- The man behind some of the most memorable
structures in the world,
Bill Whitaker introduces us
to legendary architect Frank Gehry.
For him, design is a family affair.
- [Bill] I think I would've wanted to be an architect.
- [Frank] Yeah.
- [Bill] I love this.
I love- - It's not too late, I-
(Bill laughs)
- [Bill] So says the architect Frank Gehry,
who at 92 is not resting on his substantial laurels.
While standing outside his landmark Disney Concert Hall
in downtown Los Angeles,
we looked over at his new project
going up across the street.
- That's a hotel,
that's an apartment building,
and then you have retail.
- Changing the face of LA again.
- Why not?
- [Bill] "Why not?"
seeking the answer to that question
has led Frank Gehry
to change city skylines
around the globe.
He and I first met in 2003
as Disney Hall was about to open.
- [Frank] See how these curves relate to those up there.
- [Bill] If the inside comforts,
the outside amazes.
- This is a curve, and that curve
leads you into here. (Bill speaking faintly)
It fits in, yeah.
- Now almost 20 years later,
it is the iconic building
of Los Angeles.
People come from all over the world
to see this.
- Wow.
- What is that like for you
to have created something like this?
- Well,
I see what I would do different. (chuckles)
- Seriously, that's what you see?
- A little bit of that, yeah.
- [Bill] What sounds like second guessing,
Frank Gehry calls creative insecurity.
His constant questioning
and his love of art
are lifelong traits.
He was born Frank Goldberg
in Toronto, Canada.
His father moved the family
to Los Angeles in 1947.
Gehry arrived at age 17.
- When my father met me at the train
and it just looked like a new world somehow,
I was quite moved by it.
- Los Angeles provided a fresh start.
And as he began his career in architecture,
Goldberg became Gehry.
As his reputation grew, so did his family.
In 1975, Gehry married Berta Aguilera,
his second wife.
They had two boys.
He had two daughters from a previous marriage.
It was in the 1970s
when he renovated his private home in Santa Monica
using industrial materials
that he first gained national attention
on his front yard.
So what did you think when the tour buses showed up?
- Go away and leave me alone. (laughs)
Don't bother me.
- Gehry would prefer that his buildings draw the attention,
like the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain
or the Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris.
Gehry's free-flowing forms and unexpected angles
have left an impression highlighted in "The Simpsons"
that he has no plan, no discipline.
- (gasp) Frank Gehry, you're a genius.
- You know, the impression,
thanks to "The Simpsons,"
is that a lot of your designs are extemporaneous,
even unplanned,
and that is not true.
- No. So later in this interview,
I'm gonna show you the number of models
and the iterations on a project,
and how long it took to get to the conclusion.
(gentle music)
- [Bill] Playful,
light,
surprising,
graceful,
his creations invite the eye,
draw you in, embrace you.
That personal touch
has won him a claim all over the world.
Gehry's inspiration might seem a little surprising.
- I started drawing fish in all my building projects.
- To build a giant fish for the 1992 Barcelona Olympics,
he adapted software created for the aerospace industry.
Suddenly, his infinite imagination
could take physical shape.
Did this technology free you up in some way,
did it awaken something in you?
- Yeah. It allowed you to explore the movement
that I was being inspired by the fish.
- So you see the movement?
- Movement is feeling.
And how do you get a big monster building
to have any feeling,
and the movement makes that happen,
and I think that finding a way to build it
was the issue.
- [Bill] He found his way
with the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao.
It immediately was hailed a masterpiece
when it opened in 1997.
The aerospace software provided builders
with precise calculations
for shaping titanium that covers the curving exterior.
- So when you go there,
you see the light play with the building,
especially on gray days
when you really want some light,
you want a feeling of warmth,
all of a sudden this metal glows beautifully.
- It's a draw.
People come from far and wide to see your building.
- Yeah, I feel good about that.
- Work is the engine that drives Frank Gehry.
At his design firm in Santa Monica,
there are models of almost every
iteration of every project.
It's a wonderland for a fan of architecture,
and Gehry, as promised, gave us a tour.
So where does it start?
- I don't know.
- [Bill] We traveled the world in here,
seeing his current global
projects in miniature.
There's the newly opened arts
foundation in Arles, France,
where painter Vincent Van Gogh
spent some of his final years.
Every block is just a little bit-
- [Frank] Yeah.
- [Bill] Twisted.
Gehry's tallest towers will rise in Canada.
- That's Toronto,
my home and native land.
- [Bill] Gehry Partners is a family affair.
His son Alejandro is an artist
who is painting the exteriors
of a private residence
designed by his father, in Mexico.
- So I painted just
more abstract-looking pieces,
some that are a little bit more geometric
and tried both on these canopies.
- Clearly it works.
- Yes, it's been.
Knock on wood, really good.
- And Gehry's wife Berta has been keeping
the books for 45 years.
So this really is a mom and pop shop?
- Still, yes.
- [Sam] Yeah, so we are trying to find copper.
- [Bill] Sam Gehry is an architectural designer
for his father's firm.
They collaborated on the design
of Frank and Berta's new Santa Monica home.
- You're working at one
of the top design firms
in the world
and
you go in there and everyone's a family,
and I think it inspires
to bring a lot out of people
and to bring the best out of them.
- I've been talking to your dad all day.
What you just said is the first time
the truth has been spoken
that this is one of the top
design firms in the world
started by this gentleman right here,
your dad.
(all laughs)
- That's a heavy, "Dad." (chuckles)
- Sorry, someone had to say it.
- So what's the greatest lesson
you've learned from your dad?
- Ooh,
I'd say it's just that questioning
of things you do,
maybe it's that creative insecurity
that I'm building slowly. (laughs)
- [Bill] That questioning
is actually a challenge
from Frank Gehry to all architects
to elevate the art of their designs.
- Think of people and how they're gonna
be inspired by your work
and
give them something to think about.
That's what a painting does,
that's what a sculpture does,
and architecture is an art,
so why not?