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Architect Frank Gehry has been named the recipient of the 2016 Harvard Arts Medal, which will be awarded by Harvard University President Drew Gilpin Faust at a ceremony on Thursday, April 28. The ceremony, presented by the Office for the Arts at Harvard and the Board of Overseers of Harvard College, will include a discussion with Gehry moderated by actor John Lithgow, who is host of the event.
This marks the first time that the Harvard Arts Medal has been awarded to an architect.
— gsd.harvard.edu
Related FOG stories in the Archinect news: Frank Gehry and Maya Lin find their ancestral roots on PBSDoes Frank Gehry – or his firm – have what it takes to save the LA River?Archinect's critical round-up of LACMA's Frank Gehry exhibition View full entry
Frank Gehry and Maya Lin join the ranks of those who have explored the history of their ancestors via the PBS show "Finding Your Roots." The show, which is in its third season, has attracted a passionate live-tweeting audience, one of whom wryly noted that "I did not know that Maya Lin's teacher... View full entry
“I give it two years, max [...] It will be US business interests that finally push congress into lifting the embargo – they’re all going crazy being shut out of this market.” American architects and developers are already queuing up to be first in line, ready to pounce on investment opportunities when the embargo drops. Frank Gehry sailed into Havana in December, aboard a streamlined yacht he designed for himself, here to “offer his expertise to Cuba” according to a government statement. — theguardian.com
“You know that Cuba is at the centre of attention of many people,” Gehry told the gathered crowd. “And in the immediate future it will attract many investors – particularly the tourism sector. But I am sure that you know to be careful with those projects.”Related stories in the Archinect... View full entry
When Mayor Garcetti announced Gehry’s appointment, he declared him to be the “Olmsted of our time,” referring to godfather of landscape design, Frederick Law Olmsted, creator of New York City’s Central Park. He is nothing of the sort. As Gehry himself admitted: “I told them I’m not a landscape guy.”
What he might prove to be is the funding-friendly, catch-all solution to pulling the river’s statutory partners together to make something happen.
— Olly Wainwright
"If he can suppress his expensively eye-catching cliches and channel the spirit of his early work – when he was a rough-and-ready bricoleur of everyday LA, a magician of chain-link fencing and corrugated sheeting – he might well be the man for the job. Like the rest of this chaotic... View full entry
Fashioned out of traditional larch wood but accented with titanium and a glass latticework that glimmers like a school of fish, she looked schizophrenic, a hybrid of past and future. [...]
Gehry is an avid yachtsman, and sailing informs much of his most famous work—think of the billowing motif of the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, New York's IAC building, and, most recently, the Louis Vuitton Foundation [...]
"On a boat like this, it's about romance and romantic encounters," the architect says.
— townandcountrymag.com
It took him nearly 87 years, but Frank Gehry has finally designed his first yacht, for developer Richard Cohen – joining the ranks of Zaha Hadid, Norman Foster, Renzo Piano and John Pawson who have all taken a stab at nautical design. Gehry's personal sailboat, a Beneteau First... View full entry
In a lecture hall that sat a third empty due to the eclipsed "super blood moon" transpiring outside, Paul Goldberger discussed his new biography of Frank Gehry, "Building Art: The Life and Work of Frank Gehry" with J. Paul Getty Trust C.E.O. James Cuno at The Getty Center. Goldberger spent the... View full entry
Amelia Taylor-Hochberg, Editorial Manager for Archinect, reviewed "Shelter" the debut exhibition at the Architecture and Design Museum’s new location in Los Angeles' Arts District. Despite what you might assume "Shelter isn’t about designing for the 21st century family, or the millenial, or... View full entry
While the LACMA's retrospective of Frank Gehry is based off a previous show organized last year at the Centre Pompidou, Musée National d’Art Moderne, its Los Angeles locale (plus an additional gallery not present at the Paris show) provides a different context. Some critics took a fawning... View full entry
Mia Lehrer, a Los Angeles landscape architect who helped prepare a master plan for the river in 2007, said Mr. Gehry’s involvement had distressed people wary of top-down directives, and raised fears that he would derail the plan by the Army Corps of Engineers just as it was gaining momentum.
Still, she said Mr. Gehry was welcome to join the fray. “He’s a creative dude,” Ms. Lehrer said. “So the answer is, ‘Why not?’”
— The New York Times
Perhaps to escape the local ire which his involvement with the L.A. River redevelopment has drawn, Frank Gehry talked to The New York Times about his hopes for the project and for his relationship with the community. "I’m doing something that’s going to be good and trying to be inclusive, and... View full entry
What is the role of creative exploration in architecture? From the L.A. Times to The New Republic, this question is very much on critical minds. In a piece entitled "How to Make Architecture Human," Anna Wiener reviews Witold Rybczynski's latest collection of essays, Mysteries of the Mall, which... View full entry
Frank Gehry, whose firm provided the work free of charge, spelled out his vision for a piece of property that extends nearly two blocks. The two-story structures will fit the neighborhood... offering a scale and a 'body language' that is residential in nature...[The] Children's Institute project is one of several signs that new services and amenities are coming to the neighborhood, which recently commemorated the 50th anniversary of the historic civil unrest that erupted in 1965. — Los Angeles Times
More recent Frank Gehry-related news on Archinect:Gehry's product designs to be honored by Museum of California DesignFrank Gehry opens up about the emotional side of his architectureFrank Gehry's renderings for L.A.'s Sunset Strip revealedGehry to prioritize hydrology in LA River revitalization... View full entry
While often referred to as the world's most famous living architect, Frank Gehry is also known as a product designer, creating pieces of furniture, jewelry, clothing and appliances. To honor these design contributions, which have included collaborations with Tiffany & Co., Louis Vuitton, and... View full entry
Gehry feels his work is never perfect, never finished.
"It can never be perfect," he says. "By definition it can't because we're defective creatures."
— NPR
As part of an interview about Paul Goldberger's forthcoming biography "Building Art: The Life and Work of Frank Gehry," Frank Gehry revealed the emotional underpinnings of his practice, going so far as to turn down work that would unduly hamper his emotional expression. As the interview notes... View full entry
As with any great architecture, furniture design is a nimble synthesis of form and function. In the case of chairs, some designers have artfully combined both to create visually striking objects that are actually comfortable to sit and work in. The Eames line of chairs has of course received... View full entry
Initial renderings of the $300 million development depict a cluster of five architecturally distinct buildings distributed across the 2.6- acre site around a central plaza. In total, the project will comprise 333,600 square feet, and have 249 residential units. One of the architects’ primary goals was to make the site as approachable as possible to invite the surrounding community in to shop, dine, or simply relax in the plaza. — Architectural Record
Renderings and model photos were released today of Frank Gehry's proposed design for the 8150 Sunset Boulevard project. Positioned at the so-called Gateway to the Sunset Strip at the curving intersection of Crescent Heights Boulevard, Havenhurst Drive and Sunset Boulevard, Gehry's mixed-use... View full entry