Architect Frank Gehry Conjures an Astonishing, Sculptural Home in Silicon Valley

"Massy Mehdipour is not your typical Silicon Valley mogul. She began her career at Bechtel, the multinational engineering and construction firm where she managed projects around the world, and for all her experience in digital technology-she has founded two companies and is a major venture investor-she has always felt equally comfortable in the realm of real-world architecture and building. She has been a longtime client of the interior designer Paul Vincent Wiseman and has commissioned vacation houses from the architects Ricardo Legorreta and Peter Bohlin."

"When it came time to plan a new home base for herself in Silicon Valley, she saw no reason to lower her architectural ambitions. She was a longtime admirer of Frank Gehry, whose work she viewed as the benchmark against which others were measured, and beside whom everyone else, she decided, seemed wanting. Mehdipour set out to hire the celebrated architect, even though at the time-a little more than a decade ago-he was taking on few residential projects."

"She went to see Gehry in his office in Los Angeles. "When Frank asked me why I wanted him to design my house, I told him that I wanted to bring his creativity to Northern California," Mehdipour said. "People in this area needed to see it. I told him that I wanted this house to be his work of art.""

"It helped that Paul Wiseman's husband, Richard Snyder, is Gehry's former brother-in-law, and that Wiseman, who had known and admired Gehry for years, had always hoped to collaborate with the architect. Gehry agreed to go forward and went to see the land Mehdipour had purchased: a deep, flat parcel in suburban Atherton, a town whose population is better known for its tech-derived wealth than for its patronage of new architecture."

Massy Mehdipour combined her engineering and venture background with a longtime interest in architecture to commission a signature residence in Silicon Valley. She pursued Frank Gehry to bring his creative, sculptural approach to Northern California despite his limited residential work at the time. Paul Vincent Wiseman provided interiors, and familial and professional ties smoothed collaboration. Gehry visited the deep, flat parcel Mehdipour purchased in suburban Atherton and agreed to proceed. The design responds to a wealthy, tech-oriented neighborhood while aiming to make a distinctive work of art that remains livable and functional for daily life.

Read at Architectural Digest