How do we want to live, where do we want to go? The film tells the fascinating…
Regular or Super

- Description
- Reviews
- Credits
- Cataloging
- Transcript
In 1967, at the end of a career spanning more than six decades, which included the design of the Seagram Building in New York, the Lake Shore Drive Apartment Buildings in Chicago, and the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin, architect Mies van der Rohe (1886-1969) designed a simple gas station near Montreal. The story of that gas station serves as the point of departure for REGULAR OR SUPER, which examines Mies' entire body of work (more than 70 buildings) and a sparse style that reflects his motto that 'less is more.'
Mies began his architectural career in Germany early in the 20th century and during the Thirties taught at the famed Bauhaus School of Art and Design in Berlin. In 1938, after the school was shut down by the Nazis, Mies emigrated to Chicago where he designed 22 buildings for the Illinois Institute of Technology. Over the next three decades, in a radical break from the predominant beaux arts style, he refined a distinctive, modernist architectural style emphasizing glass and steel in a variety of buildings whose structures creatively integrated surrounding public space.
Featuring stylish cinematography and an evocative jazz score, REGULAR OR SUPER illustrates many of Mies' classic buildings, combining these striking facades with observations from some architecture superstars, including Rem Koolhaas, Elizabeth Diller and Phyllis Lambert, which are interlaced with anecdotes from customers and neighbors of the gas station, plus comments from his biographer and family members.
REGULAR OR SUPER is a fascinating and informative introduction to the work of one of the 20th century's most influential architects and a thought-provoking demonstration of the social and artistic contributions that architecture at its best can make to our urban environments.
'Delightfully thoughtful and sensual... is itself a model of design. Cinematographer Francois Dutil lavishes tracking shots on Mies landmarks [and] highlights lustrous details, always attuned to the interplay of light, shadow and rain with Mies' glass, steel and concrete. Ramachandra Borcar's superb jazz score cues the eye to spatial rhythms in Mies' facades and plazas. The architectural experts on hand...prove to be adept wordsmiths in their aptly edited soundbites. A lens for looking at Mies' modernist and minimalist style.'-Chicago Sun-Times
'Critic's Choice!'-Chicago Tribune
' * * * * [4 out of 4 stars!] Should be seen immediately!'-The Gazette
'Insightful... enlivened by moments from interviews.'-Ballast Quarterly Reviews
'Recommended! A stylish documentary.'-Educational Media Reviews Online
'The world of architecture, cheerfully dissected. REGULAR OR SUPER serves up a mixed-bag of impressions on Mies by both experts and people off the street.'-La Presse
'A fitting tribute to the work of Mies van der Rohe, legendary architect of the 20th century.'-Le Devoir
Citation
Main credits
Hillel, Joseph (film producer)
Hillel, Joseph (film director)
Hillel, Joseph (screenwriter)
Demers, Patrick (film director)
Demers, Patrick (screenwriter)
Demers, Patrick (editor of moving image work)
Danforth, George (interviewee)
Davies, Howard (interviewee)
Diller, Elizabeth (interviewee)
Fujikawa, Joseph Y. (interviewee)
Koolhaas, Rem (interviewee)
Lambert, Phyllis (interviewee)
Lohan, Dirk (interviewee)
Mertins, Detlef (interviewee)
Nicholson, Ben (interviewee)
Schulze, Franz (interviewee)
Summers, Gene (interviewee)
Tigerman, Stanley (interviewee)
Borcar, Ramachandra (composer)
Other credits
Director of photography, FrancÌʹois Dutil; edited by Patrick Demers; original music, Ramachandra Borcar.
Distributor subjects
Architecture; Art; Biographies; Germany; Urban Planning and Design; Urban StudiesKeywords
WEBVTT
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[sil.]
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[non-English narration]
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I know it serves my purposes, I mean
there is the car wash, there\'s gas,
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there\'s nothing much more, I could ask of the gas
station. They don\'t have a very good candy selection.
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I mean I\'m sure
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things are built a certain
way for a reason.
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[non-English narration]
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No I think it depends, which study of ray you are
using, I know, I\'m more, seeing my husband, he wouldn\'t
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even look at the building. I have to be the one
say, oh look at this. So I think it depends on
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who you are as a person and what
you appreciate in your life.
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[sil.]
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But why was it made here
in the first place,
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well I\'m sure some of you know Montreal
was a pretty popular city in the 1960s,
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pretty hit place with Expo 67. Nuns Island
was been developed at that time and I was
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asked to work on this project.
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[music]
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It was not inhabited in any way
like you see today and the idea was
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to develop a type of sub suburb or a garden
city, very close to downtown Montreal sea.
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As you can see that it took us
about 10 minutes to get here.
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[sil.]
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Well my name is Mike, I\'m a mechanic
here, you know, general mechanic.
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Every year a different crew comes in and say this thing
is great. I am not one of those guys who could tell you,
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well it should be this way or that way. I know
it\'s pretty strong and I feel safe underneath it.
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Frankly I do not think that you need to be
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an expert to appreciate great architecture.
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The kind of singularity and capacity
and kind of silent portrait
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of Mies Van der Rohe, it was
in equivalent of it here,
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it flickers all over the place. I mean I was looking
up in that corner there and there\'s a pentacle,
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a five pointed star. The pentagon
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and the tetrahedron, I mean (inaudible) was struggling
to figure out how to make those things go together
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in the Timaeus and Bucky Fuller did it.
