Jørn Utzon
Danish Architect, 1918 ~ 2008
Jørn Utzon was born in Denmark. While in secondary school, he began helping his father, director of a shipyard, and a brilliant naval architect, by studying new designs, drawing up plans and making models. He thought he might train to be a naval architect like his father.
Utzon’s uncle Einar Utzon-Frank was a sculptor and professor at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts. Under his influence, Utzon took an interest in sculpting.
In 1937 he was admitted into the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen, and graduated with an architecture degree in 1942.
Utzon established his own firm in 1950.
In 1952, Utzon built his family residence in Hellebæk, Denmark. This was Utzon’s first completed work, aside from a water tower in Svaneke. Utzon directed the construction work without any technical plans. As the building developed he would often change its shape, modifying its design.
He learned this approach in Finland in 1946 when he apprenticed under Alvar Aalto, who had used the same method for his Villa Mairea. While Aalto mained this method was the most economical solution for building a house, this way of working planted the seed for the bitter fruit that came after Utzon winning the commission of the Sydney Opera House.
Frank Gehry
Canadian American Architect, 1929 ~
Frank Gehry was born in a working-class Jewish neighborhood of Toronto, Canada, in 1929. He remembered vividly watching carp swimming in the bathtub while his grandmother prepared to make gefilte fish in the kitchen. The fish form would later become a constant theme in his work.
Gehry's family migrated to California from Toronto in 1947. He got a job driving a delivery truck and studied at LA City College. He tried ceramics, radio announcing and chemical engineering before he finally chose architecture.
In 1954, Gehry graduated from University of Southern California with a Bachelor of Architecture degree.
Utzon completed his architectural training in Denmark during World War II when Germany occupied the country. In the first two decades following his training, there were limited opportunities for large-scale projects in a war-torn Europe.
Gehry finished his architectural training just before the urban construction boom in Los Angeles. In the initial two decades after his training, he had already amassed a wealth of construction experience that many architects would not typically acquire until much later in their careers.
In 1957, Utzon’s design was selected as the winner of the Sydney Opera House design competition. He moved his family to Australia in 1958 and began working.
The biggest advocate for the opera house is the Australian Premier at the time, Joseph Cahill. Knowing his political opponents might stall the project, Cahill ordered the groundbreaking for construction in 1959, before Utzon could finalize the technical design.
Later in the same year, Cahill fell ill and passed away.
Between 1958 and 1962, the roof design for the Opera House evolved through various iterations. This was a time before Computer-Aided Design (CAD) was available. The engineers needed the curves of the roof to be defined mathematically, and Utzon could only bend a plastic ruler against a table and traced the curve on the drafting paper.
Three years passed since Utzon bent the ruler to trace the curve, he finally reached a sound solution: using a universal principle of the spherical geometry, the shell form of the roof could be prefabricated from a repetitive geometry.
In 1965, the Australian government changed hands. The newly elected Premier, Davis Hughes, campaigned on reigning in costs at the Opera House.
In 1966, as tension between the government and the architect grew, Utzon was forced to quit.
A government architect, Peter Hall, only agreed to continue the design work under the condition there was no possibility of Utzon returning.
Utzon and his family boarded their flight back to Denmark just minutes before the doors closed to avoid the press.
After his resignation from the opera project, Utzon decided to settle on the Balearic island of Mallorca, Spain. Between 1971 and 1973, he built Can Lis, a house dedicated to his wife Lis, and a place where he could spend time with his family.
In 1973, Queen Elizabeth II gave the opening speech at Sydney Opera House, in which Jørn Utzon was not mentioned. Utzon declined the invitation to attend the opening.
He never returned to Australia for the rest of his life.
In 1976, Uzon completed the Bagsværd Church, which was his first project after returning to Denmark from Australia. While the exterior of the church was unassuming, the interior ceiling was designed with a stirring form that invited the fluttering skylight. It made Utzon’s admirers wonder whether that was his original plan for the Sydney Opera House.
In 1956, Gehry went to Harvard Graduate School of Design to study city planning, but left the program before completion.
In 1962, Gehry established his own firm.
Early in his career, Gehry made friends with many contemporary artists in L.A and designed furniture to participate in art exhibitions. He wanted to express architecture more artistically too, but he was considered a “contractor’s architect”, and worked largely on generic developments.
In 1977, Gehry and his wife Berta bought a bungalow in LA, originally built in 1920. Berta encouraged Gehry to fully exercise his creative ideas. This remodel became his first experimental design.
His home renovation gained him recognition from the architecture world. In the following decade, he began to receive more and more commissions to design imaginative structures.
Utzon got his first high-profile international project, the Sydney Opera House, at the age of 39, a relatively young age for an architect. It turned into a fiasco and damaged his reputation. Large project clients had shunned Utzon for decades after the Sydney Opera House project. The Opera House remained his sole internationally renowned undertaking.
On the other hand, Gehry got his first significant international project, the Bilbao Guggenheim museum, at the age of 64. By then, he had had more experience in navigating complicated business and political interests; in addition, Computer-Aided Design (CAD) software had also become available. Gehry’s firm was a pioneer in using software modeling for greater precision in transitioning from design to manufacturing.
In 1982, the Kuwait National Assembly Building opened. It was yet another project heavily influenced by political motivations, designed by Jørn Utzon in 1972, and was completed in 1982 under the direction of his son Jan Utzon.
As time went by, as happened with the few other works by Utzon, his private residence Can Lis on Mallorca island became a pilgrimage site for architects and admirers.
