Learning from Frank Gehry
The turning point of Gehry’s life
Enso’s first office occupied what had been Frank Gehry’s studio, a converted warehouse in Santa Monica where the Guggenheim Bilbao and Disney Concert Hall were born. Working in his personal studio and presentation room felt a bit magical, and a call to bravery.
The turning point in Gehry’s story stays with me. For years, he designed conventional shopping malls while saving his true architectural ambition for his own home. When his client Mathias DeVito noticed this split, he asked Frank a simple question:
Why?
Frank’s answer: ‘Because I have to make a living.’
DeVito urged Frank to bring his true creative vision into his commercial work. To stop designing what he thought the world required of him, and start designing what he actually believed in. It was at that moment that Frank Gehry became the Frank Gehry we all know. He described the commitment as ‘like jumping off a cliff’.
The world is immeasurably richer for that leap; his work proved that working with deep conviction and commercial success aren’t in opposition.
Of course, that leap is available to all of us, and every company. Mathias DeVito did something rare: he gave Frank permission to become fully himself. Becoming is a team game, and each of us can help, and can use the help.
RIP Frank.