 Okay, good evening. Welcome everyone. My name is Jorge Otero Pailos. I'm the director of the CERC preservation program here at Columbia And it is my pleasure and honor to introduce Annabelle Seldorf, our distinguished speaker tonight She has built buildings for cultural institutions and universities such as Brown New York University, the Clark Institute Her firm has created numerous galleries for David's Werner, Hauser and Berth Gladstone Galleries among others and designed exhibitions for the Whitney, Frees Masters, Gagosian Gallery and the Venice Art Biennale The firm has designed the largest recycling facility and Education Center in the United States The Sunset Park Material Recovery Facility, which is located in the Brooklyn waterfront and you all probably know it Tonight Annabelle will be focusing on her designs for and with old buildings Some of these are very familiar to many of you the Neuer Gallery here in New York Some may be less so like the Luma Arles, a new contemporary art gallery Center, sorry and out France You will probably know the Frick collection Expansion here in New York, and you'll read in the papers about her new commission From the World Monuments Fund for the Forbidden City Palace Museum in Beijing Tonight's lecture honors the memory of Paul Byrd We celebrate his legacy as director of the CERC preservation program from 2000 to 2008 And so this year we celebrate the 10th anniversary of this memorial lecture and just before we started the memorial lecture Annabelle gave a talk here. So we're both celebrating Annabelle's Return to Columbia University and the 10th anniversary of the Byrd memorial lecture And so I want to acknowledge the presence of Rosalie Byrd Here who honors us with her presence every year for the last decade As both a lawyer and an architect Paul believed that architecture was an argument rendered in building materials he thought That just like a lawyer must relearn to read In order to understand the language of the law and anybody that has gone to court knows That the language of lawyers is not the language that we speak every day But just like a lawyer had to relearn the English language An architect had to relearn Architecture in order to understand the arguments expressed in old buildings Now everybody that knew Paul knew that he loved arguments You had to sort of like dodge him in order not to get into an argument with him You never knew when he was going to lure you into an argument But he was also like what was what was tricky with Paul is that he was a great listener So whatever you said would be held against you in your argument So and this is how he read people's work with old buildings But actually when he read other people's work, he was incredibly generous because what he looked for were the positive the positive argument He was an incredibly positive person and he loved arguing with people in that spirit of of of learning and He loved arguing with buildings through his architecture his book the architecture of additions could have been called The architecture of argumentation He cherished preservation because it involved making a case for contemporary architecture in Relationship to architectural arguments if a historic building was an old argument rendered in building materials He thought a good work of preservation should allow one to read how contemporary architects respond negate or extend the old with their own arguments and He called this resulting work a combined work Now what it's interesting because one of the things he did not tolerate was ignoring the old building So just like in an argument if you're trying to have an argument with somebody and they're ignoring you That's just the rudest thing. So he just he would not tolerate that He wanted the new building to engage with the old building and he admired architects that could advance arguments that could stand up to the strongest arguments of the past Which he saw as the greatest works of architecture But the interesting thing with Paul is that he didn't think that the strongest argument were the most bombastic arguments the most bombastic expressions of architecture sometimes the strongest arguments were The most subtle ones the most subtle moves and this is where he would have had high praise for the work of Annabelle Seldorf because when Annabelle engages in old building her arguments are subtle, but they are clear. I Had the opportunity to watch Annabelle work up close when we collaborated on the competition to restore clandon park and Early 18th century Palladian mansion that burned down in 2015 she'll discuss it in detail tonight Most of the interior was missing and a little but four of the exterior walls remained She focused intently for weeks on reading the building. She asked us all to look closely at the building And eventually concluded that the interiors the missing interiors were essential to the argument of the old building and she proposed to bring those Walls in those spaces back with subtle twists I have to pause here for a moment because clandon park burnt down and We've all heard the news that No, too, damn the bay is still burning And this is just the saddest thing and I know that we all Share in the grief of the Parisians the French and and the Europeans at this at this great loss We'll have to see and wait till tomorrow to see just how much of the cathedral is missing I was this was brought to my attention in the middle of class by a French student in tears And so, you know, we all I know want to cry But what will we do What will we do with with Notre Dame? How will we read the arguments of Notre Dame? And I think this is where the great lessons that Annabelle brings to us are really really