Home / Authors / Frank Gehry

Frank Gehry

Frank Gehry Quotes

Architect

Frank Gehry, born on February 28, 1929, is a renowned architect from Canada. Known for his unique architectural style characterized by irregular, flowing lines and curves, Gehry is hailed as an innovator in the modern architectural world. His works are scattered across the globe, including the United States, Europe, and Asia, with some of his most famous projects being the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao in Spain and the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles.

Filter quotes by topic

All People Architecture Ifs Building Thinking Architect World Artist Art Knows Looks Stuff Way Design Want Cities Materials Should Budgets Different

Famous Frank Gehry Quotes

“There are a great many things about architecture that are hidden from the untrained eye.”

Eye Architecture Great Men

Author:Frank Gehry

“I am obsessed with architecture. It is true, I am restless, trying to find myself as an architect, and how best to contribute in this world filled with contradiction, disparity, and inequality, even passion and opportunity.”

World Trying Passion Opportunity This World Filled Architecture Obsession Inequality Obsessed Contradiction Architect Restless Disparity

Book:Frank O. Gehry: Selected Works : 1969 to Today

Source: Frank O. Gehry: Selected Works : 1969 to Today

“Architecture has always been a very idealistic profession. It's about making the world a better place and it works over the generations because people go on vacation and they look for it.”

People World Looks Generations Goes On Profession Architecture Vacation Better Place Idealistic

Author:Frank Gehry

“Architecture should speak of its time and place, but yearn for timelessness.”

Should Speak Talking Design Architecture Architect Bad Ass Badass Timelessness Architecture And Design Architecture Design Modern Architecture Architecture And Art Architectural Design

Author:Frank Gehry

“Look, architecture has a lot of places to hide behind, a lot of excuses. "The client made me do this." "The city made me do this." "Oh, the budget." I don't believe that anymore.”

Believe Looks Made Cities Behinds Don't Believe Excuse Architecture Budgets Clients

Author:Frank Gehry

“Liquid architecture. It's like jazz - you improvise, you work together, you play off each other, you make something, they make something. And I think it's a way of - for me, it's a way of trying to understand the city, and what might happen in the city.”

Thinking Way Trying Play Might Happens Together Cities Jazz Architecture Working Together Liquid

Author:Frank Gehry

“Chicago's one of the rare places where architecture is more visible.”

Architecture Visible Chicago

Author:Frank Gehry

“I don't want to do architecture that's dry and dull.”

Want Architecture Dry Dull

Author:Frank Gehry

“I think people care. If not, why do so many people spend money going on vacations to see architecture? They go to the Parthenon, to Chartres, to the Sydney Opera House. They go to Bilbao... Something compels them, and yet we live surrounded by everything but great architecture.”

People Ifs Thinking Care House Architecture Vacation Opera Sydney Opera House Parthenon Going On Vacation

Author:Frank Gehry

“I found myself starting architecture with a deep social, Jewish, liberal conscience, and the belief that architecture is for the people. It was a do-gooder base; I was born and raised that way. I was for blacks, whites, Italians, Poles, whatever.”

People Way Found Belief Social Born Conscience Raised Starting Architecture Born And Raised

Author:Frank Gehry

“The idealism [in architecture] is in the formal arrangement, the relationship to the city, the use of materials that are available to me. That's where I say our powers are limited.”

Use Cities Materials Available Architecture Formal Arrangements Idealism

Author:Frank Gehry

“Anybody I talk to agrees that maybe 2 percent of the building environment since the war, we could call architecture.”

War Environment Building Percent Agree Architecture

Author:Frank Gehry

“You see a lot of so-called architecture that part of the ego trip overpowers the functionality and the budget and all that stuff.”

Stuff Ego Architecture Budgets Functionality Ego Trip

Author:Frank Gehry

“Ninety percent of the buildings we live in and around aren't architecture. No, that's not right - 98 percent.”

Building Percent Architecture Ninety

Author:Frank Gehry

“People say, "This is the world the way it is, and don't bother me." Then when somebody does something different, real architecture, the push-back is amazing. People resist it. At first it's new and scary.”

People World Way Firsts Doe Different Real Scary Architecture Bother Amazing People

Author:Frank Gehry

“Art is about people. I think the discussion about whether architecture is art or not is lamebrain.”

