My Architect: A Son's Journey Page #7

---

Did the family feel that

she needed to get away

from... from everybody

for a while?

I don't think our family

had anything to do with it.

I mean, I think it was your father

who determined that Harriet should go.

- Ask her sometime.

- Really?

But she... but

you didn't think

she should come to the

vineyard with you to live?

I couldn't at the time.

I wasn't in a position to have her.

And she didn't want to

come to New York with me,

'cause I told her that she could come

to New York with me.

And she chose not to,

which was fine. I don't...

And Abbot came to me, and he said,

"I think she should have an abortion".

I said abs... I

said no.

I'm glad she did because

you're here, Nathaniel.

I said, "It's... it's

none of our business.

That's for Harriet to determine."

I said, "I will not go along with that."

And I didn't. Oh, he was furious.

- Uncle Abbot?

- Yeah.

There is a certain romanticism

in your mother that...

Drives me up a wall.

All of us, because

there's a lack of realism.

- She's so impractical.

- So impractical.

- But she does...

- Drive me wild.

But even at the time of

settling, mother's estate

mother's attorney was shocked to learn

that Nathaniel

was a bastard...

"Dear Lou, I never wrote

you a letter before, did I?

"I've been thinking

about all those summers

"you promised to come to

Maine and then didn't show up.

"At the time, I thought it

was just because of your work.

"But obviously, there were other reasons.

"Did you ever really have

any intention of coming,

"or did you just say you would

to get my mother off the phone?

"Because we

waited for you...

"and waited and waited and waited."

Well, howdy there.

This is Classic Country,

Dallas-Fort Worth,

with a daily tidbit.

Construction is well underway

on the Kimbell Art Museum

in the heart of the cultural district.

It looks a little bit like

a cement cattle barn to me,

but they say the inside

is going to be gorgeous,

lit entirely by our Texas sun.

Well, good luck.

Well, let's get back to music right now.

One of our favorite

stars:
Hank Williams.

And he arrives kind of

unannounced on the job

and with these plans, these sketches

showing how he wanted something.

Then I said, "Is this...

what are these, Mr. Kahn?"

He says, "Well, this is how I want you to

do that detailing."

And I tore 'em up and

threw 'em in the trash can,

and I says, "Too late,

sorry. We're too late."

You know, he'd get an idea,

kind of like a wife,

he'd get an idea and...

it may have been

a good idea yesterday,

but it was too late today.

We would spend hours deciding

whether we were going to use

a hex head cap nut screw

or a Phillips head

or a socket pit or whatever, you know?

You'd ask Lou a question,

and you'd get a lecture.

You never would get an answer.

You'd get a dissertation

on the philosophy behind the thought.

He was just an artist, you know?

And most artists don't

have any discipline.

They just keep on going.

- Like the Energizer bunny.

- Yeah.

He just keeps beating that drum.

What was that?

Just like the Energizer

bunny, you know, on television.

He just keeps beating that drum

till the battery runs out.

To have approval on

a new element is...

is a great feeling.

It's because it isn't just a copy

of what has been thought

to be what's necessary

and what is accepted.

It... it feels as though

you're an architect.

A work of art

is not a living thing as...

that walks or runs;

but the making of a life, that

which gives you a reaction.

To some, it is the

wonder of man's fingers.

To some, it is the wonder of the mind.

To some, it is the wonder of technique.

And to some, it is how real it is;

to some how transcendent it is.

Like the 5th Symphony,

it presents itself with

a feeling that you know it

if you've heard it once.

And you look for it.

Though you know it,

you must hear it again.

Though you know it,

you must see it again.

Truly, a work of art

is one that tells us

that nature cannot

make what man can make.

Don't put him up on some

gigantic pedestal up there.

He was in the trenches.

The stories would come

out of his office...

it would be guys would have their wives

in final moments of labor,

and he wouldn't let them go home

or take them to the hospital

'cause they were working

on a project, you know?

And he didn't know day from night.

You know, and he

had no kind of...

I mean, I think that most architects

who are intensely

involved in their practice

have this problem, but I think

he had a really big problem.

And I think he was very unhappy

about not being selected

- for the John F. Kennedy library.

- Sure.

I mean, you can just see Jackie

going into I. M. Pei's

office on Madison Avenue,

or wherever it was in New York,

and there would be

flowers lining the corridor.

And, you know, you'd go to Lou's office,

and there'd be an old pastrami

sandwich sitting on somebody's desk.

I mean, don't think that he was

always trying to be a prince.

He was very much trying to be a player.

He wanted work.

He wanted recognition.

He wanted...

Doesn't every architect want?

I can't speak for every

architect, no. I don't know.

I think most

architects who are...

he was success oriented.

At the time of his death,

Lou was $ million in debt.

Here he is chatting with

some prospective clients

as if he has all the time in the world.

And in the meantime,

he must know he's going bankrupt.

The office lost money on every project,

except the Salk Institute.

And the list of jobs that fell through,

and didn't get built, kept

getting longer and longer:

the Dominican Sisters Convent,

the U.S. Consulate in Luanda, Angola,

the City Tower project,

the Pocono Arts Center

with seating for 9,000,

the Fleischer House,

the Morris House,

the house for cheerful living,

the Baltimore Inner

Harbor Development Project,

the Kansas City Office Tower,

the Roosevelt Memorial in New York City,

the Palazzo dei Congressi in Venice,

the Abbas Abad development

in Tehran, Iran,

and two that must have really hurt:

the Mikveh Israel

Synagogue in Philadelphia;

and in Jerusalem, the Hurva Synagogue,

a building that would

have shared the spotlight

with the great monuments

of the holy city.

That was the commission of a lifetime.

There is a flight at 1:00

at night, in the morning.

Yeah, in the morning.

So I don't think we'll finish, you see.

I don't either.

When I arrived in Jerusalem,

I found myself surrounded by pilgrims.

Everybody comes here

looking for something,

so I fit right in.

The synagogue Lou was

commissioned to build

would have overlooked the mosque

known as the Dome of the Rock

and the Wailing Wall.

My father never talked

to me about being Jewish.

I don't know how he felt about it.

But when he stood here

looking at the remnants

of the temple of his ancestors,

he must have felt a connection.

It was impossible not to,

even for a half-breed like me.

Thank you.

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes