Gehry's interest in urban design was to a large extent reinforced by the emergence of postmodernism, which coincided with his invitation to the memorable 1980 Venice Architecture Biennale. A complex project such as the Loyola Law School in Los Angeles reveals his interest in the approaches of Aldo Rossi and James Stirling, while the Edgemar commercial complex in Santa Monica is said to respond to the discourse of Robert Venturi through its use of picturesque procedures, while evoking the urban theories of Camillo Sitte.
While Gehry's interest in art found expression in 1981 in his collaboration with Richard Serra on the Bridges project, and in a series of joint research projects with Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, his exclusion from the competition to build the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles was a severe blow, later redeemed by the successful completion of the Temporary Contemporary.
From this point onwards, his museum projects expanded, from the extension of the Aerospace Museum in Los Angeles to his first European building - the Vitra Design Museum in Weil/Rhein (1984 and 1989 respectively).
