From Designing the Guggenheim to Appearing on The Simpsons: The Curious Life of Frank Gehry Beyond Architecture

On his 82nd birthday, Frank Gehry celebrated in style on the 76th floor of 8 Spruce Street in New York – a location that was not chosen at random: it was the first skyscraper that the architect designed in the course of his long career. The party was attended by everyone from Bono to actress Candice Bergen, painter Chuck Close, and a host of artists and entrepreneurs who turned the eyes of the press and much of New York society to the rippling building at number 8.

But it was not the first time (nor would it be the last) that Gehry attracted attention for his private life. The architect, best known for such innovative works as the Guggenheim in Bilbao, the Walt Disney Concert Hall at the Los Angeles Music Center, and the Weisman Art Museum in Minneapolis, is also a well-known public figure.

In the course of his life, he has become his own brand, a celebrity and a kind of advertising phenomenon. In addition to the peculiar architectural works that combine twisted forms and unfinished materials (and which have earned him awards such as the Pritzker and the Princess of Asturias Award for the Arts), Gehry has designed everything from a hat for Lady Gaga to jewelry for Tiffany & Co.

Cardboard chairs and a hat for Lady Gaga

In 1960, when he was in his early thirties and had not yet designed the buildings that would make him world famous, Frank Gehry began work on his Easy Edges furniture collection. These pieces are striking for their innovative shapes, but above all for the material from which they are made – corrugated cardboard.

Table and chair from the Easy Edges collection. Rob Corder (Flickr).

With Easy Edges, Gehry wanted to further develop the idea of creating economical design furniture, thus beginning a long career of turning ideas about architecture and sculpture into everyday objects. Years later, he designed a line of jewelry and a chess set for Tiffany & Co, a handbag for Louis Vuitton, fish-shaped lamps shown at the California Aerospace Museum, and even vodka bottles for the Wyborowa brand.

Fish Lamps by Frank Gehry. C-Monster (Flickr).

Frank Gehry’s fame and social life have made him a reference point for the most daring designs, including a request from Italian artist Francesco Vezzoli to design a hat for Lady Gaga. The result was a shiny silver garment inspired by the shape of the Walt Disney Concert Hall, which the architect designed on his smartphone and which was manufactured by Prada.

“Since I had never designed a hat before, I was afraid she wouldn’t be able to walk with it,” Gehry told the New Yorker. “I came up with an idea that consisted of other people walking behind holding it up with sticks. I didn’t know how far I could go with this thing.”

In the end, Lady Gaga did indeed manage to walk with the hat, wearing it during a performance she gave with the Bolshoi Ballet dancers at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles in 2009.

An architect on The Simpsons

In the episode ‘The Seven Beer Snitch’, Marge hears a neighbor from rival town Shelbyville say that the people of Springfield have no culture. Furious, she convinces the city’s Cultural Committee to build a new opera house, which she asks Frank Gehry to design. He soon finds inspiration (on a crumpled piece of paper) and travels to Springfield to make the new project a reality.

The problem comes later, when the people of Springfield realize that they don’t need the brand-new building because, in reality, very few are interested in going to the opera. The plot of the rest of the episode (a story of prisons and snitches) revolves around Gehry’s building.

Over recent decades, The Simpsons has reflected the life and history of the United States and the rest of the world. The show has explored all kinds of social issues and all manner of celebrities have appeared in episodes: Jane Goodall, Paul McCartney, Donald Trump, Michelle Obama, Stephen Hawking and Elton John are just a few examples. The fact that Frank Gehry appears on this list is a demonstration of the role he plays in American society.

Frank Gehry has been and continues to be an unusual figure within the profession of architects, professionals who may have social and political relevance but who rarely become well-known figures in public life. With his philosophy, which seeks to bring architecture into society and link it to other disciplines such as fashion or sculpture, Frank Gehry has become a benchmark in the art world.