Paul Gilger (born October 13, 1954 in Mansfield, Ohio) is an American architect, set designer, and playwright. He conceived the 2003 off-Broadway Jerry Herman musical revue Showtune.
In 1991, Gilger designed the Industrial Light and Magic Film Studios in San Rafael, California for filmmaker George Lucas (Star Wars, Indiana Jones),[1] and in 1989, he prepared conceptual designs for the Disney/MGM Film Studios in Tokyo, Japan.
With Nomad Productions Scenic Studios in San Francisco, Gilger designed concert touring sets for Madonna (1985 Like a Virgin Tour), Kenny Loggins, Crosby Stills & Nash, Carlos Santana, Alabama, Dio, and Petra, stage sets for Whoopi Goldberg and Anthony Newley (the 1983 musical Chaplin), set pieces for the Super Bowl broadcast, and numerous sets for television and theatre.
Gilger's architectural work includes the landmark house "Edgewater" in Mill Valley in Marin County, California, built in 2003 by Lehman Brothers of New York; the conversion of the 1894 Del Monte Cannery Building in Santa Rosa, California into the 6th Street Playhouse in 2005; "Park Lane Village Square", a $100 million residential/commercial mixed-use project in Santa Rosa, completed in 2009; and the Cloverdale Performing Arts Center for the city of Cloverdale, California, which opened December 2010. Other private residences of note include "Longview" in Redwood City, California and "Bridge House" near Lake Sonoma, in Sonoma County, California.
Gilger chairs the Lincoln Highway Association National Mapping Committee. In 2007, the 18 member committee completed the research and cartography of the original route of the Lincoln Highway, the first road across the United States of America, and all of its subsequent realignments (over 5869 miles), a project which took more than 5 years. Gilger appeared in the 2008 PBS documentary A Ride Along the Lincoln Highway, produced by filmaker Rick Sebak.
Gilger's name is used for one of the characters in the popular Japanese manga series Bleach created by Tite Kubo, who named most of the Espada characters after architects.[2] The character "Gilger n'Noitra" is named after Paul Gilger and Richard Neutra.
His sister, Joan Gilger Stear, was Miss Ohio 1978.
Gilger is a graduate of the University of Cincinnati College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning, with study in set design at UC's College-Conservatory of Music. He resides in Santa Rosa, California.