The service was to be appropriate, ok?
#HERBERT MUSCHAMP - THE NEW YORK TIMES#
That was the big word.
Which means ‘blend in, nobody
notices, camouflage’.
Y’know, put up a new 70-storey
office building but make
it look like the little
art-deco thing right next door.
So, who gets anything out of that?
You have to not only talk about the freedom
but you also have to talk about the courage
of an architect who had
the conviction to say,
‘Well that’s not what
architecture should be
doing and that’s not what
cities should be doing’.
I never expected Bilbao to be the,
kinda, hit it turned out to be.
In fact, when it opened I was
very self-conscious about it,
and thought, ‘My God, what have I done?'
Somebody asked me once about
Frank’s ego, and I said, you shouldn’t
be put off by the
Columbo-like exterior the
crumpled raincoat and,
the self effacing manner,
I said, Frank’s got the
biggest ego in the business.
And the reason that I know
this is that he also has
a perception of the process
that instead of reacting
negatively to a criticism,
he’ll basically say the
reverse of what you
might expect somebody with
a big ego to say, ‘Let’s just
rip it apart and start again’.
Because he knows that when
he does it a second time
he does it from a higher
plane of knowledge.
Now that’s real ego.
I act like nothing’s happening, y’know?
I’m ‘aw shucks. Bubby.’
Whereas inside
I’m ambitious, I’m eager,
I’m, competitive as hell.
But I cover it up.
There is nobody that strives for
excellence that isn’t
competitive in some way,
But even if you and I are in different
business I probably compete with you.
I have this conflict
about that, that, I want to
be a nice guy, I don’t
wanna be in your face,
and yet I am in your
face, I am ambitious.
I think that’s the
same with the work, it’s
you know, when I got
to Bilbao and saw it for
the first time I got embarrassed.
I thought ‘Oh my God, how
did they let me do this?
Well, you also have to consider
his wife, Berta.