important At the interview of this competition the The jury asked Annabelle Well, yes, of course the plan, but where's the wow factor and Annabelle just sort of paused And took it in And she gently took them through the argument of Why a Palladian villa was not Palladian unless it had the Palladian plan and so she argued for that for restoring that Important character defining feature of the Palladian villa Despite the fact that if she had to build a new building she would have never done that Now a lot of the old the other projects Didn't do that The other projects preserved the ruin didn't bring back the plan So in a way didn't bring back the Palladian villa now It was not the first time that she was asked this question She was very polite Who went in this interview because of course we were we were trying to win the competition which we didn't spoiler alert but um She was already she'd already been asked this question in a 2014 interview for gentle woman And she answered this way Well, if people say to me Where's the wow factor? I'm like, are you kidding me? I hate that It's not about wowing someone It's about And I'm going to let her answer that So please join me in welcoming Annabelle Selby What can I say wow That was very funny. I don't remember any of those things Just like I don't remember the title of this lecture It's incredibly nice to see you all here see many friends Uh Lectures are intimidating. I think But I brought so many photographs that uh, if I forget what to say There are pictures to look at And so without further ado, I just want to tell you a little bit more beyond that which Jorge has already said I think that was basically enough I want to tell you just a little bit about who We are Seldorf architects is Lives on union square. We're some 74 people today Three of my incredibly fabulous partners are here And many of the people from the office are here Of course, they are late because they're too busy. They're just sitting down now But it is an incredibly nice place Everybody is smart everybody collaborates and I couldn't if The office and the people there are what I am most proud of with everything we're doing and So You know a little bit about Offices in New York City, but I very rarely talk about where I am from I am German undoubtedly you figured that out by now Um, I was born not in 1930 a little bit later But this is what cologne looked like in 1930 cologne is famous for its beautiful gothic cathedral round about the same time as Notre Dame and It's a city that was built In a roman grid and it goes way back This is what it looked like in 1930 And this is what it looked like in 1944 It is one of the cities in germany that was more destroyed than many other cities Fortunately the cathedral was left relatively unharmed, but it has been a site of construction. I think since the beginning So when you look at all this destruction You Learned something about me. I was born in 1960 and so as a post war person all we grow up with in When I was young was learning about the second world war Um Feeling responsibility feeling guilt shame feeling Tired of guilt and shame and Dealing with destruction and loss of our own families loss of so many lives and loss of so many monuments and That goes into once Bones into once dna. I would say um I didn't know that of course then And this is what I really grew up with this is the beautiful cologne that I knew hastily rebuilt in post war era with sort of modernist 1950s Fairly unattractive architecture But there is the cathedral and um And there you see some of the contradictions my own home uh was in a family of architects and designers my father was an architect not by training but by By experience and this is the home that we lived in when I was a little kid It was built on top of the shops where all of the of the work mostly interiors was done so on the lower floors were metal shop and And a carpentry shop and so on and so forth and we lived in The area that you see there which is illuminated and very proudly my father built in the early 70s this very cool loft like space Um that was completely unusual in cologne. It was the penthouse um I saw those pictures just a couple of days ago And it was so funny because I hadn't thought of that space in I don't know how many years But I sort of feel like I want to tell you about that painting that's on the wall and oh, there's that sculpture That was made by a friend of my father's but In some ways, I think it illustrates a kind of aesthetic disposition that You then find again in the prefab house that the family moved into in the later 70s and that is My late father's house until today All right, fast forward Or not so fast Then came to new york studied at pratt institute and later got my masters from syracuse in In florans and started my own practice very early And one of the most wonderful projects fits into this into this lecture in as much as Venice is all about restoration, isn't it? uh a client of mine had Fulfilled his fantasy and bought this palazzo that was in terrible shape When he bought it and he promptly hired an engineer architect because he my client knew absolutely everything about restoration renovation preservation it was meant to become a foundation for contemporary artists and um for some reason or another I spoke a little bit of italian still do and So my client said to me you speak italian you come here and you help me with this And so that's what I did and my italian improved considerably over the next three or four years that I was working on this Uh, and I went it went as far as learning to speak venetian Or not so much speak but understand and Everything was a problem. Everything was the sopran tendenza