Letters to the Editor

Frankly, it's a bore
BY KAREN TEMPLER
(10/05/99)

and

Brilliant Careers: Frank Gehry
BY KAREN TEMPLER
(10/05/99)

Karen Templer's critique of the newly released retrospective on architect Frank Gehry's work is accurate and amusing. I've got to believe that this must be one of the first such volumes she's reviewed. The propensity for architectural writers to engulf themselves in "linguistic calisthenics" has put more than enough readers to sleep. It's amusing that architecture would attract such stale and elitist blubber -- and sad that the response is not more honest.

-- Michael A. Hazard, AIA
Vail, Colo.

I worked as an architect in Frank O. Gehry's office for two years on the Guggenheim Museum, so I have firsthand knowledge of the daily life there. First I would like to point out that the majority of the museum was designed by Edwin Chan, the project designer. On a daily basis, Chan did the majority of the design, specifically the organic shapes of the building. He was hands-on in designing the cladding, the HVAC systems and the curtain wall systems. Gehry merely approved or disapproved of his ideas. This was how the majority of the design took place in the office.

Gehry is brilliant when it comes to site planning and flow through the building, but the majority of the design is done by his minions, who work 80-plus-hour weeks for $30,000 a year. I rarely read or hear Gehry praise any of the young architects and engineers who work for him, but without them, he would never see his designs come to fruition.

-- Mark Lefitz

Frank Lloyd Wright's buildings were functional as well as beautiful, but Gehry's buildings are non-functional to a great degree, extremely expensive (due to the fact that they cannot be built or maintained using normal construction methods) and generally ugly, odd ducks. Titanium is one of the rarest metals on earth, and here this architect is using this material for an exterior finish? Give me a break! Gehry is clearly a fad; he reflects the cultural excesses of America at this time in history. He has taken his design cues from Disney's cartoon works. It is silly to glorify him in your pages. He is an unfortunate, erratic anomaly.

-- Rex Giesenhagen

As American and Canadian expatriates living in Bilbao, you can imagine our disappointment when we read Karen Templer's article about Frank Gehry: "Despite the city's seedy reputation, staggering murder rate and perpetual bad weather, some 2 million people have visited since the museum's opening in late 1997."

We had to laugh when we read about the "staggering murder rate." Bilbao's crime rate, let alone murder rate, is far lower than most of the cities in the United States and Canada. This is one of the safest places that we've ever lived. Templer should have clarified that the staggering murder rate was throughout the Basque country and spanned 30 years. As for "seedy reputation," no one we've ever talked about has ever said Bilbao was seedy. Industrial perhaps, but never seedy. And about its "perpetual bad weather," Bilbao does get its fair share of rain, but its temperatures are moderate throughout the year and we just had three months of pure sunshine. (In fact, we needed more rain.)

Both of us have had dozens of guests here since our families were transferred here two years ago and everyone has left here in love with the entire Basque country. It's one of the most beautiful and unspoiled places left. The only thing Templer got right about Bilbao was that the Guggenheim is drawing the tourists here, as it should. It is an amazing architectural feat.

-- Susan Simon and Cynthia Craig

Laughing with the Dalai Lama
BY RACHEL LOUISE SNYDER
(10/05/99)

His Holiness the Dalai Lama rocks my world, and Rachel Snyder proves why in her article. Knowing someone like him is on the planet gives me hope, makes me laugh and helps me identify with the way of compassionate living.

-- Rita Koppel

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