Award-winning emotive architect Frank Gehry dead at 96

Dec. 5 (UPI) — Frank Gehry, one of the most influential architects of the latter 20th century, died at age 96 at his home in Santa Monica, Calif., on Friday, a spokesperson announced.

Gehry was afflicted with a brief respiratory illness before his death, his chief of staff told NPR.

Among his most renowned works are the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, which is a unique structure built of titanium that opened in 1997 and is regarded as his most famous work.

The design ushered in the era of emotive architectural design and was followed by the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles in 2003, the New World Center in Miami in 2011 and the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris in 2014, among others.

During his career, Gehry won the Pritzker Prize in 1989, the Gold Medal from the American Institute of Architects in 1999, British Building of the Year in 2004 and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2016.

Upon accepting the Gold Medal from the AIA, Gehry said: “It’s like finding out my big brothers love me after all.”

He pioneered the use of computer design in architecture and is credited with triggering the era of “iconic architecture” that spurs the revitalization of decaying cities, Rowan Moore of The Guardian said in 2019.

Gehry was born Frank Owen Goldberg in Toronto on Feb. 29, 1929, moved to Los Angeles with his family in 1947 and later legally changed his surname to Gehry to avoid anti-Semitism.

He became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1950 and founded his architecture practice in Los Angeles in 1962 after serving in the U.S. Army and completing his studies in architecture at the University of Southern California and urban planning at Harvard University, according to CNN.

One of his first works was to convert a small bungalow that he bought in Santa Monica using affordable materials, such as chain-link fencing, cinder blocks, corrugated metal and plywood.

“A few people got excited about it,” he said during a 2008 discussion with TED founder Richard Saul Wurman.

That excitement led to the many projects already listed, as well as Chicago’s Millennium Park; a performing arts center on the former site of the World Trade Center in New York City; the Facebook building in Menlo Park, Calif.; the Eisenhower Memorial in the nation’s capital; and many others.