didn't want this and the sopran tendenza didn't want that and um if you did want to do something it would just cost twice as much And so on and so forth but without going into An incredible amount of detail. I think it's worth noting that this is a typical venetian palazzo that early days I think early uh earliest dates back to about 1300 and it was added To through the centuries Through all the way like the railing that you see in this at the windows is definitely 19th century, obviously So there is a composite and if I started by telling you what was there and what wasn't there It would take a very long time But suffice it to say that I had the presence of mind To understand that certain elements that you needed for structural reasons somehow or other had to fit Into everything and so I will never forget that when we put this new Beam into the courtyard that um we sort of initiated this carved Detail and I thought to myself. I'm a modern architect. I don't do stuff like that. Um, but But it was right and um and I remember just walking around and finding evidence For the things that supported one's theory So this was a very comprehensive renovation and um And there is a new real terrazzo floor on the floor We we Repaired the beams that probably at one time were painted But sort of just brought them back to a simple color There's a kind of plaster on the wall that the plasterers didn't think was quite fancy enough We used a calce razzato Razzata as opposed to a marmorino. I'm looking at sandra who's looking very very serious, so I'm Terribly worried that I'm saying the wrong thing, but be that as it may Every aspect of this house was Redone and always redone with people who locally made things I can't begin to tell you the conversations about the windows and the colors of the glass and how thick would the frame be and and I think For me, this was one of the nicest experiences about being and working in venice is the constant dialogue with the craftsman And they were people who were happy to teach me and happy to also sometimes What do you call then when somebody makes you trip? But anyway, in the end this building turned out to be a really phenomenal space that I'm very attached to Here are some details like for example this little kitchen space had remnants of of a decorated painted ceiling and bringing a Very ceiling into it making kind of layers of interventions Really taking a great deal of pride in every aspect of the interior furnishings And obviously my client was an art dealer. So he was a collector himself And and was very involved with every last finish and every last thing And the finishes that you find in in venice If not in italy at large are of course what gives one a great deal of pleasure. So finding this chipolino Material in large slabs on the bathroom together with a slightly outlandish terrazzo was an insertion in an old Palazzo that was obviously incongruous, but made a certain amount of sense because Because it was clear that it wasn't an original And we reclaimed the attic space in order to create A kind of exterior terrace, which is one of the cherished things in venice is to have an open roof terrace and the color was The yellow color was taken To sort of an extreme the sopran tendenza wasn't so keen on having an intense yellow But eventually we were able to prove that it had been there at one time. So So that was a long project and one I cared about a great deal. But then again One cares a great deal about everyone's project and So eventually fast-forward to 1997 or eight We started working on the project for the Neue Galerie the Museum of German and Austrian art in New York. It's a 1914 career and Hastings building that was a mansion for a merchant Andrew Miller, I think was his name Miller. Anyway, was it Andrew? I can't remember now, but it had been a property of the Evo Institute and had been Treated fairly badly because on the upper floors the building served as document storage of Of third Reich documents and and so happily by the time I Was commissioned those documents had left the building but It's a beautiful Beaux-Arts building and little by little we restored renovated and ever so slightly modified the The building it became a museum when it wasn't equipped to be a museum. We inserted HVAC lighting and any number of Egress issues. In fact, we're still working on the CFO, but It's true So What's there to tell? Whenever I go today to the Neue Galerie, I think That it is interesting how one's memory plays tricks on oneself because I can't remember very well anymore Which is really old Which we said belongs to the old fabric and well, I guess the new part you can even I can identify that But just quickly about the building itself. It's very interesting. It has this very deep skylight Right in the middle of it which brings Which makes you circulate to the second to the public floor and then steps away to circulate on a rear staircase to the upper floors and this Think this simple gesture of distributing light in the building is something that I think is is very unique and really very very beautiful On the ground floor. We restored what was at one time a reception into a Into an Austrian cafe and you can see that the furniture is all loose furniture and the sort of side by side of A turn of the century or 1914 with Austrian Furniture of roughly the same time is always a sort of very interesting thing and that's what this museum is all about of course German and Austrian art No Later than 1945 So the existing library was turned into a bookstore and Here you see the skylight that we uncovered and see how beautiful the light filters through the building I think one of the most difficult things to do in