Frank Gehry, whose designs reshaped modern architecture, died Friday at the age of 96. Born Frank Goldberg to a working-class family in Toronto, he dazzled people around the world with sculptural buildings that seemed to tumble through the air.
Gehry is famous for monumental works like the Guggenheim Bilbao, the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles and the Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Chicago. Before he could get those big-budget commissions, however, Gehry spent decades struggling against the architectural establishment.
He played with corrugated steel and chain link fences, making art out of everyday materials. He shattered the plan of his 1920s bungalow in Santa Monica, California like a cubist painter playing with perspective, exposing angular wood beams and opening up the kitchen with off-kilter windows.
Here & Now‘s Robin Young speaks with design critic Alexandra Lange about the life and work of Gehry.
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