Frank O. Gehry: The Complete Works [Paperback]

Francesco Dal Co (Author), Kurt W. Forster (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 2003

Los Angeles-based architect Frank Gehry is one of the greatest architects of the 20th century, with his Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain (1997), heralded as one of the most important buildings of our time. Gehry, who was born in Toronto, first gained attention in the early 1970s with several quirky projects - among them the Davis Studio and Residence in Malibu, the renovation of the Hollywood Bowl, and his own residence in Santa Monica - that explored and stretched the idea of modern architecture and established his as a unique voice on the architectural scene. Gehry re-examined perspective and geometry and at the same time became interested in inexpensive, popular materials (corrugated metal, chain link, plywood) and raw finishes. These themes metamorphosed into projects in Los Angeles like the Temporary Contemporary Museum (1982-83) and the Loyola University Law School (principal stages, 1978-early 1980s), and the Indiana Avenue Houses (1979-81) and the Chiat/Day Building (1985-91) in Venice, California. Beginning in the 1990s Gehry has experimented with complex forms and sculptural geometries, and his work includes a group of significant cultural projects, among them the Vitra Design Museum in Germany, the American Centre in Paris, the Frederick R. Weisman Museum at the University of Minnesota, and the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. This monograph showcases the enormous variety that has always characterized Gehry's work: it includes not only his buildings, but also his fish sculptures, cardboard and bentwood furniture series, many exhibition designs, collaborations with artists, and his earliest projects - those from the late 1950s through the 1960s, most of which have never been published. Incisive essays by the two authors introduce the book and include thought-provoking comparative photographs that place Gehry's work in the context of contemporary architecture and art movements. Following the introductory essays, Gehry's buildings and projects are showcased in chronological order, beginning with his student work of the 1950s and ending with a skyscraper project for Times Square in New York, designed in 1997. Each project is clearly identified, with critical data (client, program, materials) listed as applicable and brief project descriptions for key works.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Ever since his wildly dramatic Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, opened in 1997, Frank Gehry has been widely and justifiably considered the leading architect of our time. Although this ascension occurred seemingly overnight, it actually took more than half a century, counting architecture school and work in eight other offices before he opened his own firm in 1962. Since then, Gehry's designs have become increasingly freer and more inventive. He first explored existing design approaches such as Frank Lloyd Wright's, Southern California vernacular, minimalist modernism, and Miesian structuralism before blazing his own trail. This included corrugated cardboard furniture, chain-link fencing, unfinished metal siding, exposed wood studs, and other "cheapskate" materials; skewed geometries; and a recurring preoccupation with fishlike building forms. He learned to fragment buildings into discrete components (often making each room a structure unto itself), experiment with color, create forced perspectives, and, above all, bring natural light indoors masterfully. His recent designs tend to be baroque and romantic in ways never before seen, often resembling sails or abstracted flowers. Gehry's architecture is an art that involves great risk taking, and while not every design succeeds fully, his courage is exemplary and his batting average is surprisingly high.

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 text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Francesco Dal Co is Director of Electa's architecture division and Professor of Architecture at the Istituto Universitario di Architettura in Venice. A renowned architecture historian and critic, he is also the editor of Casabella. He is the former Director of Architecture for the architecture section of the Venice Biennale. He is the author of many books, including The Modern City, Modern Architecture (with Manfredo Tafuri), Frank O. Gehry: The Complete Works (with Kurt W. Forster), and Tadao Ando, published by Phaidon. Kurt W. Forster is a distinguished professor and critic of architecture history. He was the founding director of the Getty Center for the History of Art and the Humanities from 1983 to 1992, and thereafter taught at the Institute of History and Theory of Architecture (ETH) in Zurich and was assistant director of the Canadian Centre for Architecture. Born and educated in Zurich, he studied at the universities of Berlin, Munich, and Zurich. He taught at Yale University (1960-67), Stanford University (1967-82), and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has curated major exhibitions and contributed essays on Alberti, Giulio Romano, Palladio, Schinkel, and Le Corbusier, as well as completed case studies of the architecture of Peter Eisenman, Daniel Libeskind, Frank Gehry, and Raphael Moneo. Author's/Photographer's Residence: Francesco Dal Co: Venice, Italy; Kurt W. Forster: Como, Italy.

Product Details

• Paperback: 614 pages
• Publisher: Phaidon Press (October 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1904313159
• ISBN-13: 978-1904313151
• Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 9.9 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #499,358 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An architectural historian's delight, April 26, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Frank O. Gehry: The Complete Works (Hardcover)

For some time, Gehry's architecture has astonished and exasperated architectural critics, but it is his bizarre concrete-steel-limestone-titanium-and-glass Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain (1997) that has brought his eccentric fantasies to the attention of a broader public. The short, critical essays in this book, one by the noted architectural historian Kurt Forster and the other by Italian architectural critic Franceco dal Co, will not help the reader understand the complex of ideas that lies behind Gehry's work; but Hadley Arnold's 517-page catalog that traces Gehry's work from his senior thesis project at the University of California (1954) to his One Times Square proposal (1997) is an architectural historian's delight, with hundreds of plans and color illustrations of models, projects, and completed works. There is also a "Project Register" that provides a year-by-year synopsis of Gehry's work, a biography that includes Gehry's awards and prizes, and a 21-page bibliography. This book is the perfect introduction to Gehry's work, and it will be an essential purchase for all libraries that support either an undergraduate or graduate program in architecture. Upper-division undergraduates through professionals. E. Van Schaack, formerly Colgate University

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A really good book for architects and everyone!, April 22, 2000

By 

M. Margolis (Upstate New York) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Frank O. Gehry: The Complete Works (Hardcover)

I like how this book shows how Gehry's architecture progressed from his Senior Thesis Project to his recent works. It's interesting how simple his architecture once was, to how much more complex it is now. Buy this book, you will always enjoy it.

16 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars insightful reference book, January 7, 2000

By 

Ping Lim (Christchurch) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Frank O. Gehry: The Complete Works (Hardcover)

This book is a must for Gehry-fan. Whilst I don't rever him like a God but I do admire his enormous talent & his willingness to experiment with materials in constructing buildings & furniture. In this book, you would get the feel that he's not merely an architect but also an artist. In other words, functionality & aesthetics blend harmoniously together. I particularly enjoy the latter part of the book where it displayed more of his famous works such as the Vitra office, Guggenheim Museum, etc. The first illustrations of his works are something that I can do without because they are works that any draughtsperson could produce. I suppose this book is a bibliography & therefore, it's essential for the readers to know of his humble beginning to understand his eventual greatness. Besides, with his new fame, abundant resources in the form of budget, technology, assistant staff also come in very handy as well. The book does omit the kettle project that Frank worked with Alessi, though. I'm looking forward to savour the 2nd edition of the book, if there's any.