And whether
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I\'m an expert on Bucky Fuller, which I\'m
not, when I\'m expert on architecture,
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look I\'ve never even built a building,
so who am I to talk about architecture.
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You know, I have no right to
talk about it officially,
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but I come to… I come to place,
and I think every human being
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comes to a place where there is…
with what they bring. You know,
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if you… if you fell in love in a building in a gas station,
you are going to remember that gas station, right?
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[music]
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A friend of mine that lived in
Montreal told me about Nuns island,
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he said you should check out Nuns Island, it\'s full of
people just like you. Young urban professionals looking for
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a nice quiet place to live. Hello.
So I am driving by the island
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and looking at this gas in SO sign, but
it\'s it\'s it\'s a rather large roof.
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It\'s not your typical SO like the one down the street. So
I said okay, I\'m going to have to check this place out.
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[non-English narration]
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Anything Mies touched, turned to gold.
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So here they are.
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This is the old… before and after,
which do you think looks better?
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What the assignment was Mies was doing
the tall buildings, fill the mid-rise,
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and make the townhouse, and Mies did the
gas station, which is for me personally
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the one really beautiful building.
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The developers were not people of quality.
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It\'s very harsh to say and it\'s
mean and rude, but it\'s the truth.
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Normally there are mullions
that go all the way through.
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If you look at any of these buildings, you
look at the fence here and that there,
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still is a better building by far than
the kind of crap that is mostly built.
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Still better building, but
it has been much reduced.
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Chicago, America, Montreal, Toronto.
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Let us say the American kind… you know,
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there is conservatives, at
one level on the one here
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and bankers, if you think
about banking and bankers,
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all that, about this stuff, right.
And now it\'s 1948,
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and the developer Herb Greenwald
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Is trying to finance 860, 880, like…
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Doing work with Mies Van der Rohe in
terms of being pragmatic about it,
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trying to get financing and so forth
in the late 40s in the United States,
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with Mies buildings was anything but easy,
and there was nothing like in Chicago.
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There were bricked buildings
with openings, buildings,
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traditional bill goings. So now you are going to
a bank and you are trying to get an end loan,
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a construction loan and then the final
loan in the building. And they look
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at these drawings or models, whatever, he was
showing them and they don\'t look like buildings.
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They look like the skeleton for the
building. It looks like the final building
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is yet to be cleared.
So bankers looked at it
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and I\'m sure said things like, when
is the building going to be finished,
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what does it look like and then
Greenwald was forced to stay,
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this is the finished building.
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[music]
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Pretty soon you get people are all like,
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fancier is the city.
People say, your building
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Mr. developer is not far to sealing gloves.
The market was established
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for a way of living, to
change Chicago financially.
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Market wise, behaviorally
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and then at the apogee
of it, architecturally.
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You know, there is a certain
class of people in Chicago,
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who love the idea of a brand new
different kind of a building
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and in time I got known
to the taxicab drivers
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as the glass menagerie. You hop into a cab and
say, you want to go to the glass menagerie,
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they knew exactly what
you were talking about.
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I was thinking to myself,
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will people be willing to move into
a glass building. No one knew,
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because there were no such building before. You know, they couldn\'t
charge anymore rent because it was a Mies Van der Rohe building.
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It had to stand on its own legs.
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They are considered luxury buildings,
but the plans and the space
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are no larger than public housing
spaces at the same time.
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They infect feel larger
than they really are,
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because of the floor to ceiling
glass and a flowing feeling
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between inside and outside and the view,
the vista of Lake Michigan or the skyline
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is part of the experience of
living in one of his buildings.
00:12:05.000 --> 00:12:09.999
[music]
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He saw that there was another special quality
involved with the placement of those two buildings.
00:12:15.000 --> 00:12:19.999
So that you broke up, you came down the avenue, come
down the avenue, space coming through underneath,
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you feel the openness. He was
very conscious about that.
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Those are not just buildings as a monument
there, they are part of the city structure,
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you walk through them, you are beyond them, you
are into them, you are dealing with the space,
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you are not tied in. And here it just seems absolutely
normal. I can\'t imagine it being any other way.
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I can be here, I can see the
lake, I can see nature,
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and I don\'t have to cut the grass.
No it\'s a marvelous experience here
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to be in the city, part of
the city, and yet I feel,
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when I want to be, I\'m
quite to myself here,
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despite of the glass. Some people don\'t understand
that you can still have your own intimacy
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and look out.
00:13:10.000 --> 00:13:18.000
[music]
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He smashed the bourgeois vision.
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He smashed the Bowser, and he would go
boom like this and drop out of the sky,
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a rectangle, the sort of rectangle,
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that the movie that 2001 made,
that was Mies Van der Rohe,
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he just dropped out of the sky, amongst
these apes, a piece of stainless steel,
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I had no idea what they were looking at.
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[music]
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[sil.]
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These exhibits that are presently touring
around the world, Mies in America,
00:16:05.000 --> 00:16:09.999
Mies in Berlin, they make that very
clear, that he like some other architects
00:16:10.000 --> 00:16:14.999
of the 20th century Frank Lloyd Wright etc.
Is one of the
00:16:15.000 --> 00:16:19.999
giants of that century.
