The birth of a signature style Interestingly, the Santa Monica villa was never sold and remains his property, but what it did establish is the fact that this is not just another architect. Though Gehry himself denies this, his creations are nothing if not deconstructivist in nature. The almost total absence of symmetry and harmony shown is often considered to be a prime example of the deconstructivist school of architecture that took root in the USA in the 1980s. And showcase he did, drawing praise and criticism in equal measure with his outlandish use of unusual features such as chain-link fences and corrugated steel facias. His early autonomous projects involved mostly villas and suburban shopping malls, but it was with his own home that Gehry had the freedom to showcase his design philosophy. Gehry and Associates was established in LA in 1967, re-established in 2001 as Gehry Partners. The ‘David Cabin’, which dates from 1957, already bears the unmistakable mark of Gehry design, with its unusual application of materials, wildly angular forms and exposed construction elements.Įuropean experience was gained in Paris under architect André Remondet, before the now-famous Frank O. His career, however, took him straight back to Los Angeles, where he settled down working for Victor Gruen Associates, designing a villa as his first independent project. After graduating from the University of Southern California in LA, he added city planning to his arsenal, studying at the Harvard Graduate School of Design in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Born in Toronto to a family with American links, the future architect was creative from a young age, building his own scale towns from pieces of wood when other kids were out playing ball.

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