the building was to direct the hvac system in such a way That it was as little visible as possible everything else sort of Explained itself, but here just one little picture to Make you understand what things looked like when we first started working on the building And so the main room which was the music room where the Famous climp portrait is today Is where we made a sort of fairly dramatic change a dramatic intervention in the ceiling Where we inserted not as you might think no, I know you don't think that It's not a skylight obviously, but it's just a lay light And it's sort of in one fell swoop takes a little bit of the domestic feeling Out of this room and introduces a kind of different atmosphere and here is the Adjacent paneled room where most of the decorative arts are shown I could talk all day long about you know how we figured out the lighting and what the theory behind the white ceiling was with With this sort of concealed ring of acid edged Panels and then the top floor where all of the Temporary exhibitions are was the one floor where there was really very very little original detail left And where we were allowed to create a kind of stage really For different kinds of exhibitions. This picture is the first exhibition And is the only one where these windows ever were open and it's the only one where the walls were white Undoubtedly you have seen many of the exhibitions since then and they usually are very different But this is my favorite one for perhaps obvious reasons I just thought that in order not to only talk about Old buildings additions restorations or restorations. I quickly wanted to show you a building That we did a few years ago for David Swerner a gallery on 20th street in New York's Chelsea district a gallery building that's entirely Um Board form concrete Was punched windows in a sort of open facade as you can see And the idea was that a five story building wraps itself in an l shape around a central Large gallery space. That's approximately 80 feet by 80 feet by 18 feet high with all north facing skylights Being that it's a new building David Swerner wanted to be sure that it's an efficient building. It's the first commercial gallery that is Gold lead certified and it has every Bell and whistle a lead certified building needs but I am I really believe that what is interesting about it is that the sort of Um The sustainable features if one can use that horrible term Are really practical. They promote cross ventilation. They promote daylight. They promote the staircase. They promote Writing your bicycle not in the building however And so here is a detail of of the of the uh Facade and I'm showing this because when you make a building uh out of board form concrete You get terribly worried when once you have started because all of your colleagues are going to say are you bloody mad? Nobody does concrete buildings in new york Um, how are you going to control that? Well, we learned a great deal from the wonderful Concrete expert wrench hoff and his team and we learned to follow the recipe for board form concrete very carefully And teach our contractors very carefully that they had to do every mock-up and take every amount of time and everything step by step and Still it was a period of some 12 months when the building was entirely scaffolded And um, we were sweating bullets. I'm looking at my partners here who were sweating with me Um, we were sweating bullets for the day when the scaffolding finally came off and actually the entire facade looked like It was fairly compatible And here is that large exhibition space that the building was really designed for and um, I By now feel a little bit embarrassed when I repeat how proud I was that when richard sara who you see exhibiting here um came to the opening of his show and he Sort of tapped me on the shoulder and said it's a good building It does feel like pretty much as good as getting a gold medal for something I mean gold lead is one thing richard sara telling you it's a good building is another But this building really is terrific for art. Uh, there are many different And interesting exhibitions and the people who Inhabit the building really take care of it And I think that is one of the key things of course is that you build buildings that are for people And the people who live there Accept them as part of their responsibility The building of course is by and large a concrete structure with the exception of the Of the roof of the large space And so we wanted to give some expression to the concrete and indeed a skylit Staircase that winds itself over five floors is something that really Makes for a pretty spectacular Stepping experience People go up and down that staircase and get their iPhones out to make sure that they have their 10,000 steps But In closing about this building. I just wanted to say that there are many different kinds of spaces we've really explored different kinds of daylight different kinds of materials and really with all of the Of the integrity that I feel we put into designing a building that was solid and Well proportioned well lit, etc It is a building that's in the service of art I was lucky to Spent more time in venice This time for a very different kind of project Stansadel Vettro on the island of san georgio in venice Is a small museum that's dedicated to the art of Modern glass And They're Tiny in red on the left hand side. You see where san georgio is It's the famous place where there is that beautiful paladio church that you can see from piazza san marco and One thinks of old buildings in venice, but here is a 1950s School building that was still despite It's relatively Modest character was heavily Landmarked or Under the