To avoid unwanted attention, the family decided to move to a more remote location on the same island, and there he built another masterpiece, Can Feliz, in 1994.
Cabrillo Marine Aquarium in San Pedro California was completed.
Completed:
- California Aerospace Museum, California Museum of Science and Industry, in Los Angeles California
- Edgemar Retail Complex, Santa Monica California
- Norton House, Venice, California
Completed: Frances Howard Goldwyn Hollywood Regional Library, Hollywood, California
Completed: Information and Computer Science (ICS)/Engineering Research Facility, UC Irvine
In 1987, the Disney Concert Hall project was initiated. At this time, Gehry was known for using cheap materials to produce a post-industrial deconstruction design. While he always loved arts and music venues, he didn’t think he would win commission from Disney. Nevertheless, he submitted his design and won the competition in 1988.
This design continued his signature theme of the deconstruction of the form, but the facade called for a bright stoney texture. The structure stood out as elegant as the Disney family wanted.
🏆 Gehry was awarded the prestigious Pritzker Architecture Prize.
Also, three more buildings under Gehry's name were completed in California, Connecticut and Germany
In 1991, the Bilbao government pitched to the Guggenheim Foundation to build a museum in their city. They wanted this building to do for Bilbao what Sydney Opera House did for Australia. The Guggenheim Foundation selected Gehry to be the architect.
In 1992, the underground parking garage of the Disney Concert Hall began construction, and was completed in 1996. It went way beyond the budget and drained the funding.
The Bilbao Guggenheim project broke ground in 1993. Learned his lesson from the Disney Concert Hall project, Gehry carefully evaluated the stakeholders' expectations before he proposed the design. And yes, by this time, his firm had begun utilizing CAD software to ensure design precision.
The construction of the concert hall stalled from 1994 to 1996, due to a lack of fundraising.
In 1997, Bilbao Guggenheim Museum was completed early on schedule and slightly under budget.
This project established Frank Gehry as the architect who would deliver an audacious design on time and on budget.
The design and construction cost about $100 million, and in the first three years the museum had already generated €500 million in economic activity.
The Bilbao Museum was not only a sensational success but also an economical one. On time and under budget, this project opened doors for Gehry to embark on increasingly grand and audacious projects for the next three decades.
The Sydney Opera House transformed the image of a young country. The culture, tourism, and economic growth brought about by this iconic structure in the following half-century would ultimately offset the cost of its construction. However, how do we gauge its impact on Utzon's career? How do we assess all the remarkable buildings that Utzon could have created but was never permitted to design?
🏆 Utzon was awarded the prestigious Pritzker Architecture Prize.
Fundraising for the Disney Concert Hall restarted in 1996.
Groundbreaking for the hall was held in 1999.
In 2003, the Disney Concert Hall project was finally completed.
Jørn Utzon, at the age of 85, was finally honored with the prestigious Pritzker Architect Prize. By this time, he had become too frail to attend the ceremony in person, and his son accepted the honor on his behalf.
As if fate had intervened, Frank Gehry, a Pritzker laureate of 14 years, served as one of the jurors in 2003. Gehry spoke of Utzon, not unlike someone who had fought in the same battle:
He made a building well ahead of its time, far ahead of available technology, and he persevered through extraordinary malicious publicity and negative criticism to build a building that changed the image of an entire country. It’s the first time in our lifetime that an epic piece of architecture gained such a universal presence.
He also acknowledged that it was Utzon’s pioneering effort with the Sydney Opera House that paved the way for his own Guggenheim project in Bilbao.
While Gehry was overseeing the Bilbao Guggenheim project (1993-1997), his other project, the
Disney Concert Hall (1991-2003), faced similar malicious publicity and negative criticism.
He
found
himself on the verge of being forced out, much like Utzon. Fortunately, the success of the Bilbao
Guggenheim and the support of Disney family donors allowed Gehry to see the Disney Concert Hall to
completion.
As Gehry wrapped up the Disney Hall project and sat on the Pritzker juror’s board, what might have gone through his mind?
In 2004, the Reception Hall of the Sydney Opera House was redesigned by Utzon, and was renamed the Utzon Room in his honor.
In 2007, Sydney Opera House was declared a World Heritage Site. Utzon became the second living architect to have received such recognition.
Utzon passed away in 2008. Among the 15 most iconic projects under Jørn Utzon’s name, 3 are his own residence.
The Utzon Center, unveiled in the same year, is the last architecture designed by Jørn Uzon, in close collaboration with his son Kim Utzon, located in his childhood hometown Aalborg, Denmark. It was dedicated to the arts and education of architecture.
Jørn Utzon was survived by his wife, children and grandchildren. Both his sons, Jan and Kim, are trained architects and his daughter, Lin is a designer, muralist and artist.
In 2004, Gehry’s firm completed Ray and Maria Stata Center at MIT, Cambridge, MA, Jay Pritzker Pavilion and BP Pedestrian Bridge at at Millennium Park, Chicago, IL.
In 2005, Gehry’s firm completed MARTa contemporary art museum in Herford, Germany, and IAC/InterActiveCorp West Coast Headquarters in California.
In 2006, Gehry’s firm completed Marqués de Riscal Hotel in Elciego, Spain.
In 2007, Gehry’s firm completed IAC Building in Chelsea, Manhattan, New York and Mariza show stage, at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles, CA.
In 2008, Gehry’s firm completed Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada, Peter B. Lewis Library at Princeton University, NJ and Serpentine Gallery 2008 summer Pavilion, London, England.
The list continues.