When Marge Simpson calls someone "the bestest architect in the world," you know they've made it.
That's what she said of famously flamboyant architect Frank Gehry in an episode of The Simpsons in 2005.
On Friday night, the Collab Foundation echoed Marge's sentiment by awarding Gehry its 2008 Excellence in Design Award. Collab is a group of design professionals that organizes educational programming for the Philadelpia Museum of Art.
The hundreds of area architects and design enthusiasts that assembled at the PMA were treated to a candid look at Gehry's prolific career. The architect flipped through slides of his work, telling anecdotes and cracking jokes.
He poked fun at his trademark style, which abandons traditional geometry in favor of distorted curves. When one of his rare "traditional" designs appeared on the screen, he yelled out into the audience, "I do do rectilinear buildings! See, it's not all gooey-fooey!"
The award presentation inaugurated the opening of "Frank O. Gehry: Design Process and the Lewis House," an exhibit in the museum's Perelman building featuring Gehry's sketches, models, sculpture and furniture designs.
His architecture has gained a fame that no other architect currently rivals. The Simpsons' cameo - which the award presenters used to introduce him - cemented his place as an American cultural icon.
Despite his prominence in the architectural world, the audience was noticeably student free. With ticket prices starting at $200, the event was out of reach for most young people.
Like many of her classmates in the Architecture program, College junior Kate Daily would have attended the lecture, had it not been for the steep price tag.
For others, like College junior, Architecture student and Daily Pennsylvanian opinion artist Alex Jacobson, not attending was a matter of personal preference.
"I don't think he can draw very well; he is very overrated," he said of Gehry.
But, Jacobson noted that Gehry's contributions to the field of architecture cannot be ignored.
"I am thankful that he has given the architect a place of prominence, he has broken the glass ceiling," Jacobson said. "A lot of people regard him as the standard for modern architecture. All of those crazy forms, that's not the kind of standard I want to be measured against."
Jacobson was among many area students to enter his work into a competition to design a bench that will be included in one of Gehry's buildings. The winners of the competition were announced at Friday's event.
Despite his many awards, including the prestigious Pritzker Architecture Prize in 1989, Gehry remains humble.
"I had four buildings torn down last year," he said unabashedly. "People call me to defend them, and I say 'tear them down' - it's progress."
Despite his other noted accomplishments in furniture design and sculpture, Gehry refused to identify himself as anything other than an architect.
During his lecture, he dismissed his iconic fish sculptures as a mere hobby.
"Oh, those are just things I do," he said.
But those sculptures are on display in museums around the globe, including the current exhibit at the PMA.
Not bad for just a hobby.