00:16:20.000 --> 00:16:28.000
[sil.]
00:16:35.000 --> 00:16:39.999
Good afternoon everyone,
00:16:40.000 --> 00:16:44.999
if I could have your attention please, I am Mats Anderson, I am the director
of the Whitney Museum of American Art. I\'m delighted you\'re all here
00:16:45.000 --> 00:16:49.999
in this very un-Miesian space.
Probably no other architect found
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greater opportunities here or made a
greater impact on the American scene
00:16:55.000 --> 00:16:59.999
than Mies Van der Rohe. The exhibition focuses
attention primarily on his American achievement
00:17:00.000 --> 00:17:04.999
and the impact of his work on
American culture get large.
00:17:05.000 --> 00:17:09.999
As the legend goes, and it\'s all true, it was
Phyllis who persuaded her father to commission
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these to design the Seagram Building. In
that sense we over a debt of gratitude,
00:17:15.000 --> 00:17:19.999
not just for this exhibition, but for
one of the most important monuments
00:17:20.000 --> 00:17:24.999
of 20th century architecture. Phyllis.
00:17:25.000 --> 00:17:29.999
I knew it was going to be building build for Seagram,
let\'s put it that way, and so I was (inaudible)
00:17:30.000 --> 00:17:34.999
this is just such a fantastic
opportunity to have an effect
00:17:35.000 --> 00:17:39.999
a real effect on the quality of the city.
00:17:40.000 --> 00:17:44.999
So he created
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openness in the city, a freedom
of how one can move in the city.
00:17:50.000 --> 00:17:54.999
Because normally in New York or most cities, buildings
are… tall buildings are hard against the sidewalk
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and so you go in and you\'re swallowed up
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by an elevator and that\'s it.
Where in Mies\'s building
00:18:05.000 --> 00:18:09.999
you can move around it. There are
wonderful benches to sit under trees,
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and this is full of movement, freedom of
movement, which is quite extraordinary.
00:18:15.000 --> 00:18:19.999
If you think of it, there\'s
nobody else who has done this.
00:18:20.000 --> 00:18:24.999
The quotidian to the facadism of
the Park Avenue, he broke it.
00:18:25.000 --> 00:18:29.999
Mies\'s role in designing
the plaza, I think is an
00:18:30.000 --> 00:18:34.999
important part of what he accomplished and
what he contribute to… to architecture.
00:18:35.000 --> 00:18:39.999
By opening up that space in front of the
Seagram Building, or to put it in another way,
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by causing the building to receive from
the apron of the street, opened up
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that spot in Park Avenue, and I think led people
to do much the same sort of thing elsewhere.
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And as you look around the major cities right
now, especially in New York City let\'s say,
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you walk down Park Avenue and there is the Seagram
Building and while it seems very much on the surface,
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like buildings around it, if you
examine it closely, the precision
00:19:05.000 --> 00:19:09.999
the elegance of the materials,
the color of the building,
00:19:10.000 --> 00:19:14.999
its placement on the… on the plaza, it is
very-very unusual and in that sense quite unique.
00:19:15.000 --> 00:19:23.000
[sil.]
00:19:25.000 --> 00:19:29.999
This is Mies Van der Rohe\'s only
building in New York, isn\'t a shame.
00:19:30.000 --> 00:19:34.999
Do you know how many buildings
there are by Mies in Chicago? 45.
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Can you imagine what it is
to live as an architect
00:19:40.000 --> 00:19:44.999
in a city with 45 buildings by Mies.
00:19:45.000 --> 00:19:53.000
[sil.]
00:19:55.000 --> 00:20:03.000
[music]
00:20:40.000 --> 00:20:44.999
We receive a phone call one day,
asking us to come for an interview,
00:20:45.000 --> 00:20:49.999
regarding doing a new restaurant
in place of the brasserie,
00:20:50.000 --> 00:20:54.999
which had experienced an
electrical fire several years ago.
00:20:55.000 --> 00:20:59.999
I was in contact with the people who
are going to run the restaurant,
00:21:00.000 --> 00:21:04.999
and said, well you know there are three
possibilities, either you are going to restore it,
00:21:05.000 --> 00:21:09.999
or you can make a sort of… some sort of
form inside, or you can do something
00:21:10.000 --> 00:21:14.999
where the art is integral with the
idea of, all the things put together.
00:21:15.000 --> 00:21:19.999
So they luckily chose that last
route, which was Diller Scofidio,
00:21:20.000 --> 00:21:24.999
whose work is just phenomenal.
00:21:25.000 --> 00:21:29.999
First of all, a restaurant in a
space that was already designed
00:21:30.000 --> 00:21:34.999
by two major figures of the 20th century,
so first it\'s one of the great glass
00:21:35.000 --> 00:21:39.999
and steel buildings of the 20th century by
Mies and that was already donting enough
00:21:40.000 --> 00:21:44.999
and then an interior that was
designed by Philip Johnson.
00:21:45.000 --> 00:21:49.999
[sil.]
00:21:50.000 --> 00:21:54.999
The question, the very preliminary
question for us was in what way
00:21:55.000 --> 00:21:59.999
do we respect the history of the
space, but also give it a chance
00:22:00.000 --> 00:22:04.999
to have a new breath.
00:22:05.000 --> 00:22:09.999
[sil.]
