Famous architect Frank O. Gehry died at 96 on Dec. 5. His chief of staff, Meaghan Lloyd, confirmed his death to The New York Times following a brief respiratory illness. Before his death, Gehry—who had sometimes been referred to as a “star-chitect”—designed famous buildings like the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, the New World Center in Miami, the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris, and the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao in Spain, whose unique structure drew in 1.3 million visitors in its first year, helping to revitalize the city. This success created what became known as the “Bilbao effect,” as developers around the world invested in intriguing new designs to draw in more people. Gehry also designed the IAC building for the Daily Beast’s New York headquarters. Later in his career, Gehry experimented with designs that were more sculptural, including works like the Vitra Design Museum in Germany and the Dancing House in Prague. In 1989, Gehry won the highly sought Pritzker Architecture Prize. “You go into architecture to make the world a better place,” Gehry said in 2012. “A better place to live, to work, whatever. You don’t go into it as an ego trip.” He is survived by his wife, Berta Aguilera, and their two sons, Alejandro and Sam, the latter of whom followed in his father’s footsteps to become an architectural designer.
The post Architecture Legend Frank Gehry Dies at 96 appeared first on The Daily Beast