<p>Gehry, like or loathe his work, is the most important architect of our era–for what he contributed to the explosion in the form of architecture AND for what he contributed to the professional use of 3D CA technology.</p>
<p>This is an important film for young architecture students–BA and BArch alike. </p>
<li><p>Gehry describes how he meandered into architecture from a ceramics class at USC. Since that danged BA/MArch I degree doesn’t give enough design studio time, I often recommend that BA students take a couple of sculpture courses–but now I will add ceramics. Listen to Gehry talk about his experience with ceramics. Note his longstanding friendships with artists. when he talks about looking for the uncomfortable aspect of the design versus the easily ‘pretty’, I suspect that is a theme he’s learned from painters–not architects. That’s the way painters talk in art school.</p></li>
<li><p>Gehry describes how the professors tried to drum him out of the architecture school. That happened to a number of students (usually women) in my day and it wouldn’t surprise me if it is still subtly happening. Gehry suspected that he was targeted becuase he was Jewish (His real name is Goldberg. He changed to Gehry after he graduated).</p></li>
<li><p>Gehry was born in 1929. He is 78 this year. Keep this in mind when you watch him amble through mind-blowing design with bits of scotch tape and cardboard. Compare that work with the work in the beginning of his career–Santa Monica Place for example. This is an old man’s/old woman’s profession. It takes a couple of decades to get as fascile as Gehry is in his late 70s. Look at Le Corbusier’s work at the end of his career versus the work he did when he was in his twenties and thirties. Huge difference–and that’s the way it should be. you spend the first couple of decades learning how building materials and light and space respond to your manipulation. Then in the last decades of your career you mix it up. You let loose. Have patience with yourself. </p></li>
<li><p>Warning: don’t think you can copy that scotch tape mess in architecture school. Gehry has a $500K computer system that translates those bits of paper into slick models and drawings. </p></li>
<li><p>Get to your own practices as quickly as possible. Gehry started his firm in '62 when he was 32. </p></li>
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<p>I think it’s a great exposure for architecture students to see multiple ways of working. You may come out the other side respecting that architect more, or less, than you did before, but either way you know more at the end.</p>
<p>I also heartily recommend the episode of the Charlie Rose show that documents Richard Meier and the building of the Getty Museum. I thought it was a riot when I first saw it, and feel even moreso now that I work for a firm that got to do one of the smaller Getty buildings that Meier was originally slated to do, because they were so fed up with working with him.</p>
<p>After seeing the film, I now definitely respect him a little - however I think there is a huge difference between Gehry’s “good work” and “bad work”- He seems to be one of the most polarized in terms of producing great feats and laughable structures.</p>
<p>I design buildings in exactly the same way–from models. What the film didn’t show you was Gehry’s reverse engineering computer which he feeds his rough ‘sculpture’ models through. It is a computer system used for designing aircraft and it is amazing. The movie did show the staff using computer pens to plot points on models to produce drawings. Also cool.</p>
<p>No need to feel sorry for those assistants. They are incredibly well-paid and happy with their roles as confidants to such an important, daring talent. Personally, I thought it looked like a great office to work in. I imagine that Gehry has a list of thousands of architects who want to work in his office.</p>
<p>I knew a guy who worked in Le Corbusier’s office. When he applied for work, he was asked, “Do you want to be on the list of people who will work for free? Or do you want to be on the lsit of people who want to be paid?”</p>
<p>Then, when the firewood supplier arrived at the office with the wood and a bill, Corbu told them to “take the bill over to that rich Indian boy. He can pay for it.” </p>
<p>Read ‘Many Masks’ by Brendan Gill for a terrific portrait of Frank Lloyd Wright and his working style.</p>
<p>See the movie “Building the Gherkin” to see Norman Foster’s office trying to cope with an obnoxious American project manager–but also to see his design process–which is centered on amazing models. Models are what’s happening now in architecture, sashimi.</p>
<p>To work in one of these offices as an apprentice is one of the most valuable things you can do for your ability and your career. In school, you won’t learn how to run a great architecture practice. You learn that by working for a great architect for a few years. Even if you have to buy the office firewood.</p>