auspices of the superintendenza of venice And so we were able to work with the pentagram foundation and the fundazione cini who sort of have Ruled the island of san georgio We were able to create a small museum space that is inside this former school building On the outside there was very little that we did other than add a small ramp And on the inside there was very little that we could do to defy the sort of classroom structure That you can see here so Our intervention was really just trying to leave the structure in place and create a series of exhibition spaces That in a sort of serial kind of space go Literally around the perimeter and So it's not a spectacular space, but it's a very elegant space and somehow or other daylight enters it And every aspect of it is so Nicely done and my early experience of working with venetian craftsmen came back to to To Be a total pleasure Many of the people that I had worked with 15 years earlier were still around and so it was a lot of fun To develop the space and work with the curators on on the exhibition design But also on some of the permanent vitrines that you can see around here In particular, I like to point out the ceiling fixtures these beautiful glass eggs That my friend alessandro le santiana Designed and I salute him because he recently died and so every time I look at this I think about how Fantastic those collaborations were Here are some more pictures of of vitrines that we designed in a taller in a in a larger space and There it is Back in new york city We've been spending a lot of time with our friends from buyer blender bell to work on the Frick collection in new york and When I talk about it. I almost always feel like saying don't be afraid. We're not doing anything terrible All of you who know the Frick and know it well Of course, everybody thinks no it's my Frick. I know What it should be like Don't do any harm But not doing any harm was really what we said out to do from the get-go Earlier today I talked With some colleagues here about What do you How do you feel about a building like that? How do you know what you can do and what you cannot do? I think to begin with you have to know The morphology of one such building and you may or may not remember that the original House that house where henry clay Frick lived until 1919 from 1914 when the building was finished was designed by Thomas Hastings of Carrer and Hastings old friends of mine so When he died and after his wife died as well Which was I think in 1930 or something like that John Russell Pope was selected to convert the building effectively into a museum and in the process He had to He had to perform considerable changes And I don't know that it is useful to tell you every last thing But I think it is very interesting that one of the things that pope did Is he kind of closed the space where there used to be a port coucher and he created a new entrance And all of that when people go through the building today They can't they don't identify as two separate buildings. It's interesting to know also that they were roughly contemporaneous So where certainly if you look carefully you can understand That which is Carrer and Hastings or Thomas Hastings in collaboration with Henry Clay Frick and then what John Russell Pope did later on To turn the building into a public museum So among other things They Created this little entrance pavilion. This is where the garden court is and then Pope took away a library a small library that had actually been added to the property A little bit later here. It says 1924 That building was taken down and John Russell Pope built that tall library building that you may or may not have been into on 71st street It's really important to understand that the two buildings the collection and the library are one institution They don't function as that today But the Frick Art reference library is one of the foremost art libraries in the world and Is rarely given its due As a piece of architecture on the street on the upper east side I think it is one of the most spectacular buildings and I think it is a real Testament to Pope's genius That what he did when he laid out the museum is he extended an already long facade And made it that much longer to punctuate it with that tall building So Then nothing happened for a very long time It's also important to understand that that which you think of as the The original garden was of course not a garden But was the site for some three townhouses that existed there And little by little the Frick Purchased these Three townhouses and tore them down one after the other and eventually in 1973 Created 77 actually Created the garden With oops one More moment Created a new reception hall and these three walls by Bailey van Dijk and polar and Hired Russell Page the English landscape designer to do the garden So that garden of course became the controversy when in 19 not 1914 2014 The Frick had attempted to to add and extend their building and build in the garden It's not so surprising that they did that because that is why they had purchased those sites in the first place Be that as it may There were a lot of New Yorkers who were very unhappy about it. And I think in a really extraordinary Attitude they The board of the Frick decided to withdraw their their project and think again And that was I think lucky for us Because we were hired to do the next generation Of this extension and renovation And very quickly you start thinking if they What are their needs and how do we realize these needs? There's practically no space to add if you can't add In the garden and having said that I actually Agree that the garden is a really beautiful thing and it produces something