00:22:10.000 --> 00:22:18.000
[non-English narration]
00:22:40.000 --> 00:22:44.999
Well first of all, I
think he was a nice guy.
00:22:45.000 --> 00:22:49.999
I think he was very humble,
he was a very shy person.
00:22:50.000 --> 00:22:54.999
He didn\'t like to go out in
public or tall or lecture.
00:22:55.000 --> 00:22:59.999
Personally speaking, I think he was very much unto
himself, while he may have socialize with people,
00:23:00.000 --> 00:23:04.999
the socialization was made a good deal
easier by the presence of the Martinis,
00:23:05.000 --> 00:23:09.999
the more Martinis, he had,
the easier was to talk to,
00:23:10.000 --> 00:23:14.999
but at the end of the day he went back to
his own place. In fact one day on a trip
00:23:15.000 --> 00:23:19.999
we were sitting for two weeks in a
hotel, he would just sit for hours
00:23:20.000 --> 00:23:24.999
and look out the window or think
about something. I got very anxious
00:23:25.000 --> 00:23:29.999
and I wanted to return home.
I had a family with kids,
00:23:30.000 --> 00:23:34.999
and I didn\'t like sitting in hotel
rooms and I said why can\'t we go home,
00:23:35.000 --> 00:23:39.999
you are sitting here all day long and
you are not doing anything and he said,
00:23:40.000 --> 00:23:44.999
what do you mean, I am not doing anything.
I am working. He was always thinking
00:23:45.000 --> 00:23:49.999
about architecture and I knew that
that was his real primary interest
00:23:50.000 --> 00:23:54.999
in life, solving architectural problems.
00:23:55.000 --> 00:23:59.999
He liked boxing. He would
watch boxing on TV,
00:24:00.000 --> 00:24:04.999
yes he admitted that. I asked
him, what do you do Mies
00:24:05.000 --> 00:24:09.999
when you are just sitting
around and he said, I watch TV,
00:24:10.000 --> 00:24:14.999
what do you watch, boxing. I had a fix
00:24:15.000 --> 00:24:19.999
every Thursday evening with him and we…
00:24:20.000 --> 00:24:24.999
I learned drinking martinis there and smoking
cigars, because he offered me very nicely,
00:24:25.000 --> 00:24:29.999
week after week, would you
like to have a cigar.
00:24:30.000 --> 00:24:34.999
He was a very interesting guy.
00:24:35.000 --> 00:24:39.999
[music]
00:24:40.000 --> 00:24:44.999
We are spending a good deal of time these days
trying to define who Mies was, what his essence was.
00:24:45.000 --> 00:24:49.999
Everyone will come up with a different
answer. I think speaking for myself,
00:24:50.000 --> 00:24:54.999
I would try to differentiate his work let\'s say
from most of the work that most people see.
00:24:55.000 --> 00:24:59.999
It tends to be very simplified,
00:25:00.000 --> 00:25:04.999
one would almost speak of it as abstract
architecture. It\'s free of any kind of normal,
00:25:05.000 --> 00:25:09.999
or let\'s say traditional decoration,
the materials tend to be associated
00:25:10.000 --> 00:25:14.999
with the modern period, in other words steel and
glass. Now that doesn\'t vary much differentiate him
00:25:15.000 --> 00:25:19.999
from other architects of the present day, but he
is one of the people who pioneered that idea,
00:25:20.000 --> 00:25:24.999
back in Germany in the 1920s. Mies early on
00:25:25.000 --> 00:25:29.999
in the period right after the first
World War, embraced new materials.
00:25:30.000 --> 00:25:34.999
This was a general topic within modern
architecture among modern architects
00:25:35.000 --> 00:25:39.999
and at the time, the main new materials really
to be, that people looked to where concrete,
00:25:40.000 --> 00:25:44.999
reinforced concrete and steel and glass.
00:25:45.000 --> 00:25:49.999
And so he made for instance a…
a landmark pioneering project
00:25:50.000 --> 00:25:54.999
for an all glass skyscraper in 1921.
They were sensation at the time,
00:25:55.000 --> 00:25:59.999
but they couldn\'t be built,
technically they couldn\'t be build,
00:26:00.000 --> 00:26:04.999
because industry had gotten to the
point where they could produce
00:26:05.000 --> 00:26:09.999
buildings like that, like the Barcelona
Pavilion, all in glass which was,
00:26:10.000 --> 00:26:14.999
you know, full of floored exposition.
00:26:15.000 --> 00:26:19.999
[music]
00:26:20.000 --> 00:26:24.999
Mies also was one of the great inventers,
00:26:25.000 --> 00:26:29.999
the great innovators of the tall building in this
country after World War Two, and there again
00:26:30.000 --> 00:26:34.999
when you see these things, you see how
he has used glass and steel to keep
00:26:35.000 --> 00:26:39.999
the the the materials and the
entire aspect of the building
00:26:40.000 --> 00:26:44.999
to a minimum. It was in-line with
his philosophy of architecture,
00:26:45.000 --> 00:26:49.999
being based in structure.
Mies never invented the form.
00:26:50.000 --> 00:26:54.999
Everything that he used in all of these
buildings were out of the factory.
00:26:55.000 --> 00:26:59.999
He never invented that, he did used
different sizes, but they were available.
