Frank Gehry: Renowned architect known for Guggenheim Museum Bilbao and Walt Disney Concert Hall dies aged 96
Frank Gehry, a renowned architect, has died aged 96.
Frank Gehry was known for designing the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao in Spain and the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. His office confirmed to The Associated Press and AFP that he has died aged 96.
Gehry died Friday in his home in Santa Monica, California, after a brief respiratory illness, said Meaghan Lloyd, chief of staff at Gehry Partners LLP. He won every major prize that architecture has to offer, including the field's top honor, the Pritzker Architecture Prize, for what has been described as "refreshingly original and totally American" work.
Other honors include the Royal Institute of British Architects gold medal, the Americans for the Arts lifetime achievement award and his native country's highest honor, the Companion of the Order of Canada.
He was the most recognizable American architect. Other famous works included Miami’s New World Center, a concert hall finished in 2011; and the Fondation Louis Vuitton, an ethereal museum in Paris completed in 2014.
Gehry is survived by his second wife Berta Aguilera, as well as their two sons Sam, also an architectural designer, and Alejandro, an artist. His daughter Leslie Gehry Brenner, from his first marriage to Anita Snyder, died in 2008.