that beyond the garden design is really important It makes it a freestanding building at least on that side And so what can you do? In short order What you see outlined here in light gray is where we are proposing to add And all of those spaces are very much dedicated to making A better circulation serving users serving the art And creating an ensemble that makes the entire Experience not something that is foreign but something that is Inevitable and and easy so Here are a few pictures of some of the most spectacular rooms and They will remain unchanged. So I don't need to dwell on these for too long, but It's One of the things that we're very excited about of course is that we're going to make The second floor accessible for visitors And if you've ever had the experience standing down On the ground floor Wanting to go upstairs. Well, that's going to be possible and it is indeed very exciting the Private quarters of the Frick family are quite different in scale and will be very suitable for A much expanded collection of decorative arts and paintings and drawings and All of these things are not possible to view today And here is a picture of the library. It's free and open to anybody who wants to come visit And is a sort of interesting building because it's really just the third floor that is a public space in the building now But it gives us an opportunity in the expanded program to bring the library together and bring a kind of public face to the library There will be a study center on the ground floor There is a small lift on the second floor of the existing reception hall and Here is what you see the expansion of the rear of the library Which doesn't have a very glamorous facade today because it was never meant to be seen being that it was hidden by the townhouses and then a oops Sorry one more And then a second aspect of the of the expansion that is held by what we call a link And that link happens at the intersection Or rather at the corner where the garden and the Where the library and the collection meet and it is that one little moment Where there is an element of transparency there and i'm very excited about that because despite the fact that I think our our addition stands back and Certainly doesn't Overpower the existing beautiful buildings. I think this is an opportunity to not be too shy about it and not just Say we're not doing anything. No, this is a building that is now In the 21st century more committed to education more committed to the art and more committed to the public service that it renders So all of the beautiful things making the building accessible to the public With ramps etc And providing In a very Careful way I think is something that is really very special So i've talked too long on that one slide, but here quickly you see that all that which is read is the existing Space open to the public we're slightly Opening the existing reception hall by removing The bookstore from there creating A connection to the second floor and dedicating a lot of the ground floor In the library to a study center and education spaces connecting The existing exhibition space with special exhibitions over here It's been very cumbersome for for the museum to have to always remove permanent hangings of their art When there are exhibitions and exhibitions are necessary So as to relate the permanent collection to sort of a wider perspective on art And I just wanted to show you quickly a section that kind of makes it clear how The The expanded lobby allows us to move Easily up to the second floor if you can't take the staircase and connect you to the galleries in the old house in a very discreet and very simple way But also connect you Down to a new auditorium that is below the restored garden so all of this is a lot of very finicky work and I'm really very pleased to being given the opportunity to spend a lot of time on working out every last detail And working was an incredible team of Experts and colleagues And here just quickly a few pictures that show you that the existing entry Basically remains unchanged. We're opening one arch that connects you to the reception hall which you see right here and what you also see there is the staircase in the background and the connection to special exhibitions and and Eventually the study center it's also important to know that when you Find out how much this garden matters to people and when you make a commitment to restoring A garden by a russle page that you have to really learn what that means and We've been put through the paces. I will say it's taken us it was a learning process and it's something that I feel like that was a lesson to be learned We are completely committed to making that garden Just as good as it ever was and maybe even a little bit better was healthier plants and better The support and the reason why I'm also showing this Is because you have to understand that that garden isn't just a garden. It's a roof garden It's a roof garden that sits atop a three-story Excavated space that was the art storage and conceived as a bunker So effectively what we're doing when we're placing a new auditorium underneath the garden is we are able to Create a solid base for For the the planting and the and the roof, but it also Utilizes space that already exists Underneath and this is a perspective of the garden that very few people see mostly ducklings when they come and Spend their summers there um, but just to exhibit that the That the second floor of the existing reception hall is indeed very discreet and and hardly visible certainly very Hardly visible from the From the street Another thing that we felt very strongly about is that there is a visual connection from within the library