00:27:00.000 --> 00:27:08.000
[music]
00:27:10.000 --> 00:27:14.999
When he comes to America, he really
develops a strong preference,
00:27:15.000 --> 00:27:19.999
perhaps he had it already earlier,
a strong preference for steel.
00:27:20.000 --> 00:27:24.999
First he want the steel to be, seen to be steel, not to
be buried, and not to be smothered by other devices,
00:27:25.000 --> 00:27:29.999
but to register this deal to allow
it to be expressed. But then he also
00:27:30.000 --> 00:27:34.999
used very particular shapes of steel.
He used the wide flanged section,
00:27:35.000 --> 00:27:39.999
which has an I or an H in its plan.
He favored that
00:27:40.000 --> 00:27:44.999
probably because again it was characteristic but
also because it would create shadow and profile,
00:27:45.000 --> 00:27:49.999
perhaps for other reasons as well, but it allowed
him to achieve certain effects, visual effects.
00:27:50.000 --> 00:27:54.999
Mies emphasized again and again
especially in his later life,
00:27:55.000 --> 00:27:59.999
that proportion was extraordinarily
important for him,
00:28:00.000 --> 00:28:04.999
not just the proportion of things, but also the
proportion of spaces between things. So you know,
00:28:05.000 --> 00:28:09.999
we were dealing with a
fairly refined sensibility.
00:28:10.000 --> 00:28:14.999
[music]
00:28:15.000 --> 00:28:19.999
The Maine center was the
major late work of Mies.
00:28:20.000 --> 00:28:24.999
It was a major monument that many
people of my generation slowly,
00:28:25.000 --> 00:28:29.999
but surely came to grapple with, that project is
something that I\'ve gone back to again and again,
00:28:30.000 --> 00:28:34.999
in the way that often architects
00:28:35.000 --> 00:28:39.999
go back to particular touchdowns in the history of architecture
as a point of reference. Mies I think needs to be seen as
00:28:40.000 --> 00:28:44.999
an architect, who was distinguish,
let\'s say from many other architects
00:28:45.000 --> 00:28:49.999
by the fact that he was grappling with
the conditions of the modern world,
00:28:50.000 --> 00:28:54.999
the conditions of the Metropolis,
the conditions of new technologies,
00:28:55.000 --> 00:28:59.999
which were experienced by many people as
problematic, as disruptive, as alienating.
00:29:00.000 --> 00:29:04.999
He said that the only way to grapple with
them was to operate through these conditions,
00:29:05.000 --> 00:29:09.999
rather than sidestepping, rather than side
stepping, rather than a nostalgia for the past
00:29:10.000 --> 00:29:14.999
to really rework and rethink
architecture under these conditions.
00:29:15.000 --> 00:29:19.999
I think superficially,
00:29:20.000 --> 00:29:24.999
people look at Mies\'s buildings
and say oh another glass box,
00:29:25.000 --> 00:29:29.999
but somehow if you look at the Mies glass
box and all of the descendants glass boxes,
00:29:30.000 --> 00:29:34.999
how come his look always so much better.
00:29:35.000 --> 00:29:39.999
It is a false impression that
00:29:40.000 --> 00:29:44.999
the great architects are geniuses
that are struck by lightning
00:29:45.000 --> 00:29:49.999
and the great idea is immediately there.
00:29:50.000 --> 00:29:54.999
Many-many architects work in the
same way refining their war,
00:29:55.000 --> 00:29:59.999
until they think it\'s right.
00:30:00.000 --> 00:30:08.000
[music]
00:30:20.000 --> 00:30:24.999
Mies\'s career is interesting
because it was truncated virtually
00:30:25.000 --> 00:30:29.999
in the middle. He spent
about 32 years in Berlin
00:30:30.000 --> 00:30:34.999
and he spent 32 years in Chicago.
00:30:35.000 --> 00:30:43.000
[music]
00:31:50.000 --> 00:31:54.999
What I first met Mies
00:31:55.000 --> 00:31:59.999
at school, he was in his mid 70s then,
00:32:00.000 --> 00:32:04.999
when you are of that age, you don\'t
sit down at a drafting table,
00:32:05.000 --> 00:32:09.999
and you know, do all the design,
00:32:10.000 --> 00:32:14.999
you would work on these things
yourself, certain parts of a building
00:32:15.000 --> 00:32:19.999
and then you would take those to him and review
them with him, and he would offer suggestions,
00:32:20.000 --> 00:32:24.999
or he would tell you to work on it
more, which was more likely the case.
00:32:25.000 --> 00:32:29.999
He would come around to
the work they were doing,
00:32:30.000 --> 00:32:34.999
examine it, usually puffing on his cigar,
00:32:35.000 --> 00:32:39.999
very slowly and very deliberately, and say
00:32:40.000 --> 00:32:44.999
try it again. Yeah work on it,
00:32:45.000 --> 00:32:49.999
you never stop, when you think you\'ve
got this brilliant idea. You know,
00:32:50.000 --> 00:32:54.999
you do two or three more solutions, start
over and do them over and then you judge
00:32:55.000 --> 00:32:59.999
those three or four solutions
and choose from lowest,
00:33:00.000 --> 00:33:04.999
as you find out from experience that these
solutions come from working on them,
00:33:05.000 --> 00:33:09.999
not from trying to dream
them up in your head.
