Frank Gehry, the visionary architect whose sweeping titanium forms re-imagined the skyline and turned buildings into living sculptures, has passed at the age of 96 at his home in Santa Monica, California. His passing marks the end of a remarkable era in architecture, but his influence continues to ripple through cities across the world.

Gehry did not just design buildings; he captured movement and translated it into solid form. Gehry’s work defied convention from the start. Born in Toronto in 1929 as Frank Goldberg, he moved to Los Angeles as a young man, where the city’s light, space, and possibility shaped his creative imagination. Early in his career, Gehry experimented with unconventional materials; chain-link fencing, corrugated metal, and plywood signalling that architecture could be playful, daring, and expressive.

The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao
 Image Credit- Photo by David Vives, Courtsey - Pexels

Over decades, Gehry transformed skylines with his signature style: buildings that appear to move, shimmer, and breathe. The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, with its gleaming titanium curves, became a global icon not just for art but for the city itself, sparking the phenomenon known as the “Bilbao effect” and showing that architecture could drive cultural and economic revival. In Los Angeles, the Walt Disney Concert Hall’s undulating steel-clad surfaces became a symbol of the city’s creative ambition, while his residential and cultural projects worldwide pushed the boundaries of form, material, and imagination.

The Walt Disney Concert Hall
 Image Credit- Photo by Pixabay, Courtsey - Pexels

He pioneered an architectural language that was raw, expressive, and unapologetically free, using cutting-edge software to achieve forms that began as loose, intuitive sketches.

He once famously said “If I knew where I was going, I wouldn't do it. When I can predict or plan it, I don't do it.”

Gehry’s work liberated a generation of architects, proving that a building could be both highly functional and an extraordinary piece of sculptural art. His structures are not silent backdrops to life; they are central, compelling characters.

Gehry’s genius lay not only in the boldness of his structures but in the ideas they embodied: freedom from convention, the poetry of form, and the dialogue between material and environment. He received nearly every accolade available to an architect, including the Pritzker Prize in 1989, yet his work retained a sense of playfulness and surprise, inviting viewers to see the familiar world in new ways.

The Dancing House
 Image Credit- Photo by Palu Malerba, Courtsey - Pexels

Beyond the accolades and the iconic buildings, Gehry’s legacy is his vision: that architecture can inspire wonder, challenge expectations, and transform the way we live in and move through cities. His buildings will continue to stand as testaments to imagination made tangible, shimmering reminders of a life spent bending material to the rhythm of creativity.

Gehry's commitment to the profound impact of his craft remained until the end. He once said “Architecture is a service business. An architect is given a program, budget, place, and schedule. Sometimes the end product rises to art—or at least people call it that."

“Frank O. Gehry – Parc des Ateliers” by Forgemind ArchiMedia, CC BY 2.0, Courtesy - Flickr

Frank Gehry leaves behind an imprint of glorious, undulating chaos that is, in fact, an expression of the deepest human desire: the need for wonder. His works stand as a permanent invitation to look up, to think differently, and to appreciate that the highest form of architecture is not perfection, but inspired, confident imperfection. His genius endures, vibrating in the light reflected off a thousand curved panels, making the built world endlessly, beautifully restless.

Top image © “Frank O. Gehry – Parc des Ateliers” by Forgemind ArchiMedia, CC BY 2.0, Courtesy - Flickr.

Frank Gehry obituaries