An Architects Intellectual Language

When one thinks about the greatest hits of architecture, very few people come to mind. Typically, names like Frank Lloyd Wright, Zaha Hadid, Le Corbusier, Meis van der Rohe, and Frank Ghery are the ones we can easily recall. So, why do these few names speak to us when we think about the art of design within the built environment? The answer is not just the physical structures they build, but also their intellectual theories, influence, and process of design that help shape art and theory in our society. Architectural greatness is not necessarily about the finished product, it is about what happens to get to that finished product: the design process, the sketches, the thought, the time, and the message the structure is trying to portray about society. Frank Gehry is a clear, defined example of architectural greatness. Gehry's unique, creative, and thought-provoking architectural abilities help teach us about our society. His work shows that we must move beyond the physical form and instead look at what the structures tell us about our world.

Gehry was born in Toronto, Canada to a Polish and Jewish family. His grandfather worked in a hardware store, so from a young age, he was surrounded by materials, which he also experimented with. The building materials he was surrounded with at his grandfather’s shop would be projected in his work. Gehry started off like the rest of us, a student learning about the world, with an interest in the arts. He and his family moved to the United States where he graduated from the University of Southern California’s School of Architecture. After graduating, he moved to Massachusetts to attend Harvard Graduate School of Design, eventually dropping out.

Gehry began his design career with a cardboard furniture line called Easy Edges. His architectural career started shortly after with the funds from Easy Edges. Gehry’s first architecture project was remodeling his first home in Santa Monica. The iconic Santa Monica bungalow was implemented with raw materials such as corrugated steel, chain link fence, and plywood. Other materials, such as glass, influenced the remodel with a skylight angled in such a way as to open the house up. This simple remodel changed the original design making it vastly different from the surrounding properties. Gehry’s first project remodeling his house set the tone for his career in residential design. The avant-garde style of his house immediately trickled down through the design community, which would make endless impacts in the future of the architectural world. After years of residential architecture, Gehry transitioned to larger buildings. He designed famous buildings such as Walt Disney Concert Hall, Dancing House Prague, and the Guggenheim Museums. Gehry then returned to residential design in 2011. Endless buildings and projects mark Gehry's place on the world stage. This led him to win the Pritzker Prize in 1989, which is an award honoring an architect "whose built work demonstrates a combination of those qualities of talent, vision and commitment, which has produced consistent and significant contributions to humanity and the built environment through the art of architecture.”

Oftentimes, intellectuals use their background and previous experiences to influence their work. This applies to Frank Gehry who utilized his past and Jewish upbringing to guide his projects. Frank Gehry was not always Frank Gehry. His original surname was Goldberg, a typical Jewish last name. He changed his name to Gehry early in his life to avoid anti-semitism. The blog post “Wicked Paradox: The Cleric as Public Intellectual.'' discusses how aspects of religion and society become intertwined with political implications. Religious beliefs and influences in our American experience seemingly lead to conflict. When correlating religion with identity, it creates a divide making one seemingly more special and the other disengaged in ways. Rather than using religion as a connection, it can divide us. Applying this to Gehry's case, the correlation of his name to religion differentiated him from others. To escape anti-semitism, Gehry felt that he had to change his last name so he would not stand out. Especially in the field of architecture, at the time new ideas were not widely accepted, most of the education was based and meant to be followed from the past. In an NPR interview, Gehry discusses his views of democracy, anti-globalization, and architecture. There, he explains how architecture can influence cities and help keep our society connected. Similar to the divide of religion, architecture can influence this hierarchy, “When you have a unitary aesthetic, it’s overpowering. It tells you who’s in charge and what they mean and how they want you to live, and that’s the story. So I think globalization is a positive, and it’s an inevitable outgrowth of our technology.” Unitarianism in architecture is seen all around us, when we look at our neighborhoods we see the same design over and over again. The structure of our societies with a power source leads to the divide. Gehry believes in globalization to provide influence and differentiation. Gehry’s work is distinct in the materials, design, and theory he utilizes. His process may follow a similar structure from design to design, but his work never follows the same thought. Gehry describes working with clients as an individual process, one can not be like the rest. His revolutionary approach to urban environments and use of digital technologies sets him apart from the rest, challenging diversity and democracy in architecture.

The topic of democracy is important through architecture because without democracy, architecture would become stagnant. Gehry challenges and embraces democracy throughout his whole career, “Like democracy, it’s a collision of ideas. I cherish that democracy and the diversity it brings. What I would like to do is find a way to make everybody better so they design better buildings in that space. But I would not give up that democracy to impose an architecture on anybody.” Dividing Gehry from the rest is not an act of being “special,” it is the act of him playing a role in democracy to provoke ideas to challenge those before us. His deconstructivist style, a post-structuralist style, challenges those before him. Architecture from the past, a highly traditional feel, and modernist architecture are both broken up with Gehry's new design wave. The democracy of diverse ideas in Gehry's work challenges architecture.

