Frank O. Gehry: Selected Works: 1969 to Today [Hardcover]

So prolific and innovative is Gehry that, like a poet, he merits a selected-works volume... this is a magnificent book. (Donna Seaman Booklist 20091201)

A stellar collection... the photographs are spectacular [and] will keep you coming back again and again. (Sheila Brady CanWest News Servicee 20080105)

A lavishly illustrated retrospective of his stellar contributions to architecture. (Sheldon Kirshner The Canadian Jewish News 20071231)

Mere words cannot capture the grandeur of Gehry's creations. It is the wealth of photographs that carry the book. (Grand Magazine 200801)

The book can be characterized as a collection of stunning photographs of Gehry's work held together by sparse but effective narrative. (BookNews 20080701)

A stellar collection of photographs of [Gehry's] masterpiece buildings ... Spectacular... [They] will keep you coming back again and again. (Sheila Brady, Homes Editor The Ottawa Citizen )

Hundreds of gorgeous colour photographs illustrate his ouevre...more than justifying the adulation of the Canadian-born master. (Jennifer David Canadian House & Home )

Recommended for public libraries with architecture and photography collections. (Valerie Nye, College of Santa Fe, New Mexico Library Journal )

This retrospective analysis of Gehry's work captures the architect's nuances. (Metalmag )

A stunning 600-page survey of an architectural genius' building designs.

Frank 0. Gehry is one of the world's most innovative and acclaimed architects, with an active career spanning nearly four decades. His heart-stopping designs can be seen across the globe, and while the buildings' functions vary, all share Gehry's signature elements: ingenious manipulations of light, shadow and geometry.

This exciting retrospective of Gehry's work is the first published in more than a decade and features hundreds of superb full-color photographs illustrating a selection of of the architect's most important designs. Five introductory essays detail his inventive use of cutting-edge technology and diverse materials, and his mastery of light, form and sculpture. Informative chapters come together with striking photographs to reveal the precision and poise of Gehry's buildings.

The selected projects range from the architect's tentative start in Los Angeles to his most famous commissions worldwide. They include:

• Edgemar Project (Santa Monica)
• American Center (Paris)
• Vila Olimpica (Barcelona)
• Walt Disney Concert Hall (Los Angeles)
• Goldstein Housing (Frankfurt)
• Guggenheim Museum (Bilbao)
• Pa riser Platz 3 (Berlin)
• Richard B. Bard Fisher Center (Bard College, New York State)
• Maggie's Centre (Dundee, Scotland)
• Millennium Park's Pritzker Pavillion (Chicago).

There are also photographs of Gehry's furniture designs plus discussions of his preferred materials and specific features: windows, metal, wood and natural light. Stimulating text and images by premier architectural photographers provide exclusive insight into one of the most creative minds in architecture.

(20080112)

Casey C. M. Mathewson studied architecture in Oregon and Stuttgart. In 1988 he founded mab -- mathewson architektur berlin -- an institute devoted to building and research in architecture. He is the author of XXsmallHouses and Beach Houses.

(20071215)

Form, Function, Sculpture

In the 1960s, when Frank Gehry decided to leave the rigidity of then dominant late modernism behind, nobody, least of all the architect himself, could know where the path would lead.

Rather than accepting the drab conventionality of the architectural marketplace, Gehry seeks creative dialogue with artists. The work of people like painter Mark Rothko, whose paintings are abstract yet deeply spiritual, convinced him that architecture can do more than fulfill mere pragmatic functions.

He uses the artist's devices, especially the sculptor's, to imbue his buildings with a holistic depth that never derails into rigidity. His is an architecture that elevates the chaos, fast-lane superficiality and eternal sunshine of his hometown, Los Angeles, to poetry.

With the demise of postmodernism in the early 1990s, Gehry offered an alternative. By rejuvenating the guiding paradigms of modernism, he shows that the long-dead believed principle "form follows function" can be interpreted in a myriad of new ways. Additionally, Gehry skillfully uses new technologies to realize expressionistic forms that allow the visionary utopian visions of early modernism to become reality.

Armed with ebullient yet uncompromising creativity, Gehry continues his ceaseless search for new solutions. As such, this book documents the inquisitive exploration of an architect for whom "architecture is an obsession."

(20081001)