People Thinking Art Art Is Architecture Discussion

Author:Frank Gehry

“In the Renaissance there wasn't a distinction. Bernini was an artist and he made architecture, and Michelangelo also did some great architecture.”

Made Artist Architecture Distinction Renaissance Bernini

Author:Frank Gehry

“The back of Saint Peter's is one of the finest pieces of architecture I've ever seen.”

Pieces Saint Architecture Peter Finest Saint Peter

Author:Frank Gehry

“That's what you have to find in architecture. You have to find your signature. When you find it, you're the only expert on it. People can say they like it or don't like it. They can argue about it, but it's yours.”

People Architecture Arguing Experts Signatures

Author:Frank Gehry

“Generally in our world, whether in architecture or almost anywhere else, we devalue the artist, and schools at whatever level shut people down.”

People World School Artist Levels Architecture Our World Devalue

Author:Frank Gehry

“I attended a lecture by a gray-haired old man from Finland, who later I discovered was the architect Alvar Aalto. I was very moved. I wasn't interested in architecture, but it was a moving thing I've never forgotten.”

Men Moving Moved Forgotten Architecture Old Man Gray Architect Lectures Finland

Author:Frank Gehry

“That's why you go into architecture - at least I did - to do things for people. I think most of us are idealists. You start out that way, anyway.”

People Thinking Way Architecture Idealist

Author:Frank Gehry

“It's not new that architecture can profoundly affect a place, sometimes transform it.”

Sometimes Architecture

Author:Frank Gehry

“Architecture and any art can transform a person, even save someone. It can for children - for anyone. It still does for me.”

Children Persons Doe Art Stills Architecture

Author:Frank Gehry

“I used to read more when I was a kid than I do now. It was all sort of fuel for the fire to teach you how to think and how to make things and it informed the architecture that I was doing. It's better coming in with that history and that kind of knowledge and depth of understanding of humanity that is very important for building buildings - for understanding people and how they should live and how you could make your lives better and stuff like that.”

People Thinking Should Kind Important Kids Used Humanity Stuff Understanding Teach Fire Building Depth Architecture Fuel

Author:Frank Gehry

“I think the biggest problem with 'industrial' architecture is that it's lost its sense of humanity. Minimalist stuff drains all the humanity out of it. That idea works great for the money thing, but it doesn't work great for the feeling thing.”

Thinking Feelings Problem Humanity Architecture

Author:Frank Gehry

“It's not new that architecture can profoundly affect a place, sometimes transform it. Architecture and any art can transform a person, even save someone. It can for children - for anyone. It still does for me.”

Children Art Sometimes Architecture

Author:Frank Gehry

“I don't know why people hire architects and then tell them what to do.”

People Knows Architecture Ass Architect Bad Ass Badass Architecture And Design Architecture Design

Author:Frank Gehry

“Man, there's another freedom out there, and it comes from somewhere else, and that somewhere else is the place I'm interested in.”

Men Architecture Somewhere Else

Author:Frank Gehry

“Architecture is a small piece of this human equation, but for those of us who practice it, we believe in its potential to make a difference, to enlighten and to enrich the human experience, to penetrate the barriers of misunderstandin g and provide a beautiful context for life's drama.”

Believe Humans Beautiful Differences Practice Pieces Drama Architecture Making A Difference Barriers Equations Human Experience Penetrate Enlightening Small Pieces

Book:Frank O. Gehry: Selected Works : 1969 to Today

Source: Frank O. Gehry: Selected Works : 1969 to Today

About the Author

Born: February 28, 1929
Known for: Architect
Quotes: 170

Related Topics

People Architecture Ifs Building Thinking Architect World Artist Art Knows Looks Stuff Way Design Want Cities Materials Should Budgets Different

Popular Topics

People Ifs Thinking Knows Men World Way Want Love Life Inspirational Needs Giving Feels Should Writing Trying Years Mind Firsts

Books & Sources

Frank O. Gehry: Selected Works : 1969 to TodayRelated source material

Dancing buildingRelated source material

Similar Authors

Curtis W. FentressBrowse related quotes
Zaha HadidBrowse related quotes
Tadao AndoBrowse related quotes
David ChipperfieldBrowse related quotes
Frank Lloyd WrightBrowse related quotes
Alexander Jackson DavisBrowse related quotes
Renzo PianoBrowse related quotes
Lebbeus WoodsBrowse related quotes
Ludwig Mies van der RoheBrowse related quotes
Jean NouvelBrowse related quotes