This blog post is a shout out to two architectural inspirations, Frank Lloyd Wright and Frank Gehry. To me, these two men are the yin and yang of building design... but together, they make for a photography field day. While Wright created structures that found perfect balance with their surroundings, Gehry's edifices stick out from their environments as if they were artifacts from another time and culture.
The above photo is the renowned Falling Water. This home is not far from my home in western Pennsylvania and it made for a great day trip during a visit to my parents. This photo, like every other postcard of Falling Water, does not scratch the surface of its genius. The home, with it cantilever brilliance, is tucked precisely in a lush valley and precariously over a waterfall. It still blows my mind how something as unnatural as a building can look so right for its environment.
The Guggenheim on Museum Mile in NYC was my first in-person exposure to Frank Lloyd Wright. What strikes me most about the Guggenheim is it completely contradicts almost every other FLW design... it does not fit in with its surroundings. Its top protrudes onto 5th Avenue and from blocks away, you can feel the arrogance of its design. If Frank Lloyd Wright and Frank Gehry were a Ven diagram, this building would be where the two Frank circles overlap.
I found Frank Gehry by accident on my cross country trip in 2005 (next post). I was in Chicago and my friend Sam and I stumbled upon Millennium Park and Gehry's amphitheater. About two weeks later, a Frank Gehry building met us in Seattle under the Space Needle. Having never seen a Gehry creation before the trip, the moment I saw the
Experience Music Project, I knew it was his.
I live about a quarter mile from MIT and Gehry's Stata Center. Though it has found itself in the midst of some legal battles over the malfunctions associated with its auspicious design, this structure is still as visionary as it is controversial. Each viewing angle of the Stata Center reveals a completely different building that could alone stand as a singular contribution to the world of architecture. From the front (above), windows bulge like random Jenga blocks, while the back resembles something out of Dr. Seuss' Whoville.
The Guggenheim on Museum Mile in NYC was my first in-person exposure to Frank Lloyd Wright. What strikes me most about the Guggenheim is it completely contradicts almost every other FLW design... it does not fit in with its surroundings. Its top protrudes onto 5th Avenue and from blocks away, you can feel the arrogance of its design. If Frank Lloyd Wright and Frank Gehry were a Ven diagram, this building would be where the two Frank circles overlap.
I found Frank Gehry by accident on my cross country trip in 2005 (next post). I was in Chicago and my friend Sam and I stumbled upon Millennium Park and Gehry's amphitheater. About two weeks later, a Frank Gehry building met us in Seattle under the Space Needle. Having never seen a Gehry creation before the trip, the moment I saw the Experience Music Project, I knew it was his.
I live about a quarter mile from MIT and Gehry's Stata Center. Though it has found itself in the midst of some legal battles over the malfunctions associated with its auspicious design, this structure is still as visionary as it is controversial. Each viewing angle of the Stata Center reveals a completely different building that could alone stand as a singular contribution to the world of architecture. From the front (above), windows bulge like random Jenga blocks, while the back resembles something out of Dr. Seuss' Whoville.
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