Gehry, Frank Owen, 1929, American architect. He is widely considered one of the finest and most artful of contemporary architects.



In 1947, Gehry's family moved to Los Angeles, where he attended the Univ. of California; he later studied at Harvard. He has been acclaimed for his original, sophisticated, adventurous, and very American buildings. Extremely varied and lively, his structures contrast space and materials; often jutting, unusual shapes are juxtaposed with simple geometric forms. In his earlier work these forms are expressed in a wide range of usual and unusual architectural materials (e.g., raw plywood, corrugated aluminum, and exposed pipe) that sometimes give these buildings a deliberately unfinished quality. Among his many important commissions are the Loyola Law School, Walt Disney Concert Hall, and the Team Disneyland Building, Los Angeles; Gehry's Fish, Barcelona; the Weisman Museum of Art, Minneapolis, the first of his all metal-clad buildings; and the Cinematheque Francais, Paris.