Frank Gehry, famed for making buildings that look as if they escaped a sci fi movie or a funhouse, is being sued over a building he designed for M.I.T. The building, which looks like a cake whose layers are slipping out of place, has water issues. M.I.T charges that flaws in Frank Gehry’s design of the $300 million Stata Center in Cambridge, one of the most celebrated works of architecture unveiled in years, caused leaks to spring, masonry to crack, mold to grow, and drainage to back up. It leaks. Other than that, everything is fine.
The suit also says that there are structural issues and that the building is basically coming apart.
Frank Gehry says that there are always problems with complex designs, but that these problems are not his.
Frank Gehry is not the only architect to have problem with his buildings. Frank Lloyd Wright was famous for ignoring his clients and doing whatever he wanted to with a site.
I like the look of Frank Gehry’s buildings, but I have never been inside one. The closest I have come to one was in Minneapolis, and that was just a drive by to admire the gleaming twists and turns in the summer sun. The sketches of Frank Gehry are all kind of odd and interesting as well. Frank Gehry draws like a child. There are also Frank Gehry watches, if you like watches with only two numbers on the face. Ther are Frank Gehry jewelry, Frank Gehry designs, Frank Gehry everything you can put Frank Gehry’s name on. Maybe Frank Gehry should spend a little more time on Frank Gehry buildings.
MIT paid Frank Gehry Partners $15m to design the centre, which houses labs, offices, classrooms and meeting rooms. Critics have been divided since the Stata Centre’s completion, with some praising its innovation and others denouncing it as a blight on the landscape. The same can be said of most of his other buildings.
