The secrets of this earth are not for all men to see, but only for those who seek them
Posts tagged Frank O. Gehry
Vitra Design Museum – Weil am Rhein, Germany
Sep 10th
Vitra is Swiss-based furniture-making company of German origin that was founded in 1950 by Willi Fehlbaum. In the early 1980s the director, Rolf Fehlbaum, began collecting the furniture of named designers such as husband-and-wife team Charles and Ray Eames, George Nelson and Alvar Aalto, and it soon became apparent he needed a private building to display these pieces.
The museum was Gehry’s first work in Europe, and he also built a more functional production hall and gateway at the company’s nearby factory. He stuck with his sculptural deconstructionist architectural hallmark for the design museum, but he unusually permitted curves to break out of his more usual angular forms. More >
Museum Guggenheim Bilbao – Spain (Museo Guggenheim Bilbao)
Aug 30th
Designed by the architect Frank O. Gehry, the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao is located on a plot of 32,500 sqm at the same level as the Nervion estuary, i.e. 16 metres below the level of the city, bounded at one end by the Puente de la Salve, one of the main entrances to the city.
The building is composed of a series of interconnected volumes, some orthogonal and clad in limestone, and others curved and twisting, with a titanium skin. These volumes are combined with glazed curtain walls that give the museum great transparency. More >
Experience Music Project – Seattle
Aug 24th
Located near the Space Needle at Seattle Centre, the 140,000-square-foot Experience Music Project is a celebration of American popular music and the culture that is its stimulus. Through a variety of interactive programs, visitors will learn about music history. They will experience music through classes and performances, and understand the significance of artists such as Jimi Hendrix, whose innovative music was the inspiration for this project.
The building exterior is a combination of voluptuous metallic forms in vivid blue, red, gold, and silver. A 65-foot-high cubic foyer has a black facade that will be used as a video screen and a backdrop for outdoor concerts. More >
Nationale-Nederlanden Building – Prague (Dancing House)
Aug 24th
Prague’s historic district has long been a broad mix of epic styles carefully watched over by the city’s preservationist community. The Nationale-Nederlanden Building’s site, at a crucial corner along the Vltava River, was a challenging context for Gehry’s dancing towers.
Guided through the local political scene by Vladimir Milunic, his collaborative architect, Gehry was able to create a joyous landmark carefully aligned with its nineteenth-century neighbours. The glass enclosed tower is pinched in at its waist to allow residents of the adjacent building a view across the river. More >
The Condé Nast Cafeteria – New York
Aug 22nd
The 280-seat Conde Nast cafeteria is intended to provide employees with a convenient lunchtime dining and meeting facility. It includes a main dining area, a server, and four private dining rooms. In the main dining room, booths that accommodate four to six people are distributed along the perimeter walls that are clad in perforated blue titanium panels with acoustic backing. More >
Walt Disney Concert Hall – Los Angeles, California
Aug 22nd
This most controversial of all Gehry projects, the Walt Disney Concert Hall will at last go forward, to become the permanent home of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. Located on Bunker Hill adjacent to the Dorothy Chandler Music Pavilion and across Grand Avenue from the Museum of Contemporary Art, this important addition to the city’s cultural life will bring renewed vitality to this historically significant neighbourhood. More >
University of Toledo Centre for the Visual Arts
Aug 22nd
The new art school has a linear L-shape that creates a courtyard adjacent to the existing Toledo Museum of Art Building. It is physically connected to the museum through a student art gallery. The three-storey building has an iridescent lead-coated copper skin and green-tinted windows that contrast with the white marble of the Beaux-Arts museum, and relate to the green patina of its copper roof. More >