00:33:10.000 --> 00:33:14.999
And I think maybe that\'s part of his greatness,
that wants to exhaust all possible alternatives
00:33:15.000 --> 00:33:19.999
and then discard them one by one,
00:33:20.000 --> 00:33:24.999
until he maybe hopefully come up
with one or two that might satisfy.
00:33:25.000 --> 00:33:29.999
Mies\'s impact
00:33:30.000 --> 00:33:34.999
upon the education in architecture I think
goes back to the days when he first came here,
00:33:35.000 --> 00:33:39.999
up until that time, the traditional way had to
a large extent emphasized the Bowser method.
00:33:40.000 --> 00:33:44.999
He got away from that, again we get
rid of all that ornamentation,
00:33:45.000 --> 00:33:49.999
dealing with very-very simple
and basic approaches to things.
00:33:50.000 --> 00:33:54.999
And very shortly we got into what we had
never done before in the old Bowser,
00:33:55.000 --> 00:33:59.999
we made models. This was the first time that we had dealt with
anything, that we could see the three dimensionality of it,
00:34:00.000 --> 00:34:04.999
beam connections, window details,
00:34:05.000 --> 00:34:09.999
full size in wood, in the office building.
00:34:10.000 --> 00:34:14.999
Mies never let us go on to something and
design until we knew how it was being built.
00:34:15.000 --> 00:34:19.999
So he said Joe what do you know
about bricks, and I said bricks,
00:34:20.000 --> 00:34:24.999
yes, well I said you could
build a wall with bricks,
00:34:25.000 --> 00:34:29.999
so right there, he gave me a
pile of wood little bricks
00:34:30.000 --> 00:34:34.999
and I learned how to put
up a brick bond wall,
00:34:35.000 --> 00:34:39.999
how to turn a corner in brick, how
to cut a window in the brick wall.
00:34:40.000 --> 00:34:44.999
So all of these things suddenly
brought to me the idea that
00:34:45.000 --> 00:34:49.999
the craftsmanship, what
goes into good construction
00:34:50.000 --> 00:34:54.999
really went home with me. So that\'s where
00:34:55.000 --> 00:34:59.999
I really began learning about architecture.
00:35:00.000 --> 00:35:04.999
He was trying to make a language.
00:35:05.000 --> 00:35:09.999
He had said this many times, what I
want to do is, develop a language
00:35:10.000 --> 00:35:14.999
that people can use and you know,
people did use it to a degree,
00:35:15.000 --> 00:35:19.999
but you know, what great architecture is
00:35:20.000 --> 00:35:24.999
and who makes great
architecture are artists,
00:35:25.000 --> 00:35:29.999
great artist, and he never talked
about that. In my whole time
00:35:30.000 --> 00:35:34.999
he never talked about being an artist,
00:35:35.000 --> 00:35:39.999
but an architect, a master builder.
00:35:40.000 --> 00:35:48.000
[music]
00:36:55.000 --> 00:36:59.999
What he does with the structure is to transform
them into a visible emblem of the structure.
00:37:00.000 --> 00:37:04.999
So that at the New National Gallery
we have the extraordinary roof,
00:37:05.000 --> 00:37:09.999
this gridded waffle roof,
00:37:10.000 --> 00:37:14.999
it creates a symbol really
00:37:15.000 --> 00:37:19.999
of what technology could be, what
the potential of technology is
00:37:20.000 --> 00:37:24.999
as a form of art. But the
universal space idea of course
00:37:25.000 --> 00:37:29.999
is one in which presumably the space itself
00:37:30.000 --> 00:37:34.999
is large enough and neutral enough that it could
serve any number of different identities.
00:37:35.000 --> 00:37:39.999
So that the building can
stand and remain there,
00:37:40.000 --> 00:37:44.999
but at the same time the function changes.
Here is an architecture that
00:37:45.000 --> 00:37:49.999
wants to simply frame and support the
unfolding of life, that is encouraging
00:37:50.000 --> 00:37:54.999
a an experimental approach to living,
00:37:55.000 --> 00:37:59.999
that isn\'t already defined at the outset.
00:38:00.000 --> 00:38:04.999
So at the New National Gallery
not only did it provoke
00:38:05.000 --> 00:38:09.999
new ways of thinking about the display of art
but it provides… it has provided a setting
00:38:10.000 --> 00:38:14.999
for all kinds of events. I think that there
00:38:15.000 --> 00:38:19.999
is something there that the architecture
is, in Mies\'s hands reduced
00:38:20.000 --> 00:38:24.999
to the minimum really, it\'s reduced
to, he once said, almost nothing.
00:38:25.000 --> 00:38:33.000
[music]
00:38:40.000 --> 00:38:48.000
[non-English narration]
00:39:00.000 --> 00:39:08.000
[music]
00:39:10.000 --> 00:39:18.000
[non-English narration]
00:39:40.000 --> 00:39:48.000
[music]
00:40:00.000 --> 00:40:04.999
Our current civilization is
so unbelievably accelerated
00:40:05.000 --> 00:40:09.999
that the profession of architecture is inherently
too slow to follow it, initially we try
00:40:10.000 --> 00:40:14.999
to make faster and faster architecture,
but it became clear that
00:40:15.000 --> 00:40:19.999
there are a large number, a vast
number of issues in the world
00:40:20.000 --> 00:40:24.999
that still needs architectural thinking, that still
need thinking about relationships, proportions,
00:40:25.000 --> 00:40:29.999
sequence etcetera etcetera, but
they don\'t necessarily need
00:40:30.000 --> 00:40:34.999
to be articulated in the form of building. I
think you only have to look at the images,
00:40:35.000 --> 00:40:39.999
there is a of anthropology, a lot
of sociology, a lot of politics,
00:40:40.000 --> 00:40:44.999
a lot of things that
comes with the economy,
00:40:45.000 --> 00:40:49.999
that those were all things that Mies never
presumably looked at or cared about.
