Science & technology

Architect Frank Gehry Dies at 96

Was he a visionary who elevated architecture to cultural icon status, or a celebrity architect who prioritized spectacle over function?

DEC 6 2025·Updated DEC 7 2025

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Above: Frank Gehry at Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles on Oct. 5, 2023. Image credit: Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images

The Facts

Frank Gehry, the Pritzker Prize-winning architect known for designing the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao and the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, died on Friday at age 96 at his home in Santa Monica, California, following a brief respiratory illness.
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Born Ephraim Owen Goldberg in Toronto, Canada, on Feb. 28, 1929, Gehry moved to Los Angeles with his family in 1947 and later changed his surname, a decision he attributed to concerns about antisemitism, before earning his architecture degree from the University of Southern California in 1954.
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The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, which opened in 1997 with its titanium-clad exterior, drew more than 1.3 million visitors in its first year and sparked the Bilbao Effect, where cities hired prominent architects to design landmark buildings to spur tourism and economic development.
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Gehry's 2003 Walt Disney Concert Hall in downtown Los Angeles, featuring a curvilinear stainless steel exterior resembling billowing sails, was described by critics as both "a pile of broken crockery" and "the greatest public building in America of the 21st century."
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In New York, Gehry designed the 76-story residential tower at 8 Spruce Street, completed in 2011 with 10,500 steel panels that change color under different lighting conditions, and the IAC Building in Chelsea, which resembles sails on a ship and was completed in 2007.
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Gehry is survived by his wife, Berta Aguilera, and their two sons, Alejandro and Samuel; his daughter from his first marriage to Anita Snyder died in 2008. He leaves behind a legacy of buildings, including the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris.
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Sources Split

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The Spin

Narrative A

Frank Gehry's death marks the loss of an architect who achieved unparalleled worldwide fame through imaginative designs such as the Guggenheim Bilbao and the Disney Concert Hall. His strong Hollywood connections and collaborations with celebrities demonstrated architecture's cultural relevance beyond academic circles. Despite critics dismissing some work as tourist attractions or oversized scrap-wood cities, Gehry earned every major architectural prize and personally oversaw projects well into his 90s.

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Narrative B

No one can deny that Frank Gehry's trajectory has been unique. However, his work highlighted a dangerous reduction of architecture to celebrity branding and sculptural spectacle rather than functional design. The focus on dazzling exteriors distracted from architecture's true purpose, as critics rightfully questioned whether these buildings served as anything more than global marketing tools. His reputation as a "star-chitect" exemplified how architecture became corrupted by fame-seeking rather than serving communities.