"I hate the word starchitect. Stuff like that comes from mean-spirited, untalented journalists. It’s demeaning. It’s derisive, and once it’s said, it sticks. I get introduced all the time, “Here’s starchitect Frank Gehry.…” My reaction: “What the fuck are you talking about?”
"I hate the word starchitect. Stuff like that comes from mean-spirited, untalented journalists. It’s demeaning. It’s derisive, and once it’s said, it sticks. I get introduced all the time, “Here’s starchitect Frank Gehry.…” My reaction: “What the fuck are you talking about?”Playboy
"For Playboy’s 50th anniversary issue Gehry created the ultimate bachelor pad."
I once met another 'Ultimate bachelor pad' architect.
During the 80s and my first year at SCI-Arc I wrote a magazine piece on 'LA envisioned in the year 2000 for a now defunct zine.
I talked with Ray Kappe, Glen Small, planner Perloff from UCLA and I went to interview Gehry at his office. He wouldn't see me but sent his assistant Fred Fischer.
The best interview and the most interesting was from someone whom I forgot his name. But he was a Santa Monica architect with a Japanese wife. His was a proposal for the expansion of LAX airport right onto Santa Monica Bay. An island airport connected by elevated roads.
And like Gehry he was also asked by Playboy to design "the ultimate bachelor pad'. As I remember it was a nice pictorial spread, very Playboy, very Chicago modern, lots of black leather and chrome, artworks and clean lines. Sophisticated and masculine like you would expect the image that Playboy wanted to project.
The irony for that architect was that after all that publicity from the Playboy photo-spread of the 'Ultimate bachelor pad' he did not get a single follow-up commission. He was disappointed.
don't let the excerpt keep you from reading the interivew (linked), folks. the video and the starchitect comment are only glimpses, and it's a good interview!
Being a "starchitect" has served Mr. Gehry very well.
An architect interevied in Playboy Magazine, let's see...what shall we call him...?
I like Frank, but the humble pie schtick is getting a bit old. There is no more ego driven self promoting businessman around; good on him but let us in the profession see it for what it is.
Aldo, Do you really think so? That Frank Gehry is so full of himself? Of The few times I have been with him he was always low-key. I know from experience that he is thin-skinned when he is verbally attacked but that's how he is. He doesn't like confrontation and shuns the spotlight actually. Not at all an ego-maniac.
For example: He was very much in the background when Peter Eisenman came to SCI-arc and a group of artists including Michael Asher, Daniel Buren, John Knight, all went drinking. Mostly it was Eisenman ego-tripping not Gehry
At Sci-arc Frank was always low-key. Just another architect friend of Ray Kappe who would show up at SCI-arc and at the lectures and graciously look over the student works if asked. Not a big deal.
He does get ruffled. His ego gets bruised, easily. That happened when Glen Small attacked him on a panel and called him out on something - he didnt like that. John Lautner pushed his button at a picnic we had and told Gehry his buildings were ugly. That he took personally as well.
There are many other architects in LA that are too full of themselves. A lot more than Frank. I live in LA and STARchitect is a coined word made up to make a celebrity out of a profession. Like celebrity chefs. The sour grapes attitude is most likely a leftover antagonism from being STARstruck and very common here.
i too hate the word starchitect. it is almost always used in a negative manner and is a lazy form of criticism.
i also remember frank gehry mentioning that he had someone coach him in public relations because he wasn't in his personality, but he recognized that it's as an integral part of being a practicing architect.
I think that is from the quality of light in the spaces. There always seems to be light washing from two directions. Something Sol Golden claimed that he taught Gehry (and also showed Thom Mayne). Sol was the unknown hero of LA architecture
O, Ok. So where have we been.... The residences, the triplex in Venice. Rebbecca's, West Beach Cafe, two shopping malls,the UCLA student job center, the law school, Disney Hall, Gemini, Indidana, Chait-Day, Edgemont...yes, these bring up another quality ; surprise....the arrangement of spaces , and the material choices are obvious of course. There are lessons learned from Schindler everywhere in terms of light and material. You can read Gehry's formal progression from Schindler onwards as FG changes 'palate' , starts to introduce personal symbolic meanings, translates his construction and material based architecture into open abstract expressive metaphors.