00:40:50.000 --> 00:40:54.999
You know, it\'s partly by choice, because… partly
because all of that is getting very impose
00:40:55.000 --> 00:40:59.999
on us today. Genspace is a sum
total of our current achievement.
00:41:00.000 --> 00:41:04.999
We have built more than all
previous generations together,
00:41:05.000 --> 00:41:09.999
but somehow we do not
register on the same scales.
00:41:10.000 --> 00:41:14.999
What I am saying is that, it\'s on almost
global scale, the significance of architecture
00:41:15.000 --> 00:41:19.999
has diminished in direct
proportion to its notoriety,
00:41:20.000 --> 00:41:24.999
let me put in that way. So I think that… that
is the dilemma that we are wrestling with.
00:41:25.000 --> 00:41:29.999
So we can all produce a lot of architecture,
but I think it\'s harder and harder to produce
00:41:30.000 --> 00:41:34.999
important or meaningful architecture.
00:41:35.000 --> 00:41:39.999
Mies is a perfect sample. When he build
Seagram Building, it was a kind of time that
00:41:40.000 --> 00:41:44.999
he could really make an incredibly
strong representation of what
00:41:45.000 --> 00:41:49.999
a company was. He put an
enormous amount of money
00:41:50.000 --> 00:41:54.999
to do it and I think that what is happening
today is, there is more celebrity
00:41:55.000 --> 00:41:59.999
and more media attention, but I think
00:42:00.000 --> 00:42:04.999
if you look at the work, and if you also look at the
money, and look at the architecture. I am a 100% sure
00:42:05.000 --> 00:42:09.999
it\'s less than it was then in that period.
I think the beautiful things for instance
00:42:10.000 --> 00:42:14.999
of this building is that
it\'s entirely spectacular.
00:42:15.000 --> 00:42:19.999
It doesn\'t make any gesture, it doesn\'t
have a very strong expression,
00:42:20.000 --> 00:42:24.999
but it\'s still both kind of
incredibly useful as you can see
00:42:25.000 --> 00:42:29.999
and deeply exciting for
its openness to the city.
00:42:30.000 --> 00:42:34.999
So… I think that very few
buildings that are build today
00:42:35.000 --> 00:42:39.999
have this kind of flexibility,
this kind of modesty.
00:42:40.000 --> 00:42:48.000
[sil.]
00:42:50.000 --> 00:42:54.999
I consider myself as a writer. Of course the
individual works, are going to be… are important,
00:42:55.000 --> 00:42:59.999
but just I think that only through books
can you generate a coherence today.
00:43:00.000 --> 00:43:08.000
[music]
00:43:50.000 --> 00:43:54.999
When Victor Hugo wrote this will kill that, I mean he
basically said that architecture will be killed by the book,
00:43:55.000 --> 00:43:59.999
because the book has something that\'s
distributable, it\'s it\'s easy it\'s fast, it\'s cheap
00:44:00.000 --> 00:44:04.999
and architecture as a cultural
communicator is fixed in space,
00:44:05.000 --> 00:44:09.999
it\'s it\'s you know, it\'s heavy, it takes
a long time, it\'s very expensive,
00:44:10.000 --> 00:44:14.999
and then one could say that… that
the Internet will kill the book,
00:44:15.000 --> 00:44:19.999
right by that logic, that electronic
media will evaporate the book,
00:44:20.000 --> 00:44:24.999
but we know still that the book is still around, it\'s pretty good shape,
architecture is still around and it\'s in pretty good shape, and in fact
00:44:25.000 --> 00:44:29.999
the media has never been more conscious of
architecture than it is now in the last 10 years.
00:44:30.000 --> 00:44:34.999
It\'s hard to be an architect,
it\'s hard to hire an architect.
00:44:35.000 --> 00:44:39.999
Even Brad Pitt is now thinking about
going to architecture school,
00:44:40.000 --> 00:44:44.999
so there is a interesting new relationship
between media and architecture,
00:44:45.000 --> 00:44:49.999
and maybe for all the wrong reasons, but
we\'ll take it any way we can get it.
00:44:50.000 --> 00:44:54.999
When you do a piece of architecture, it\'s a
little bit like like like raising a child,
00:44:55.000 --> 00:44:59.999
you know, at the certain age they
leave home, and you can\'t control it,
00:45:00.000 --> 00:45:04.999
and in a sense architecture
is that way you do it,
00:45:05.000 --> 00:45:09.999
you put your heart into it, and then
you hope that people respect it.
00:45:10.000 --> 00:45:14.999
The best control you can have is having a
really good piece of work. So we try to think
00:45:15.000 --> 00:45:19.999
in a contemporary way and we hope that
those ideas have longevity in the future.
00:45:20.000 --> 00:45:28.000
[music] [non-English narration]
00:48:50.000 --> 00:48:54.999
Whatever, the scale was, Mies gave
it the same care and consideration.
