Frank O. Gehry: The Complete Works (Hardcover)

~ (Author), Kurt Forster (Author), Hadley Soutter Arnold (Author)

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

Product Description

One of the world's greatest architects, Frank O. Gehry has produced an astonishing body of work over the past 40 years. This pioneering designer continues to receive worldwide praise from both peers and critics as the most talented and influential architect working today. 1,000 illustrations, 400 in color.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 616 pages
• Publisher: Monacelli (September 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1885254636
• ISBN-13: 978-1885254634
• Product Dimensions: 11.3 x 10.2 x 2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,026,235 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

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 (Massachusetts, United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.

15 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An architectural historian's delight, April 27, 1999

By A Customer

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

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Frank O. Gehry:The Complete Works by Francesco Dal Co, et al, August 15, 2001

By	Jack E Meyers, Jr (Mobile,, ALABAMA USA) - See all my reviews

Architecture is my first love although I am a Art History Major. So without any dobt I knew this publication would be right up my ally. To say the least I was not dissappointed. A brief, illustrated synopsis was given on all projects right up to the current "Music Experience" extravaganza. One point I found of particular interest was that in most of the Bios it gave the Budget that Gehry had to work in. It is a massive book and printed on top quality stock. One that will last a lifetime in my Library. It is a book worthy of any one interested in cutting edge design. Although alot of the projects are in Europe as they seem to be more accepting of his progressive designs the commissioned works in America are just as fine. I can only anticipate the "New Guggenheim"in New York.