I'm a do-gooder liberal. Frank Gehry More Quotes by Frank Gehry More Quotes From Frank Gehry Art is about people. I think the discussion about whether architecture is art or not is lamebrain. Frank Gehry people art thinking And I realized, when I'd come in to the meetings with these corrugated metal and chain link stuff, and people would just look at me like I'd just landed from Mars. But I couldn't do anything else. That was my response to the people and the time. Frank Gehry ties stuff people I refuse to work unless I get paid, so I don't get a lot of work sometimes. Frank Gehry refuse paid sometimes 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. Frank Gehry architecture cities use Each project, I suffer like I'm starting over again in life. There's a lot of healthy insecurity that fuels this stuff. Frank Gehry starting-over insecurity healthy The present is filled with flotsam and irony and chaos and disorder in all arenas, political and sociological. I think we have to work in the present even if it's awkward, even if it's not necessarily good, even if we don't understand it ourselves. You only find out 10, maybe 20 years later what was going on. Frank Gehry political years thinking There are people who design buildings that are not technically and financially good, and there are those who do. Two categories - simple. Frank Gehry simple two people 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. Frank Gehry people way thinking I don't think all buildings have to be iconic, but the history of the world has shown us that cultures build iconic buildings for their major public buildings. Frank Gehry culture world thinking Generally people are afraid. They pretend they aren’t; it’s part of the denial. We’re all part of it. As much as we pretend otherwise, we want what’s comfortable, and we’re afraid of the different. We’re afraid of change. It happened in Los Angeles, too, when the first models of Disney Hall were shown. You should have heard the outcry from the public, critics and press. It was called “broken crockery,” “outlandish” and blah blah blah. Of course now the feeling is different. Frank Gehry broken feelings people One of my unsung heroes is Erich Mendelsohn. I met him when I was a student and he was a cranky old man and very unpleasant. But if you go to his Einstein Tower in Potsdam, Germany you see an enormous intellect at work with a language that was personal and new. It has a sense of urban design and of theater and procession I hadn't seen before. Frank Gehry design hero men I used to sketch - that's the way I thought out loud. Then they made a book of my sketches, and I got self-conscious, so now I don't do it much. Frank Gehry self book way The rap on me on the street is the opposite - I'm impractical, I'm more expensive, it's too complicated and I run over budgets, which isn't true. None of that's true and there's plenty of documentation if anybody needs it. Frank Gehry rap opposites running I'm inspired by a lot of stuff. I always was interested in sculpture and painting and music and literature and all those things. There's no one thing. Frank Gehry sculpture literature stuff When you agree to collaborate, you agree to jump off a cliff holding hands with everyone, hoping the resourcefulness of each will insure that you all land on your feet. Frank Gehry land feet hands I think my best skill as an architect is the achievement of hand-to-eye coordination. I am able to transfer a sketch into a model into the building. Frank Gehry eye hands thinking Cardboard is another material that's ubiquitous and everybody hates, yet when I made furniture with it everybody loved it. Frank Gehry furniture hate made Just because you are an architect and make decent buildings does not mean that you can suddenly become a set designer for one of the best avant-garde dancers in the world. Frank Gehry dancer doe mean If the room is friendly to a relationship between lecturer and audience, you feel everything - the tension, the appreciation. I think the audience feels it too. Frank Gehry friendly appreciation thinking Generally people are more impressed with the services and the comfort issues than the design. Frank Gehry issues design people