00:48:55.000 --> 00:48:59.999
He was remarkable that way.
00:49:00.000 --> 00:49:04.999
So it wasn\'t the matter of scale,
it was the matter of intensity.
00:49:05.000 --> 00:49:09.999
He considered any kind of building,
whether it\'s a factory or a gas station
00:49:10.000 --> 00:49:14.999
or a power plant to be worthy of
serious architectural pursuit
00:49:15.000 --> 00:49:19.999
and the detailing that you do
00:49:20.000 --> 00:49:24.999
for a gas station in his mind was
as important as the detailing
00:49:25.000 --> 00:49:29.999
for an art museum, shall we say.
No question about it.
00:49:30.000 --> 00:49:34.999
These are all objects in our
site, in our daily lives,
00:49:35.000 --> 00:49:39.999
and all architects want to
improve our visual clutter
00:49:40.000 --> 00:49:44.999
and create a better scenery
00:49:45.000 --> 00:49:49.999
for our eyes.
00:49:50.000 --> 00:49:54.999
[music]
00:49:55.000 --> 00:49:59.999
Service stations have gotten a
bad reputation for the noise,
00:50:00.000 --> 00:50:04.999
it could easily be a neighborhood nuisance
00:50:05.000 --> 00:50:09.999
and so our effort there was to minimize
00:50:10.000 --> 00:50:14.999
the impact of a service station in a
low-rise Community. Like you know,
00:50:15.000 --> 00:50:19.999
normally an architect plays the
00:50:20.000 --> 00:50:24.999
court gesture, the full, that stands up
before clients and does a kind of song
00:50:25.000 --> 00:50:29.999
and dance, and tries to persuade the client
00:50:30.000 --> 00:50:34.999
to do a project, this is very funny
00:50:35.000 --> 00:50:39.999
because this, the developer was
standing up, trying to persuade Mies
00:50:40.000 --> 00:50:44.999
to work on the project. So while it
was done under the Miesian parameter,
00:50:45.000 --> 00:50:49.999
it was really done by Joe and Jerry.
00:50:50.000 --> 00:50:54.999
We essentially depressed the three or four
feet below the existing street system,
00:50:55.000 --> 00:50:59.999
and then we put a big roof over everything
00:51:00.000 --> 00:51:04.999
so that all the lighting came
from underneath the roof.
00:51:05.000 --> 00:51:09.999
The SO sign,
00:51:10.000 --> 00:51:14.999
which you see sticking up for
miles, we lowered it to the ground,
00:51:15.000 --> 00:51:19.999
because we know, why have a
high sign, it\'s not necessary.
00:51:20.000 --> 00:51:24.999
Everyone knows that this
is a service station
00:51:25.000 --> 00:51:29.999
and it\'s primarily for the
neighborhood people anyhow.
00:51:30.000 --> 00:51:34.999
By then Mies was pretty
much on his last legs.
00:51:35.000 --> 00:51:39.999
He seldom traveled, he was staying
00:51:40.000 --> 00:51:44.999
in his apartment. He had to go around in a
wheelchair, so he didn\'t come to the office
00:51:45.000 --> 00:51:49.999
very much. I don\'t think he
ever saw the finished building,
00:51:50.000 --> 00:51:54.999
even, as he died the next year in 69.
00:51:55.000 --> 00:52:03.000
[music]
00:52:15.000 --> 00:52:19.999
How does a person look at architecture
and learn about architecture.
00:52:20.000 --> 00:52:24.999
Having taught the history of architecture for a number of years
I have to… I have to provide a rather unsatisfactory answer.
00:52:25.000 --> 00:52:29.999
You have to look a great deal, you have to look and look and
look. You have to pay attention to the details of buildings.
00:52:30.000 --> 00:52:34.999
It takes a lot of time, a lot of booking,
00:52:35.000 --> 00:52:39.999
in a certain sense a good deal of talking with
people who know something about architecture,
00:52:40.000 --> 00:52:44.999
so that it begins to work by osmosis,
00:52:45.000 --> 00:52:49.999
but only then. The hope is that humanity
00:52:50.000 --> 00:52:54.999
is touched by things, when they are done thoughtfully
and whether they\'re conscious of it or not,
00:52:55.000 --> 00:52:59.999
is not so important for me.
I mean there\'s moments
00:53:00.000 --> 00:53:04.999
when I am touched by something
20 years after I come to them,
00:53:05.000 --> 00:53:09.999
like this building. You have to go to a
place and experience things for yourself.
00:53:10.000 --> 00:53:14.999
And it may be that… that
you can get a lot of value
00:53:15.000 --> 00:53:19.999
out of something without having any
idea that the word architecture exists,
00:53:20.000 --> 00:53:24.999
certainly not even knowing who the person
is, who designed the space shuttle,
00:53:25.000 --> 00:53:29.999
tell me, I don\'t know, you know, who designed…
we don\'t know who designed the space shuttle.
00:53:30.000 --> 00:53:34.999
Now could you get architecture
to that sort of pitch whereby,
00:53:35.000 --> 00:53:39.999
you would look at this thing and
say I don\'t know who built it,
00:53:40.000 --> 00:53:45.000
but you know the space shuttle did get
built and it\'s a hell of a machine.
00:56:05.000 --> 00:56:10.000
[music]