Good evening.

Happy New Year everyone and welcome back.

We're thrilled to be continuing our
centennial Lecture Series this spring and

have lots of exciting
evenings I had planned.

Our next lecture that postcards should
have gone out to all alumni and

we are going to have the poster
up now very shortly.

I'm not going to go run through all of
the lectures that we have coming up but

just let you know that the next lecture
isn't is two weeks from tonight.

And it's titled The future of the firm.

And we didn't plan for that to be quite
as we didn't know the economy would be

quite so hard hit that that would
suddenly sound like it was a question.

When when we framed it.

But if the idea of the evening
will actually convene alarms of

multiple generations from phone
principals to new in turns to talk about

the differences between founding a firm
of one's own versus climbing the ladder.

And its end as well we'll hit on the very
tough choices that firms are facing in

this contract economy and
I think help help help students and

professionals both think creatively
about really you know what is the future

of all of our firms as we get through what
promises to be some interesting times.

Now before I deemed out for
introduces tonight Speaker.

I have a few announcements.

The first is the requisite silencing
of the cell phone please pull out your

cell phones and turn them off so that they
don't ring in the middle of the lecture.

Second requisite reminder
of that credits and

the e-mail list for information about
future lectures are just outside the door.

And.

I also like to invite you to catch
the exhibition at the eye drum gallery.

Right that's on right now and should be
up for another good part of this month

of digitally fabricated pieces
that our students did and

that are beautifully display and
fourth just an announcement that above and

beyond our own acts
are serious they are A.S.

by a student wing is the southern
poly is hosting this year's

South quad conference with
assistance from Georgia Tech.

And they have secured
Richard Meyer as their speaker for

the first weekend in March and
Mr Meyer will be speaking

of giving a lecture in his
building at the High Museum.

And it should be should be and

that will be open to all to students
professionals everyone in the city.

So with that let me say

it is on I think I will
welcome to two thousand and

nine into the one hundred buck to.

There's a replacement introducing
someone you knew was a student

who has been most successful
in the profession and

it's almost thirty years since I knew
him and what I must say the strength

of character that I remember from
these years as remain wholly intact.

It was always hard to win an argument with
the other I was Miss ways of my goodness.

Some bone in her van a Cuban man well
grew up in New York in Madrid Spain

before coming to Atlanta.

You know on both the battle of science to
be in a master's degree at Georgia Tech

nine hundred seventy seven
something unexpected but

memory plays a play strange
tricks I could swear that

someone it was really is from the absolute
recesses of the far reaches of my memory.

The all these years ago
he said he spent the.

Year or
two at the city center room studying film.

Perhaps I magine this and
maybe he made it up.

Perhaps time out and if you imagine.

He said They told me this
extends from memory does.

Graduating in a meeting and
very he joined the next man associates and

remained through
the acquisition by Perkins and

will in ninety six do it today he is
a principal design a design principle

the market sector leader and board member.

And really has led many of the firms
most recognizable into the project.

And the range and scope of the work has
been great from building from the C.D.C.

in Atlanta in the US can love building
on the Georgia Tech campus to the almost

complete Sandy electric complex just
five kilometers from the Great Wall of

China Beijing manuals
can lead also in shaping

Perkins will reputation abroad being
the innovative green design the C.D.C.

building was the first government lab to
be given a lead goal sort of occasion

he describes his work as modern
clean competent in a bit of but

I would add elegant intelligent and
exact rank he will

see many awards over the years in two
thousand and seven on behalf of bugs and

when he accepted the silver medal from
the Georgia tap chapter the highest for

the highest call design over
a five to ten year period.

And in two thousand A to
receive an award for

developments of excellence
by the Urban Land Institute.

It's a great pleasure to introduce
manwell could break a law.

Thank you Alan.

It's interesting to come
here my wife is here and

she's also a graduate tack and she can.

Went to that place of the exactly
the same as when we lived in

this is Atlanta nine hundred seventy
four really like this postcard.

This is this is downtown.

This is this was this was where we went

here you see like a precursor
to the west and building.

Perhaps they should use some of this glass
to replace the missing from the tower.