I don't disagree with anything anyone has said. I simply find it amusing that he objects to a word which trivializes his work in an interview in, of all places, Playboy magazine. My (arguable) point is that for an architect to appear in a magazine like Playboy is part of the definition of “Starchitect”.
Perhaps the issue is the journalistic and editorial merits of Playboy? Is it the word itself he objects to, not the phenomenon? Does appearing in Playboy Magazine aid in spreading an appreciation of Architecture to the larger culture, or does it further trivialize Architecure in the same way the term “Starchitect” seems to?
Not really hating the player, I just find the circumstances interesting.
I don't think this is about Playboy but mass media and publicity in general as a self full filling machine. Create the celebrity and exploit. The celebrity making template has to do with access to media, the bigger the better,, and other parameters that have nothing to do with talent or the work, in a word - the image, the story, the sizzle, the headline...
The buoyancy of Gehry's accession to celebrity status and his name recognition beyond the architecture circle can be traced back to earlier 'debuts' in Time magazine, Charlie Rose , the Pollack documentary et al. Gehry's sphere of recognition expanded.
Think about where Gehry is located - Los Angeles, THE power media center of the world with access to national and international outlets. Gehry would be a fool to shun the positive aspects of his celebrity despite the personal downside. There are many little production companies ready to exploit his name and public recognition. Just choose your projects well as they say in Hollywood.
OA- You know, there is a lot of chatter these days about startreks, pardon me, about starchitects. The profession is getting tired of all this discriminating ranking system. People are disenchanted with it. What do you say?
TM- They should be disenchanted with it. It is ridiculous. I have nothing to do with it.
OA- Okay, then, say something bad about it. You are a bad boy, right? (big laugh).
TM- I have nothing to do with it. I don't like it. C'mon, you realize in the public realm, you have a limited control of what is said about you because you don't control your own media. They write whatever they want to write. Hey, the magazines have their own trajectory system and their own marketing bla bla. They need continual renewal and it seems like in American system, they rely on personalities rather than the work. I am really the unlikely suspect. I am kind of a shy person, kind of private person, and I like to say what I want to say. I am not that diplomatic.
16 Comments
untalented journalists, eh? i guess he doesn't get around to architecture schools much anymore.
"For Playboy’s 50th anniversary issue Gehry created the ultimate bachelor pad."
I once met another 'Ultimate bachelor pad' architect.
During the 80s and my first year at SCI-Arc I wrote a magazine piece on 'LA envisioned in the year 2000 for a now defunct zine.
I talked with Ray Kappe, Glen Small, planner Perloff from UCLA and I went to interview Gehry at his office. He wouldn't see me but sent his assistant Fred Fischer.
The best interview and the most interesting was from someone whom I forgot his name. But he was a Santa Monica architect with a Japanese wife. His was a proposal for the expansion of LAX airport right onto Santa Monica Bay. An island airport connected by elevated roads.
And like Gehry he was also asked by Playboy to design "the ultimate bachelor pad'. As I remember it was a nice pictorial spread, very Playboy, very Chicago modern, lots of black leather and chrome, artworks and clean lines. Sophisticated and masculine like you would expect the image that Playboy wanted to project.
The irony for that architect was that after all that publicity from the Playboy photo-spread of the 'Ultimate bachelor pad' he did not get a single follow-up commission. He was disappointed.
eric chavkin
don't let the excerpt keep you from reading the interivew (linked), folks. the video and the starchitect comment are only glimpses, and it's a good interview!
nice article.
Being a "starchitect" has served Mr. Gehry very well.
An architect interevied in Playboy Magazine, let's see...what shall we call him...?
I like Frank, but the humble pie schtick is getting a bit old. There is no more ego driven self promoting businessman around; good on him but let us in the profession see it for what it is.
Aldo, Do you really think so? That Frank Gehry is so full of himself? Of The few times I have been with him he was always low-key. I know from experience that he is thin-skinned when he is verbally attacked but that's how he is. He doesn't like confrontation and shuns the spotlight actually. Not at all an ego-maniac.
For example: He was very much in the background when Peter Eisenman came to SCI-arc and a group of artists including Michael Asher, Daniel Buren, John Knight, all went drinking. Mostly it was Eisenman ego-tripping not Gehry
At Sci-arc Frank was always low-key. Just another architect friend of Ray Kappe who would show up at SCI-arc and at the lectures and graciously look over the student works if asked. Not a big deal.
