Little Beaver Chair & Ottoman Limited Ed. Nr. 14 of 100 by Frank Gehry from Vitra, 1990s

Architect and designer Frank Gehry was born Frank Owen Goldberg in Toronto, Ontario, Canada in 1929. In 1947, he emigrated to Los Angeles with his family, where he attended classes at Los Angeles City College. He went on to study at the University of Southern California’s School of Architecture, graduating with a Bachelor’s degree in 1954. After school, he worked for Victor Gruen Associates in LA. From 1956–57, he studied urban planning at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design, before returning to Los Angeles to work briefly for Pereira and Luckman, and then Victor Gruen Associates again, where he stayed until 1960. In 1961, Gehry and his family moved to Paris, where he worked in the office of André Remondet. While in Europe, he found inspiration in the works of Le Corbusier, Balthasar Neumann, and others. In 1962, he returned to LA and established Frank O. Gehry & Associates in Santa Monica. Gehry & Associates became Gehry Partners, LLP, in 2001. The full service architectural firm works around the globe on academic, museum, performance, residential, and commercial projects.

Gehry is known for boldly sculptural designs, and his expressive structures often incorporate organic forms. Notable projects include the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao (1997), the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles (2003), and his private residence Gehry House in Santa Monica (1979), an idiosyncratic showcase of sorts that utilized low-cost materials like chain-link fencing, corrugated aluminum, and plywood. In addition to his architectural works, he has, over the years, also designed exhibitions, jewelry, and furniture.

Gehry’s work has garnered him multiple awards, including the lauded Pritzker Architecture Prize (1989), the Lillian Gish Award for lifetime contribution to the arts (1994—he was the award’s first recipient), the Friedrich Kiesler Prize (1998), and the Lifetime Achievement Award (2000) from Americans for the Arts.

Gehry lives and works in Santa Monica.

Swiss founders Willi and Erika Fehlbaum launched Vitra in 1934 as a shopfitting business in the Basel region, near the border of Germany and Switzerland. During a visit to America in 1953, the Fehlbaums became enamored with the innovative designs of Charles and Ray Eames—known today for the iconic Eames Lounge Chair & Ottoman (1956). In 1957, Vitra obtained licensing rights to produce Herman Miller furniture for the European market and began to manufacture the work of Charles and Ray Eames, as well as George Nelson—famous for the Pop Art-inspired Marshmallow Sofa (1956). 

In 1967, after working closely with Danish designer Verner Panton, Vitra introduced the Panton Chair (originally conceived in 1959/60). The design was deemed a modernist landmark because it was the first wholly plastic, stackable, cantilever chair made in one piece. Vitra soon became internationally recognized as a company that collaborates with talented, progressive designers to create cutting-edge, high-quality products.

Rolf Fehlbaum (b. 1941), eldest son to Willi and Erika, became Vitra’s Chief Executive in 1977. In 1981, after a disastrous fire at the Vitra facilities in Weil am Rhein, Germany, Rolf commissioned British architect Nicholas Grimshaw to design a new manufacturing hall. More architectural commissions followed, and the Vitra Campus (as the architectural ensemble came to be known) earned acclaim for the way its high-concept, contemporary buildings integrated into the surrounding natural landscape and residential areas. Architect Frank Gehry designed the first public building, the Vitra Design Museum (1989), to house Rolf’s ever-growing collection of chairs, the largest collection in the world.  Other buildings on campus were designed by the esteemed architects Tadao Ando (Conference Pavilion, 1993), Zaha Hadid (Fire Station, 1993), Alvaro Siza (Factory Building, 1994), and Herzog & de Meuron (VitraHaus, 2010).

After thirty years, Vitra’s partnership with Herman Miller was mutually terminated in 1984. Vitra, however, acquired the design rights to pieces by Charles and Ray Eames and George Nelson for Europe and the Middle East. For six decades, Vitra has been producing first-class furniture from iconic and internationally renowned designers and architects. Other famous designs in Vitra’s collection include Isamu Noguchi’s Noguchi Table (1939), Shiro Kuramata’s How High the Moon Chair (1986), Borek Sípek's Ota Otanek Chair (1988), Philippe Starck's Louis XX Stacking Chair (1992), and numerous patterns and textiles created by Alexander Girard. Vitra has also won countless design-related awards, such as the Lucky Strike Design Award in 1994, and their pieces can be found in design museums around the world, including the Tate Modern and Design Museum in London, Museum of Modern Art in New York, and, of course, Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein.

* Images courtesy of Vitra