You see that you know there
was this concentration of

buildings I was right here in
the in the center of town and

everything else is pretty much parking
lots that hasn't changed that much either.

Some of the things that
were interesting was that

peace treaty center remember
when I went to school here.

Was it was like the most innovative place
I mean that's what everybody thought

there was really great stuff going on.

John Portman but
it's at the top of his game in Atlanta

a big data Georgia Tech was to
get together some money and

go to the Polaris room so
that was that that is a kind of

an interesting thing I don't know if any
of you even know where that is anymore.

The Allman Brothers would play for
free at Piedmont Park.

We all read the great sparkle
bird which was a wonderful

magazine the population of
Atlanta was two million.

It's five over five million now and

the downtown was virtually empty
after seven o'clock at night.

So I transferred to Georgia Tech after I

spent my first year at another
university and it was a university and

the College of Architecture was
not a College of Architecture.

It was an environmental design and
architecture was one of many disciplines

that was represented and
when I came to Georgia Tech.

It was a very different situation
because it was in the university and

there was the College of Architecture and
that was pretty much it.

What I found was that there
was this mainstreaming.

Studio that that that was
in place at Georgia Tech

which was pretty much focused on
second generation modern buildings

they had a very sort
of corporate focus and

it was almost like the design that you
did was almost like a design in a vacuum

there was very little consideration for
any kind of cultural connections any

sustainable strategies any
innovative uses of technology.

There was no reference to color and
materiality

there was very little reference
to context an urban ism and

being caught looking at
a reference book was tantamount to

a mortal sin you were not allowed to look
at references and I'm not just talking

about references from the past history
I'm talking about the near history.

You just didn't do that.

What you did focus on was a strict
adherence almost mindless adherence to

a typed program and the encouragement that
what you do represent simple bold forms.

I failed my first semester at
Georgia Tech and I think I'm being

kind when I put these buildings up which
I think those professors at that age

would have considered to be the buildings
in favor we really never saw them but

there were some very nice second
generation modern buildings of course but

failing that class was one of the best
things that happened to me a Georgia Tech

because it basically got me out
of sequence and what ended up

happening was that I failed that class and
I called my professor and I said.

I failed to class and he said Yeah
man while architecture is hard.

Damn hard and
you just don't have it and I said and.

So I asked my father if I could go back
to the other university that are that I

was at because I was
doing better there and

he said no so I went back and
took two thousand and one lab again.

And I was off sequence and that what
I discovered was that if you couldn't

make it here that there were all
these other studios that lived.

So we're really on and off campus.

So I spent the next three years over
there and what there was was and

there were several of them.

These are just the ones that I visited.

There was there was
a pre-manufactured studio there was

there was an early sustainability studio
it wasn't called that at the time and

then there was one that wasn't called this
either but that I've called a cultural

narrative studio and I'm not mentioning
any professors on the pre-manufactured

studio was kind of an early
venture into sort of a high

tech notion that you could
actually build a product and

control them in a very precise way and

deliver them onto a side by cleverly
nesting and providing real value and

actually having an effect on
providing quality projects for

at and expense of price and

of course the hero of that time was Moshe
softy and Buckminster Fuller of course and

disavow course would grow into this
sort of attitude would would would very

much lead into the high tech movement
which is already going on obviously we

just weren't seeing it here that
people like Norman possed are and

which are broader what would would be
part of this sort of frame of mind.

There was an early
sustainability studio and

these are some pictures
from the period and

what I found really interesting about
this was that there really was.

And expressed concern with natural
resources with energy which was

a real crisis at Even then with with the
with the way that we engage the earth and

that you could have beautiful spaces and
beautiful forms that

would would would would come out of an
influence other than than a blank program.

So we were we became very enamored
with the idea of of what policy Larry

was doing and with the ideas that we could
that we could affect to design a more.

A more sophisticated and thoughtful
way of of engaging the earth and

then there was a cultural
narrative studio which was really

focused on many things but
one of the things was that there was

a great beauty in things that were
already there in that studio.

