‘What Would I Do?’ Frank Gehry, 92, Is Too Busy to Retire

The Pritzker-winning architect is focusing on social justice projects — and can be something of a lightning rod — but he also has lighthearted pursuits.

LOS ANGELES — It was midafternoon on a Monday and the Pritzker Prize-winning architect Frank Gehry — despite having just turned 92 in a pandemic, completed the top floor of his building in the Grand Avenue development, and prepared for a show of new sculpture at the Gagosian Gallery — had little interest in sitting back to reflect on this potentially meaningful moment in his life and career. Instead, he was on the move — giving his first studio tour since the Covid-19 outbreak, far more eager to discuss the myriad designs he has underway, most of which have been proceeding. (Only a high-rise in Manhattan’s Hudson Yards stalled, and his office laid off eight of 170 employees as a result). Projects include this city’s version of New York’s High Line, along the Los Angeles River; new office buildings for Warner Bros. in Burbank, and the scenic design he’s doing for the jazz opera “Iphigenia,” by Wayne Shorter and Esperanza Spalding, which is heading to the Kennedy Center in December. Nearly 3,000 miles away, the Philadelphia Museum of Art is set to unveil its Gehry-designed renovation and interior expansion in May (an event the architect plans to attend).