Common Core State Standard: ELA: Literacy: R.L. 3.3-5.3, R.L. 3.7-6.7, R.L. 3.1-5.1, R.L. 6.4-8.4, R.H.
6-8.4, R.H. 6-8.7
Meet the Architect: Frank Gehry
Written by the Staff at Lyman Allyn Art Museum
• Born 1929 in Toronto, Canada
• Architect, Professor
• Still working at age 87
Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain (built 1993-97).
Frank Gehry grew up playing with materials
at his grandfather’s hardware store. He built
miniature houses and cities with the supplies
on hand. Gehry is now 87 years old and still
designs buildings all over the world. Some of
his buildings look almost like giant sculptures;
the “Dancing House” in the Czech Republic has a
very unusual twisting exterior. He also designed
the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain (built
1993-97). He used many different materials
including stone, glass and titanium to create
the building’s uneven wavy exterior. Gehry uses
special computer software from the aerospace
industry to design his buildings. This software
allows him to turn his sketches into mechanical
drawings that engineers can use to create the
building.
ART ACTIVITY
Imagine a building made
of marshmallows! If you
could use odd or unusual
materials to create a
building what materials
would you use and why?
Make a sketch of your
building.