The Frank Gehry Residence Remodel

Frank Gehry’s own Santa Monica house began in 1977 as a radical remodel of a modest 1920s Dutch Colonial at 1002 22nd Street. Rather than erase the bungalow, he wrapped and cut around it, building an almost-new house that exposes the old frame and sets it against corrugated metal, plywood, and chain-link. The result is a light-filled, inside–outside collage—skewed geometries, corner windows, and a jagged roofline that turned everyday materials into architecture. First featured in GA Houses 6 (1979), the project became a touchstone for his late-1970s experiments and a preview of the work to come. Gehry expanded it between 1991 and 1994, tightening the plan while preserving the original tension between new and old. As of 2017, it remained in the Gehry family.