Wall Text
Wall Text
FRANK GEHRY, architect: designs for MUSEUMS celebrates the ingenuity of one
of today’s most influential architects. Gehry’s projects reflect and
facilitate the multiple ways museums operate in our communities and for our cities.
Traditionally, museums have been empowered to archive, chronicle, and preserve
(the museum as keeper of collective memory); to select, classify, and elevate
(the museum as arbiter of order); and to inform, educate, and even inspire (the
museum as guardian of public morality). Recently, museums have also become vital
components in the process of urban restructuring and revitalization. Museums
are educational institutions, community centers, and tourist attractions. They
operate businesses such as stores and cafes, and have become vehicles for economic
development. As civic institutions and public places, museums embody the realities,
ideas, and aspirations of the audiences they serve. As urban icons, they have
the ability to project a city’s image internationally. The success of Frank
Gehry’s designs for museums proves that culture counts and that cities
thrive when their museums are designed to fulfill an expanded role in civic
life.
FRANK GEHRY, architect: designs for MUSEUMS presents eight projects, four
fully realized and four in various stages of design and construction. The exhibition
traces several themes that appear as hallmarks of Gehry’s work: technological
innovation, a sensitivity to the surrounding built environment, expressive
form, and unique spaces for the exhibition of art.
Frank Owen Gehry was born in 1929 in Toronto, Canada. As a teenager, he moved
to Los Angeles with his family. He was educated at the University of Southern
California, Los Angeles, and later studied at Harvard University’s Graduate
School of Design. In 1962, he opened his own firm in Los Angeles, the city
where he continues to live and work today. Gehry has built an architectural
practice that spans four decades and has completed public and private buildings
in America, Europe, and Asia. In addition to being an architect, Gehry is also
well-known as a sculptor and designer. He won the Pritzker Prize in 1989 and
the American Institute of Architect’s Gold Medal in 1999.
FRANK GEHRY, architect: designs for MUSEUMS is organized in collaboration with
the Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum at the University of Minnesota and Gehry
Partners, LLP. The exhibition is made possible by the Truland Foundation,
The President’s Exhibition Fund, Centex Construction, and the Women’s
Committee of the Corcoran Gallery of Art. In-kind support is provided by
the Sony Technology Center, Pittsburgh.
Guggenheim Museum Bilbao
Bilbao, Spain
The success of Gehry’s design for the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao has inspired
a new expression: “the Bilbao Effect.” It refers to the museum’s
role in fostering a transformative period of urban renewal that rejuvenated
the entire city’s environment. The museum’s architectural grandeur
and sculptural virtuosity gained worldwide recognition for Gehry and created
a global icon for the city of Bilbao. Importantly, the Guggenheim project grew
out of a partnership between the Basque Country Administration and the Solomon
R. Guggenheim Foundation. Municipal leaders used this collaboration to launch
a broad development strategy that would stimulate urban growth. The renaissance
of Bilbao, catalyzed by “the world’s most exciting building” was
the result. Further development has been accelerated by the integration of
Gehry’s design with new infrastructure projects, most notably Norman
Foster’s light-filled metro stations, Santiago Calatrava’s gracefully
arching bridge, and Michael Wilford’s ambitious plans for the reconstruction
of the Abando rail interchange.
Bilbao’s transformation from an economically-depressed industrial center
to a trend-setting phenomenon has become a civic object lesson. The year the
museum opened, more than one million visitors made the pilgrimage to view the
acclaimed architectural achievement. In 2000, Bilbao expanded its airport for
the first time since it was built in the 1950s. The museum’s first two
years of operation generated more than 170 million dollars in revenue, enough
to create 3,800 jobs.
Area
300,000 square feet
Schedule
Design begun—1991
Construction begun—1993
Completed—1997
Project Principals
Frank O. Gehry, Design Principal
Randy Jefferson, Project Principal
Van Haritunians, Project Manager
Douglas Hansen, Project Architect
Edwin Chan, Project Designer
Project Team
Rich Barrett
Karl Blette
Tomaso Bradshaw
Matt Fineout
Robert Hale
Dave Hardie
Michael Hootman
Grzegorz Kosmal
Naomi Langer
Mehran Mashayekh
Chris Mercier
Brent Miller
David Reddy
Marc Salette
Bruce Shepard
Rick Smith
Eva Sobesky
Derek Soltes
Todd Spiegel
Jeff Wauer
Krisin Woehl
Frederick R. Weisman
Art Museum at The University of Minnesota
Minneapolis, Minnesota
The Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum opened at the University of Minnesota in
1993, and was the first art museum Gehry designed from the ground up. Here,
Gehry exploded the possibilities of architecture, streamlined the building
process, and debuted a vocabulary of forms that proved formative for his future
signature style. The evolution from the Weisman’s faceted facade to Bilbao’s
titanium curves can be charted alongside the development of the imaging computer
program CATIA (computer aided three-dimensional interactive application), which
was first employed by the French aerospace industry to design fighter planes.
