Lecture 11: Frank Gehry, Peter B.

Lewis Building, 1997-2002

10. The Soft Umbrella Diagram

Frank O. Gehry, Peter B. Lewis Building, 1997-2002

S. Hambright

Drawing Canonical Ideas in Architecture

UofA

Lecture 11: Frank Gehry, Peter B. Lewis Building, 1997-2002

Greg Lynn, Embryological House

Greg Lynn, in his Embryological House and in several recent projects, proposes another kind
of diagram, one that has no originary condition. Lynn suggests that form harbors, as an
integral aspect of its being, conditions which he calls forms own diagrammatic necessity.
S. Hambright

Drawing Canonical Ideas in Architecture

UofA

Lecture 11: Frank Gehry, Peter B. Lewis Building, 1997-2002

Greg Lynn, Embryological House

This internal logic renders it possible to produce diagrams that refer not to an external
transcendental signified, but to their own operationsnot depend on any of the a priori
notionssuch as site or program.
S. Hambright

Drawing Canonical Ideas in Architecture

UofA

Lecture 11: Frank Gehry, Peter B. Lewis Building, 1997-2002

Greg Lynn, Blobwall Pavilion

Lynns work deals with the component as an infinitely repeatable entity. He suggests that it is
possible to work on components whether they are components of a building or components
of the city which have no necessary relationship to the whole, nor to a precedent, but result
from a set of internal or computational logics.
S. Hambright

Drawing Canonical Ideas in Architecture

UofA

Lecture 11: Frank Gehry, Peter B. Lewis Building, 1997-2002

Discuss the statement below using

these images.

Lynn argues that a computer algorithm operates both in the Peircian sense of the symbol and
index, in that its meaning is legible as a representation of such processes and that these
operations take place over time, which recorded in an indexical manner.
S. Hambright

Drawing Canonical Ideas in Architecture

UofA

Lecture 11: Frank Gehry, Peter B. Lewis Building, 1997-2002

Lynns argument implies that these prior conditions of architectures own disciplinary
precedents are not necessarily relevant to those of the future, given that these algorithmic
processes are in fact unfamiliar to architecture.
S. Hambright

Drawing Canonical Ideas in Architecture

UofA

Lecture 11: Frank Gehry, Peter B. Lewis Building, 1997-2002

Ghery, Peter B. Lewis Building

This argument about the role of the digital in undermining architectural precedents is useful
in considering the relationship of digital and analogic processes in Frank Gehrys Peter B.
Lewis Building for the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve.
S. Hambright

Drawing Canonical Ideas in Architecture

UofA

Lecture 11: Frank Gehry, Peter B. Lewis Building, 1997-2002

Ghery, Peter B. Lewis Building

What does Eisenman mean by the statement below?

While Gehry might argue that his work is the result of computation, it could similarly be
argued that Gehry occupies a terrain that is not as clearly defined, being sited between
personal expression or analogic processes and digital processes.the diagram in
Gehrys work is iconicit situates his work in the realm of the phenomenal.
S. Hambright

Drawing Canonical Ideas in Architecture

UofA

Lecture 11: Frank Gehry, Peter B. Lewis Building, 1997-2002

Ghery, Peter B. Lewis Building

Discuss the two processes below differing the conceptual from the phenomenal?

The crucial difference between the conceptual and the phenomenal lies in the domain of
close reading, with the nexus of attention shifting from the eye to the mind in the conceptual,
and from the mind to the eye in the phenomenal.
S. Hambright

Drawing Canonical Ideas in Architecture

UofA

Lecture 11: Frank Gehry, Peter B. Lewis Building, 1997-2002

Frank Gehry

Gehrys diagram could be called a soft umbrella, which settles in various ways over an
internal organization of spaces and structure. This type of diagram depends on the
articulation of the roof and roofs impact on the section; the plan becomes residual to the
process.
S. Hambright

Drawing Canonical Ideas in Architecture

UofA

Lecture 11: Frank Gehry, Peter B. Lewis Building, 1997-2002

Ghery, Peter B. Lewis Building

While the digital processes are those from which the precise form is generated, the
conceptual diagram remains analogic.
S. Hambright

Drawing Canonical Ideas in Architecture

UofA

Lecture 11: Frank Gehry, Peter B. Lewis Building, 1997-2002

Karl Friedrick Schinkel, Altes Museum

In addition to engaging Gehrys soft umbrella diagram, another of the originary conditions for
Gehrys Lewis Building for the Weatherhead School of Management is a classical precedent,
more precisely, Karl Friedrich Schinkels Altes Museum.
S. Hambright

Drawing Canonical Ideas in Architecture

UofA

Lecture 11: Frank Gehry, Peter B. Lewis Building, 1997-2002

Schinkels Altes Museum and Gehrys Peter B. Lewis Building

Discuss the quote below using the images above.

