My Architect: A Son's Journey Page #3

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and I'll come back another day.

I don't think Lou would do that.

Lou would probably...

push it right through.

And then when he found a

client that is sympathetic,

it's a client for life, huh?

And I don't think I could claim that.

On the other

hand, I probably...

lost fewer clients than he did.

Oh, way fewer. I think

you've built way more.

You've had way more success rate

- in terms of your buildings...

- Building doesn't mean success.

- No?

- Building...

three or four masterpieces are more

important than 50, 60 buildings.

Quality, not quantity.

Architecture has to

have the element of time.

How can you judge a work today,

let's say a work by anyone

of these modern architects

that you know about that's

exciting and wonderful.

And then what'll happen

to it 20, 50 years later?

That's the measure.

That's why that Salk

Center will always be

as perfect as it was conceived.

The teakwood may fade away.

It probably

did... or has.

But the spirituality of

that project will remain.

Now, that building will

stand the test of time.

No question about it.

There is something

spiritual about this space.

For the first time since he died,

I felt I was getting

closer to my father.

The scientists told me

the building is not only

beautiful, but it works.

Unlike the Richards medical towers,

where the labs are small,

these labs are totally open,

spanning the full

length of the building,

and each scientist has a

study with an unobstructed view

of the Pacific Ocean.

Lou was 65 when Salk was finished.

He said it was the first building

he was really happy with.

I looked up one of the men

who worked with him on the project,

a guy named Jack MacAllister.

Jack moved out here during construction

and never left.

I was in charge of this

project when I was 25.

You had an incredible responsibility.

Unbelievable.

That was one of the things that he had:

enormous trust in young people.

Lou put me in charge and

gave me his checkbook.

And he said, you know,

"You distribute the fees."

And I grew a beard because

I wanted to look older.

I'm serious.

How old were you when Lou died?

- I was 11.

- That's what I thought.

- I was 11, yeah.

- Did you know him well?

- I have a sense for him.

- Right.

And I saw him, you

know, once a week, maybe.

- That's all, though?

- That's about all, yeah.

- Did you ever travel with him, or...

- No, no.

That's why I wanted to talk to you,

because you spent a

lot of time with him.

- Oh, yeah, me and my family did.

- Your family did too?

He used to spend

Christmas with us, yeah.

- He spent Christmas with you?

- He loved Christmas, yeah.

He absolutely loved it. I can

remember him lying on our bed

watching cartoons

with the kids...

and then falling asleep,

you know? They'd just say,

"Lou's sound asleep, Daddy."

That's when we'll leave... "You

know, leave him be. He's tired."

Lou was very willful, you see?

He didn't want anything in his buildings

to look like he hadn't anticipated them.

So when something was going to happen,

instead of trying to suppress

it, he made more of it.

And that's a way of thinking

about things, you know,

- not just architecture, about anything.

- Sure.

Any adversity, any difficulty.

Instead of trying to cover it up,

you pull it out and express

it, and then you own it.

And, I mean,

you might say...

it's probably a loose

fit, but it had to do

with his own physical imperfection

- that...

- His face, you mean?

Yeah, that the scars on a building

that are produced by the way it's made

should be revealed. I think

he really believed that.

It all had to do with revealing

the process of what it was about.

And he probably learned to

think about himself that way.

I've never said the before,

and it may be bullshit, but

it's an interesting thing to think of.

You know, you can't be

stupid all your life.

You got to be smart too.

We used to use the expression,

you know, in the college...

when I went to college.

When we couldn't solve

a damn problem, you know,

because it was

so difficult and...

or you didn't study for the examination

you took that morning, you know,

we always said, "I wish we were smart

instead of good-looking."

That was the expression we used.

He was an incredible

man who we all supported

and forgave for a lot of things

because of what he was doing.

What kinds of things did

you have to forgive him for?

Oh, I once... on

very short notice

he came to me and asked

me to build a model

of a project while he was out of town.

And I went in, and I spent two

or three days working on it.

I finally finished it. I

went to bed at about midnight,

and he came in from wherever he was.

He may have been in India, I don't know.

And he came to the office

about 3:
00 in the morning,

called me at home.

"Jack, this is Lou.

That model you built is

a piece of sh*t." Bang.

What do you say? Maybe it was.

He could have been right, you know?

But... You know, he was capable

of that kind of thing too.

- At 3:
00 a.m.?

- Yeah, at 3:
00 a.m.

He didn't know what time it was.

- Did you ever drink with Lou?

- Oh, yeah.

Oh, you should ask my first wife.

Hello, Mr. Katz?

This is Nathaniel Kahn

returning your call.

Yes, I would like very much to hear

what you saw that night

in Penn Station, New York.

What an incredible coincidence.

Please give me a call back

and let me know where I can meet you,

or I'll try you again

later. Thanks. Bye-bye.

Are you David?

No, I'm not David, no, sorry.

I'm supposed to meet

somebody right here.

Me too.

...a guy named Richard Katz.

What are you doing?

Actually, this guy

Richard Katz was...

my dad died 26 years ago,

and he was with my father

in Penn Station, New York.

- Is that right?

- Yeah, and

I don't know the story of what happened.

So Richard Katz is coming to tell me.

- Is that great?

- I don't know if it's great.

- It's something, anyway.

- That's... yeah.

- Yeah, I hope he shows up.

- I hope he does. I hope my guy does.

Is that... is that the guy

you're supposed to meet?

- No, maybe that's yours.

- No, I don't think so.

Are you Richard?

- How you doing?

- Hey, Richard. I'm Nathaniel.

- Yeah, I figured it'd be you.

- Nice to meet you. Right.

Right.

There was a policeman

here and a policeman here,

- and the dead man was here.

- And where were you?

I'm pretty sure that I was over here.

So when you came in,

were the policemen already there?

No, no.

I see this face of this guy,

and he didn't look very well.

Did you know he was dying?

Was it clear

to you that...

I've never seen anybody die.

So I don't think I would know that.

I've seen one or two dead men,

and they don't look like that.

They look very peaceful.

- He didn't look peaceful?

- No.

You remember that, that

he didn't look peaceful?

What was... what

was the... I mean...

He just didn't.

- Scared?

- What did he die of?

- Heart attack.

- He did?

That's a real sad story that

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