The combination of technological innovation and expressive architecture serves
as inspiration to the students who make up more than half of the Weisman Art
Museum’s audience. Students enter the museum over a pedestrian bridge
that connects Washington Avenue with Coffman Memorial Plaza, a public common
on the University’s campus. From this western approach, the stainless
steel panels of the museum facade reflect light in much the same way as the
ripples in the river below, transforming the museum into a beacon or a lighthouse
on the Mississippi River. In response to the university context, brick is used
as the exterior finish for the gallery volume and the parking ramp. Together,
each part of the nontraditional design contributes to the creation of a complex
exterior that reflects the exchange of ideas inside. Gehry’s design promotes
the concept of a museum as a place for discussion, not just quiet contemplation.
The sculptural expression of the building is akin to the power of the art it
houses, and prepares visitors to expect something a little wacky, fun, and
outside the norm.
Area
41,000 square feet
Schedule
Design begun—1990
Construction begun—1991
Completed—1993
Project Principals
Frank O. Gehry, Design Principal
Robert Hale, Project Principal
Victoria Jenkins, Project Architect
Matt Fineout, Project Architect
Edwin Chan, Project Designer
Project Team
David Gastrau
Richard Rosa
Vitra International Furniture Manufacturing Facility and Design Museum
Weil am Rhein, Germany
Gehry’s design for the Vitra Manufacturing Facility and Design Museum
includes three major components. They consist of a furniture assembly plant
with adjacent office, mezzanine, and distribution areas; a small furniture
museum and library; and a master site plan that includes a new entrance road,
gate house, and plans for the future expansion of the factory, museum parking,
and ancillary support areas.
As demonstrated in the plans for the Guggenheim New York and MARTa Herford,
Gehry’s eye for composition figures prominently in the distribution of
form, volume, and mass. Each part relates to the whole while maintaining a
distinct architectural identity. The north facade of Vitra’s assembly
plant borders the main road and presents the public, monumental face of the
project. It serves as both a backdrop and a frame for the museum. The sculptural
forms of the flanking ramps and entrance canopies extend the visual impact
of the unified ensemble. In addition, the reflective quality of smooth white
plaster and titanium zinc of the design museum accentuates the strong visual
impact of the larger project. Inside the museum, galleries are treated as connected
volumes spatially interpenetrating one another. Exhibitions communicate through
one space and into the next. Variations in light, volume, surface, and scale
distinguish each gallery.
Area
Factory—90,000 square feet
Museum—8,000 square feet
Schedule
Design begun—1987
Construction begun—1988
Completed—1989
Project Principals
Frank O. Gehry, Design Principal
Robert Hale, Project Principal
C. Gregory Walsh, Project Designer
Berthold Penkhues, Project Architect
Liza Hansen, Project Architect
Project Team
Christopher Joseph Bonura
Edwin Chan
Experience Music Project
Seattle, Washington
Gehry often cites the pulsating beat of rock music as inspiration for the architecture
of the Experience Music Project. Described as a broken or abstracted guitar,
visitors respond to the dynamic form of the building by moving through a procession
of spaces. Like the experience of music, meaning does not directly unfold from
the sequence of individual impressions. Instead, visitors enjoy a more subjective
experience through the interplay of scale, rhythm, and tone.
Intended to celebrate creativity as expressed through American popular music
and culture, the Experience Music Project is comprised of six elements: the
Sky Church, the Crossroads, the Sound Lab, the Artist’s Journey, the
Electric Library, and the Ed. House (a place for educational outreach). Visitors
shape their own program as they navigate through a series of public spaces
and exhibition areas that present multiple viewpoints and traditions of American
music. For example, the Sky Church, a concept inspired by Jimi Hendrix, represents
the coming together of all types of people united by the power and joy of music.