We went to Little Five Points which is an
apt really quiet like Little Five Points

is now which is kind of like a theme park
but at that time Little Five Points was

wall to wall pawnshops and I remember the
professor had a SCO there and measure it

which which I thought was interesting and
we saw a lot of interesting things and

this also focused on just the that
there were that there were reasons

why buildings and cities were the way
they were and that our jobs as architects

was to try to find what those clues
were within within those buildings and

those parts of the cities that we wanted
to then carry forward as we as we

continued our own process of design and
discovery.

This professor also had gone to school and
Penn.

So he was he was he had a very sort of
even though he didn't talk about it.

There was some energy
around Louis Kahn and

sort of the the survivability of buildings
ability to survive a program that that.

You could build buildings that that
had in terms of quality to it.

That was greater than that and
then the specific program and

sort of the beauty of pure of pure forms.

As opposed to the other studios where
the mainstream studios have put

a lot of emphasis on spending half of
your half of your semester stippling

with with with cooing or

pen on on four boards that were supposed
to overlap and form some great.

Sort of Bose arts competition.

None of these studios did that
the studios were more idea based

they were model based
they were we wrote and

there was a real interest in sort
of developing a thoughtful process.

So that I graduated but

as I was graduating there was
an influx of new blood some of the new

blood as is now control in the school is
now leading the school and has been for

some time and that was how it would be
a moment because we knew that there

were more things than we were
seeing the Paris program had begun.

The London program was beginning.

You know the students from Tech were going
out and seeing that there was much more

out there that was of interest and
it was a very interesting period.

The when when we were
in the London program.

Peter Cook put on a series of
lectures that were fantastic.

Let me see where I was.

He had the sort of open form and in that
form he had people like Charles Janks

speaking Alice and then
Peter Smithson of course Rem Koolhaas.

There was Foster and Rogers who were
still talking about our program.

There were representatives from
Archigram as in Peter Cook.

Was there.

There was Bernard to Shumi and
what we were just

surrounded with one of the many voices
that were going on at the time.

And the world of architecture and
design and it was it was just a fantastic

opportunity and I would recommend to any
of you that are students to to become

involved and to take the opportunity
to to do the study abroad programs.

What we also found was that there was
disgraced influx of ideas from the.

From been Churi with with that with
an emphasis on pattern and culture and

reworking sort of the nature of
classicism and how that works and

and a contemporary society from
Rossi's beautiful drawings and

beautiful buildings that we all
became very much in love with

that really her trade this sort of beauty
of of sort of the silent image and

of the empty and of the empty
city with the beautiful forms.

There was Michael Graves
early projects that were

kind of a return to our core boozing
in maybe read Valley in a sort

of world where color was now something
that you actually could do again.

That it's being expressive of formed and

being expressive of ideas that came before
you was actually something that was good.

That was very exciting to us.

There was also the you know
the discovery on our part of the use

of of the political influence of
architecture that that architecture

doesn't exist as I said before in a vacuum
that there's so many influences and so

we really became interested in tap one and
L.

is its key and Malka very much and
not Malcolm it's model of it.

And and then of course there was
there was a long career who was

seaside was starting up was
really sort of leading.

Away with sort of the beauty of Ark
typical shapes that there's a reason why

we like clay tile roofs that
we like operable windows and

that you can assemble those in ways that
really have great poetry and meaning.

For Our Time.

There was the beauty of sun.

Even though this is from
the early part of the century and

the promise of a heroic future.

You know we've started
becoming love with drawings.

There was you know the larger
urban statements that are trade or

traditional city like like
been Cherry There was the city

put on psychoanalysis by Rem Koolhaas who
at one point when we were in London and

he taught us at the A.M.A.
He gave us some lectures

the one of the most memorable things I
remember him saying was that the job of

an architect was to graft fantasies
on the earth and I loved.

Two things there.

I love the joy of fantasy
that architecture is

despite my professor's comments
earlier not just only hard but

it's actually a joyful act and
two that there's a willful almost violent.

Connection to the earth that you're
actually doing something to the earth.

So it's very willful there was you know
there was that the sort of the cinematic

quality of a cue for strong and

then we also you know this is
all very different stuff but

it was all happening at the same time it
was like like like a tsunami of ideas.

