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Canada-born US architect Frank Gehry, celebrated for his bold and unconventional designs like the Guggenheim Bilbao and Walt Disney Concert Hall, has died at 96.
He passed away early Friday at his Santa Monica home after a brief respiratory illness, his representative Meaghan Lloyd confirmed.
Gehry was widely seen as one of the world’s most influential architects and a defining figure among the so-called “starchitects,” a label he personally disliked.
His work stood out for its sweeping curves, irregular shapes and sculptural use of metal, which transformed contemporary architecture.
He once said there were only “two kinds of architects — those whose buildings work, and those whose don’t,” highlighting his confidence and unfiltered honesty.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney praised him for a vision that was “unmistakable and unforgettable.”
Gehry was born Frank Owen Goldberg in Toronto in 1929 to a Jewish family before moving to the United States in the late 1940s.
He later changed his surname to avoid antisemitic discrimination and went on to study architecture at the University of Southern California.
He briefly joined the US Army, attended Harvard for city planning, and later returned to Los Angeles to launch his architectural career.
His early work included time with Victor Gruen and a period in Paris before establishing his own firm in Los Angeles.
The 1970s and 1980s marked the beginning of his signature experimental style, closely tied to California’s avant-garde art movement.
His designs often featured distorted metal forms that critics compared to crumpled paper, made possible by advanced computer technology he embraced early.
One of his earliest breakthroughs was the transformation of his Santa Monica home in 1978, a structure wrapped in corrugated metal around a 1920s house.
He received architecture’s highest honor, the Pritzker Prize, in 1989.
Gehry reached global fame with the opening of the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao in 1997, a titanium-clad masterpiece hailed as one of the greatest buildings of its era.
Its impact helped revive the city and gave rise to the term “Bilbao effect,” referring to how stunning architecture can transform a region.
The architect continued to push boundaries with major works including the Walt Disney Concert Hall, New York’s Beekman Tower and the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris.
LVMH chairman Bernard Arnault described him as a “genius of lightness, transparency and grace.”
Facebook also commissioned Gehry to expand its Menlo Park headquarters, a project completed in 2018.
Many of his creations required advanced 3D modelling at a time when curved structures were considered impractical and too costly.
But Gehry proved the industry wrong, using aerospace-grade design techniques to create dramatic shapes without breaking construction budgets.
The Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health in Las Vegas, with its fluid and melting appearance, remains a celebrated example of his vision.
Gehry often said he simply loved the work and never lost his passion for experimenting.
“I love working things out,” he told The Guardian in 2019.
