HELLO!

I wonder why I have such a fascination with architecture. I have no background in this field, no skills in design, engineering and functionality. I believe it started with my father. In the early 70’s my Dad’s government salary began to improve, he could now afford to move to a larger home. Instead, Dad decided to stay put, tear the house apart, make it a story higher, a room wider on both sides. It was a massive undertaking. We lived in it as renovations took place. It stood out, made more conspicuous by bark shingle siding. Each room featured a wall made of barn board.

I watched a multi-episode documentary on the life and work of Frank Lloyd Wright and a film on the life of Louis Kahn, made by his son, “My Architect”. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zD1BEKNDLYE And when I visited my friend Mark in his hometown of Milwaukee, we took the bus to Chicago and engaged an architecture student who gave us a walking tour of his downtown’s buildings. At Brunswick Street United the late Jim Sykes, an architect, gave me a biography of Andrew Cobb by Janet Kitz.

This summer I am reading, Building Art: The Life and Work of Frank Gehry by Paul Goldberger. I once toured the Ontario Art Gallery and was overwhelmed with its design. One night I listened to CBC Radio’s “Ideas” on the life of Gehry. I knew the host. I emailed Mary to ask her to recommend one book on Gehry and he chose this one. Gehry grew up in a Jewish immigrant family, in a working-class Toronto neighbourhood. He spent hours playing with blocks on his grandmother’s kitchen floor. He moved to Los Angeles when he was still a teenager and later came to unexpectedly end up in architecture school. At some point Gehry became famous, designed some of most iconic buildings in the world (you can look those up). He credits his relationship with his psychiatrist for his transformation into the confident version of himself. In the documentary, Sketches of Frank Gehry director Sydney Pollack profiles Milton Wexler, Gehry’s psychotherapist. “I’ve known Frank for years. In the beginning he had no self confidence, he often said he was bankrupt. He was not only referring to money, but also about his social life and his ability to get his clients to accept the things he was doing. As a listener, he would explain to me his vision for the project. I encouraged him to do likewise with prospective clients. He listened to what the client wanted. Then he would integrate that into a vision of what could be, using his imagination. In this sense my ignorance constituted a valuable asset in the therapy”. When Gehry designed The Maggie's Centre, a healing place for cancer patients and their families, he did it for free in memory of a friend. “I started with an idea, then I started dreaming of Maggie telling me there was too much architecture, to tone it down, so I started over. It 's a place to wake up in the morning and admire the landscape. It is very important for cancer patients to see the disease in a context which is bigger than themselves.” This is my favorite quote in the book, it comes from a question arising from Gehry wanting architects to listen to their clients, not be so arrogant as to tell them what they want. Yet at the same time, the architect brings a belief in transformation and imagination. “Gehry believed an architect needed to bring to a project something the client would not have imagined themselves. If the architect could not inspire the client to accept fresh thinking, he felt, what was the point?” I like the balance of listening to one’s community, knowing what is on their hearts and minds and then offering something I feel might speak to them they might not have ever considered. I use my imagination. I aim to be transformative. It is not teaching others or telling others but rather showing/revealing to others. Peace, Kevin