Frank Gehry

The University of Toledo Center for the Visual Arts

The University of Toledo Centre for the Visual Arts is a building by Frank Gehry constructed in 1993. The building is the main facility of the Toledo University's Faculty of Art, and compliments the older Toledo University Art Museum close-by.

The building is modern in style, based around the seminal glass box. The shape of all the elements of the construction are based around primary shapes and forms, a style which is common throughout most of Frank Gehry's works and which can be seen in his Vitra Museum of Design.

Both the interior and exterior spaces have been considered and designed for their use. The interior is largely a white space, with an even grid of support columns spread throughout each space. This highly modern style of interior space, along with the glass walls which surround most rooms creates a space which is conducive to the purpose and use of the building, that of creating and displaying art.

The use of sheet metal throughout the exterior of this building is typical of Gehry's style. Similar use of metal can be seen in his Gehry Tower in Germany, The Guggenheim in Bilbao, and the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, Calif. This style, as with all of Gehry's buildings, is used to great effect and contrasts well with the glass which is higlhy visible when viewed from the ground.