You know there was this sort of just
beautiful images of the tendons and

you know the quiet confident
beauty of stark beauty of reason.

And this had a profound effect on us and
I think on on

a lot of a lot of the work that we did so
I'm quickly go through some projects here.

This is the first project that and.

That I did.

There was a major project
coming out of Georgia Tech and

this is a North Side Hospital which
is basically a vertical bank and

what happens in a hospital is that
the bottom of the hospital like a hotel

is where you have your surgery.

Radiology all of that stuff and
it all needs like a big floor plan and

you put a tower on top of it but
this was not that we didn't have that so

they said you had to
build it all in a tower.

Well.

So what we did is we expressed
the nature of the dissonance of

the program on the skin so that you could
see the wave Mitt moves in and out and

then we brought the idea of the structure
and the columns all the way out across

the front in order to give it a canvas
to be read on this is not what

a typical hospital looked like and
in the early eighty's.

Neither was this.

This is the one that medical center and
this is a ground up hospital and

this was an attempt to work with
sort of the core boozing and

ideas of building in a garden
building on a low T.

the expression the body
metric expression of program.

As the composition of the building and
then demonstrating

the the systems of the building
as an organizing element so

that you see where the where the vertical
circulation is that you see where

the where the mechanical systems are and
it was it was

an attempt to to engage color as
part of the design process and

then an addition that was done and which
was the one at women's pavilion which then

carried forward some of those ideas but
then showed how you could develop

an individuality to projects that
still would relate and after this.

This is the last project I did it when
that medical center and then from then on.

I had different architects in the office
do the buildings so that they were.

Tanger precious as
the projects continue this is

the old national highway that
we did that was the first and

last post office I ever did but
I figured that I would stop because

it got a National Endowment
ten year award for the arts.

So I thought well I'm never going to be
another one of those I'll just stop here

but this one used notions of
the whole building as a as a pretty

mess pre-manufactured structure
with all the materials being

manufactured offsite and
literally assembled on the side.

So it was really playing with that and
also with the notion that our

society had kind of left behind the
everyday pleasures of great buildings and

people in other societies in
the past going to the post office

was a big deal now going to the post
office has gone to like a Wal-Mart.

So the idea that you could have a grand
space and that you could celebrate this

ordinary part of your life was
something that we were focused on this

is a hospital that we did in
Sarasota which again is about using

the expressing that the dissonant
program elements of the building and

trying to pull it all together
into into a consistent.

Idea and also challenging ourselves
to use as many repetitive and

pre-manufactured items as possible.

The Stella Maris

building at St Joseph is another
hospital and this was really and

attempt to to work with the existing
brutalist style building and

at the time I had been very
impressed with the boy

a library that they're now talking about
tearing down or selling or doing so.

This was a this was to me a very important

project I'm trying to work with sort
of a boy or a robot about how it's

attitude towards the way that
building compositions or

form and part of the problems with
buildings like health care buildings is

that they don't require as many windows so
you have to be very creative about the way

you work with the buildings in
order to to to to enjoy them.

This is the first building I did a Georgia
Tech which is the earth kind of love

building which I was gratified to hear
that the students at Georgia Tech and

started calling the Love Shack
the that you know I was

in this one I brought back a lot of what
I had learned to attack and what of.

What I was influenced by
the professor that I mentioned and

cultural narrative studio and I was really
interested in sort of this con in idea

of the of the expression of
the modules of the building

the expression of the mechanical
system and it it all.

I was also fortunate in that this
building site was in a place where

there's two other very
nice buildings which

I think Terry Sargent did I
forgot which ones they are there.

They're there to manufacture
in buildings and

then this building on this
side formed a courtyard.

So it was the completion of
a composition that I have already begun.

There was also an attempt to to
go back to go back a second.

There's also an attempt to
go back to PM have for and

then Georgia Tech had just been through
a gruelling period where the president of

the university wanted to
turn Georgia Tech into rice.

You know so there was every building
that Georgia Tech had to have you know

Little Man sort roofs and the like and
I think Terry had gotten.

