Although I think there is too much commercialization about his architecture – which overrates it – I thought I need to see this documentary. Directed by Sidney Pollack, he and Frank are obviously friends for a long time. Maybe Sidney Pollack as the director is part of the commercialization. He didn’t know about architecture and has never made a documentary, what puts him in the position of the right man for this film, as Frank said. Which is also part of the commercialization? At least I like this attitude. And I truly believe Frank is a very open minded person, much more open minded and of course experimental than so many architects here who like to claim that for themselves. Most of them are just decorators, but that’s another story. So although, especially architects don’t necessarily speak in favor of his work, I have some respect for it. Probably it’s part of my LA experience. I think watching this documentary without an idea of LA I wouldn’t have understood half of it. Especially, and that’s the crucial point, I just couldn’t relate the architecture to anything. Rolf Fehlbaum, chairman of Vitra and one of his clients, said something I think reflects that so clearly: He explained that he as a Swiss was culturally related to an environment that is determined by manifold restrictions, a thinking within a strongly developed common understanding, and Frank Gehry’s architecture represents something that is able to resist these invisible but persistent boundaries. Yes, he’s right. I also like Frank’s statement that literally in everything is inspiration. Beginning with the chain link fence he used for his house. It’s very LA. Sometimes I have the impression: this city is such a mess that just inevitably you develop at least interest for all this undesirable, everything but appealing, most ordinary, unorganized structures, surfaces, components and expressions. But the most striking moment was he claiming his architecture closer to Alvar Aalto than anybody else’s. When he was at school in Toronto, where he’s coming from originally, he was visiting lectures by an architect he didn’t know (he was a young boy and didn’t know anything about architecture). So he couldn’t know who the referent was but he was very interested in these projects he presented. He thought it wasn’t anything he saw so far. Years later he went back to find out who this architect was and learned it was Alvar Aalto. Of course you can say he’s using this experience to make his own work more interesting. But I believe him. It’s interesting enough to recognize that you wouldn’t think of Alvar Aalto looking at Gehry’s architecture. But when Frank Gehry himself draws this relation you suddenly wake up and a completely knew constellation of relations builds itself up. I thought it’s very interesting he said that. Formally, but also spiritually. Frank Gehry thinking forward for anything he hasn’t seen so far. His therapist said, normally people want him to tell them how they (re-)organize there lives, for whatever reason. If an artist is visiting him, they normally want to know how to change the world.