Special Exhibitions
Challenging Structure: Frank Gehry’s Peter B. Lewis Building
|
|
Special Exhibitions |
|
Challenging Structure: Frank Gehry’s Peter B. Lewis Building |
|
|
The Gehry Process While Gehry's buildings often begin as simple drawings--seen in gigantic form on two walls of the exhibition gallery--technology makes his final designs possible. Nonetheless, it is important to note that Gehry does not use a computer to devise his plan, only to figure out how to build it.1. The Models Using wooden blocks on a foam foundation, Gehry worked with representatives of the school to lay out the basic elements of the building, determining overall parameters. Then, using mostly paper and cardboard or leftover studio material, so-called "massing models" of what might become the actual building were constructed. Massing models gave way to more refined programming models and design process models. Typically, Gehry works simultaneously on two or three iterations in different scales, striving to remember that he is creating a building, not a sculpture. Gehry considers the models "trivial, process" but a necessary developmental tool. 2. A Virtual Model Cardboard models were transcribed to "virtual reality." A technician used a handheld tool to trace the shape of the model. This instrument, devised originally to map the human spine, communicated the information to a computer program, which created lines that appeared in a three-dimensional image. This "sketch" was refined and the data transposed into a more complete virtual model. This image was then transferred into CATIA. CATIA is an acronym for Computer-Aided Three-Dimensional Interactive Application. Dassault Systemes of France invented the program 20 years ago to design fighter jets. 3. Adjustments and Readjustments After the sketch was entered into CATIA, the software calculated specifications and dimensions, which were then used to create a more refined model. Gehry tweaked and adjusted his design using these models, and the information was then once again re-entered into CATIA for the final specifications. The program translated the language of the design into the language of the builder, creating a type of "three-dimensional jigsaw puzzle" that the architects and builders solved together. Gehry does not use CATIA to design the building, only to determine how it can be built. 4. Innovations in Building All of the major contractors involved in the building's construction--concrete, steel, drywall, roofing--had to devise technical innovations to make their parts of the job possible. Mariani Metal Fabricators contrived a way to bend the steel pipe to form the serpentine curves of the building, a process that combined ancient forging techniques with the precision of CATIA. The GQ Contracting Company figured out a way to frame for drywall on the curved interior surfaces with conventional metal studs. 5. Piecing it Together To "assemble" the various parts of the building, a new process was required to construct the three-dimensional images CATIA produced. Surveying points were positioned all around the site, including one several blocks away on the top of a tall building. The surveyor used a machine to bounce laser beams off these points to establish coordinates for where a particular element should go. Each piece fit into imaginary dotted lines in space, dictated by the CATIA coordinates. In a typical stud wall construction, a builder works from a blueprint, but with this building, such a method would be impossible. [Discussion of Gehry's architectural process in this exhibition has been extracted from Alex Marshall's article "How to Make a Frank Gehry Building" (The New York Times Magazine, April 8, 2001, pp. 64-66).] Page 1 of 2 -- The Frank Gehry-Peter B. Lewis Connection |
||||||||||
