Frank Gehry’s Iconic “Icehenge Desk” Headed to Public Auction

The renowned auction house Freeman’s has announced that a unique desk designed by the late world-class architect Frank Gehry is going up for auction. The starting price for the piece is $50,000, with Freeman’s estimating that final bids could reach between $150,000 and $200,000.

Freeman’s technical report describes the rare furniture piece as being in “good overall condition,” confirming that it is completely free of any structural breaks, cracks, losses, or prior repairs.

A Security Desk Elevated to Fine Art

Known as the Icehenge Desk, the massive piece has occupied the main reception lobby of Chicago’s famous Inland Steel Building since 2013, where it served as a dedicated security desk.

True to its name, the design resembles a frozen block chiseled straight from a glacier, complete with coarse and sharp edges. It is a stylistic approach reminiscent of the bespoke crystal decanter Gehry designed for Hennessy cognac in collaboration with Baccarat in 2024.

The monumental desk weighs approximately 15,000 pounds (around 6.8 tons) and comprises 16 reconfigurable interlocking pieces. It was carved from massive blocks of emerald glass, featuring green tones that run deeper than the crystal found on the headstone of architect Bruce Goff.

The John Lewis Glass Studio, based in Oakland, California, was the fabricator responsible for executing the highly complex technical production of this piece.

Design Origins and the Inland Steel Building

Chicago’s Inland Steel Building is a landmark of modernist architecture, designed by the global firm SOM and completed in 1958. Frank Gehry became a part-owner of the structure in 2005, prior to SOM undergoing a comprehensive renovation of the building’s fabric in 2010.

Gehry conceived the idea for the Icehenge Desk after happening upon a piece of scrap glass while working on a separate project. Following its installation in the lobby in 2013, architectural critic Blair Kamin wrote in the Chicago Tribune: “The U-shaped desk is best described as a piece of furniture that’s been elevated to the level of art, or is simply an emblem of excess.”

Frank Gehry’s Furniture Design Legacy

The architectural community mourned the passing of Frank Gehry in December 2025. His most enduring contributions to the world of furniture design remain the iconic “Gehry Wiggle Chair” and “Gehry Wiggle Stool,” both designed in 1972, followed by a series of bent-laminated maple chairs created for Knoll.

In 2024, Gehry designed a highly exclusive, bespoke decanter for Hennessy. The select few pieces of that limited collection fetched $150,000 each—aligning closely with the estimated market value expected for the Icehenge Desk today.