Davis Studio and Residence – Malibu, California
Frank Gehry has been called the most important architect of our age, and it’s hard to disagree. Throughout his long career, Gehry has designed striking, awe-inspiring structures that have become must-visit destinations. Born in Canada in 1929, Gehry attended the University of Southern California and the Harvard Graduate School of Design. He began his career in Los Angeles working for Victor Gruen Associates and Pereira and Luckman. After a brief stint in Paris working with Andre Remondet, Gehry returned to California and started his own firm in 1962. Gehry was awarded the Pritzker Prize in 1989, and his career continued to skyrocket, particularly with the completion of Guggenheim Museum Bilbao in 1997, which Philip Johnson called “the greatest building of our time.” He also garnered international acclaim for Los Angeles’s Walt Disney Concert Hall, which opened in 2003. Over the past few years, Gehry has completed several major projects, including Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris, the BioMuseo in Panama, and his first building in Australia, the Dr. Chau Chak Wing Building at the University of Technology Sydney.
Frank Gehry completed this Malibu live/work residence for artist Ron Davis in 1968, six years after he launched his architecture practice in Los Angeles. While the Davis commission was not Gehry’s first project, it did presage his signature design vocabulary, thanks to a slanted roof that makes the trapezoidal house appear to torque. Today the place is home to actor Patrick Dempsey and his family. (See AD’s March 2014 cover story, "California Dreamy," featuring the Dempseys’ house.)