ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

 

 

I have tried to follow Steen Eiler Rasmussen’s example and write only about buildings that I have had the opportunity to visit. While this has obliged me to neglect some important examples, I hope it has made my impressions more insightful. With one or two exceptions, I have avoided writing about unbuilt works. Although some of the examples cited are recent, many are older, reflecting my conviction that buildings are best judged in the fullness of time. If I have included some of my own youthful efforts, it is not because they bear comparison with the great works of architecture but only because I am intimately familiar with their development. Making architecture, as well as thinking and writing about it, has influenced my views, and a tip of the hat to my steadfast clients: Jacques Renaud for my first commission, a house on the Balearic island of Formentera; my parents for the North Hero cottage; Bill Sofin for sundry projects in Montreal; Robert Verrall of the National Film Board of Canada; the esteemed glassblower Erwin Eisch in Frauenau, Bavaria; and Frank Dumont, Jim and Jacqueline Ferrero, and Emmanuel Leon, for residences in rural Quebec. My experience as a registered architect was preceded by apprenticeships with Allan Mackay, Moshe Safdie, Edouard Fiset, Luis Villa, and Norbert Schoenauer.

Conversations with practitioners over the years have informed this book, and I want to acknowledge Robert Adam, Louis Auer, John Belle, Jean-Louis Bévière, John Bland, John Blatteau, Jack Diamond, Andrés Duany, Jeremiah Eck, Norman Foster, Allan Greenberg, Frank Hamilton, Michael McKinnell, Alvaro Ortega, William Rawn, Ian Ritchie, Jaquelin T. Robertson, Moshe Safdie, Edward Satterthwaite, Donald Schmitt, Adrian Sheppard, Robert A. M. Stern, Bing Thom, Stuart Wilson, and Graham Wyatt. Architects who facilitated visits to their projects have included Marc Appleton, Alvin Holm, Roger Seifter and Randy Correll of Robert A. M. Stern Architects, Denis Austin of Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners, Spencer de Grey and David Jenkins of Foster + Partners, Michael Heeney of Bing Thom Architects, and Thomas Beeby of HBRA. My particular thanks to Joanna Kerns and Marc Appleton, Michael Graves, Sally and Peter Bohlin, and Berta and Frank Gehry for generously allowing me into their homes.

First Lady Laura Bush invited me to serve on the George W. Bush Presidential Center design committee, which provided an invaluable opportunity to observe the design process from the client’s side of the table, and to learn from my fellow committee members Deedie Rose and Roland Betts. Lonnie Bunch and Don Stastny answered questions about the competition for the National Museum of African American History and Culture. I followed the design development of this project as a member of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, on which I served from 2004 to 2012. My fellow commissioners, in particular Michael McKinnell and David Childs, sharpened my critical faculties through their perceptive observations during our project reviews. The commissioner Pamela Nelson organized visits to the Baron House and the Rachofsky House in Dallas. Thomas Luebke, secretary of the CFA, provided useful information on Paul Cret. My friend Winnie Lear shared memories of living in George Howe’s High Hollow. My thanks also to Vikram Bhatt, Robert Campbell, David De Long, Edward R. Ford, Mark A. Hewitt, David Hollenberg, Bonnie Kate Kirn, Calder Loth, Shannon Mattern, and Michelangelo Sabatino, for their help and suggestions. Ten years ago, my Penn colleague Richard Wesley proposed that I teach a freshman seminar on architecture, a happy experience that lasted a decade and stimulated me to think about some of the basic issues of the art. Jacob Weisberg invited me to be architecture critic for Slate, a seven-year gig where some of the ideas in this book first saw the light of day. My thanks also to the excellent editors who in years past provided me with regular opportunities to write about architecture: Constance Rosenblum of The New York Times, Bill Whitworth of The Atlantic, Lex Kaplen of Wigwag, and John Fraser and Kenneth Whyte of Saturday Night. For help in acquiring images, my thanks to Marc Appleton, John Arthur, Tom Beeby, Jack Diamond, Peter Morris Dixon, Jeremiah Eck, Philip Freelon, Allan Greenberg, Jonathan Grzwacz, Humberto Gunn, Katy Harris, Natalia Lomeli, Enrique Norten, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, Jenny Stephens, Jennifer Varner, Ben Wintner, and, of course, the invaluable Wikimedia Commons.

Eric Chinski of Farrar, Straus and Giroux provided stimulating editorial advice from the beginning, and his many suggestions have helped to give the book its final shape. John McGhee was a valuable copy editor; Jonathan D. Lippincott produced a handsome design. Andrew Wylie, my agent, saw the potential of this book when it was merely the glimmer of an idea. Thanks are due, as always, to my wife, Shirley Hallam, for her invaluable editorial suggestions, and for reading the manuscript aloud—several times.

W.R.
The Icehouse, Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia
April 2011–November 2012