The Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles acquired a seriously massive archive directly from the studio of Frank O. Gehry today. Dubbed The Frank Gehry Papers, the archives — which were granted as part gift and part purchase — reveal a comprehensive overview of the first 30 years of the architect's career, from his early graduate studies to his milestone 1988 competition entry for the Walt Disney Concert Hall that launched him into global fame.

“I’m honored by the attention of the Getty Research Institute delving into the history of my work, my beginnings, and other things that I never thought anybody would be interested in,” Frank Gehry said in a statement. “I’m very moved that this great institution, with its resources to search for the best examples of creativity in our world, has found me an interesting party.”

Frank Gehry, Greber Studio, Sketch1967, unbuilt, Beverly Glen, California, Frank Gehry Papers at the Getty Research Institute, © Frank O. Gehry.

Frank Gehry, Sirmai-Peterson House, Model, 1983-1988 Thousand Oaks, California, Frank Gehry Papers at the Getty Research Institute, © Frank O. Gehry.

The treasure trove includes materials pertaining to 283 projects that Gehry designed between 1954 (the Romm House) and 1988 (Walt Disney Concert Hall competition), including: approximately 1,000 sketches, over 120,000 working drawings, more than 100,000 slides, hundreds of boxes of office records, personal papers and correspondence, 168 partial models, 112 presentation models, and digital files that show Gehry's work in developing design software platforms, demonstrating Gehry as a key figure during the “shifts away from high modernism to early postmodern vocabularies and then to high-tech and digital architectures,” says Maristella Casciato, senior curator of architectural collections at the Getty Research Institute.

The Institute must process and catalogue the newly obtained archives, so they're not accessible for research just yet. But updates will be posted online once the archives are available. A selection of the materials will also be in the Getty Research Institute's “Berlin/Los Angeles: A Space for Music” exhibition, on view April 25 through July 30, 2017.