Legendary American architect dies at age 96

Frank Gehry, one of the most influential architects of the last century, has died at the age of 96.

Gehry was acclaimed for his avant-garde, experimental architectural style. In 1997, he became famous for his titanium-covered design for the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain.

He built his bold reputation a few years ago when he redesigned his home in Santa Monica, California, using materials such as chain link fence, plywood, and corrugated steel.

His death was confirmed by Chief of Staff Megan Lloyd. He had two daughters, Leslie and Brina, from his first marriage. His wife, Berta Isabel Aguilera, and their two sons, Alejandro and Samuel.

Born in Toronto in 1929, Gehry moved to Los Angeles as a teenager and studied architecture at the University of Southern California before completing additional studies at the Harvard Graduate School of Design in 1956 and 1957.

After starting his own firm, he broke with traditional architectural principles of symmetry and used unconventional geometry. shape and unfinished Materials of the style now known as deconstructionism.

“I was rebelling against everything,” Gary told the New York Times in 2012.

His work in Bilbao put him in high demand, and he went on to design iconic buildings in cities around the world, including the Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park in Chicago, the Gehry Tower in Germany, and the Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris.

“He gave Paris and France his greatest masterpiece,” said Bernard Arnault, CEO of LVMH, the world’s largest luxury goods company, which owns Louis Vuitton.

Due to his largely unpredictable style, no two of his works look the same. Completed in 1996, Prague’s Dancing House looks like a folded glass building. Built in 2006, Spain’s Hotel Marques features thin sheets of wavy, multi-colored metal. His design for the Sydney Business School looks like a brown paper bag.

Gehry won the coveted Pritzker Architecture Prize in 1989, at the age of 60, for his work was described as having a “highly sophisticated, sophisticated and adventurous aesthetic.”

At the time, the Pritzker jury said, “Compared to American music, his design can best be likened to jazz, full of improvisation, liveliness, and unpredictable spirit.”

Gary was awarded the Order of Canada in 2002, and in 2016 he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest honor bestowed on American civilians.