89歲的弗蘭克·歐文·蓋里已經是世界頂尖建筑師之一,他以后現代設計聞名于世,作品包括洛杉磯的沃爾特迪斯尼音樂廳、西班牙畢爾巴鄂的古根海姆博物館、巴黎的路易威登基金會。他在洛杉磯的公司蓋里建筑事務所(Gehry Partners)有160名員工,卻仍然親力親為,監督每一個項目的進展。 |
Frank Owen Gehry, 89, has become one of the world’s leading architects, known for postmodern designs like the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, and the Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris. His Los Angeles firm Gehry Partners has 160 employees, but he still personally oversees every project. |
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我出生在多倫多,原名叫弗蘭克·歐文·戈德堡,家里開了間五金店。祖父是一個猶太教堂的主席,時常讀《猶太法典》給我聽。好奇心是貫穿《猶太法典》全書的關鍵詞,“為什么”是法典開篇的第一個詞。我曾經聽教徒們坐著聊天,聽他們對人們的信念和觀點提出挑戰。 后來我父親患上心臟病,丟掉了生意,1947年我們搬到加州,隨著父親的兄弟去了洛杉磯。父親最后在一家酒類專賣店找了份工作,工作地點離我們在洛杉磯市區住的兩室公寓隔了四個街區。 我們當時很窮,17歲時,我找了份卡車司機的工作,晚上在洛杉磯城市學院上夜校。 我喜歡做木工,參加了一個建筑繪畫課程后,被南加州大學的魅力吸引,入了學。20世紀50年代,反猶太主義開始蔓延。南加州大學充斥著反猶太主義的情緒。老師們說如果我想成功,就得改名。1954年,我當時的妻子安妮塔懷上了我們的第一個孩子,我才同意把姓改為蓋里。 南加州大學畢業后,我應征加入美國陸軍,服役結束后去了哈佛大學設計研究生院學習城市規劃。但我沒念完,因為實在太無聊了。我重返洛杉磯,在一家建筑公司工作,1962年決定創立自己的事務所。 當時我有個朋友想蓋一座六單元的公寓樓,我們就開始合伙。兩人拿出了所有存款,用5000美元買了塊地,這在當時對我們來說是筆巨款。他在凱氏珠寶(Kay Jewelers)有些資源,因此我為凱氏設計了幾家店鋪、一間倉庫。弗蘭克蓋里事務所就這樣慢慢起步了。 我沒有為了招徠某種特定的生意專門出去社交。我曾在洛杉磯郡立藝術博物館為藝術家朋友們做過藝術裝置,因此在洛杉磯準備建立現代藝術博物館時,得以參與和投資者召開的小組會議。我設計了洛杉磯現代藝術博物館Geffen現代館的前身Temporary Contemporary,但藝術館沒能趕上1984年的奧運會按時開幕,。 進行跨國工作需要熟知文化差異。必須要愿意知道其中的差異,把它融入你的工作計劃。在設計畢爾巴鄂古根海姆博物館前,我花時間進行學習,通過和巴斯克的普通家庭、巴斯克文化[和語言政策]部長以及其他人交流來理解當地文化。 |
I WAS BORN Frank Owen Goldberg in Toronto, where my family had a hardware store. My grandfather was president of a synagogue and used to read the Talmud to me. The Talmud is all about curiosity. It starts with the word “why.” I used to listen to the men sit and talk, challenging beliefs and ideas. When my father had a heart attack, he lost his business, and in 1947, we emigrated to California, following his brother to Los Angeles. My father ended up working in a liquor store, four blocks from where we lived in a two-room apartment in downtown L.A. We were poor, and at 17, I got a job as a truck driver and took night classes at Los Angeles City College. I loved woodworking, and after taking a class in architectural drawing, I was hooked and enrolled at the University of Southern California. Back in the ’50s, anti-Semitism was in the air. USC was filled with it. Teachers said I should change my name if I wanted to succeed. In 1954, when my then wife, Anita, got pregnant with our first child, I agreed to change my surname to Gehry. After USC, I got drafted into the U.S. Army and, when I came back, went to the Harvard Graduate School of Design for city planning. But I didn’t finish because it was boring. I came back to L.A. to work for an architectural firm, then decided to start my own office in 1962. I had a friend who wanted to build a six-unit apartment house, so we built it together. We pooled savings and bought the land for about $5,000, which was a lot for us. He had a connection to Kay Jewelers, and I designed a couple of stores and a warehouse for them. So slowly, Frank Gehry and Associates got started. I didn’t go out with any intention to attract any particular kind of job. I’d done art installations at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art for artist friends of mine and became part of the group meeting with investors when the city got ready to build the Museum of Contemporary Art. I did the Temporary Contemporary design, when MOCA didn’t open in time for the 1984 Olympic Games. Working internationally requires understanding cultural differences. You have to want to understand the differences and make it part of your work program. I spent time studying and talking with Basque families, the Basque Minister for Culture [and Language Policy] and others to understand their culture before designing the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao. |
