Frank O. Gehry, the innovative master architect and prolific designer whose organically shaped, steel-covered Walt Disney Concert Hall transformed the landscape of downtown Los Angeles, died at his Santa Monica home Friday at age 96.
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His death followed a brief respiratory illness, Gehry Partners chief of staff Meaghan Lloyd said.
Gehry, who won the prestigious Pritzker Architecture Prize in 1989, is considered the most recognizable American architect since Frank Lloyd Wright. Among the first architects to embrace the potential of computer design, he pioneered an adventurous style frequently incorporating unexpected raw materials.
Along with Disney Hall, his most famous works include the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, a titanium-clad building that received international acclaim on its opening in 1997.
Other notable works are Miami's New World Center, a concert hall finished in 2011, and the Fondation Louis Vuitton, a museum in Paris completed in 2014.
He began designing in Los Angeles in the late 1970s, and there are more than 20 Gehry buildings located in the city, including the Venice building that is currently the local offices of Google.
"Frank Gehry didn't just design buildings -- he created spaces that lift up artists and have brought generations of people together," L.A. County Supervisor Janice Hahn posted on X as word spread Friday of Gehry's passing.
"His design of the SELA Cultural Center on the LA River will be a lasting gift to the families of Southeast LA. We've lost a giant. Thank you, Frank."
Supervisor Chair Hilda L. Solis offered similar sentiments, saying in a statement, "I am deeply saddened to learn of the passing of my dear friend Frank Gehry."
"It was one of the great honors of my life to work alongside him on several projects, including The Grand in Downtown Los Angeles, the Colburn School expansion, and our ongoing work to reimagine the Lower Los Angeles River -- where his vision helped inspire the possibility of the SELA Cultural Center, a concept that continues to develop with community engagement," Solis said.
"Frank's brilliance was matched only by his generosity of spirit, and his ability to see possibility where others saw limits transformed not only the County of Los Angeles and communities across the world, but all of us who had the privilege to work with him."
Solis added that, in recognition of Gehry's "extraordinary contributions," she has chosen the Walt Disney Concert Hall as the location for the new 2026 Board of Supervisors photo.
She called the structure "one of his most iconic and breathtaking works, and a treasured County asset," adding "It is a place that captures both his genius and the spirit of creativity he brought to our County and the world. His visionary legacy will continue to inspire generations. I will miss him dearly."
Governor Gavin Newsom and first partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom, in a joint statement Friday, also lauded Gehry as "the mind behind some of the most iconic architectural feats in the world, from the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao to California's own Walt Disney Concert Hall."
California's first couple went on to say, "Drawing on his working- class background, Frank's designs embraced the reality of living and the beauty of the everyday. His work encouraged imagination and freedom of thought, and recognized the value and the beauty of working people and neighborhoods, seeking to make room for everyone in this world -- especially the misfits like himself.
"Frank will be missed, but his legacy -- in California and beyond -- stands as tall as his finest creations."
Born Frank Owen Goldberg on Feb. 28, 1929, in Toronto, he changed his last name to Gehry in 1954. After finishing high school, Gehry moved with his parents to Los Angeles, which he once described as "brash, raucous, frontier" at the time.
Quoted in the 2009 book "Conversations With Frank Gehry," Gehry summed up the city for journalist Barbara Isenberg. In the 1950s, Los Angeles meant "Carney business. The movies. The development was vast and rampant. Whole neighborhoods seemed to spring up instantly in desert locations."
Gehry enrolled in night school at L.A. City College, where he took art and architecture classes, then went to USC, where he studied ceramics and architecture. He earned a bachelor's degree in architecture from USC in 1954.
Along with the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Gehry is perhaps most renowned for Disney Hall, the striking 2,265-seat venue clad in shimmering steel at the top of Bunker Hill that opened in 2003. Gehry's design includes details as specific as the carpet pattern used in the auditorium.
Resembling silver sails, the hall's design partly plays off the look of the Music Center's nearby Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, forging a link between the two.
Esa-Pekka Salonen, incoming creative director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, described his 2004 composition, "Wing on Wing," as "an homage to an extraordinary building by an extraordinary man."
Gehry is survived by his wife, Berta, and four children.
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