10 iconic Frank Gehry buildings that transformed their environments

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Frank Gehry, who died Friday at 96, challenged the notion that buildings needed to behave themselves — creating artful, strange, kinetic combinations of structure, material, form and light, and transforming cities in the process.Here are 10 of his most famous structures that pushed the boundaries of architecture, culture, taste and technology.While only one piece of a much larger urban transformation, this uproarious structure, perched at the edge of the Basque city’s industrial waterfront, utterly transformed its image, giving birth to the overused phrase “Bilbao Effect.” Its curving, ever-changing titanium facade — with offset panels catching the light and wowing millions of visitors — became a symbol of a new era of baroque, digitally-driven architecture.

(Gehry and his team worked with CATIA, a software formerly employed by aircraft designers.) Inside, a dizzying atrium ties together a fluid series of galleries, all sized for contemporary art’s expanding scale.“I didn’t mean to change the city, I just meant to be part of the city,” Gehry told the design magazine Dezeen in 2021.

The project would achieve the former, and transform the field of architecture in the process.Entertainment & Arts Frank Gehry, known for ebullient cultural buildings like Disney Hall and helping invigorate the field of architecture at a moribund time, has died at 96.Dreamed up by Walt Disney’s widow, Lillian, in 1987, the project wouldn’t be completed until 2003.

But it was worth the wait.Now the cultural and visual anchor of downtown Los Angeles, Disney’s riot of titanium sails reflect rippling waves of music, Gehry’s love of sailing, fish scales and other nautical themes, and the frenetic city around it.

Inside, the boat-like, wood-clad hall has an intimate, vineyard-style seating arrangement, with its superb acoustics shaped by Yasuhisa Toyota.Don’t forget the 6...