Frank Gehry was born on February 28, 1929 in Toronto, Canada. His family moved to Los Angeles where Gehry would attend the University of Southern California earning his bachelor degree in architecture in 1954. In 1956 Gehry moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts to study city planning at the Harvard Graduate School of Design where he completed only two years of the program before returning to Los Angeles. Back in California, Gehry worked for Hideo Sasaki, Pereira & Luckman, Victor Gruen & Associates and André Remondet before starting his own firm, Frank Gehry and Associates in 1962.

Early projects in his career, such as his Easy Edges furniture line (1969-1973) comprised of chairs, stools and tables made of stacked corrugated cardboard, and his 1978 remodel of his Santa Monica residence using industrial items such as chain-link fencing, corrugated metal, wire-reinforced glass and plywood exhibit Gehry’s innovative use of materials and originality in form. By the 1980s Gehry was established in the field and in 1989 he was awarded the Pritzker Architecture Prize for his experimental and extraordinary approach to design. Gehry rose to fame with important structures and projects such as the Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao (1997) and the Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles (2003). Today Gehry is well-known for his distinct, artistic style.