymmetrical trajectories of their metallic folds. Though controversial and daring, his works always possess an elegance that lends warmth and humane scope to each project, regardless of the level of innovation--as evinced in contexts as varying as the complicated, and unrealized, plan of the Lewis House in Lyndhurst, Ohio or the clarity of the idea behind the Üstra office building in Hannover, Germany.

This generously illustrated presentation features thirty-three projects, including the Chiat-Day Headquarters in Venice, California; the Team Disneyland Administration Building in Anaheim, California; the Vitra Furniture Museum and Factory in Weil am Rhein, Germany; the Entertainment Center at Euro-Disney (now called Disneyland Paris); the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, California; and the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain. Editor Mildred Friedman and architecture critic Michael Sorkin provide insightful essays.

Essays by noted museum curators and architectural historians explore his iconoclastic spirit and trace his melding of unconventional materials and forms. Photographs, drawings, plans, and scale models communicate the breadth and complexity of Gehry's work and show how, in his view of architecture as sculptural space, Gehry has opened up a world of new possibilities for architecture.

Since the day of the NPR commentary, I have been seeking photos of the Bilbao museum. The best photos I found are within the pages of Gehry's THE GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM BILBAO. I think the illustrations are absolutely wonderful! The text explains why the Museum was built in Bilbao - the most important feature of the text.

A couple of years later on another NPR program, I learned of the many changes that occurred in Bilbao as a result of the Museum. Bilbao has world class restaurants that rival New York and Paris. Interesting... that a creative design of a single building can have such a profound effect on a local economy.