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弗蘭克·蓋里的最佳建議 Frank Gehry and Associates、Gehry Partners創始人 對待所有工作一視同仁 “無論項目多小,要把每一個項目都當成是最重要的。每個項目都要確保技術過硬,經費可行,因為人們往往通過最細微之處評價你。” 不斷嘗試: “我接下項目時,不會設立預期。我會不斷嘗試新的想法,問自己為什么。每個項目我都會建立二三十個模型,因為這是你在工作中應盡之義務。不能簡單地采納腦海中出現的第一個想法,那太簡單了。事事都要做到最好,否則就是對工作的不公平。” |
Frank Gehry’s Best Advice Founder of Frank Gehry and Associates and Gehry Partners TREAT ALL JOBS EQUALLY: “With every project, no matter how small, act as if it’s the most important one. Make sure it’s technically and economically viable because you’ll be judged on the smallest things.” TEST EVERYTHING: “I don’t have expectations when I take on a project. I test ideas endlessly and ask why. I build 20 to 30 models for every project because you have to give the job its due. You don’t just do the first idea that comes to you, which is easy. It’s not fair to do anything less than your best.” |
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早期,別人雇你是因為他們知道你正在生活中掙扎,出低價就能拿下你。再后來,當你有了名聲,他們想要的只是你的名聲。 現在我的客戶都從我設計的建筑中掙了大錢。但即使在一開始,如果客戶的意愿完全違背我的工作感受,我也不會接受他們的工作邀約。只要你和出色的人一起盡心工作,自然就能賺到錢。如今我的第二任妻子貝爾塔是公司的首席財務官,掌管公司的財務方向。 我現在喜歡設計音樂廳。我剛免費為東西和平管弦樂團(West-Eastern Divan Orchestra)做了設計,樂團匯聚了來自以色列、巴勒斯坦和其他阿拉伯國家的音樂家,他們一同演奏,用音樂交流。在我收到的所有獎項中,最有意義的是獲得茱莉亞音樂學院的音樂博士頭銜。我一個音符都不會彈,但因為修建了音樂殿堂而獲此殊榮。 把建筑當作藝術的人變少了。很多建筑不過是商業模型,其實只需付出少許努力,就能讓建筑變得特別。我相信可以創造出有個性、不具侵略性、恰如其分的設計,讓人們能在這樣的建筑中居住娛樂,從中感受愉悅和共鳴。(財富中文網) 本文另一版本發表于《財富》雜志2018年11月1日刊,題目為《弗蘭克·蓋里》。 譯者:Agatha |
In the early days, they hire you because they know you’re struggling, and they think they can get you cheap. In the later days, when you have a name, they just want your name. Now I work for people who make a lot of money from my buildings. But even back in the beginning, if a client’s wishes were totally counter to my feelings about the work, I wouldn’t take the job. If you do the best work with good people, the money comes. Today, my second wife, Berta, is CFO of the company and guides the ship financially. Right now, I love designing concert halls. I just did one pro bono for the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, which brings together Israeli, Palestinian, and other Arab musicians to play and talk to each other through music. Of all the awards I’ve received, the most meaningful was getting a doctorate in music from the Juilliard school. I don’t play a note, but I got it for making buildings for music. The number of people practicing architecture as an art has dwindled. A lot of buildings are really just commercial models that, with very little effort, could become special. I believe it’s possible to create designs that are not faceless or aggressive but are reasonable containers to live in and play in, that bring something uplifting and communal to people. A version of this article appears in the November 1, 2018 issue of Fortune with the headline “Frank Gehry.” |