Frank O. Gehry: The Architect's Studio

Like most great architects, Frank O. Gehry straddles the border between practical works and the possibilities that lie just beyond. Despite his trademark flamboyant forms, Gehry begins all his designs pragmatically, working from the inside out. Using simple blocks to represent the structure’s program – a bedroom, a ballroom, a gallery – he assembles them in unexpected ways. His architecture represents a meeting ground for art, whimsy, form, and pure practicality. For Seattle, this architectural approach took shape as the Experience Music Project, a structure that forced a reevaluation of the standard elements of a public building. As we watched EMP spring to life beneath the Space Needle, it was natural to have wondered about the mind behind the design. “Frank O. Gehry: The Architect’s Studio” provided a context for Gehry’s work through a dioramic replication of the artist’s working studio. Featured were hundreds of preparatory and working models for Gehry’s most important international commissions, including the Bilbao Guggenheim Museum in Spain and EMP. The installation was designed to simulate a walk through the creative clutter of Gehry’s studio with sketches, finished drawings, video, and slide presentations of completed buildings. “Frank O. Gehry: The Architect’s Studio” presented Northwest audiences with a rare opportunity to experience the working components, or tool box, of one of the most engaging international designers of our time, in concert with the opening of a signature Gehry work in our region. The Henry’s presentation offered a unique opportunity to gain insight into the working process and methods of this world-renowned architect during a time when attention was focused not only on Gehry, but Seattle as well.