The Biomuseum Structure in Panama by the Late Frank Gehry
Frank Owen Gehry was a Canadian and American architect and designer. A number of his buildings, including his private residence in Santa Monica, California, have become attractions. In Panama, he built the Biomuseum. Gehry rose to prominence in the 1970s with his distinctive style that blended everyday materials with complex, dynamic structures.
Born: February 28, 1929, Toronto
Died: December 5, 2025 (age 96 years), Santa Monica, California, United States
Business partners: Vlado Milunic, Robert Venturi · See more
Education: USC School of Architecture (1954) · See more
Spouse: Berta Isabel Aguilera (m. 1975), Anita Snyder (m. 1952–1966)
Swooping, swirling, gleaming, sculpted — Frank Gehry made buildings we’d never seen before.
The architect behind the Guggenheim Museum in Spain and the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles transformed contemporary architecture.
He died Friday at his home in Santa Monica, Calif., after a brief respiratory illness, according to his chief of staff. He was 96.
Gehry won all the top awards — including the Pritzker Prize and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In 1999, when the American Institute of Architects gave him their Gold Medal, Gehry looked out at an audience that included contemporary gods of building — Philip Johnson, Robert Venturi, Michael Graves — and said, “it’s like finding out my big brothers love me after all.”
