Photo courtesy of Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
|
Frank O. Gehry: Work in Progress
UNITED STATES
LOS ANGELES • Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles • Ongoing
|
 |
Frank O. Gehry: Work in Progress highlights the architect’s unique design process through an examination of his firm’s most current projects and commissions. Focusing on 10-12 projects currently in the office, the exhibition traces the evolution of Gehry Partners’ recent work from inception to final design.
Frank Gehry (b. 1929) is best known for landmark architectural works such as the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao and the highly anticipated Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles opening October 2003. Gehry has challenged and, as a result, redefined traditional approaches to architectural form. He has had a profound influence on the architecture of our time through his experimentation with nontraditional materials, his exploration of the potential for a formal language based on fluidity and poetics at a grand scale, and his creation of buildings that appear to follow seamlessly from his signature lyrical sketches. Hallmarks of Gehry's work include a concern for accessibility—that people exist comfortably within the spaces that he creates—and an insistence that his buildings address both the context and culture of their sites.
features the original sketches, computer-generated architectural drawings, new photography, sample materials, and architectural models of varying scales—from rough study models to refined final design models—that are created for every project. The exhibition engages the viewer in Gehry’s creative process, highlighting the different stages a project undergoes before its final design. By focusing on architectural models—Gehry’s primary working tool—the exhibition illustrates the variations and permutations developed before the construction phase.
Utilizing CATIA, the computer software program developed for the French aerospace industry, Gehry was able to execute the complex and innovative forms of projects like the Walt Disney Concert Hall and the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao. The combination of materials research, model building, and full-scale mockups, and the application of advanced computer systems and construction techniques allows Gehry Partners to develop designs in a rational process that reaches beyond the traditional limits of architecture.
Frank O. Gehry: Work in Progress includes three key international projects that illustrate Frank Gehry’s creative process. The Simon Wiesenthal Center’s new space, the Center for Human Dignity, Museum of Tolerance in Jerusalem, Israel, will consist of an interwoven assemblage of buildings and conducts programs to address the history of anti-Semitism and intra-Jewish conflict as well as contemporary coexistence issues in modern Israel. The Venice Gateway is a multi-use complex at the Marco Polo Airport in Venice, Italy. The design, forms, materials, and colors of the complex are intended to reinterpret the water’s traditional uses within the context of current technologies. The Marques de Riscal Hotel and Winery in Elciego, Spain, is one of the oldest wineries in the region, and the new building will overlook vineyards in the Rioja region. Housing a public wine-tasting room, restaurant, dining terraces, guestrooms, and conference facilities, the building will feature curvilinear elements clad in gold titanium panels.
The exhibition features additional projects that examine Gehry’s process and his use of advanced structural materials and techniques. One gallery is devoted to skyscraper projects in New York City and includes over 20 study models for his design for the Astor Place Hotel as well as study models completed as part of the firm’s competition entry for The New York Times’ new building.
His approach is also be examined through projects such as The Ray and Maria Stata Center at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (scheduled for completion in November 2003); the Le Clos Jordan winery in Canada’s Niagara Peninsula; the Ohr-O’Keefe Museum in Biloxi, Mississippi; the expansion of the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, DC; a master plan and library for the expanded facilities of Pasadena’s Art Center College of Design; and the Princeton University Science Complex.
Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
|
| Contact: |
Tel: (1) 213 626 62 22
|
|
TRAVEL CALENDAR
