40 - Frank O. Gehry

Frank O. Gehry (Toronto 1929 – 2025 Santa Monica), “Skyscraper for NYC” (Skyscraper for New York City), 1987, ink drawing on vélin, signed and dated lower right, with the dedication “for Christine” in the lower center, Elevation study for an unrealized skyscraper in New York City, 22.7 x 30.4 cm, mounted on backing board and set under glass with a mat in a white anodized aluminum frame, overall size: 44 x 44 cm. Limit 1,350 This drawing is an early, conceptual study of mass and height in which Gehry experimented with deconstructivist, fragmented tower forms and undulating projections and recesses long before he actually built his first major skyscraper in New York—the Beekman Tower (8 Spruce Street) in 2011. The Beekman Tower, whose exterior form is already hinted at in the sketch at the bottom right, was the tallest building in the Western world at the time of its completion, standing at 265.2 m. The dedication at the bottom likely refers to Kristin Feireiss (1942–2025), who founded the world’s first architecture gallery in Berlin in 1980 and exhibited Gehry’s work at the Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein in 1989.