Frank Gehry Has A Few Things To Get Off His Chest

As a child growing up in Toronto during the Depression, Frank Gehry created buildings and bridges—the cityscapes of his imagination—on the floor of his grandmother’s Kensington Market kitchen using scraps of wood and challah dough. More than eight decades later, that boy—now 93 years old and the world’s most famous living architect—has turned his attention to the city of his youth for Forma, a mixed-use project at King and Duncan with a sky-high profile.

The western of the two towers will be Gehry’s tallest yet, clocking in 84 storeys; the eastern tower is 73. Together, they comprise more than 2,000 condominium residences, an area designated for OCAD University, plus commercial and retail spaces. It’s the architect’s first new build in Canada and only his second project here (he completed the expansion of the AGO in 2008).

Forma’s glass curtain wall and rippled steel cladding are intended to play with light by refracting and reflecting it throughout the day—a Gehry hallmark seen in his titanium blue south face at the AGO, the Walt Disney Concert Hall in L.A., the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, and the Weisman Art Museum in Minneapolis. “Every city in the world has its own light,” says Gehry, “and I wanted this building to capture the essence of Toronto.” I spoke to him in late May about his favourite (and least favourite) buildings, his enduring affinity for fish and his desire to live forever.

Read full article at Toronto Life

For more information about Forma, visit formatoronto.com