Frank Gehry- (b.1929) Frank Owen Goldberg- (his first wife made him change his name in order to sound “less Jewish” to get more jobs), was a very creative child who was encouraged by his grandmother as he enjoyed building little cities out of scrap wood on her living room floor. He was also inspired by his grandfather who owned a hardware store where he was surrounded with plywood, corrugated steel, and chain link fencing.
The story starts when architect Frank Gehry and his second wife, Berta, bought a 1920’s adorable, pink, Dutch colonial bungalow on a quiet street in Santa Monica, California. Gehry took what he called "a dumb little house with charm” and actually built around it "to make it more important”. The quiet little house’s exterior remains untouched, "I loved the idea of leaving the house intact... I came up with the idea of building the new house around it. We were told there were ghosts in the house... I decided they were ghosts of Cubism. The windows... I wanted to make them look like they were crawling out of this thing. At night, because this glass is tipped it mirrors the light in... So when you're sitting at this table you see all these cars going by, you see the moon in the wrong place... the moon is over there but it reflects here... and you think it's up there and you don't know where the hell you are..." - Frank Gehry
Throughout the past decades, Gehry has transformed the home’s Dutch colonial roots into a modern home which looks as if it is constantly under construction. The home has given Gehry an opportunity to create using unconventional building materials- combinations of wood, glass, corrugated aluminum, and chain-link fencing. He experimented with new ideas and treated his home as a work of art - constantly in flux which became the basis for an architectural movement - “deconstructionism.”
Neighbors and early reviewers hated the new house, so much even that one evening, it was shot at. Criticism of his “improvements” include the fact that the building does not seem cohesive with the other houses in the neighborhood,”Everybody hates the chain-link fence but nobody sees it. What they see is a tennis court and a tennis court is a symbol of wealth.” "We are in a culture made up of fast food and advertising and throw-away and running for airplanes and catching cabs - frenetic. So, I think that those possibilities are more expressive of our culture than something finished.” -Frank Gehry
The following are various tweets from the internet regarding the Gehry residence:
ick_From_NJ
Five gallons of gasoline: $18.00
A Bic Lighter: $1.98
Ridding the neighborhood of Frankenstein's Monster: Priceless
Natalia C
"symbol of deconstructivism"..the Gehry Residence by Frank Gehry never gets old
Connor
Very, very odd, surprising someone of great fame would go out of their way to humbly make a shack like this, it's interesting, yet quite unusual.
Bjorn D
People with beautiful minds are really hard to understand unless you go deeper to their life and ideas... Gehry is a real genius.. i don't like deconstructionism so much but the approach of this design is something I could really appreciate…
Alexander D
That may be one of the ugliest houses I have ever seen.
Traditional architecture is “culturally and conventionally safe,” some saying dull. Frank Gehry has made architecture exciting. It may not be your taste but it is different from traditional building. As is Frank Gehry, it is for sure “cranky” and is a very fascinating work of art. A local building code is about a building structure and building integrity. Can villages or cities with boards of review dictate art? When will people become more tolerant and respect other’s interpretation and viewpoint?
“Pioneers Take the Arrows, Settlers Take the Land.”
Just-
The story starts when architect Frank Gehry and his second wife, Berta, bought a 1920’s adorable, pink, Dutch colonial bungalow on a quiet street in Santa Monica, California. Gehry took what he called "a dumb little house with charm” and actually built around it "to make it more important”. The quiet little house’s exterior remains untouched, "I loved the idea of leaving the house intact... I came up with the idea of building the new house around it. We were told there were ghosts in the house... I decided they were ghosts of Cubism. The windows... I wanted to make them look like they were crawling out of this thing. At night, because this glass is tipped it mirrors the light in... So when you're sitting at this table you see all these cars going by, you see the moon in the wrong place... the moon is over there but it reflects here... and you think it's up there and you don't know where the hell you are..." - Frank Gehry
Throughout the past decades, Gehry has transformed the home’s Dutch colonial roots into a modern home which looks as if it is constantly under construction. The home has given Gehry an opportunity to create using unconventional building materials- combinations of wood, glass, corrugated aluminum, and chain-link fencing. He experimented with new ideas and treated his home as a work of art - constantly in flux which became the basis for an architectural movement - “deconstructionism.”
Neighbors and early reviewers hated the new house, so much even that one evening, it was shot at. Criticism of his “improvements” include the fact that the building does not seem cohesive with the other houses in the neighborhood,”Everybody hates the chain-link fence but nobody sees it. What they see is a tennis court and a tennis court is a symbol of wealth.” "We are in a culture made up of fast food and advertising and throw-away and running for airplanes and catching cabs - frenetic. So, I think that those possibilities are more expressive of our culture than something finished.” -Frank Gehry
The following are various tweets from the internet regarding the Gehry residence:
ick_From_NJ
Five gallons of gasoline: $18.00
A Bic Lighter: $1.98
Ridding the neighborhood of Frankenstein's Monster: Priceless
Natalia C
"symbol of deconstructivism"..the Gehry Residence by Frank Gehry never gets old
Connor
Very, very odd, surprising someone of great fame would go out of their way to humbly make a shack like this, it's interesting, yet quite unusual.
Bjorn D
People with beautiful minds are really hard to understand unless you go deeper to their life and ideas... Gehry is a real genius.. i don't like deconstructionism so much but the approach of this design is something I could really appreciate…
Alexander D
That may be one of the ugliest houses I have ever seen.
Traditional architecture is “culturally and conventionally safe,” some saying dull. Frank Gehry has made architecture exciting. It may not be your taste but it is different from traditional building. As is Frank Gehry, it is for sure “cranky” and is a very fascinating work of art. A local building code is about a building structure and building integrity. Can villages or cities with boards of review dictate art? When will people become more tolerant and respect other’s interpretation and viewpoint?
“Pioneers Take the Arrows, Settlers Take the Land.”
Just-