The Insider?
An exclusive interview with the PMA's unlikely new interior decorator, architectural daredevil Frank Gehry.
Frank Gehry has been awarded the redesign job at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, but don't expect his signature curvaceous structures and reflective metal. The most flamboyant architect in the world has been hired for interior design only.
Is this a mismatch? Or is it a brilliant upsetting of expectations?
PARKWAY PARTNERS: Frank Gehry flanked by the PMA's Anne D'Harnoncourt (left) and Gail Harrity.
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"You want to know why I'd do a project where nothing will show on the outside? Because what's always been important to me is the inside, the purpose, the function," says Gehry, who visited Philly in November.
But he's been criticized as a proponent of the deconstructionist movement, right? Doesn't he favor impressive exteriors over function and necessity?
"That just isn't true," he cheerfully argues. "Everything I design is from the inside. All my projects started with the function. Disney [the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles] started with the sound of the orchestra, and Bilbao started with the gallery. And my buildings do function. Just ask any of my clients."
"To say that what I care about most is the exterior is wrong. When I was a kid, people said that I killed Christ, and that wasn't true either."
The Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao — a stunning assemblage of gently twisted geometric shapes completed in 1997 — is often what people see in their minds when they hear Gehry's name. His challenge at the museum will be to create new spaces for art and visitors without disturbing the classic exterior of the building. He will be in charge of excavating under the museum's east wing, and he will renovate the museum's existing interiors.
"To say that what I care about most is the exterior is wrong. When I was a kid, people said that I killed Christ, and that wasn't true either."
Gehry sought this project because he loves Philadelphia. "It's an architect's city. I look up to Bob Venturi and I treasure my friendship with Bob and Denise [Venturi's wife and partner]. I knew Louis Kahn and loved his work."
Surprising choices, no? Kahn, of course, was hailed for emphasizing the pipes, ducts and other inner functions of buildings and Venturi has been complimented for his "modest, self-effacing" architecture. Gehry's work fits neither of these descriptions.
"Our architecture is different," says Venturi, "but we are good friends. We would have liked to have gotten the job but, since we didn't, I'm glad Frank did. He's a noble person: kind, intelligent, understanding." Speaking at his headquarters in Manayunk, the Philadelphia-born Venturi says that he and his wife became friends of Gehry when they all lived in Santa Monica 40 years ago. And 10 years before that, Venturi worked in Kahn's office on Walnut Street.
"I told [museum director Anne D'Harn-oncourt] that I'd like to do this project many years ago," says Gehry. "I wanted Philadelphia but I never pursued the subject after that one conversation. I tried to push it from my mind. I'm superstitious. I don't yearn for things because I know I won't get them. So don't ask me what type of projects are on my wish list."
Still, he admits that he always wanted to design a synagogue but has not yet had a chance to do so.
Frank Gehry was born in Toronto in 1929. When he was 17 his family moved to California, where his dad worked as a truck driver. For three years Frank also drove a delivery truck before graduating from the University of Southern California's School of Architecture. When he was 24 and newly married, Frank changed his last name from Goldberg to Gehry to avert the anti-Semitism that he saw in the architectural establishment.
He and a partner ran a commercial architecture firm that designed stores for the Kay Jewelry chain and large malls for the Rouse company in Maryland. "At my home in Santa Monica I had freedom to be creative and try new ideas. The CEO of Rouse said that what I did at my home was the direction I should take. I took his advice and resigned the Rouse account. I let 45 people go and reduced my staff to three people."
He feels that a breakthrough came in 1989 when he designed the thrusting, soaring Vitra furniture museum in Weil-am-Rhein in southwestern Germany, which juxtaposed curved shapes with rectilinear ones. From there, his work became bigger, broader, wilder.
Observers think that his buildings look like sculpture but he never had aspirations to sculpt or paint. "I revere artists and sculptors; they're like my holy book. But I wouldn't dare to try it myself. Sure, I create shapes, but the ones I produce are to keep heat in and the water out, to support the walls, to enclose utilities."
Many of Gehry's buildings are museums and concert halls. "I have artists and musicians as friends," he explains, "because they're outside the politics of my profession. With them I can be an observer instead of a participant."
His artist friends include people like Jasper Johns, Bob Rauschenberg, Ed Kienholz, Claes Oldenburg and Julian Schnabel. His mother studied violin and took him to concerts when he was a child. In 1970 he got a contract to redesign the Hollywood Bowl and he met Zubin Mehta, then the conductor of the L.A. Philharmonic, who introduced him to Daniel Barenboim, Pinchas Zukerman, Itzhak Perlman and others.
"Contemporary music interests me most. John Adams, Boulez, the electronic composers. Metaphorically, they try to answer the same questions I have: How do you react to changing conditions?"
Gehry and his first wife used to babysit for Michael Tilson Thomas in the San Fernando Valley. Now Gehry is designing a concert hall for Thomas' New World Symphony in Miami.
Because of this lifelong connection with music, Gehry has some strong opinions on the design of the Kimmel Center: "Flexible, movable walls are in vogue but it's intellectually dishonest because no one has 500 years' experience playing that instrument. Making musical instruments has that background and that tradition. An architect should design an auditorium that will enhance the sound of an orchestra and then the players and the conductor will make their own adjustments."
The Walt Disney Concert Hall does not have movable panels, flaps, baffles or anything of that sort. "It's all fixed. Nothing moves."
He is glad that a major part of his Philadelphia redesign will be making a space for the museum's contemporary collection. Although Gehry will leave no imprint on the outside of the building, look for unusual design and wall treatments inside. "I hate sterilized white cubes, and the artists don't like it either. Everybody has been making galleries with plain white walls and it's time for things to change."
One example of Gehry's design for an art museum is the MARTa museum in Herford, Germany, which has nary a rectangular wall. Interior shapes range from trapezoidal to curved, using colors like blue, yellow, gray and off-white with contrasting textures.
Gehry says his walls are more flattering to the art that hangs on them: "I could show you love letters that I've gotten from artists."
Just ask painter Julian Schnabel: "I feel comfortable in his spaces. I want to stick my stuff in there."
His work is so popular that Gehry's firm now employs a staff of 150. He travels a good part of the year and when he is at his L.A. office he runs between design sessions and meetings with clients and contractors. On the road, he carries tracing paper so he can create new designs on-site. In his recent Philadelphia visit, he spent his time exploring the museum and meeting with its staff (and turning down requests for media interviews and photo sessions).
He says he'll start slowing down when he turns 80, in three years. "But I love my work, I love what I'm doing. I don't ever want to retire. I have friends who retired and I could see their deterioration when they left their profession."
When asked why he has taken on new, commercial projects such as designing jewelry for Tiffany, he says, "Do you mean, Why did I sell out? I didn't seek it but I went along with it because I can play with my children. It's one-on-one between the idea and the craft. I'm designing three-dimensional objects, working directly."
Gehry has two daughters from his first marriage and two sons from his second. The older boy is an artist and the younger wants to study architecture.
He says that his buildings are also like children to him, but only to a point. "After they're done I'll see them only three or four more times in my life."
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