• FRANK GEHRY WAS born in Toronto, Canada, in 1929.

• At the age of 17, he moved with his family to Los Angeles, California and studied
architecture at the University of Southern California.

• Later, he studied city Planning at Harvard University. He established his own firm in
1962 in Los Angeles.

• Since that time, he has designed public and private buildings in America, Japan and
Europe.

• Gehry’s work has earned him several of the most significant awards in the
architectural field. Including the Pritzker Architectural Prize.
"Every building is by its very nature a sculpture . You can't help it. Sculpture is a three -
dimensional object and so is a building .”

“I approach each building as a sculptural object, a spatial container, a space with light
and air, a response to context and appropriateness of feeling and spirit. To this container,
this sculpture, the user begins this baggage, this program, and interacts with it to
accommodate this needs . If he can’t do that, I’ve failed.”

In spite of changes in Gehry’s design over the years, his approach to a building as a
sculpture retains.
Much of Gehry's work falls within the style of Deconstructivism, which is often referred to
as post-structuralist in nature for its ability to go beyond current modalities of structural
definition.

In architecture, its application tends to depart from modernism in its inherent criticism of
culturally inherited givens such as societal goals and functional necessity.

Because of this, unlike early modernist structures, Deconstructivist structures are not
required to reflect specific social or universal ideas, such as speed or universality of form,
and they do not reflect a belief that form follows function.

Gehry's own Santa Monica residence is a commonly cited example of deconstructivist

architecture, as it was so drastically divorced from its original context, and in such a
manner as to subvert its original spatial intention.
 • Use to play with scrap wood with
his grandmother on the floor

• Drawn to the social issues,

architecture is the panacea for
cities futures

• “For me it's a free association, but

it grows out of a sense of
responsibility, sense of values,
human values. The importance of
relating to the community, and all
of those things...and the client's
budget, their pocketbook, the
client's wishes”

Gehry’s architecture has undergone a marked evolution from the plywood and
corrugated-metal vernacular of his early works to the distorted but pristine concrete of
his later works. However, the works retain a deconstructed aesthetic that fits well with
the increasingly disjointed culture to which they belong.`
California Aerospace Museum, Exposition Park- 1982-84

• The Aerospace Museum in California is one of Frank Gehry’s early museum

commissions. Completed in 1984.
• Together with other structures (including a DC-8 jetliner), they constitute the California
Science Center complex in Los Angeles.
• During this time, Gehry was more famous for the eccentric, out-of-the-box designs he
did for various Californian residences, and this he carried over into the Aerospace
Museum.
It is situated on a flat, narrow, rectangular site in Exposition Park, south of downtown Los
Angeles. The building is located near the park’s northeast corner. Its immediate environment
consists of a paved lot with an outdoor airplane exhibit to the east, State Drive and other
museum buildings to the south, and the Exposition Park Rose Garden to the west. The
Aerospace Museum has a steel structural system and an irregular floor plan. It is essentially
composed of two 80-foot forms, one regular and one irregular, separated by a viewing
tower. Primary building materials include concrete, stucco, and sheet metal.
The building’s roof is complex and consists of shed and flat roofs of varying heights. Tall,
visible skylight enclosures rise from the roofs over the 80-foot forms. The skylight in the
west volume is a rhombus in plan and its enclosure is clad with sheet metal, while the
skylight in the east volume is a cross in plan and its enclosure is clad with stucco.
The building’s primary elevation faces south, although its main entrance is accessed from the
building’s north side via a ramp. The concrete ramp winds from the west end of the
building’s south side to a very narrow plaza on the north side between the armory and the
museum. The entrance itself consists of pairs of glazed aluminum doors facing both north and
west. Above the entry doors is a stucco, glass, and aluminum elevator tower topped with a
large, metal-clad sphere. The aluminum and glass portion of the tower has a shed roof and
appears to be breaking through the stepped, block-like, stuccoed portion.
• The structure is segmented, comprising of a
union of differentiated pieces brought
together in a spatial collage of artistic style
and architectural form.

• The Museum's exterior has the signature

sculptural style that permeates Gehry's
work, with the facade of the building an
arrangement of intricate stylistic
components: a large metal-skinned
polygon, a glass wall with a windowed
prism above it, and a stucco cube with a
hangar door.

• A curving ramp leads from the south (mall)

facade around the polygon to the north side
of the building where the entrance is
located and where the new structure joins
the old red-brick armory. The unobtrusive
entrance is almost a "back-door."
• The purpose of the structure is
reinforced through these materials,
with the building itself as an
abstraction of aircraft and their
environment.

• This notion of reflection is what

makes the Aerospace Museum
outstanding in the Gehry body of
work, the building itself is an
exploration of what the museum
contains, an example of the power
of purposeful architecture, which
Gehry blends so effectively with
abstract sculptural forms.
The interior of the Museum is as dynamic as its exterior, designed to give patrons an
uninhibited experience of the museum, with the freedom to explore in a non-linear fashion
through the buildings circulatory system of ramps, flanking stairs and platforms that bring
viewers through the museum at multiple elevations, around the suspended aircraft on
display.
The use of skylights is a
necessity for the
illumination of the
interior spaces, however
Gehry again takes a
unique approach to
these elements,
incorporating them into
walls, angling and
rotating them to become
architectural elements
within themselves, rather
than simply utilities.
• Located in a park with museums, a sports arena, coliseum, and other buildings in a variety
of architectural styles, the Aerospace museum is also attached on the north side to an old
classically- influenced Armory (which comprises the majority of the interior space).
• This post-modern facade is made up of an arrangement of diverse sculptural components:
a large metal-skinned polygon, a glass wall with a windowed prism above it, and a plain
stucco cube with a hangar door.

The south facade

A later addition to the complex was the IMAX
theater on the east side. Like Gehry's own
home and the courtyard of his Cabrillo Marine
Museum, this work uses his early trademark--
chain-link fencing.