Frank Gehry Turns to Asia for Architecture Projects as U.S. Growth Slows
Frank Gehry, designer of Los Angeles’s Walt Disney Concert Hall, is seeking projects in Asian countries including China and India as slower U.S. growth crimps development in the world’s largest economy.
The architect said he’s competing to plan a museum in one of China’s fast-expanding metropolitan areas, as well as a “very spiritual kind of a building” in India. He declined to give further details.
Gehry, 82, is turning to Asia as developers start few projects in the U.S. The Architecture Billings Index, an indicator of American construction, plunged to 46.9 last month from 51.4 in August, reflecting lower demand for design services, according to the American Institute of Architects. Any score less than 50 indicates a decline in billings.
Meanwhile, “there’s an art explosion in China,” Gehry said in an Oct. 25 interview at Bloomberg’s Los Angeles offices. “It’s really great -- very exciting.”
He expects to sign a contract within three to four months should an agreement be reached for the Chinese museum.
Gehry, the 1989 winner of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, in December unveiled the design for his first Australian building. The 16,030 square meter (172,545 square foot) University of Technology, Sydney, business school building will have a “tree-house” design, incorporating a core structure, with “branches” spreading away from it, Gehry said at the time. It will be made from yellow bricks and sharp-angled sheets of glass with a “crinkly” facade.
Lower Pay
One challenge of designing in a country such as China is the lower pay for projects, Gehry said in the interview this week. Architects get paid a percentage of construction costs, which in China are about a third of what they are in the U.S., he said.
“If you take a percentage and you work with western salaries, you can’t make it work,” Gehry said. “So it almost forces you to open an office in China and work with local people.”
Gehry said he would prefer to travel less and focus on projects in California or New York. The lack of development in the U.S. along with employees at Los Angeles-based Gehry Partners LLP who depend on him are forcing him to look elsewhere, the architect said.
“I have over 100 people in my office,” said Gehry, who formed the partnership in 2001. “At my age, I would love only to work in Los Angeles, maybe Santa Monica, maybe Beverly Hills.”
Work Halted
Construction of one of Gehry’s projects abroad, the 450,000-square-foot Guggenheim Abu Dhabi museum, was halted earlier this month by Tourism Development & Investment Co. as the emirate scales back plans made before the 2008 financial crisis.
“The Abu Dhabi building we’ve been working on in the last five to six years has been stopped, and that’s painful,” said Gehry, who also has a contract for the Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial in Washington.
Gehry, who designed a Manhattan apartment building on Spruce Street that opened earlier this year, also is seeking to win contracts by cutting construction waste, which often accounts for 30 percent of a development budget. His Los Angeles-based Gehry Technologies Inc. employs the same type of computer-aided, paperless, three-dimensional design used to build Boeing Co. (BA)’s 777 airliner.
“With two-dimensional drawings there’s a lot of room for error,” he said. “It creates so-called clashes that will result in costly change orders.”
There were few such conflicts at the 76-story Manhattan tower -- called New York by Gehry, and developed by Forest City Ratner Cos. -- even with its rippled and curved bay windows, according to Gehry. Almost 600 units of the 900-apartment building have been rented, he said.
“You’ve got to respect budgets because people are investing and building and have certain finite resources,” Gehry said. “So it behooves us to respect that.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Nadja Brandt in Los Angeles at nbrandt@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Kara Wetzel at kwetzel@bloomberg.net
Frank Gehry Looks to Asia for Projects as U.S. Growth Slows
Dennis Owen/Bloomberg
Visitors look at a model of the Frank Gehry-designed Hong Kong Museum Complex.
Visitors look at a model of the Frank Gehry-designed Hong Kong Museum Complex. Photographer: Dennis Owen/Bloomberg
Oct. 27 (Bloomberg) -- Architect Frank Gehry talks with Bloomberg News in Los Angeles about the outlook for projects. The designer of Los Angeles’s Walt Disney Concert Hall is seeking projects in countries including China and India as slow U.S. growth crimps development in the world’s largest economy. (Source: Bloomberg)
Frank Gehry Looks to Asia for Projects as U.S. Growth Slows
Dennis Owen/Bloomberg News
A visitor looks at a model of the Frank Gehry-designed Hong Kong Museum Complex.
A visitor looks at a model of the Frank Gehry-designed Hong Kong Museum Complex. Photographer: Dennis Owen/Bloomberg News
Architect Frank Gehry
Jonathan Alcorn/Bloomberg
Architect Frank Gehry speaks at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Los Angeles.
Architect Frank Gehry speaks at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Los Angeles. Photographer: Jonathan Alcorn/Bloomberg
The Museo Guggenheim Bilbao
James S. Russell via Bloomberg News
Architect Frank Gehry spent about $300 a square foot in 1997 on the Museo Guggenheim Bilbao.
Architect Frank Gehry spent about $300 a square foot in 1997 on the Museo Guggenheim Bilbao. Photographer: James S. Russell via Bloomberg News
Gehry's Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles
Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images
Gehry is looking for new projects in growth economies like China and India as many developments in the U.S. have come to a halt during the current economic decline.
Gehry is looking for new projects in growth economies like China and India as many developments in the U.S. have come to a halt during the current economic decline. Photographer: Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images
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