Gehry uses the classical plan as an a priori ideal that evolves vertically, and at the same time
challenges the idea of sectional extrusion implicit in the classical plan.
S. Hambright

Drawing Canonical Ideas in Architecture

UofA

Lecture 11: Frank Gehry, Peter B. Lewis Building, 1997-2002

Schinkels Altes Museum and Gehrys Peter B. Lewis Building

The result resembles a classic Gehry expression, but the building requires the digital
processes of the computer to erode the section, which begins as an orthogonal condition, in a
way that would not have been possible with analogic methods.
S. Hambright

Drawing Canonical Ideas in Architecture

UofA

Lecture 11: Frank Gehry, Peter B. Lewis Building, 1997-2002

This invocation of the digital is crucial to understanding the evolution of the Lewis Building,
and its conceptual differences in engaging precedents, from Lynns work, which undermines
the role of precedents.
S. Hambright

Drawing Canonical Ideas in Architecture

UofA

Lecture 11: Frank Gehry, Peter B. Lewis Building, 1997-2002

Gehry, Peter B. Lewis Building, study model, June 1997

The earliest study models of June 1997 reveal a tension between orthogonal organizations
with clear historical precedents and biomorphic forms related to Gehrys exploration of digital
modeling.
S. Hambright

Drawing Canonical Ideas in Architecture

UofA

Lecture 11: Frank Gehry, Peter B. Lewis Building, 1997-2002

Neutra, Kaufmann House

Gehry, Peter B. Lewis Building, study model, June 1997

Schindler, Schindler House

A two-color model, reminiscent of a Richard Neutra or Rudolf Schindler project of the 1920s
and 1930s in terms of its blocky massing, has a base on which the smaller blocks of its
uppers level sit..
S. Hambright

Drawing Canonical Ideas in Architecture

UofA

Lecture 11: Frank Gehry, Peter B. Lewis Building, 1997-2002

Karl Friedrick Schinkel, Altes Museum

Gehry, Peter B. Lewis Building

This U-shaped organization of blocks is frontalized like any classical building with a distinct
propylaea or frontispiececlearly articulated, voided spacebi-nuclear elementvertical
cutstrong central axisrecall both classical and neoclassical precedents.
S. Hambright

Drawing Canonical Ideas in Architecture

UofA

Lecture 11: Frank Gehry, Peter B. Lewis Building, 1997-2002

Gehry, Peter B. Lewis Building, study model, June 1997

A second modelits voided center is a wellspring for curving and biomorphic forms in metal
and plasticthe energy is not coming from above, as would be the case in a soft umbrella
diagram, but from below, as if the blocky organization of the model were being overcome from
within.
S. Hambright

Drawing Canonical Ideas in Architecture

UofA

Lecture 11: Frank Gehry, Peter B. Lewis Building, 1997-2002

Gehry, Peter B. Lewis Building, study model, September 1997

The next model, from September 1997, returns to a building of boxlike units, yet introduces a
distinct pinwheeling character.
S. Hambright

Drawing Canonical Ideas in Architecture

UofA

Lecture 11: Frank Gehry, Peter B. Lewis Building, 1997-2002

Gehry, Peter B. Lewis Building, sketch, October 1997

Discuss the base condition, forces, and volumes in the image above.

The tension between the biomorphic and orthagonal forms is poignantly captured in a sketch
for the Lewis Building from October 1997, which appears at first glance to be little more than a
doodle.
S. Hambright

Drawing Canonical Ideas in Architecture

UofA

Lecture 11: Frank Gehry, Peter B. Lewis Building, 1997-2002

Gehry, Peter B. Lewis Building, study model, October 1997

The model of October 1997, seemingly based on this sketch, suggests the integration of a Ushaped and corner-towered palazzo with a diagram of biomorphic forms exploding from a
voided center.
S. Hambright

Drawing Canonical Ideas in Architecture

UofA

Lecture 11: Frank Gehry, Peter B. Lewis Building, 1997-2002

Gehry, Peter B. Lewis Building, digital model, April 1998

The digital model produced in April 1998 manifests the coexistence of these two types of
organizations, maintaining their distinction in its two-color scheme. This is not a top-down
strategy, nor is it a monochromatic or monolithic material strategy, but one that remains
dialectical in its nature and bi-nuclear around a voided center.
S. Hambright

Drawing Canonical Ideas in Architecture

UofA

Lecture 11: Frank Gehry, Peter B. Lewis Building, 1997-2002

Gehry, Peter B. Lewis Building, study model, May 1998

Discuss the base, external wrapper, voided center, bi-nuclear central element, and interior/exterior wrapper

The two study models of May 1998 and March 1999 are sectional models revealing the
presence of the base and corner towers, which are articulated in a different material.
S. Hambright

Drawing Canonical Ideas in Architecture

UofA

Lecture 11: Frank Gehry, Peter B. Lewis Building, 1997-2002

Gehry, Peter B. Lewis Building

These two components base and biomorphic forms share a dialectical relationship, but
the question remains whether the biomorphic forms are coming up from the base, being
pulled down to the base, or, alternatively, are suspended between the base and the roof.
S. Hambright

Drawing Canonical Ideas in Architecture

UofA

Lecture 11: Frank Gehry, Peter B. Lewis Building, 1997-2002

Gehry, Peter B. Lewis Building, study model, March 1999

More interesting is that the sectional energies in the May 1998 and March 1999 models
present a section in which the biomorphic form becomes a wrapper for an internal volume, a
form within a form.
S. Hambright

Drawing Canonical Ideas in Architecture

UofA

Lecture 11: Frank Gehry, Peter B. Lewis Building, 1997-2002

Gehry, Peter B. Lewis Building, section, 2000

Discuss the dialectical conditions using the section above.