Not rehired because you've done
some buildings that weren't so

then we want to head and
get another one that wasn't.

And this building was actually voted
one of the best buildings on campus

by the students which is what
what what you care about anyway.

This is great high school which is and
this is and intervention really

that we did on a Philip shot seed
building which is a final building.

But what I like about this
project is that there's a lot.

It's like a community of buildings and

that there's not really
a hierarchy to them.

The major hierarchy is the building on the
Hill which is the shots the building but

I think that what we proved
here in this garden.

Atlanta Urban Design Award was that you
could successfully do modern buildings and

in traditional classical
context that one went away.

This is this is a hospital that we
proposed and isn't going to happen and

Miami and here it was kind of a cultural
reference and trying to find a language

that would make sense in Miami that wasn't
the obvious language of the art deco and

here we worked really hard to to
find almost almost a latin and

a spring of zero working toward
something that people in Miami

that had become a large Latin American
community could respond to.

Also the building forms
a gateway engages the city and

creates a secondary park level which
was which was basically designed to be

a running garden that would form an upper
level for of the for the patient tower.

I think that one of the things that I'm
proud most proud of the work that we do is

that it typically transcends the art
type of what one is expecting.

The buildings to be like this is
the office building that we did build

which is.

Right across the street
from that from that side.

And this is the Center for
Disease Control the breach so

Lay was it was a very important
part of the project to project site

was aimed in directly
the worst orientation.

We wanted to to get be able to get
as much natural daylight in and

we used as of a brief so light and
they don't have to turn these lot.

The lights on during the day
which it which is great.

The building as Alan said earlier received
the gold lead which is the first time

that's ever happened on a federal lab
of this complexity and then there's

the whole notion that buildings can
hack and capture sort of a mission.

This is the first building that that
that's ever been done for the Department

of Homeland Security and it's in
Fort Dietrich and you can't get there but

it was really interesting because we had
a wonderful client and she really wanted

this building to make a statement about
the importance of Homeland Security and

she wanted it to be friendly but she also
wanted it to be sharp and she wanted to

make sure that that it represented
the business of protecting the country.

So part of this project was
trying to capture part of this

design was propped trying to capture
that spared as was this a building for

NASA Space Center which is what I really
enjoy about it is sort of the anonymity

of the program that there's no idea
why the program is distributed the way

it is that the building itself has
a greater sort of life than the particular

program because technology is such a thing
that's going to keep changing that

there wasn't any reason to really break
it down and say this goes here and

that goes there but what we did do
is we focused the south elevation of

the building to a natural
resource which which is

located across the way and
then this is the project that we're doing.

For Sami.

Which is the Chinese company there
kind of like Caterpillar and

this is down in Peachtree City.

So this is going to be kind of
an interesting building to see down

Peachtree Street sitting there
very interesting client.

This is the Oklahoma Medical
Research Foundation which is

shamelessly inspired by it.

By rights price tower.

What we did is we we designed this and
when I say we I said I mentioned it and

Steffi from my office was
a wonderful architect

came up with this wonderful plan
of this this tree like structure

that that then has these appendages that
come off of it that suspended up with

these great grooves that come into the
building and bring natural daylight and

the other interesting thing about this
project is that it's fully integrated with

wind turbans and photovoltaic devices

this building as is aiming at a platinum
lead which is a fabulous thing for

a research project and
this is the new building we're doing for

the for the National Institute of Health
which is kind of interesting because it's

in addition to having the only building
but we didn't look at it as an addition to

having your we build and we looked
at it as an addition to the campus.

So part of working on this building was
reconciling all the other buildings that

are on the campus and making sure that
this this this whole composition is

something that works well with the entire
campus the other thing was that

the avenue only building was designed as
pods which didn't work very well because

they didn't get very much flexibility
in this building is a deep floor plan

which gives them the chance
to change a lot.

This is the building that Alan
referred to that we're designing

in near the Great Wall of China and
this is this is.

A beautiful project.

It's in the it's in the design stage at
this point but in this one we're really

kind of raking in the ground like like
like like Koolhaas was talking about.