This idea is also embodied in the building’s central gathering area.
In addition, opportunities to experiment with multimedia equipment are amply
provided, engaging each individual museum-goer on his or her own terms. Gehry’s
design, a cluster of colorful curving elements, boldly expresses this independent
spirit.
Area
140,000 square feet
Schedule
Design begun—1996
Construction begun—1997
Completed—2000
Project Principals
Frank O. Gehry, Design Principal
Jim Glymph, Project Principal
Craig Webb, Design Architect
Terry Bell, Project Architect
George Metzger, Project Architect
Laurence Tighe, Project Architect
Project Team
Kenneth Ahn
Kamran Ardalan
Rich Barrett
Herwig Baumgartner
Elisabeth Beasley
Anna Helena Berge
Kirk Blette
Rebeca Cotera
Jon Drezner
Jeff Guga
David Hardie
Leigh Jerrard
Michael Jobes
Naomi Langer
Gary Lundberg
Yannina Manjarres-Weeks
Kevin Marrero
Brent Miller
Gaston Nogues
David Pakshong
Douglas Pierson
Steven Pliam
Daniel Pohrte
Paolo Sant’Ambrogio
Christopher Seals
Dennis Sheldon
Tadao Shimizu
Eva Sobesky
Randall Stout
Tensho Takemori
Lisa Towning
Scott Uriu
Jeffery Wauer
Adam Wheeler
MARTa Herford
Herford, Germany
Gehry’s fundamental strategy for MARTa Herford incorporates an industrial
building now existing on the site with new construction to the south and north.
The industrial building becomes the centerpiece of the new complex, providing
galleries for the exhibition of art, furniture, and architectural projects.
This layout is well-suited for a museum founded at the intersection of art
and design.
MARTa Herford incorporates the various functions and services contemporary
museums are expected to provide. Alongside a retail store, a restaurant, and
a furniture testing area, state-of-the-art exhibition spaces display works
in a variety of media and from a range of periods. In addition, many of the
galleries can be converted into multipurpose areas for special events and site-specific
art install-
ations. Such adaptability has been central to the evaluation of Gehry’s
work. The inventiveness of MARTa’s plans to program their distinctive
spaces provides another demonstration of Gehry’s success in this regard. “MARTa
for Kids,” a collaborative program with the city library, currently attracts
children to the building site. Future plans include a rigorous schedule of
seminars, lectures, and artist talks.
Area
75,000 square feet
Schedule
Design begun—1998
Construction begun—2001
Completion expected—2005
Project Principals
Frank O. Gehry, Design Partner
Randy Jefferson, Project Partner
Edwin Chan, Project Designer
Kamran Ardalan, Project Architect
Project Team
Michelle Kaufmann
Hiroshi Tokumaru
Andy Lui
Catriel Tulian
Rick Smith
Cara Cragan
Beat Schenk
Ali Jevanjee
Kurt Komraus
Sean Gale
Sean Gallivan
Diego Petrate
Reza Bagherzadeh
Guggenheim Museum
Lower Manhattan Project
New York, New York
Ever since Frank Lloyd Wright’s revolutionary spiral broke Manhattan’s
penchant for the grid, the Solomn R. Guggenheim Museum has represented a new
direction in museum design. In a single twisting stroke, Wright launched a
debate that continues to inform discussions of contemporary architecture. Auspiciously,
Gehry began his professional career at this very moment, at the height of an
era defined by aesthetic purity, austere functionalism, and the exaltation
of the definitive art object. His design for the site of a new Guggenheim Museum
on the East River between Pier 9 and Pier 14 demonstrates his respect for this
tradition and his ideas to reinvigorate it.
Like Wright, Gehry carefully considered the context in which the lower Manhattan
Guggenheim would operate. In response to the dramatic nature of the waterfront
site and the rising skyline, Gehry elevated the entire museum complex. This
imparts a sense of openness at street level, creates a visual corridor between
Wall Street and the waterfront, and provides a platform on the surface of the
river for a public plaza. With accommodations for a variety of public activities,
Gehry intended the museum to serve as a forum for civic engagement. Gehry’s
design proposed a grand panorama that would have redefined the image of the
city.
