Synopses & Reviews
From Pulitzer Prize–winning architectural
critic Paul Goldberger: an engaging, nuanced exploration of the life and
work of Frank Gehry, undoubtedly the most famous architect of our time.
This first full-fledged critical biography presents and evaluates the
work of a man who has almost single-handedly transformed contemporary
architecture in his innovative use of materials, design, and form, and
who is among the very few architects in history to be both respected by
critics as a creative, cutting-edge force and embraced by the general
public as a popular figure.
Building Art shows the full
range of Gehry’s work, from early houses constructed of plywood and
chain-link fencing to lamps made in the shape of fish to the triumphant
success of such late projects as the spectacular art museum of glass in
Paris. It tells the story behind Gehry’s own house, which upset his
neighbors and excited the world with its mix of the traditional and the
extraordinary, and recounts how Gehry came to design the Guggenheim
Museum in Bilbao, Spain, his remarkable structure of swirling titanium
that changed a declining city into a destination spot. Building Art also
explains Gehry’s sixteen-year quest to complete Walt Disney Concert
Hall, the beautiful, acoustically brilliant home of the Los Angeles
Philharmonic.
Although Gehry’s architecture has been written
about widely, the story of his life has never been told in full detail.
Here we come to know his Jewish immigrant family, his working-class
Toronto childhood, his hours spent playing with blocks on his
grandmother’s kitchen floor, his move to Los Angeles when he was still a
teenager, and how he came, unexpectedly, to end up in architecture
school. Most important, Building Art presents and evaluates
Gehry’s lifetime of work in conjunction with his entire life story,
including his time in the army and at Harvard, his long relationship
with his psychiatrist and the impact it had on his work, and his two
marriages and four children. It analyzes his carefully crafted persona,
in which a casual, amiable “aw, shucks” surface masks a driving and
intense ambition. And it explores his relationship to Los Angeles and
how its position as home to outsider artists gave him the freedom in his
formative years to make the innovations that characterize his genius.
Finally, it discusses his interest in using technology not just to
change the way a building looks but to change the way the whole
profession of architecture is practiced.
At once a sweeping view of a great architect and an intimate look at creative genius, Building Art
is in many ways the saga of the architectural milieu of the
twenty-first century. But most of all it is the compelling story of the
man who first comes to mind when we think of the lasting possibilities
of buildings as art.
About the Author
PAUL GOLDBERGER, a contributing editor at Vanity Fair, spent fifteen years as the architecture critic for The New Yorker and began his career at The New York Times, where
he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism for his
writing on architecture. He is the author of many books, most recently Why Architecture Matters, Building Up and Tearing Down: Reflections on the Age of Architecture, and Up From Zero. He
teaches at The New School and lectures widely around the country on
architecture, design, historic preservation, and cities. He and his
wife, Susan Solomon, live in New York City.