Core77

Over at Critical Cities, D.J. Huppatz reiterates the foundation of Frank Gehry's supreme starchitect status as that of the architect as artist. In reference to Gehry's infamous artistic vision, Huppatz describes in detail the Issey Miyake store, IAC building, and Atlantic Yards, the most notable of NYC projects by Gehry, a designer who pulls inspiration via expression rather than a concern for or awareness of the greater social or environmental good...the end point being that "form follows finance."

Certainly in a New York context, Gehry's architecture as art fails to engage with the city's most crucial urban issues: affordable housing, repairing or replacing the decrepit infrastructure and the creation of diverse communities. But for the New York projects of America's greatest artist, the starchitect formula holds true: form follows finance.