The Scout: Frank Gehry bench hits the block at Sotheby’s

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Frank O. Gehry’s one-of-a-kind Tuyomyo bench for the classic aluminum chair company Emeco will be auctioned June 12 as part of the Important 20th Century Design sale at Sotheby’s New York. The architect’s piece has a ziggurat structure with a mirror-polished, free-flowing aerodynamic top that is as unmistakably Gehry as the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. The bench is 9 feet, 9 inches long yet weighs only 122 pounds, and it’s constructed from 80% recycled aluminum.

Tuyomyo cost about $200,000 to design, engineer and produce. Sotheby’s estimates it will sell for $250,000 to $350,000, with proceeds benefiting the Hereditary Disease Foundation.

The inspiration, Gehry says, ‘was to create a new version of a love seat that would allow two people to face each other and converse. The dream, I suppose, is that people would find the cure to Huntington’s disease on this bench.’

For information, contact Sotheby’s, (212) 606-7000, www.sothebys.com.

-- David A. Keeps

Photo credit: Emeco