Honorary Alumnus and Visionary Architect Frank Gehry, Who Designed the Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard, Remembered in the New York Times and LA Times
Frank Gehry being interviewed by Joseph Giovannini ©2003 Peter Aaron '68/OTTO
The New York Times called Frank Gehry “one of the most formidable and original talents in the history of American architecture” in its announcement of Gehry's death at the age of 96. A great friend of the College, Gehry was an honorary alumnus when he was approached by the Board of Trustees to design the Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts. He was a superb collaborator who listened deeply to the needs of Bard’s faculty and students, and well understood the opportunity to create a significant cultural destination in the Hudson Valley. His performing arts center contains two of the finest and most versatile theaters in the country, perfectly suited to classical music, opera, theater, and dance. He worked closely with the eminent acoustician Yasuhisa Toyota, who tuned the halls and created the sound separation between the Sosnoff and LUMA sides of the building, allowing performances to take place in both theaters simultaneously. Over the past two decades, the Fisher Center has transformed the identity of Bard and of our region, and performances developed and premiered at the Fisher Center now regularly travel across the country and around the world.
In an appraisal of Gehry’s world-famous concert halls and amphitheaters for the New York Times, culture desk editor and classical music critic Joshua Barone notes he “made an invaluable contribution to classical music by designing spaces with stunning acoustics.” In addition to his magnum opus the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, Barone adds, “Gehry was just as impressive on a small scale, like the gentle, handkerchief steel sheets atop the Fisher Center at Bard in the Hudson Valley.” The Los Angeles Times classical music critic Mark Swed remarks that Gehry’s “hall at Bard College became a venue for the most imaginative summer music festival in the country” in his appreciation of Frank Gehry’s impact on the world of music. When the Fisher Center first opened in April 2003, the architectural reporter Herbert Muschamp wrote in an essay for the New York Times that the building “seems to vibrate like a well-tempered mind.”
The College will commemorate Gehry by dedicating a program in the 2026 SummerScape Festival to him. Meanwhile Maya Lin, who designed the Fisher Center’s near-complete Performing Arts Lab, was a student of Gehry’s at the Yale School of Architecture. She credits him as among her most significant teachers and mentors, and refers to her new building as “a dance with Frank” because of its proximity and relationship to the Fisher Center.
Post Date: 12-09-2025
In an appraisal of Gehry’s world-famous concert halls and amphitheaters for the New York Times, culture desk editor and classical music critic Joshua Barone notes he “made an invaluable contribution to classical music by designing spaces with stunning acoustics.” In addition to his magnum opus the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, Barone adds, “Gehry was just as impressive on a small scale, like the gentle, handkerchief steel sheets atop the Fisher Center at Bard in the Hudson Valley.” The Los Angeles Times classical music critic Mark Swed remarks that Gehry’s “hall at Bard College became a venue for the most imaginative summer music festival in the country” in his appreciation of Frank Gehry’s impact on the world of music. When the Fisher Center first opened in April 2003, the architectural reporter Herbert Muschamp wrote in an essay for the New York Times that the building “seems to vibrate like a well-tempered mind.”
The College will commemorate Gehry by dedicating a program in the 2026 SummerScape Festival to him. Meanwhile Maya Lin, who designed the Fisher Center’s near-complete Performing Arts Lab, was a student of Gehry’s at the Yale School of Architecture. She credits him as among her most significant teachers and mentors, and refers to her new building as “a dance with Frank” because of its proximity and relationship to the Fisher Center.
Post Date: 12-09-2025