06/12/2025
Frank Gehry, a pioneer of contemporary architecture whose fantastical sculpturelike structures are destinations as much as the museums, libraries and concert halls they encompass, has died at age 96.
Gehry died Friday morning at his home in Santa Monica after a brief respiratory illness, said Meaghan Lloyd, the chief of staff at Gehry Partners.
With works including the titanium-clad Guggenheim Museum Bilbao in Spain and the shining stainless-steel Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, Gehry was one of the most feted designers of the 20th century, with buildings unorthodox in materials, shape and function.
Born to a poor Polish-Jewish family in Toronto on Feb. 28, 1929, Frank Goldberg showed an aptitude from an early age for what would become his life’s craft. His grandmother brought him scraps of wood from his grandfather’s hardware store, and the two spent hours designing buildings and bridges for imaginary cities on the living-room floor.
“Shakespeare said the world’s a stage, and we are players on it,” Gehry said in an interview with WSJ. Magazine, meditating on the importance of architecture.
“I think that we’re creating a stage set for life by building a building. It should enhance the relationship between people rather than destroy it,” he said. “I think you can make buildings friendlier and more accessible and because of it make it easier for people to meet and get along and interact.”
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