all the way through to the garden So that the new renewed purpose of the educational spaces is reinforced by by everything from accessibility to Transparent Entry etc An image of the Of the special exhibition which is adjacent to the to the permanent exhibition and so the kind of Continuous loop is something that's very important So i'm going to try and speed it up a little bit. I know I talk too much So this is what that looks like, but now we're traveling to france to the luma foundation in al and what's interesting about that is that it was at one time a Factory for train cars by the sncf abandoned in the early 50s Changing with the abandonment of it changing the economic structure of Arle completely arle has become in Instead a summer touristy place and this is what it looked like when it was a big old factory Once it was abandoned The rencontre the photo festival that you may have heard of came once a year to inhabit the The degrading buildings and We are now working with the luma foundation and turning it into um a vibrant art center where Experimental exhibitions and performances music All sorts of things can happen and our work the work that Seldorf architects is doing is really to revitalize these buildings to take advantage of the structures that This is what they looked like before we got there and to sort of work alongside of franc gary's new building which sort of sits atop a The boulevard so this is The gary building which is coming out of the ground. It's not just coming out of the ground. It's nearly finished Um and is a sort of very spectacular antidote to the to the round open theaters In the in the old part of town. So these red Elements there are the buildings that we've been working on and rather than giving you a lot of information on the various climate changes skylight changes lighting Etc. I'll just show you a couple of pictures That black part of the building is something that we added As if the buildings weren't big enough Well, they really weren't big enough because there wasn't enough space that was column three And so we added one segment and restructured that so as to Create large open space. That's versatile in any number of ways And in working with the local landmarks ordinance, it became very clear that they were interested in In the idea of repeating the shape Which seemed like the logical thing to do but that they did not at all wanted to look like the original building and so Little by little we sort of developed this idea of materiality that is really a very basic one essentially we chose a charcoal colored cement block and Layed it very carefully and if I say so myself, I think it's really very elegant and and very nice in in this ensemble And this is what those spaces look like Inside they're very versatile as I said already. There's this is the atelier luma where A group of peoples come together to sort of develop materials that are Are repurposed materials from waste of agricultural materials And here is one of the art spaces Together with Bus mates the landscape architect from Belgium a park Is going to be developed around all of these buildings and so in many ways I think one of the most fantastic things about this project is it's truly civic outlook on affording something for the people who live in arle or who come and visit to come together and Think about art and think about Their existence or just frolic In the park One other building that you see in the distance there is the effect or which is a slightly Different architectural has a slightly different architectural presence and we repurposed this into Into a rehearsal space with With an internal dormitory of two stories Why did we do that because the buildings were very high and the spaces were very large And so i'm quite excited about the fact that on the ground floor that was five meters tall We were able to fit in a two-story clt Wood Structure a house within a house that produces really Very nice Dormitories small these are this is the Rehearsal space for the dancers and here they're actually dancing Just a couple of pictures of a sort of slightly different kind of architectural language for the dormitory space and Here are some images of that So we're going back and forth from america to europe from europe to america now Um Very quickly san diego a completely different type of project or A different period rather. Uh, this is the museum of contemporary art in la joya. Um, the original building was An irvingill private house that on at with the death of ellen's scripts Became was dedicated to a museum or initially an arts club and this building has Experienced a great many changes in the 40s 50s and 60s The architect's mojo and drew Added an auditorium added art space added any number of things that then Were used in the manner in which it was used until Venturi scott brown was hired to sort of create a connecting element and that is what you see here What they weren't able to do is they weren't able to Give additional gallery space to the museum and when we were hired in a competition The board asked us to find ways of adding space to To the museum for Art exhibition and gallery space now What made that possible of course was the fact that they acquired additional space and That space to the south is where we are currently working on expanding the museum Here is a view to the south The museum has an absolutely spectacular Orientation because to the south you overlook the ocean and it has a very sort of Interesting jumble of volumes that is what you see here. So this is part of the venturi Um Edition where this is mojo and drew and back here added to the back of the Irving building is also mojo and drew And then this garden