I mean this sort of willful grafting
of a program into above and

engaging the ground.

So it's kind of a different move in trying
to take the notion of a manufacturing

facility an office complex and
expressing it almost as a museum and

really the notion that buildings don't
just sit on a piece of ground but

that buildings should be
part of the ground and

that that waiting to it
could really bring great and

Richmond two to decide this is this.

This is just some more detail views this
is the new building that we just did for

the C.D.C. It's it's focused on on

office research or
research office space and

then also a wonderful area
that faces south on to and

that Nash natural wetlands area which
is the that the dining hall for for

the campus is the shambling campus this
campus doesn't get a lot of press and

here you see it with the shades
which of course of our producing

an inspired shapes with with
this great sort of hall

that becomes a major major dining hall and

then we took the project and reached
out with this with this walkway and

ramp down into the into the the wetlands.

So that people can get out of their
research facilities get out of their

offices and
go go go to the natural areas and

the have and have nature walks and
gauge the environment which which

is really something that we want
people to do not sit inside of of her.

Medically closed buildings all day
long and there was this notion

of taking this piece of the building and
actually having it come out and project

out into the side like like some kind of
tree house that that really when you're in

this space you get this full this great
sense of being within within the wetlands.

So there you see some of that the lobby
turned out a little a little James Bond.

And some of the like like Goldfinger
that's totally intentional.

This is the new project
that we just did and

the reason why I'm showing
these is because all of us.

And by extension of that me.

We work in different market sectors so

what I'm trying to convey is that
there's not their design is exclusive of

the architecture as I believe that program
that design is exclusive a program.

There's an I don't believe people when
they say well you can't do an interesting

hospital because the programs too hard or
you can't do interesting research.

It's what you bring to it.

That's not what's there.

So this is this is the new Mayo
hospital which is which we just opened

last year and you know what
was there was real notions of

creating a front door of having
a welcoming presence on the site and

then having a very streamlined approach to
the design of the design of the building

itself the administrator walked some
perspective doctors who were interviewing

at Mayo through that under the canopy and
he turned to them and he said Gentlemen.

When people walk under this
canopy they expect to be cured

but here you see views
around around the building.

There's And you know that I'm sure.

In this and the print design principle but
this is the work of a lot of people a lot

of people that are sitting here today and
a lot of them are Georgia Tech grads

people that work worked out these
beautifully intricate curtain walls that

that have these great patterns
that relieve the sort of

monotony of the hospital patient floor and

really have this wonderful sort
of kinetic relationship with

what the you know Florida Florida line and
then caring that all the way inside

because we think of this as architecture
but it's not just architecture I mean.

It really floors me this this
whole idea of the heroic architect

you know there's no such thing.

I mean you know it's like
a it's like an Vienna.

You know with that with
the secessionist it's collaboration.

You know if you're lucky enough
to work with talented people you

can do really great things.

So it's interior designers and
urban designers.

It's people that focus on brand and
focus on clients messages and

graphic design and weight finding
you know it's all those things.

So being able to be a programs and
well and

working with people that
are talented really is is a joy.

This is the new office
building that we did it.

Piece three at Atlantic Station and here.

The focus was we were given
the smallest button on the side and

there was some concern as to well what
can you do with a small building.

So you know I went to New York and
I was on Park Avenue and

the building of course you love all the
buildings but there's this great little

building that I saw him did that and
that was the Pepsico building.

Louise Hart's double referred to it as
the pot pots the chapel of modernism.

And you know we became very engaged
with sort of this this pure form and

this building.

That could but

was comfortable with it salves even
even next to much taller buildings.

So you know we worked on the on the
curtain wall we worked on the detail and

we worked on that on the way
to engage the ground.

We tried to connect over to
the walk over to a building and

expand that notion of a gift
to the street with an arcade.

And really this this building became very
much about the connection of the building

itself back to the city which you
can see through through the lobby.

This is a high school that we did and
Alpharetta.

You know again a very
different sort of idea and

approach towards what what
a school should be like here.

