AmericanVisionaries.com

Your Architect

March 17, 1974:  He died in a bathroom at Penn Station in New York; he wasn't identified for three days.  He had returned from a trip to Bangladesh, had his passport on him, but his home address and contact information had been crossed out ... unreadable.  They learned later that even though he was a world-renown architect, he was heavily in debt.

Let me tell you about his work in India.  No -- let me have someone from Bangladesh tell you about his work. 

Shamsul Wares said, "It was almost impossible for a country like ours ... this building.  Thirty- fifty years back, it was nothing ... only paddy fields.  And since we invited him here, he felt that he has got a responsibility, he wanted to be Moses here.  He gave us democracy.

He is not a political man, but in disguise he has given us an institution for democracy, from where we can rise.  And that weight is so relevant. 

He didn't care for how much money this country has or whether he would ever be able to finish this building.  But, somehow he has been able to do it ... build it here.  And this is the largest project he has -- in the poorest country in the world.

He has given us this building and we feel all the time for him.  That's why he has given love for us." 

He was speaking of Louis Kahn.

   

Jatiyo Sangshad Bhaban, designed by Louis I. Kahn, houses the National Parliament of Bangladesh. Photo by Karl E. Roehl

So many lessons here.

If you want to introduce a people to democracy, build them up, don't tear them down.

If you want your country to be filled with princes and princesses, build them a castle.

If you want to earn love, give it away.

And, if you want to know more about Louis Kahn and his work, through the eyes of his son, see My Architect, by Nathaniel Kahn.

Tea for Six in St. Andrews

Fifteen years ago I bought a complete tea service for six at a china shoppe about a block away from The Old Course in St. Andrews, Scotland. 

Do you know how useful a complete tea service for six has been to me in South Texas?

I know why I bought it.  So I could bring home the experience of an English tea party at breakfast.  I wanted to have that all the time -- the experience of walking down the stairs, all polished up and ready for a big day of adventure, having tea and toast and eggs brought to me ... and in the case of St. Andrews, looking over the Old Course or the bay, with their morning mist -- begging me to stay inside that B&B and drink tea all day.

I just read The Art of Travel, and in my previous post I mention John Ruskin.  John was well-traveled.  The author, Alain de Botton, summarizes John's conclusions on travel and our experiences.

"Ruskin's interest in beauty and in its possession led him to five central conclusions.

First, beauty was the result of a number of complex factors that affected the mind both psychologically and visually.

Second, humans had an innate tendency to respond to beauty and to desire to possess it.

Third, there were many lower expressions of this desire for possession (including, as we have seen, buying souvenirs and carpets, carving one's name on a pillar and taking photographs).

Fourth, there was only one way to possess beauty properly, and that was by understanding it, by making oneself conscious of the factors (psychological and visual) responsible for it.

And last, the most effective means of pursuing this conscious understanding was by attempting to describe beautiful places through art, by writing about or drawing them, irrespective of whether one happened to have any talent for doing so."

For over 80 years, lovers of Southwestern and Indian Art make a pilgrimage to Santa Fe, New Mexico for the Santa Fe Indian Market.  Last year, the Market attracted over 100,000 people from all over the world.  The economic impact of the event each year to the state of New Mexico is around $100 million.

The American Southwest has drawn people to its beauty and culture for over a century.  The study of its birth and life has been my fascination and my passion.   And, if you're in art, architecture, tourism or real estate development -- you'll learn from its executions and lessons.

Ruskin spoke of beauty and our desire to possess it and the wisdom of understanding it.   

One hundred thousand buyers still come from all over the world to a special 3-day event in August to possess the beauty of the American Southwest ... from those who know how to share their understanding, their stories, through their arts. 

William Robinson Leigh, The Hopi Pottery Merchant

Learn to See

Last week I went to a local gallery to see the "Picture your World" exhibition.  Ruth Hoyt, naturalist and full-time photographer, worked with the Bexar Land Trust to provide kids an opportunity to represent what they saw in their world of nature.  The disposable cameras didn't limit the kids, the process or the end result in any way.  Their pictures showed an ability to see beyond landscapes and sunsets; their pictures showed maturity and depth.

In The Art of Travel, I read about John Ruskin, who taught "The Art of Drawing" between 1856 and 1860 at the Working Men's College in London.  Besides teaching (mostly Cockney craftsmen) he was a highly regarded lecturer and writer.

And, at the end of each course, he reminded them, "Now, remember gentlemen, that I have not been trying to teach you to draw, only to see." 

I think that may have been at least one of Ruth's goals as well.

Photo above from the exhibition, the work of Robert Bredvad.