Architecture

For a number of different reasons, I’ve been brushing up on my architecture. I’m starting the training for the River Tour in April, my project at work has me researching some things, and an extra project I will talk about soon enough. So I was reading this great resource from The Art Institute. They did oral histories with Skidmore Owings and Merrill Architects and I was reading about Bruce Graham. He was instrumental in designing the Hancock and Sears Tower. As I was reading through, this stopped me in my tracks. I love it, I love the whole thing. Blum is the woman interviewing Graham:


Graham: … but my point was that Frank
Lloyd Wright used to brag about what a great engineer he was. He wasn't, he was a lousy engineer.

Blum: Did you know or ever meet him?

Graham: Yes, in Chicago. He was a mean old man.

Blum: I assume your exchange was not a very pleasant one.

Graham: Well, one time he came to an AIA meeting in which he was invited to give a talk. He came in with his cape and his hat and he ran up the aisle and went up and said—we were celebrating Sullivan—he said, "Oh, you killed
Sullivan!" and he got up and walked out. What an animal! "Oh, you killed Sullivan!" He was meaner to Sullivan than anybody else.

FLW was a student of Sullivan's, he learned his whole "organic" theory of architecture from Sullivan, then started to get his own work and ditched Sullivan. I love him screaming with his cape and hat, such a great image. And of course, they did kill Sullivan, but that's for another day. I just think this was so neat, I hadn't heard anyone say that about FLW before. These interviews are great, if you're interested in this kind of thing, it's here:

http://www.artic.edu/aic/libraries/caohp/deblois.html

Okay, it's Friday, late blog post, almost 4:00, almost time for home.

24 on Sunday AND Monday, there will be much to discuss.