We broke down the two
thousand students that

were going to be packed into this
thing and made them three different

discrete classes of buildings where
they could spend their four years and

have a chance that maybe a professor might
know who they are because they would spend

all four years gone to the same and
then sharing.

So it was the notion of of a diagram
that makes clear sense in the way

that it gets wedded to the site and
here you see

some some pieces of that building and then
of course there's the building next door.

Which is where the infirmary
used to be and

the recognition of you know this whole
this whole building became about the site.

You know the shape of of the site
which was which was already dictated

by the by this wonderful courier
the pathway that students

had already established going through
the site needed to be maintaining and

the idea that we wanted to to hide this
together with their other colleges.

With a courtyard really that side
plan really became what then.

What then pulled up out of out
of the ground into the building

this both in also.

It is probably one of our most aggressive

approaches that bringing sustainability
to the side with the rain gardens.

The underground cisterns and

this is I think it's the first
coldly building attack I'm not sure.

And I apologize.

To Doug many times for
the flooding that occurred.

You know the idea that
the building could shaded self and

as it reaches over to the north
that the shading drops away and

becomes clear so it's almost you
know it's kind of a fetishistic.

Approach towards towards
towards a very practical idea.

And then the idea of having clear and
clear entryways and

pathways just to finish off and

I wanted to show you in particular
the students a proposal that we did for

Georgia Tech that we didn't get selected
and this is and I'm still bitter.

This is the the the proposal for
the Iowa are C.

which is the innovative learning
Research Center which was to be

which is to be located just
west of the beautiful library.

So we did this proposal and
the you know it was important to us

to recognize the important
edges that formed the side.

So for those of you who aren't
familiar this is Skiles and

this is about the library both
buildings done by PM Have fun and

who also did this building and
probably some of the.

Most of the fine buildings on this campus.

So you know we started working
with the notion of the definition.

Of space and regulating lines
the connection to a potential

Georgia Tech green the connection to the
can the campus along the some Porton East.

Axis used west axis views
that we needed to maintain

north and on on an cumbered so
that you could get north light into

the that wonderful hall and
the library that needed to be maintained.

There was the connection to
the new green that's occurred.

Thankfully in front of the crew
prepared Boman the and

then there was the final definition of
where we thought the prime location for

the building should be recognizing that
it would have an entrance also off of

Bobby Dodd way and that there that there
needed to be some place for gathering and

come action almost as a bridge
between the building and the commons.

So here you see the further development
of that and maintaining the views from

the math building from Skiles West so

that led to to a development we started

thinking about the building a sort
of these pretty manufactured ribbons

that that there could be
structurally brought in and

established the sort of lines of
program that would cut across the side.

I used to live on on the street
which used to exist but

you're within this thread as Hemphill used
to exist used to go through campus and

now it's just like Ghost and so
you know this drawing was it was kind of

an interesting drawing to try to bring it
back and see where it could connect and

we were thinking about the building and
how to build.

Could engage the site the I.R.C.
is I don't know if you all know what it is

it's like the new thing and
higher education that's supposed to be

a place that that brings
together research teaching and

reference and it's where students
may go and spend their first year.

So it's really sort of a collaborative
innovative learning environment but

I love these buildings.

You know we want to around and
took pictures of these great buildings and

we also found some This is
in the library North Face.

This is the library south face with
this wonderful connection that PM did so

that you could move at two different
levels from the scholars building to

the to the library here you see
the bridge connecting over to Skiles.

And then Skiles which I still think
has is one of the nicest Belden's I've

seen one of the nicer modern buildings and
it's just a beautiful complete thought.

With this grey courtyard where
somebody put an abomination of

an elevator into the middle of it but
this this was a great place to go study.

Even though I must confess that math was
not my big thing I used to like going to

to this building and
here you see sort of the emergence

of of the of of an expression
that we carried forward of

the sort of glass box rising
up out of out of nature.

So we did drawings and

I think I can't stress how important
it is to know how to draw.

I've been a little disappointed in the
past few years saying that there's been

sort of a lack of emphasis on people
learning how to sketch and knowing people

that are fabulous on the computer but if
you ask them to sketch the idea for you.

