I really like Frank Gehry's buildings, but I just don't like this... it looks like a couple of Ikea ice buckets glued together with a silver candy dish on top...
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Hockey trophy a unique creation
Ice, hockey symbol greeted by silence
CHRISTOPHER HUME
For years Frank Gehry has been called a trophy architect. Now, finally, he has become one.
The Toronto-born superstar designer came to town yesterday to unveil his latest creation, the World Hockey Cup. The metal and plastic chalice will be presented for the first time on Sept.14 to the winner of this summer's World Cup of Hockey tournament.
Gehry, the most acclaimed architect in the world today, comes from Toronto but has lived in California since the late 1940s. A huge hockey fan, Gehry, 75, formed his own amateur team 30 years ago and still works out with members of the NHL's Los Angeles Kings.
"I had no idea of what I was getting myself into," Gehry told a press conference yesterday at the Hockey Hall of Fame. "We only just made the deadline by the skin of our teeth. But I'm thrilled to be part of this."
The trophy certainly isn't what Canada's tradition-obsessed hockey scene expected. To begin with, it doesn't look anything like the Stanley Cup.
It consists of a simple, unadorned metal cup contained within a multi-faceted plastic holder that's very Gehry-esque in its complexity.
When the trophy was unveiled, the reaction was dead silence.
"I can tell you don't like it," Gehry joked, though no one was laughing.
The idea, he explained, was to design a symbol that somehow expressed ice and hockey. The transparent plastic container that holds the shiny copper and nickel alloy cup refers, of course, to ice. The hockey part was less clear.
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`I should have realized it's a bigger deal than I thought.'
Architect Frank Gehry, on media turnout to World Cup of Hockey press conference
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"The light catches the trophy the same way it catches ice," Gehry told his audience. "Ice was the metaphor here. It looks like ice.
"I thought of it as a building," he continued. "I played with these forms in a tower in Hanover. At one point, it was a cup with a hockey stick in it. You have to go through a whole bunch of obvious stuff before you can clear your head out."
According to Gehry, the names of winning players will be engraved in the top half of the cup, which is removable. It can then be displayed on its own and a new cup installed.
Some details are still being worked out. But Gehry's product designer, Jeffrey Casper, who has spent the last eight months on the project, called it "an engineering feat."
"We went through a number of iterations and models," he said. "Frank likes to see things in three dimensions. We had to carve the twisting brick shapes of the plastic container in wood before we could cast them using an extremely advanced casting system. It was fun."
Although Gehry is far and away the most written-about architect on the planet, he seemed taken aback by the media throng at the unveiling.
"I should have realized it's a bigger deal than I thought it was," he admitted. "I never thought I would get involved in hockey to this extent. But I love the game. I realize this is an important trophy. I can hardly wait for some Canadian team to win it."
As Gehry also pointed out, doing a building can take as long as seven years. As a result, he devotes a lot of his time to designing smaller objects such as watches, chairs and doorknobs.
Still, this is his first trophy. It will be exhibited at the Hockey Hall of Fame until September.
Last played in 1996 and won by the Americans, the World Cup tournament will include teams from Canada, Sweden, Finland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Russia, Germany and the U.S.
Additional articles by Christopher Hume