Area
572,259 square feet
Schedule
Design begun—1998
Project cancelled—2002
Project Principals
Frank O. Gehry, Design Partner
Randy Jefferson, Project Partner
Edwin Chan, Project Designer
Michelle Kaufmann, Project Architect
Project Team
Kamran Ardalan
Tom Balaban
Christoph Deckwitz
Chad Dyner
Raymond Gaetan, Jr.
Matt Gagnon
Sean Gale
Albert Lee
Andrew Liu
Frank Melendez
Ross Miller
David Nam
Gaston Nogues
Catriel Tulian
Adam Wheeler
Brian Zamora
process
Frank Gehry’s design process has expanded the boundaries of contemporary
architecture. Technological innovation has enabled the architect to more fully
realize
creative expression in built form. Gehry’s designs begin as free sketches
that are translated into working models made of paper and wood. Gehry may crumple
up paper and attach it to the model. He may tear off a sculptural form and
discard or move it. He may cut a window into a wall of the model. Only at the
end of this process is the computer used to translate the model into a final
design. With a digitizing wand, CATIA (Computer Aided Three-Dimensional Interactive
Application) translates handcrafted models into three-dimensional computer
versions. This technology allows the constructed buildings to closer approach
the exuberant, complex curves of the original drawings. In addition, because
characteristics of specific materials can be programmed into the CATIA software,
Gehry can anticipate the
formal possibilities of different building materials, from stainless steel
to stone.
LONG PANELS
Corcoran Gallery of Art
Ernest Flagg Building 1897 Charles Platt Addition 1928
Just two decades after its founding in 1869, the Corcoran outgrew its first
home, a red brick landmark on Pennsylvania Avenue that is presently the Smithsonian’s
Renwick Gallery. In April of 1891, the Trustees of the Corcoran purchased Square
No. 171 to accommodate needs for additional exhibition space and the expanding
School of Art. This prominent site, created by the angled intersection of Seventeenth
Street and New York Avenue, stands at the heart of the nation’s capital.
In keeping with the Corcoran’s exceptional location and in tribute to
its noble mission, Ernest Flagg was commissioned to design a monumental Beaux
Arts structure in 1894. Presiding over cornerstone laying ceremonies on May
10, 1894, James C. Welling, President of the Board of Trustees, presented a
keynote address. He stated:
In a fair City which like ours is adorned with so much of magnificence in
its public architecture; in a City whose squares and circles are studded with
the statues of heroes and of statesmen, of sages and of scholars, it would
seem most fitting that a suitable Home should be here erected for the proper
housing of those choicest fruits of genius which [sic.] spring from the pencil
of the painter and the chisel of the sculptor.
Ernest Flagg selected only the finest materials for the new building including
Georgia marble, limestone columns, oak flooring, glass skylights, and copper
roofing. The Washington Evening Star praised the design in an article on February
20, 1897:
With a building such as this, at once impressive, magnificent, and fitted
up with all the latest appliances and conveniences, it will be no idle boast
when Washingtonians hereafter lay claim to the finest art gallery in the
world.
By 1925, with a bequest from Senator William A. Clark, the Flagg building
could no longer house the Corcoran’s expanding collection. The Corcoran
commissioned Charles Adams Platt, one of the most widely respected museum architects
of the day, to construct a new wing. With gallery and storage space for Senator
Clark’s collection of European sculpture, drawings, antiquities, tapestries,
rugs, furniture, lace, and ceramics, the addition almost doubled the size of
the original Flagg building. In addition, Platt designed exhibition cases and
furniture, he assisted with the choice of the color scheme, and he planned
the installation of the Corcoran’s eighteenth-century Salon Doré.
The Corcoran opened the Platt addition in 1928 and President Coolidge officiated
at the ceremony.
The Corcoran has moved from these auspicious beginnings at the turn of the
20th century to an ambitious campaign to build a Frank Gehry addition in the
21st. In the process, the Corcoran continues its mission to offer a world class
collection, groundbreaking special exhibitions, and a prestigious College of
Art + Design in a building of great architectural significance.
Corcoran Gallery of Art
Washington, DC
The Corcoran Gallery of Art, founded in 1869, is the oldest museum in the nation’s
capital. Its current Beaux Arts building, completed by Ernest Flagg in 1897
and expanded by Charles Platt in 1928, is a National Historic Landmark, one
block from the White House. The Corcoran’s selection of a Frank Gehry
design in 1999 to complete its century-old master plan has captured the imagination
of a city with a reputation for conservative architecture.
