i've seen the development and fruitation of gehry's work late 70's on.
ron davis was a single most influential painter in his early work. http://abstract-art.com/RonDavis/a_art/a8_ptg/a8_ptg_indx.html
being a sci arc student in those years we had a lot of contact with mr gehry who had his office a few blocks away. most of us were influanced by his work and his than partner greg walsh. fog and associates has done work at that time which was never done by another architect. single most memorable move was breaking the usual envelope of architectural compositions to expoloded and random arrangements. their early residential work was clearly a breakthrough.
at that time thom mayne and rotondi, eric moss, fred fisher and others had nothing more than couple of garage additions. students and young architects flock to fog's work which made every plan more interesting and freed otherwise constipated ideas. for this frank was most influential. his late bluming as a world class architect has also a lot to the his relentless salesmanship and marketing.
by the time he started to show his work in architectural circles, he was already well trained in california modernism and its architects (soriano, eames, neutra,shindler and many other lesser knowns).
anyway, make the long story short, his late work, in my opinion, hasn't the 25% energy and freshness of his early work.
now gehry and his office produces work for high profile clients with nearly unlimited budgets. he no longer has to work with economy of type 5 methods and frankly, his so called sculptural buildings are mostly the expected corporate investments.
is he a great architect? yes he is. has he have to capacity to change his work after 70 years of age? yes he does. is he still passionate about architecture? yes he is. is he the most influential architect since 70's? yes.
most comments in this post are about his last few projects and some of them are right on. but it is unjust to critisize his life time work based on his recent projects.
respectfully submitted.
if you like unexpected skylights, i have a wet craboard box you might be interested in.
ditto the charming urinal prospects. and the leaky roofs.
george bush has been pretty influential in world politics, but i for one will not be eliciting his services again.
architecture is a business because everything is a business today, that might make architecture different but it doesn't make it better.
no one complains that spoons aren't technologically sophisticated, or wiggles the knife's blade to make it sculptural; similarly, we all shit, eat, sleep, sit and watch in much the same way that the romans did. gehry's crass, indiscriminately decorated skins prove as much, a more cultureless architecture i cannot think of.
in conclusion, if the guy isn't making money, what *is* he good at?
incidentally, are the supporters' work immune to criticism because their taste defends their ability? spurious reasoning.
can people here, who have such an acclaimed work portfolio, with work that pushes the envelope (pun intended) - and at the same time, does not leat at the roofs, and also raising the status quo or architects in general society, please please post their work on the gallery???
or at least send links where we can see your projects???
and soleproprieter now, i do respect your viewpoints for recognizing the pros and cons (for lack of better words) of his work - but i consider his work to be a big departure from the regular stance which most architects here take, and its the prerogative of architects after his generation to integrate this new structural dynamic with space (so they are not cuboids decorated with billowing titanium)
Worked with Robert Smith last summer, who was curator for the Museum of Alternative Art, a now long gone piece of So Cal culture. He and Gehry were close during the eighties, and actually gave Gehry one of his first art shows. They talked of Gehry's transition period of low to high profile projects. Gehry's quoted as saying, "They are ruining my practice," meaning the now new clientele that gave him ability to afford any shape possible. It diluted the main ingredient that spawned those initial moves. A main catalyst in those days you talk of 'OA', was the use of the 'common' material in new ways. Once the money came, that foundation of common mater took on new uncommon meanings. I agree OA that his new work doesn't have the freshness it did earlier in his career, because it lacks the reasons Gehry came to those early conclusions. It's like a wise rich guy trying to play punk rock, or Rocinante, from Don Quixote.
sameolddoctor....I agree with you: essentially Frank has gotten his practice to a point where the rest of us are able to take pot shots, and truth be told, hell yes I would be glad indeed to have Bilbao in my portfolio, even with its flaws. I have designed a few projects that have won a design award or two, but Gehry has been able, by hook or crook, to propel his practice into arenas that most of us only dream about. Sure, I like to think I could do better, and maybe many of us could, but the fact remains that he has gotten to the point where the rest of us would enjoy being: clients knocking on the door, begging for one of our "masterpieces".
The only diff between Gehry and other architecture izzat it takes 4X the framing to get the sh*t to stand, ergo 4X the budget. Not alot of innovation on the FOG front. It may not be his fault, the dynamic is typically that if you get a little fame and the phonestarts to ring off the hook, you take it,(we're architects, right? But to get gassed up to the point of believing that every nose-rocket is a potential new museum, is straight wack. Let's see some totally new materials enter the mix: Carbon fibre/ceramics/polymers,etc. Keep it real.
i see it this way after reading some of these responses:
Gehry work= Las Vegas
and some (i'll assume) supporters retort by asking you to post up work thats better. a childish retort ya gotta admit. and totally useless.
some see the business success as something to uphold the design with. has some valor in thought. he HAS stapled that area of the business down. yet it still doesnt dispell the plasticine "Gehry work= Las Vegas" sentiment.
Vegas makes ALOT of money. Shiny. Glitzy. Beautiful lighting techniques. Wild forms. Everyone wants to go there at some point before they join the earth.
whaddyaknow...
I practically just described almost all of Gehry's buildings...
Who else is completely sick of Frank Gehry's bs?
Part of being cool is not liking what's cool.
