My Architect: A Son's Journey Page #6

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You know, architecture is so passionless

in the modern movement.

There was no sense of... I

mean, it was all mechanical.

And that's why the

postmodern thing happened,

because people couldn't handle it.

It was just so cold and formless.

And Lou was kind of the breath

of fresh air in that, I mean,

in America.

And my first works

came out of my reverence for him.

Good night.

When Lou's ideas about

architecture finally caught on,

he had ten years left to live.

Maybe he knew time was running out.

He never said no to a lecture invitation

or a possible job, no

matter how tired he was

or how far he had to go.

If they wanted him, he was there.

One night when Lou came to visit,

he made a little book with

me:
The Book of Crazy Boats.

There was a boat made out of a spoon

and one made out of a biscuit,

and there was a sausage boat

with toothpicks stuck in it

to keep it upright in the water.

At the time, I had no idea

that he was going to build a crazy boat.

It's a weird-looking thing.

Yeah, we saw that coming in yesterday.

"What the hell is that thing?"

Yeah, it looks like sort of

a, you know, Jules Verne thing.

Lou built this boat out of steel.

It's a music barge

that motors up to small

towns all over the world

and opens up into a concert stage.

It was commissioned by a

man named Robert Boudreau,

who is both the ship's captain

and the orchestra conductor.

I didn't tell him that I was Lou's son.

- Hi.

- Hi, Robert. Hi.

- Nice to see you.

- Hi, there.

What are you up to?

Put that damn thing down.

- Yeah, how are you?

- Hi, nice to meet you.

- Quite a boat you have here.

- Thanks.

This is that symphony boat to

that cruiser in front of us.

I think it might be a good

idea if you just moved out

until we went in to dock

and then came back in.

So, Robert, this boat

is very futuristic.

Oh, yeah, people say

this thing's from Mars, you know?

You know, I love this boat.

This is my boat, I created it,

with Lou.

- So you loved him?

- Oh, yeah.

That's a Louie Kahn

doorway for sure, isn't it?

You don't get 'em any better than that.

Isn't that amazing?

Well, take a look.

Take a look over there.

They're having all this

light come right through that.

Do you have to go now?

Can you come back, or no?

- No, no, I'm going to go.

- Okay, well, did you know why

I came to see you today?

Well, I'm making a film about Lou.

- Well, I knew that.

- You knew that.

- I knew that.

- But... I'm Lou's son.

God.

I saw you when you were six years old.

I saw you at the wake.

I saw you with your mother.

You remember that day?

What a crazy world.

You are Lou.

Have a nice concert.

- Where's Nathaniel?

- Why'd you get so upset?

Gosh, you love a man...

and I knew Lou had a son,

and I was told never to

tell that Lou had a son.

I don't know.

Lou was... didn't talk

about his family much,

except about his daughter.

He didn't talk about that.

Men don't talk about those things.

That was his, that was

his very personal thing.

We all have those personal things.

Thanks.

"Dear Harriet, I keep thinking

"how your sweet words have helped me

"during these trying days

of advice and criticism.

"What will happen is

all I still don't know...

"I mean, the hatred of your brothers,

"Abbot and Willie.

"My only hope is that

the beauty of new love

"will in some way make them understand.

"Now over me is a heaviness

of quiet and incompleteness,

"and I'm still very discouraged

by the feeling of ineptness.

"Lou."

Well, we were soul mates,

I would say, and inspired each other

so that it was an equal

exchange in many ways.

And I was a critic.

I do think that I brought

the sense of nature

and another sight to Lou's work.

Where did you work in the office?

I worked in a room, and

sometimes it was locked.

Why?

Well, because of his wife,

who would come in, drop by sometimes.

Sounds fairly...

fairly nerve-wracking.

It was nerve-wracking.

It was humiliating in some ways.

When the buildings were

created and finished and...

for example, the Kimbell Museum.

Everyone went out to the opening,

but I was not invited.

I was not allowed to come.

Is it partly because you were a woman

or that you were involved with him?

Yes, I think all of those things, yeah.

Didn't you ever say to him,

"Well, why don't you respect me more?

"Why don't you include

me in these things

"or make me a

part of your"...

Well, you see,

I felt so...

so happy and delighted

to work on things.

I mean, to work on something like this

was just... was

just thrilling.

And when... when we were

working on projects,

we were just completely

absorbed with the ideas.

And... and... and there

was just great freedom

and love of what we were doing.

And so that was the price that I paid.

It was worth it, you know?

My parents met by chance

at a party in Philadelphia.

My mother was 32,

and Lou was almost 60.

Her family was appalled

by the relationship.

And when she got pregnant,

she decided to disappear for a while.

She went to stay with her friends,

Charles and Susannah Jones.

They offered to adopt me

if she had to give me up.

I was amazed to see this little man

that she was so taken with.

And I didn't quite get

his number, I have to say.

I mean, he turned on the charm.

And I was sort of a Yankee,

and it didn't rub off.

I mean, I didn't get it.

And then it revolved

that she was pregnant

and that her family

really resented that and...

- didn't accept...

- No, they didn't.

They didn't accept that.

And time went by, and I said to Charles,

"You know, what's she going to do?

"She hasn't made arrangements,

"and the family isn't coming through.

"They're making it difficult.

"I really think we should do something."

And there was one sister, Edwina,

who did stand by her and

said, "You know what I can do?

"I can provide a man

to stand up with you

"and get married and

give a name to that child,

"and then you just can get

divorced two weeks later."

And Charles and I said, "No way.

"We don't want to have

anything to do with that.

"That's such a travesty of marriage.

"Just go ahead with

it and have this baby.

"It's going to be all right.

"Let him keep his name if you want,

"or have him take your name.

Don't worry about that."

And I also have to say

that you had to recognize it

right at the beginning

from Harriet's point of view

as a very true love,

an immense love...

and that it would be a lifelong love,

which I think it has been.

And you can't judge that,

because that kind of love

is on the side of life

and is a good thing.

My uncles, Abbot and Willie,

never bought that

romantic love affair idea.

They hated my father

and refused to ever

even mention his name.

Maybe if he'd married my mother,

it would have been different.

But even as her husband,

Lou would not exactly

have been their idea

of an Episcopalian gentleman.

My mothers' sisters, however,

would talk with me about him.

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