Architecture is not merely the inert buildings that surround us: airtight boxes with painted façades or cladding meant to beautify. Architecture is a dialogic and narrative art that engages with its surroundings, leaving room for questioning and human experience.
As an architect, I have always been interested in understanding the essence of great architecture—its raison d’être—and how it enters into interdisciplinary dialogue with other fields. The passing of Canadian-American architect Frank Gehry in early December is thus a moment for reflection and appreciation. He leaves behind not only a distinctive mark on the world of international architecture, but one of his in-progress final works called Forma, which is located right here in downtown Toronto at 266 King St West in the heart of downtown Toronto.
“Every city in the world has its own light, and the light is modified by the buildings in the city,” Gehry said in an interview about Forma. The towers, a mixed-use complex of condominiums, will become a new architectural landmark, infusing the skyline with dynamism and movement through a bold interplay of light, materiality, and sensitivity to the city’s culture and heritage. Gehry wanted Forma to capture Toronto’s character and rhythm, as well as his own feelings towards the city.
“It’s not like everywhere else—the light is different; the heritage is different,” he noted. “I hope that is what people see when they look up.”
Architecture as art: functional, but resonant
Gehry was committed to creating architecture that speaks for itself, in human terms. To understand his idea of a “sense of humanity”—rooted in the relationship between people and architecture—it is essential to consider how his personal and historical context shaped his design concepts.
Gehry and his family, Jewish immigrants from Europe, migrated from Canada to the United States in the 1930s, in order to escape the antisemitism they experienced in the Toronto of the time. He graduated from the University of Southern California’s School of Architecture in 1954, and later studied city planning at Harvard. Influenced by socially responsible architecture and Abstract Expressionism, Gehry came to believe that architecture could help build a better world by depicting and evoking feelings. His work deconstructed Western traditions to create transformative and unconventional art: an architecture that celebrates the human spirit through stimulating the senses, evoking an experience, and searching for identity.
In Creating Feeling with Frank Gehry, a 2018 documentary by NOWNESS, Gehry described his work’s underlying “sense of humanity”: how his architecture as art is an act of social consciousness, where buildings and cities are designed to welcome all kinds of people and offer them inspiration. His work embodies a harmonious dialogue between artist and occupant, creating spaces that are not only functional but emotionally resonant – much like music, which was a profound source of personal inspiration for the architect.
A lively conversation with the urban environment
Forma’s design is based on a deconstructivist concept: it is an act of opposition, reinvention, and liberation from the established order, embracing the unconventional, the disruptive, and the dynamic. As art critic Jeremy Gilbert-Rolfe noted in his 2001 book Frank Gehry: The City and Music, Gehry considered himself free from the grid: he reacted against the perceived coldness and simplicity of modernist “white boxes.” Whether as a form of critique, an artistic expression, or a translation of musical inspiration (take your pick), Forma ultimately embodies Gehry’s enduring “sense of humanity.”
With Forma, Gehry sought to create an “ensemble” of buildings that mesh harmoniously with their surroundings and produce inviting public spaces at the street level. With this intention, he used specific design strategies to integrate the new towers: revitalizing the public realm with retail spaces, introducing a dynamic and distinctive façade, and shaping both towers with intentional breaks and angles that respond to the scale of the surrounding buildings.
In terms of visual experience, light and material serve as fundamental components of the “ensemble” concept. In a 2022 interview with the Globe and Mail, Gehry described how the buildings’ twisting stainless steel and glass façade captures and refracts Toronto’s unique lighting conditions. The reflective and rippled surfaces, in conjunction with the façade’s angular yet fluid geometry, generate a dynamic visual experience that evolves continuously throughout the day. And “ensemble” also signifies a dialogue—not just between Gehry the architect and the complex’s users –but also between the memory of the place and the people who inhabit it. In a different 2022 interview with the CBC, Gehry explained how, as a child, he was greatly affected by the heritage and history of Old City Hall, Osgoode Hall, and the Royal York Hotel. He wanted to transmit their “air of gravitas” and transcribe into his design the history and urban characteristics of the King West neighbourhood.
“There is a feeling of Toronto that I had as a kid, and I wanted that to be in the DNA of our design,” he noted.
Interiors shaped by Canadian art and nature
Forma is a mixed-use development that will contain residential condominiums, commercial offices, institutional spaces, and ground-level retail. For its residents, it has been designed as a comfortable and welcoming home with multiple lifestyle amenities and services. The interior design by Studio Paolo Ferrari fuses exuberance with elegance. Ferrari describes Forma as a “metaphor for Toronto that expresses its dynamism and diversity, while evoking
A standout feature of the building is its lobby. The material palette creates a striking contrast to the tower’s stainless-steel exterior: it incorporates curved wooden furniture, warm accents, and limestone walls and flooring. Overhead, a sculptured ceiling installation by Gehry’s design team evokes a motif of maple leaves that shimmer in the light—these are visible even to pedestrians along King Street. Inspired by the Group of Seven, the Gehry-designed lobby reflects the deep connection between Canada’s natural landscape and its national identity.
As with so many other Gehry projects, Forma showcases how architecture at its best serves to synthesize the artist, the place, and the human experience – allowing “a sense of humanity” to shine through. And as a living sculpture in the city skyline, it will evoke Toronto’s past, present and future—and Gehry’s enduring legacy of architectural and artistic innovation.
For more information about the Forma project, please see these web pages: Link and Link.
© Alejandra Jimenez, Sesaya Arts Magazine 2025
