Frank Gehry's Seven-Ton 'Icehenge' Desk from Chicago Skyscraper Heads to Auction

Freeman's is set to auction Frank Gehry's 'Icehenge' desk, a remarkable 16-piece structure weighing seven tons and crafted from green-tinted glass. Gehry created this piece for the Inland Steel Building in Chicago, a modernist skyscraper that influenced him during his early career in the 1950s. He acquired a partial ownership of the building in 2005 and added the desk, which resembles a jagged, chaotic glacial formation. The concept sprang from a piece of glass he observed on another project. Gehry described its explosive nature as akin to 'an explosion in a glass factory.' Following foreclosure, New York Life Insurance Co. purchased the building in 2025. The online auction estimates the desk's value between $100,000 and $200,000, and the buyer must arrange transport for the 15,000-pound piece within a week. Gehry, who passed away in 2025 at the age of 96, was renowned for his deconstructivist style, as seen in his Santa Monica home, remodeled in 1978. The tallest column of the desk reaches six feet.