How would Gehry do it? What we forget when we talk about “Tall Timber”

It took me a long time to read through the many obituaries for Frank Gehry, who passed away on December 5th. There was one passage written by Nicolai Ouroussoff which stood out for me:

[Gehry’s] emotional ferocity could feel empowering, as if architecture had rediscovered a part of itself that had been lost after decades of dreary functionalism and postmodernist clichés. And the widespread focus on his buildings’ dazzling exteriors could distract from Mr. Gehry’s deeper goals: to create an architecture that was not just affecting but democratic in spirit and evocative of the messiness of human life.

The messiness! The humanity. Buildings are about us. Or at least, they should be. As 2025 winds down, I keep noticing the same pattern in client conversations, pitch decks, and awards submissions: architects are pouring enormous energy into the technical half of their projects, and barely touching the other 50%—the people and communities we’re ostensibly designing for.