Worldwide Visits To Frank Gehry

Continuing Architecture Week on Frill Seeker Diary, I want to pay homage to the works of my other favorite Frank, Frank Gehry, a man who has caused a lot of personal excitement and grief in my life.

Gehry, whose latest design incarnation is supposed to shadow my little Prospect Heights Brooklyn apartment, has a unique way of highlighting whatever area of the city he decides to plant his projects in- and I both yearn for, and fight against, seeing a Gehry stadium in Atlantic Center, Brooklyn.

This project aside (for now), let’s turn out attention to the other magnificent works of this architect. Below, find a few near you.

Walt Disney Concert Hall. Los Angeles, CA, USA
Anything Disney, you say, shaking your head. Before you write this off as a Disnophile entry, check out this amazing concert space. LA is known for shiny, happy buildings but Gehry’s sparkling masterpiece sparked a revival in the LA Philharmonic, and added a fourth building to the LA Music Center. A pretty worthy cause, if you ask me.
More: Wikipedia, Daily Dose, WDCH.

The IAC Building. New York, NY, USA
Perfect, perfect, perfect. As if all involved knew what would someday become of this once deserted strip of land, the IAC Buildings now sits as the backdrop to Highline Park, one of the city’s most beautiful strips: lush with green, yet striving with city. The grey and white panels of the building in stark contrast with the flowing wildlife, but teeming with New York energy, one needs only to walk along the newly opened park for the most spectacular view of this avante garde yet totally 100% useful space.
More: IAC Building Interactive.

Dancing House (aka The Fred & Ginger Building). Prague, Czech Republic
I’d heard a lot about this teetering modern masterpiece before my trip to Prague and had it on my to-do list, but it wasn’t till I actually was driven past the waterfront monument, in a cab at 4am, after a drunken night in Karlovy Lazny, that I fully realized why. It’s hard to describe the Fred & Ginger Building except to say that it both repulses and delights you at the same time; somewhat unfinished, like you want more, but totally giggling inside at the joke Gehry has played on the world by crafting this leaning Art Nouveau tower that hugs itself.

More: Wikipedia, The Prague Experience.

Gehry Tower. Hanover, Germany.
A much calmer installation of Gehry, with the same witty twist, this Hanover Building more closely resembles it’s city backdrop than many of his other works. Tough, by feminine, utilitarian, but aesthetically pleasing all at the same time. The giddy twisting design is actually the work of a genius; making the best use of the tiny lot the building was created on, and lending a hand to it’s spectacularness.
More: Structrae.

Guggenheim Museum Bilbao. Bilbao, Spain.
Most museums attract art lovers for the work on the inside, but this amazing museum is well known across the world for it’s not too shabby exterior view, too. The Guggenheim Bilbao is a stainless steel looking sexy, curvy statue, filled with works of similar proportions and design. Gehry has noted that each random shape and buckle of the exterior is to catch the light, so on any given day, on any given time, you could have a myriad of sparkles, created by sun on man-made materials, that might never be replicated again. Now that is art.

More: Bilbao Museum, Guggenheim Museums, Frank Gehry Works.