EFF U
nice kurtneis, real nice.
i've seen the development and fruitation of gehry's work late 70's on.
ron davis was a single most influential painter in his early work.
http://abstract-art.com/RonDavis/a_art/a8_ptg/a8_ptg_indx.html
being a sci arc student in those years we had a lot of contact with mr gehry who had his office a few blocks away. most of us were influanced by his work and his than partner greg walsh. fog and associates has done work at that time which was never done by another architect. single most memorable move was breaking the usual envelope of architectural compositions to expoloded and random arrangements. their early residential work was clearly a breakthrough.
at that time thom mayne and rotondi, eric moss, fred fisher and others had nothing more than couple of garage additions. students and young architects flock to fog's work which made every plan more interesting and freed otherwise constipated ideas. for this frank was most influential. his late bluming as a world class architect has also a lot to the his relentless salesmanship and marketing.
by the time he started to show his work in architectural circles, he was already well trained in california modernism and its architects (soriano, eames, neutra,shindler and many other lesser knowns).
anyway, make the long story short, his late work, in my opinion, hasn't the 25% energy and freshness of his early work.
now gehry and his office produces work for high profile clients with nearly unlimited budgets. he no longer has to work with economy of type 5 methods and frankly, his so called sculptural buildings are mostly the expected corporate investments.
is he a great architect? yes he is. has he have to capacity to change his work after 70 years of age? yes he does. is he still passionate about architecture? yes he is. is he the most influential architect since 70's? yes.
most comments in this post are about his last few projects and some of them are right on. but it is unjust to critisize his life time work based on his recent projects.
respectfully submitted.
if you like unexpected skylights, i have a wet craboard box you might be interested in.
ditto the charming urinal prospects. and the leaky roofs.
george bush has been pretty influential in world politics, but i for one will not be eliciting his services again.
architecture is a business because everything is a business today, that might make architecture different but it doesn't make it better.
no one complains that spoons aren't technologically sophisticated, or wiggles the knife's blade to make it sculptural; similarly, we all shit, eat, sleep, sit and watch in much the same way that the romans did. gehry's crass, indiscriminately decorated skins prove as much, a more cultureless architecture i cannot think of.
in conclusion, if the guy isn't making money, what *is* he good at?
incidentally, are the supporters' work immune to criticism because their taste defends their ability? spurious reasoning.
god damned craboard boxes taking over the world, now if i had a good cardboard box things might be ok
can people here, who have such an acclaimed work portfolio, with work that pushes the envelope (pun intended) - and at the same time, does not leat at the roofs, and also raising the status quo or architects in general society, please please post their work on the gallery???
or at least send links where we can see your projects???
and soleproprieter now, i do respect your viewpoints for recognizing the pros and cons (for lack of better words) of his work - but i consider his work to be a big departure from the regular stance which most architects here take, and its the prerogative of architects after his generation to integrate this new structural dynamic with space (so they are not cuboids decorated with billowing titanium)
Worked with Robert Smith last summer, who was curator for the Museum of Alternative Art, a now long gone piece of So Cal culture. He and Gehry were close during the eighties, and actually gave Gehry one of his first art shows. They talked of Gehry's transition period of low to high profile projects. Gehry's quoted as saying, "They are ruining my practice," meaning the now new clientele that gave him ability to afford any shape possible. It diluted the main ingredient that spawned those initial moves. A main catalyst in those days you talk of 'OA', was the use of the 'common' material in new ways. Once the money came, that foundation of common mater took on new uncommon meanings. I agree OA that his new work doesn't have the freshness it did earlier in his career, because it lacks the reasons Gehry came to those early conclusions. It's like a wise rich guy trying to play punk rock, or Rocinante, from Don Quixote.
sameolddoctor....I agree with you: essentially Frank has gotten his practice to a point where the rest of us are able to take pot shots, and truth be told, hell yes I would be glad indeed to have Bilbao in my portfolio, even with its flaws. I have designed a few projects that have won a design award or two, but Gehry has been able, by hook or crook, to propel his practice into arenas that most of us only dream about. Sure, I like to think I could do better, and maybe many of us could, but the fact remains that he has gotten to the point where the rest of us would enjoy being: clients knocking on the door, begging for one of our "masterpieces".
U my ni**a, DJ-
The only diff between Gehry and other architecture izzat it takes 4X the framing to get the sh*t to stand, ergo 4X the budget. Not alot of innovation on the FOG front. It may not be his fault, the dynamic is typically that if you get a little fame and the phonestarts to ring off the hook, you take it,(we're architects, right? But to get gassed up to the point of believing that every nose-rocket is a potential new museum, is straight wack. Let's see some totally new materials enter the mix: Carbon fibre/ceramics/polymers,etc. Keep it real.
i see it this way after reading some of these responses:
Gehry work= Las Vegas
and some (i'll assume) supporters retort by asking you to post up work thats better. a childish retort ya gotta admit. and totally useless.
some see the business success as something to uphold the design with. has some valor in thought. he HAS stapled that area of the business down. yet it still doesnt dispell the plasticine "Gehry work= Las Vegas" sentiment.
Vegas makes ALOT of money. Shiny. Glitzy. Beautiful lighting techniques. Wild forms. Everyone wants to go there at some point before they join the earth.
whaddyaknow...
I practically just described almost all of Gehry's buildings...
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