Frank Gehry’s Complicated Legacy

Frank Gehry, the most famous and lauded architect in America, died last week at the age of 96. He exemplified the “starchitect,” a heady mix of celebrity, brand-name design, and signature aesthetics meant to wow. With perhaps false modesty, he complained about being “geniused to death.”

Based in Los Angeles, where he was immersed in the hipster art scene, he was so well known that he played himself in a cameo on The Simpsons, designed concrete cufflinks for Tiffany & Co. and a silly hat for Lady Gaga, and was mentioned by Hillary Clinton in 2013 in a cryptic comment on the need for a new international order: “We need a new architecture for this new world, more Frank Gehry than formal Greek.”

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Justin Shubow

Justin Shubow is the president of the National Civic Art Society and former chairman of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts.

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Frank Gehry, the most famous and lauded architect in America, died last week at the age of 96. He exemplified the “starchitect,” a heady mix of celebrity, brand-name design, and signature aesthetics meant to wow. With perhaps false modesty, he complained about being “geniused to death.”

Based in Los Angeles, where he was immersed in the hipster art scene, he was so well known that he played himself in a cameo on The Simpsons, designed concrete cufflinks for Tiffany & Co. and a silly hat for Lady Gaga, and was mentioned by Hillary Clinton in 2013 in a cryptic comment on the need for a new international order: “We need a new architecture for this new world, more Frank Gehry than formal Greek.”