Hermes2020
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Frank Gehry (1929–2025)
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Hermes2020
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Yes, a few years ago I went to Bilbao specifically to see the Guggenheim Museum he designed. I stayed at a hotel a few hundred metres away across the river and went on repeat visits over a period of three days. It was a wonderful experience.
OliveOyl
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Hi. I have a Frank Gehry story that I will now bore you with…!
So, I worked in the exhibits department at the Boston Children’s Museum at one point. They were expanding and decided to hire Gehry to add on a wing to the old red brick building by the waterfront. A lot of years were spent in planning and fundraising just to get it to the initial development stage. He built us a model that was maybe 4-6’ high and wide. Something in that ballpark. Now I don’t know what happened, but the museum decided NOT to move forward and that was that but…we still had this huge model. A local architectural college found out we had it, and wanted to borrow it for teaching purposes. This was all coordinated and discussed by the “higher ups” but fell to me to get it across the city to them. Yeah, thanks.
Anyway, it didn’t fit into my car, or anybody’s car, and the museum didn’t have a van/truck to borrow, and it didn’t fit into any of the station wagon-style taxis. There was probably SOMETHING out there in the city that could move it for us (but not for a small fortune) and I was running out of time and options.
The school was 2 miles away. I can walk that, I thought! I found a dolly in the maintenance department that was big enough to fit the model. Somehow, the model was lifted onto it and secured and then off I went. Like an idiot. I wheeled it (actually, pushed and pulled) by my own little self although it was too wide to fit on the sidewalks. So I walked along the side of the roads, in and out of traffic, and around parked cars, and through intersections. Cars beeped at me. I worried that it would fall, or we’d both get run over. It took about 30 minutes or so and I DID make it - both of us intact. I was dripping with sweat and probably shaky and angry but thankfully, at least it wasn’t raining or snowing.
So thank you Mr. Gehry for your iconic, bold and inspirational architecture. RIP. I suppose I can say it was my honor to honor your work albeit in this small (but kinda annoying) way.
The End
(You can now wake up and are free to move about the cabin…)
So, I worked in the exhibits department at the Boston Children’s Museum at one point. They were expanding and decided to hire Gehry to add on a wing to the old red brick building by the waterfront. A lot of years were spent in planning and fundraising just to get it to the initial development stage. He built us a model that was maybe 4-6’ high and wide. Something in that ballpark. Now I don’t know what happened, but the museum decided NOT to move forward and that was that but…we still had this huge model. A local architectural college found out we had it, and wanted to borrow it for teaching purposes. This was all coordinated and discussed by the “higher ups” but fell to me to get it across the city to them. Yeah, thanks.
Anyway, it didn’t fit into my car, or anybody’s car, and the museum didn’t have a van/truck to borrow, and it didn’t fit into any of the station wagon-style taxis. There was probably SOMETHING out there in the city that could move it for us (but not for a small fortune) and I was running out of time and options.
The school was 2 miles away. I can walk that, I thought! I found a dolly in the maintenance department that was big enough to fit the model. Somehow, the model was lifted onto it and secured and then off I went. Like an idiot. I wheeled it (actually, pushed and pulled) by my own little self although it was too wide to fit on the sidewalks. So I walked along the side of the roads, in and out of traffic, and around parked cars, and through intersections. Cars beeped at me. I worried that it would fall, or we’d both get run over. It took about 30 minutes or so and I DID make it - both of us intact. I was dripping with sweat and probably shaky and angry but thankfully, at least it wasn’t raining or snowing.
So thank you Mr. Gehry for your iconic, bold and inspirational architecture. RIP. I suppose I can say it was my honor to honor your work albeit in this small (but kinda annoying) way.
The End
(You can now wake up and are free to move about the cabin…)
(Oh and interesting too!).
Hermes2020
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laf.art
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I really enjoyed this, thanks.
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