Famed architect Frank Gehry died Friday in his home in Santa Monica at 96 after a brief respiratory illness. And while he is gone, cities all over the world will continue to hold a piece of him \u2014 including Philadelphia.<\/p>\n
Though he is known for the striking, rambunctious architecture of buildings like the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, and the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, around here, Gehry will perhaps be best remembered as the man behind the Philadelphia Art Museum<\/a> as we know it today. Gehry in 2006 was selected from a slate of more than 20 renowned architects to oversee what would become a $233 million renovation of the Art Museum.<\/p>\n Known as the Core Project, the effort \u2014 completed in 2021 \u2014 was designed to open up the museum\u2019s floor plans, reclaim a ground level that had been closed to the public for decades, and add some 20,000 square feet of new gallery space. Completed in phases over more than a decade, Gehry\u2019s planned renovations were designed to make the building more accessible, revitalize its aging infrastructure, and give the space more flow \u2014 all while not disrupting the museum\u2019s iconic look.<\/p>\n \u201cFrank always felt in the design of the core project that he was collaborating with the original architects,\u201d said retired Philadelphia Art Museum chief operating officer Gail Harrity Friday. \u201cHe often said he was following the bread crumbs left by the original architects to revitalize a building that needed a flow, needed the restoration of the east-west access, the north-south access.\u201d<\/p>\n Gehry\u2019s work on the Art Museum created \u201cviews toward a work of art that pull you like a magnet into the galleries,\u201d Harrity said. And in a 2021 Inquirer review of the revamp<\/a>, architecture critic Inga Saffron found that the redesign gave \u201cmuseum officials precisely what they wanted: clarity, light, and space.\u201d <\/p>\n A contentious choice<\/p>\n But when he was selected to lead the effort<\/a>, Gehry was something of a controversial choice. At the time, Gehry was known for flamboyant architecture dotted with playful, tumbling forms \u2014 much different from the Greek Revival and Neoclassical design that made the Art Museum an icon on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. Some museum lovers worried he would desecrate Philly\u2019s art museum, while others pondered why museum officials would pick such a high-profile architect to design features that largely would not be seen from the outside.<\/p>\n \u201cNothing [Gehry] has done gives me a good feeling,\u201d one reader wrote to The Inquirer in 2006. \u201cPlease rethink using this man to destroy the Philadelphia Museum of Art.\u201d<\/p>\n Gehry himself did little to quell his detractor\u2019s worries. As he put it to The Inquirer at one point: \u201cWe will set off a bomb. But I can\u2019t tell what kind till the fat lady sings. I think we\u2019ll make it memorable.\u201d<\/p>\n Ultimately, Gehry\u2019s design would be understated and in line with the museum\u2019s existing structure. In fact, it was Gehry\u2019s work on the \u201960s-era Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena \u2014 which he transformed into a series of serene, classically arranged galleries in the 1990s \u2014 that convinced Art Museum officials to go with him for their redesign, so there was perhaps little to be concerned about all along.<\/p>\n Museumgoers got their first taste of the revamp in the fall of 2012, when work on an art-handling facility was completed. That project moved a loading dock and backstage area from the building\u2019s northeast side near Kelly Drive to the Schuylkill<\/a> side, and would allow for Gehry\u2019s redesign project to progress.<\/p>\n And, at least to Gehry, big plans were afoot.<\/p>\n \u201cI wonder if people in Philadelphia know what a big deal this is,\u201d he told The Inquirer in 2014. \u201cBilbao was a sleepy little town before the Guggenheim came along. This is going to change Philadelphia.\u201d<\/p>\n The unveiling<\/p>\n