They have a hard time you know.

So and that I think that's a problem but
that we could we could engage and

talk by just doing these simple sketches
and everyone could be could get on board

with an idea and the idea that we had was
that we really couldn't do a building.

Even though we locked it.

That would be taller than the library or

that the library needed
to be the most important.

Volume on the campus symbolically
it needed to represent that.

So we ditched these ideas and

started working with the idea of building
into the ground and that we could

use use these different these
different ribbons of program

to engage the site at different ground
elevations encouraging movement building

off the P.M.'s axis that
North-South access and

that we could connect on
an east west basis as well but

then create a central area within
the space that could become sort of the or

quarrel or
central heart of the of the building and

bring our natural light into it and
then using the building itself

as a series of of of of
drawers that that and

close program and then have an exterior
rain garden type environment so

that the students could be in and out of
the building and gauging the landscape and

engaging the building and
this is the final proposal that we did.

And this is Atlanta now as opposed
to Atlanta when I came here so

I'm a little bit or
you know that I thought it was a nice idea

but it wasn't to be but I'm but
I'm still you know delighted that and

that I've been I've had the good
fortune to do to build and.

On my campus on.

The the as I thought about this and

one of the great things of having
Alan Alan asked me to do this.

Was it made me think about.

About what I do on a day
to day basis which is not

typically what I do what I do
is think about the project.

And it made me think back on what that
professor told me once about architecture

being hard damn hard.

And I must say that I think he's right but
not for the reasons in math and

I think that the reason why
architecture is hard is because we

even though we enjoy doing it.

I think that that we bear.

You know a pretty strong
responsibility in a way.

We as architects and designers and
landscape architects and urban designers

and city planners are kind
of the last line of defense.

You know we if we if we don't do good
work if we don't do what's right.

If we don't connect to culture and

if we don't connect to the things that are
important then no one else is going to.

So that's very important.

I also think that that that
buildings have a responsibility

to the health of their occupants.

If you're not doing sustainable
buildings now I just

don't think you're
getting a very good job.

I mean that's just what you have to do.

There's no two ways around
that the other thing is

that I really truly believe that
buildings that are single and

singularly focused on a specific
program are missing the point.

What we're doing is we're building cities.

We're building cities for a long time
we're building cities for people and

the building should have a life that's
bigger the designs of our building

to have a life that's bigger
than any specific program and

that's a challenge for all of us.

But ultimately design is challenging but
it's an opt in.

Mystic thing and it's something
that I get up every morning and

I know it sounds corny but I'm Joy doing
because I actually get to do a little

lot of things people
think architects do it.

So it's fun to do I like working with the
people I work with I'm surrounded both in

my office and other offices with really
talented people that have different

points of view and we work together
because we think that what we're doing

can really increase the quality of of
people's lives and certainly our own.

And I'm also lucky in that.

My wife.

Is also a graduate from Georgia Tech and
is and has been.

You know my most candid
critics throughout my life.

And I think that whenever I do
things that I shouldn't be doing.

She's always there to to point out and and

it's invaluable to have
a critic at home so.

That's it for me and if you all have any
questions I'd be happy to entertain.

Thank

you thank you.

Must

be a difficult history.

And big lives.

And I'm well thank you very much.

There is there is one skew
younger than my generation.

About

which building.

There are not.

Yes.

I still don't.

Yeah I don't remember exactly what I
said but I do remember not liking it but

I didn't like much of those days anyway.

Yeah I don't like that one either.

And I think that part of the reason can
is because I love this go and so much.

You know and and even though you
know it was difficult being here and

I was not here that much because I was off
campus on the other in the other studios.

Being able to go to class here and
enjoy that courtyard

the library was where I guess
you have computers now and

we used to review our projects and
their great gallery.

It was just a joy.

I mean it was it was it was it
was such a wonderful building.

That.

I'm not sure that I would have liked
anything that anybody was proposing but

I probably was a little too hard.

Before we yes I've got a whole
group of people from programs and

well sitting right here
yesterday supposed to

do the bigger better
well thank you very much.

You did want to thank you Robert.