In Conversation: FRANK GEHRY

Fully engaged and working nonstop as he turns 91, the most famous architect alive won’t take projects in China or Saudi Arabia (“You don’t get paid”) and is reimagining a big chunk of downtown L.A. Is there a school of Gehry now? “God, no.”

- By Justin Davidson. Photograph by Amanda Demme

WITH HIS 91ST BIRTHDAY (on February 28) a month away, the architect Frank Gehry has made few concessions to life in his tenth decade. Standing on the mezzanine of his vast Los Angeles studio, looking down on a panorama of model neighborhoods, six-foot skyscrapers, and blocky mock-ups as if it’s some dollhouse-scale Gehryland, he clearly relishes the sense of inventiveness and bustle. He takes the occasional Saturday off, but he’s mostly omnipresent, marching up and down the stairs from the studio floor to his office and library and keeping a close eye on the dozens of designs destined for sites on several continents. On his docket is a new Warner Bros. headquarters in Burbank, a mixed-use complex on Grand Avenue in downtown L.A. (across the street from his masterpiece, Disney Hall), a master plan for the Los Angeles River, an apartment tower at Hudson Yards, museums in Taiwan and Tel Aviv, and an art-in-the-schools program called Turnaround Arts.

Has your involvement in the practice changed at all?

We’ve developed an interesting business model over the years. It works to everyone’s benefit, including our clients’, and that means everyone gets paid, everyone gets bonuses and raises. That’s important. A lot of my friends don’t run the office enough like a business, so they struggle, and they take jobs in China, where you don’t get paid. I won’t take a job unless we get fully paid and we like the people.

You won’t work in China?

I had a bad experience there, so it would be hard for me to feel comfortable going there to do a project.

Is there anywhere else you won’t work?