Frank Gehry Essay -- Biography Biographical Essays

Frank Gehry Quote â€Å"When everybody else is ready for the ending, I’m just ready to begin,† Frank Gehry once wrote. â€Å"It’s been the story of my life† (qtd. in Templer, 1999, pp.1) Laying the Foundation Born on 28 February 1929 in Toronto, Canada, Frank O. Goldberg entered a household with a strong Polish and Jewish heritage. Twenty years earlier, Thelma Caplanski left Poland with her parents, a couple with deep religious morals. Once they settled in Toronto, the two decided to change their last name to Caplan. The owner of a hardware store, her father was also the president of a synagogue. His wife, Frank’s grandmother, was said to have good visual abilities. Thelma would continue working with the Jewish community through a Yiddish theater and the Jewish Women’s Organization as she raised Frank. Like several of Howard Gardner’s figures, Frank was close with his mother and grandmother. Frank’s father, Irving Goldberg was born to Polish immigrants in Brooklyn, New York. He lived a hard life and had to work as a kid after his father died when he was 11. Since Irving liked to fight on the streets for money, Frank would learn these skills at a later age. Frank would later be a boxer and participated in full contact karate. When Irving moved to Canada as he moved from job to job, he met Thelma and they ultimately got married. A good student, Frank went to a Hebrew school and his best subject was math; he even spoke Yiddish (Hines, 1986). In later years, his French schooling would give him an advantage while he worked in Europe (Hines, 1986; Templer, 1999). For seven years, he worked in his grandfather’s hardware store where he began to notice the variety of supplies th... ...tions, Inc. Kandela, P. (2001). The buildings of Frank Gehry. The Lancet, 358, 677-678. Levene, R. C., et al. Frank Gehry 1991-1995. El Croquis, 74/75, 5. Temko, Allan. (1993). No Way to Build a Ballpark: and Other Irreverent Essays on Architecture. San Francisco: Chronicle Books. Templer, K. (1999, October 5). Frank Gehry. People. http://www.salon.com/people/bc/1999/10/05/gehry/print.html (2001 November 14). Frank Gehry: Architect. Guggenheim Museum. http://www.guggenheim.org/exhibitions/gehry/biography.html (2001 November 14). Frank Gehry:Pritzker Architecture Prize Laureate 1989. Complete List of Pritzker Architecture Prize Laureates 1979 – 2001 http://www.pritzkerprize.com/gehry.htm Picture Web Links: http://www.pritzkerprize.com/gehry/gehrypg.htm http://www.guggenheim.org/exhibitions/gehry/ http://www.frank-gehry.com/projects.htm