Gehry’s design, which won the unanimous approval of the National Fine
Arts Commission in October 2001, centers around a dramatic 130 foot-high atrium
and a new main entrance on New York Avenue. The addition will double the Museum’s
exhibition space and create new facilities for the College of Art + Design.
The renovation of the existing building will include the much needed upgrades
for outdated mechanical and electrical systems, the replacement of the glass
roof and skylights, and the reclaiming of many original galleries that have
been subverted for administrative and storage uses over the years. The renovation
will also provide improved accessibility to the Corcoran’s historic spaces
while retaining their character and elegance.
Gehry’s design brilliantly juxtaposes the old and the new. Historic
galleries engage dynamic new spaces for art exhibition and education. In doing
so, the program reinforces the Corcoran Museum-College partnership.
A highlight of the new building will be the creation of an innovative children’s
center. Combining the rich resources of the Museum and the College, this space
will be dedicated entirely to children and their families, a space to experience
the visual arts in radical ways.
Area
270,000 square feet
Schedule
Competition—1999
Design begun—1999
Construction anticipated—2006
Completion expected—2009
Project Principals
Frank O. Gehry, Design Partner
Randy Jefferson, Project Partner
Edwin Chan, Project Designer
George Metzger, Project Manager
Tensho Takemori, Project Architect
Doug Pierson, Job Captain
Project Team
Tim Gudgel
Julianna Morais
Laura Bachelder
Vartan Chalikian
Cara Cragan
Chris Deckwitz
Anand Devarajan
Matt Gagnon
Sean Gallivan
Jeffrey Garrett
Craig Gilbert
Ana Henton
Dennis Lee
Napoleon Merana
Tim Paulson
Christina Schulz
Zohar Schwartz
Karen Tom
Steve Traeger
Frank Weeks
the Ohr-O’Keefe Museum of art
Biloxi, Mississippi
The Ohr-O’Keefe Museum of Art provides facilities for art exhibition,
art research, cultural programming and community events. The project includes
five small pavilions and a nineteenth-century woodframe house, all situated
among Live Oak trees and connected by an open brick plaza. The result is an
inviting and lively arts campus in a wooded setting at a pedestrian scale.
The distribution of discrete buildings encourages visitors to roam freely throughout
Tricentennial Park, a newly created public space that hosts the museum complex
adjacent to the Mississippi Sound and the Gulf of Mexico.
Gehry demonstrates sensitivity to the context of the surrounding area and
the conditions of the site by his use of local materials, references to the
vernacular architecture of the region, and the scale and placement of each
pavilion. The Pleasant Reed House, built in 1887 in the local shotgun style,
will serve as the entryway to campus. Fully restored, it will provide insight
into the history of African American life and culture. Past the Pleasant Reed
House, visitors approach a Welcome Center that offers an array of amenities
such as a café, lecture hall, and ticket booths. They can proceed to
the Exhibition Gallery, the Museum of African American Arts, or the George
E. Ohr Museum. Each entity is a discrete gallery space that is residential
in conception. A front porch graces each pavilion and it is here that educators
offer didactic information. Wall text or object labels do not compete with
the works of art displayed inside. A Center for Ceramics completes the campus
and serves primarily as a resource for ceramic arts education, providing a
full studio and work yard, an arts research library, and conservation area.
The prominence of spaces devoted to education—whether research, instruction,
or practice—is a defining characteristic of The Ohr-O’Keefe Museum
specifically, and Gehry’s designs for museums more generally. The creative
programming solutions planned at MARTa Herford and the College component of
the Corcoran project demonstrate a profound commitment to education as well.
In doing so, they herald a new emphasis on the connection between making art
and experiencing art.
Area
25,000 square feet
Schedule
Design begun—1999
Construction begun—2003
Completion expected—2005
Project Principals
Frank O. Gehry, Design Partner
Randy Jefferson, Project Partner
Craig Webb, Project Designer
Jeffrey Wauer, Project Architect
Project Team
Brian Zamora
Frank Melendez
Aaron Turner
Gavin Wall
Jennifer Bruno
Eric Jones
Saffet Bekiroglu
Michael Cranfill
Joejojn McVey
 |
CONTACT:
Kristin Guiter
Manager of Media Relations
(202) 639-1867,
kguiter@corcoran.org
Return to Press
Release
|