Along with Gehry's high respect in the architecture world and beyond, there is always backlash on his work. Criticism is supposed to be a form of growth in society, but when highly influential individuals get criticized, there can be a divide. As discussed in “Are Public Intellectuals A Thing of the Past?”, those arguing about the structure of public intellectualism, provide this divide between the intellect and the other. The intellectual is the leader, leaving the other to be below them. The way Gehry runs his business is quite the opposite of this argument. From the start of his career to the present, Gehry has always made rules that force discipline on him and his business model. Gehry struggled in the beginning because he always believed in paying attention to the lives of his employees, rather than himself. He always pays overtime and makes sure no one works for free. Gehry does not do this as a way to demonstrate his power, but because he wants to respect his employees. Generally, known clients pursue this image of doing work for free. Gehry felt the opposite which made it difficult in the beginning to pick up projects that were well paid. He describes his business method like a drug and structure system, “I built that discipline in from the beginning. And I think it paid off. I’ve seen some of my colleagues who have gone the other way…And you get hooked on it. It’s like a drug. Once you set up an organization that way, it’s hard to change it. So I think that one move, to insist that I be paid enough to pay my people and to have a businesslike relationship from the beginning, has made it possible to grow.” Gehry's mindset to value business and the treatment of “the other'' allows for his influence and design to grow. By treating every employee the same from the start, he set up the formula for hard work and success. This led his architectural quality to grow beyond normal modernist thinking. Gehry exemplifies collaboration, an important aspect of power and democracy. In collaboration with different opinions and participants, thus creating a sense of a powerful community within architecture and beyond.

In many ways in life, people are often criticized for being different. Gehry clearly is critiqued because of his unique thinking and way of designing. Not only was the final product unique from the vast majority of other architects, but his method and research were different. When Gehry first came to Los Angeles, he saw randomized shapes and material working against each other. Starting at USC, most of his educational background spoke about Japanese architecture throughout Los Angeles. Gehry took from this the language of wood structures, which influenced his designs in different ways. Gehry often critiques his architecture education because of the lack of information about the history of architecture that was taught. He did not believe in copying the past, but he believed the past sets a blueprint for the future. For instance, Gehry was interested in Corbuzier's painting that explains his process for certain projects. He took these into account because they allowed Corbusier to form his own language. Many believe Gehry does not take history into account because his designs are so original. This, however, is wrong given that Gehry’s style is highly influenced by Romanesque churches. His unique design process of hand sketching was intriguing to many given that these sketches were ambiguous. Though to Gehry, it meant something beyond the random lines, it was a vision. Thanks to history, Gehry knew how architecture could move beyond its time, which many architects of the time lacked. Gehry was not above the rest as an intellect, he just used his curiosity to create what he believed was art, “curiosity is number one.” People remarked on his curiosity often saying his work was repeated, showy, and shallow. Gehry responded often with a middle finger, leading to him describing his work with respect to humanity and design, rather than repetition. Throughout his career, Gehry has referred to himself as his own worst critic. No matter how the press may see him, Gehry designs for the client and in doing so, pushes past the standard of design. Gehry is a leader beyond his time because he established a new architectural language. He is a large influence in the design community from sketching to the use of digital design and fabrication, like using CATIA, a new software tool to allow for huge 3D representations. Gehry's leadership was not a correlation to power, he is a leader who influences the thoughts, behaviors, and feelings of others through ideas, through his reified voice. Gehry's learning process of critiquing his own work influenced the way we look at architecture today. When Gehry came to Los Angeles, the environment was like a blank canvas. He saw this freedom of a new beginning for the city. Unlike Toronto or many other cities around the world, he saw an open space to create a definition of architecture. Los Angeles allowed him to not be held back and follow his vision. He painted a new way for Los Angeles to find its own identity, different from New York or Rome. Gehry found freedom through architecture, freedom in working with others and collaborating to create. The production of Gehry's business model allowed not only him but those who work with them to produce their own best work. This is what keeps the clients coming, all about the relationships Gehry positively influences. He formed this “non-existent leadership” which reflected in his work. His long lasting beliefs in complexity and ambitions continues to influence architecture today. Qualities of Gehry's work, passion, process, and production are heavily sought after in modern architecture.

Whether the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Walt Disney Concert Hall in , the Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris, or the Dancing House in Prague, each work uniquely shines due to Frank Gehry’s design process and production. Many people refer to Gehry as a “starchitect” because of his abundance of famous projects and now famous names. Though he rejects this word, "I am not a 'star-chitect', I am an ar-chitect, there are people who design buildings that are not technically and financially good, and there are those who do. Two categories, simple." As an intellectual Gehry does not see himself above the others, he sees himself as a contributing member of the creative community. His view to challenge existing critiques of architecture sets him apart from the rest. Gehry's use of postmodern shapes, new fabrications, 3D design methods, ambitious goals, attention to the process over the the product, and focus on collaboration makes him truly embody the values of diversity and democracy within an architectural realm.