The section produces a dialogue between container and contained, figure and ground,
vertical and horizontal, and forces of erosion and stability. All of these dialectical
characteristics are apparent in the model.
S. Hambright

Drawing Canonical Ideas in Architecture

UofA

Lecture 11: Frank Gehry, Peter B. Lewis Building, 1997-2002

Gehry, Peter B. Lewis Building, study models

While supposedly an expressionist artist, Gehry adopts a process, as evidenced in these

study models, that combines intuition with the understanding of the less-than-conscious
influence of historical precedents.
S. Hambright

Drawing Canonical Ideas in Architecture

UofA

Lecture 11: Frank Gehry, Peter B. Lewis Building, 1997-2002

Le Corbusier, Villa Savoy, sketch

Le Corbusier, Palais des Congres-Strasbourg

The corkscrewlike energy of the section differs significantly from that at Le Corbusiers Palais
des Congres-Strasbourg or from the ramp at Poissy.
S. Hambright

Drawing Canonical Ideas in Architecture

UofA

Lecture 11: Frank Gehry, Peter B. Lewis Building, 1997-2002

James Stirling, Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart, Germany

The section for example, is reminiscent of James Stirlings Staatsgalerie in Stuttgart,

suggesting that a critical evaluation of the relationship between the Altes Museum, the
Staatsgalerie, and the Lewis Building could prove interesting..
S. Hambright

Drawing Canonical Ideas in Architecture

UofA

Lecture 11: Frank Gehry, Peter B. Lewis Building, 1997-2002

These are important conceptual images reiterating a concept of a quasi-invisible ground

which is rooted in historical precedents, such as corner towers, set against the energy of
emergent biomorphic forms.
S. Hambright

Drawing Canonical Ideas in Architecture

UofA

Lecture 11: Frank Gehry, Peter B. Lewis Building, 1997-2002

Gehry, Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao

Gehry, Fred and Ginger Building

Gehry, Fish sculpture, Barcelona

The project for the Lewis Building falls between the conscious and the unconscious, between
the analogic and the digital, and as such is different from Gehrys other projects.
S. Hambright

Drawing Canonical Ideas in Architecture

UofA

Lecture 11: Frank Gehry, Peter B. Lewis Building, 1997-2002

Koolhaas, Convention Center, Agadir

Libeskind, Jewish Museum

Gehry, Peter B. Lewis Building

Digital modeling provides the possibility of an extension of space that is no longer

necessarily Cartesian, yet is different from Koolhaass Agadir section or Libeskinds erosion of
the x-axis at the Jewish Museum.
S. Hambright

Drawing Canonical Ideas in Architecture

UofA

Lecture 11: Frank Gehry, Peter B. Lewis Building, 1997-2002

Le Corbusier, Maison Dom-ino

Foreign Office Architects, Yokohame Ferry Terminal

The lateral and continuous extension of space as a horizontal datum seen in the Maison
Dom-ino can now be modulated in a more nuanced manner, as is the case in Agadir, or in
Foreign Office Architects project for Yokohama, each of which focuses on the disturbance of
the horizontal section as their thematic.
S. Hambright

Drawing Canonical Ideas in Architecture

UofA

Lecture 11: Frank Gehry, Peter B. Lewis Building, 1997-2002

Gehry, Peter B. Lewis Building

It is the rethinking of section differently from Koolhaas, Libeskind, and Le Corbusier that
makes the Lewis Building again a fulcrum between past and future ideas of section.
S. Hambright

Drawing Canonical Ideas in Architecture

UofA

Lecture 11: Frank Gehry, Peter B. Lewis Building, 1997-2002

Gehry, Peter B. Lewis Building

The Lewis Building is a cusp project between the past as present and the present as future,
and broaches the underlying paradigm shift that occurs in questioning the precedence of the
unity of the classical part-to-whole relationship.
S. Hambright

Drawing Canonical Ideas in Architecture

UofA

Lecture 11: Frank Gehry, Peter B. Lewis Building, 1997-2002

Historically, any paradigm shift begins with the denial of precedent as a necessary agent. In
this sense, the analysis here may be a work of sublime yet necessary uselessness in the face
of the evolving ability to produce conditions internal to component relationships that have no
necessary analogic relationship to any prior, or precedent, condition.
S. Hambright

Drawing Canonical Ideas in Architecture

UofA

Lecture 11: Frank Gehry, Peter B. Lewis Building, 1997-2002

If anything architecture has changed as a result of these ten buildings, it is primarily the
subtle change in the relationship of subject to object. This occurs in two senses: first, the
change in close reading necessitated by the emergence of figural forces produced through
digital processes; second, the change in the subjects physical relationship to the object, with
the subject himself becoming an object of the gaze.
S. Hambright

Drawing Canonical Ideas in Architecture

UofA