He does get ruffled. His ego gets bruised, easily. That happened when Glen Small attacked him on a panel and called him out on something - he didnt like that. John Lautner pushed his button at a picnic we had and told Gehry his buildings were ugly. That he took personally as well.
There are many other architects in LA that are too full of themselves. A lot more than Frank. I live in LA and STARchitect is a coined word made up to make a celebrity out of a profession. Like celebrity chefs. The sour grapes attitude is most likely a leftover antagonism from being STARstruck and very common here.
i too hate the word starchitect. it is almost always used in a negative manner and is a lazy form of criticism.
i also remember frank gehry mentioning that he had someone coach him in public relations because he wasn't in his personality, but he recognized that it's as an integral part of being a practicing architect.
don't hate the player...
i have never been in a frank gehry designed space that didn't feel good.
O
I think that is from the quality of light in the spaces. There always seems to be light washing from two directions. Something Sol Golden claimed that he taught Gehry (and also showed Thom Mayne). Sol was the unknown hero of LA architecture
E
partially. there are other qualities.
O, Ok. So where have we been.... The residences, the triplex in Venice. Rebbecca's, West Beach Cafe, two shopping malls,the UCLA student job center, the law school, Disney Hall, Gemini, Indidana, Chait-Day, Edgemont...yes, these bring up another quality ; surprise....the arrangement of spaces , and the material choices are obvious of course. There are lessons learned from Schindler everywhere in terms of light and material. You can read Gehry's formal progression from Schindler onwards as FG changes 'palate' , starts to introduce personal symbolic meanings, translates his construction and material based architecture into open abstract expressive metaphors.
E
I don't disagree with anything anyone has said. I simply find it amusing that he objects to a word which trivializes his work in an interview in, of all places, Playboy magazine. My (arguable) point is that for an architect to appear in a magazine like Playboy is part of the definition of “Starchitect”.
Perhaps the issue is the journalistic and editorial merits of Playboy? Is it the word itself he objects to, not the phenomenon? Does appearing in Playboy Magazine aid in spreading an appreciation of Architecture to the larger culture, or does it further trivialize Architecure in the same way the term “Starchitect” seems to?
Not really hating the player, I just find the circumstances interesting.
Aldo,
I don't think this is about Playboy but mass media and publicity in general as a self full filling machine. Create the celebrity and exploit. The celebrity making template has to do with access to media, the bigger the better,, and other parameters that have nothing to do with talent or the work, in a word - the image, the story, the sizzle, the headline...
The buoyancy of Gehry's accession to celebrity status and his name recognition beyond the architecture circle can be traced back to earlier 'debuts' in Time magazine, Charlie Rose , the Pollack documentary et al. Gehry's sphere of recognition expanded.
Think about where Gehry is located - Los Angeles, THE power media center of the world with access to national and international outlets. Gehry would be a fool to shun the positive aspects of his celebrity despite the personal downside. There are many little production companies ready to exploit his name and public recognition. Just choose your projects well as they say in Hollywood.
eric chavkin
emergency exit wound, that is quite an article and commentary. it goes well with eric chavkin's above point about power media.
also;
Thom Mayne in 'Coffee Break'
OA- You know, there is a lot of chatter these days about startreks, pardon me, about starchitects. The profession is getting tired of all this discriminating ranking system. People are disenchanted with it. What do you say?
TM- They should be disenchanted with it. It is ridiculous. I have nothing to do with it.
OA- Okay, then, say something bad about it. You are a bad boy, right? (big laugh).
TM- I have nothing to do with it. I don't like it. C'mon, you realize in the public realm, you have a limited control of what is said about you because you don't control your own media. They write whatever they want to write. Hey, the magazines have their own trajectory system and their own marketing bla bla. They need continual renewal and it seems like in American system, they rely on personalities rather than the work. I am really the unlikely suspect. I am kind of a shy person, kind of private person, and I like to say what I want to say. I am not that diplomatic.
Just choose your projects well as they say in Hollywood. WAH...
There always seems to be light washing from two directions. Something Sol Golden claimed that he taught Gehry (and also showed Thom Mayne).
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