I think happened over the years. I think that is not venturi I think that's pre venturi, but venturi added this Terrace over here So it was a very complicated Layout and in addition to it it is located on a very steep hill and so in a sort of simplified Version what you see here is all that which is green is the existing building and remains Pretty much unchanged. The red is the converted auditorium and the blue is where we're adding space One of the issues with The existing entrance was that it is now very far away from where the galleries are and Had become sort of difficult for people to identify being that The façade of the restored gill building was Obscured by a pergola over here that required you to Hang a right to get into A building part that is called ax line court That is part of the venturi edition so what we're proposing is an entrance that is sort of More visible from the street over here retaining Axe line and the sort of circulation elements that exist already in their entirety and instead focus on Creating a new entrance and new Gallery space over here that then cascades down the hill Allowing you to Reach a lower level But also always trying to make sure that the connections back to the old building This over here is of course the old auditorium So that these connections back and connections with vistas to the ocean Are are well considered the idea here is that it is a long distance You have to take you have to walk But that always you can find ways to reorient yourself and to understand where you are Appreciating the really spectacular light and views That you can be afforded from there And here are just a couple of images. This is a picture of ax line court, which remains really unchanged And a picture of the original Irving Gill building with Venturi to the right and to the left And here is a picture Of the entrance to the museum with the facade of the of the auditorium being really unchanged It was a simple box. That is just very very plain and we're happy to leave it that way There is a an interesting Daylit gallery space that happens at the intersection of different geometries because the geometry of the site is very complicated and eventually looking at The whole thing if you were a bird so I think that what we are doing is actually stitching these interesting Geometries and making something that feels very disparate and very Sort of unloved from the from the From the ocean side into something that is much more inviting that brings people Back into the museum from the lower coast Road and sort of creates an overall Circulation around the space with a much more Civic-minded attitude toward the town surrounding it So Back to Europe This is the competition that Jorge had already talked about and he already explained what has happened It was a competition for the restoration renovation repurposing of this mansion from the 1720s by Giacomo Leo Li an Italian architect who found his way somehow or other to England and Who had produced this Palladian style villa? This is what the building looked like and When it was built originally it sat on a 500 acre parcel of Of land that belonged to the onslaught family And this was the most spectacular so-called marble room That made this building a little bit famous oftentimes concerts were held there and the building became part of the national trust in 1956 and Had not much of a collection Over all over time people had given things from various different houses and So it was more a delight to see from the outside and sadly Especially today it seems odd to talk about it the building caught fire and burned down to All the way down It is actually incredibly shocking when you are in the building and there is a sort of scaffolding that Allows you to go all the way to the to the top and See what it looked like so Jorge has already explained a little bit What the conversation was all about and I don't want to speak about this for a very long time Mostly because we didn't win but No, seriously just because it is such a long conversation about how do you deal with a house like that I didn't think that the right thing to do would be to say you restore the ground floor to its former splendor and say it's all the same which Theoretically is possible and then upstairs have a Contemporary multi-purpose space Instead what we thought is as Jorge has already said we would retrace the steps of what made the architecture a piece of architecture And gently Introduced different kinds of functions different kinds of activities in the building But always thinking of the building as a single organism that had some kind of integrity that had some kind of coherence And that were was never in discord with A contemporary attitude and indeed that is probably Very little wow factor there although we were fairly wowed by it and I must say Just quickly hear this picture indicates what the Site is today and what it used to be at one time We worked with the eponymous landscape architect Gunther Vogt on on the design and their attitude much as our own was to sort of Find subtle ways of making it a public building and making it into something That is generally welcoming and and and agreeable on all levels so I could talk about this for a long time, but I'm just not going to Only send you show you a couple of beautiful images that were a lot of work and Because indeed we made Good use of the of the lower floor for all of the public and hospitality functions and But in particular, I want to show you That our attitude with this marble room was one where Jorge very clearly argued that you can't just Plaster everything but instead had the Brilliant idea to reveal where loss had been and in very subtle ways reuse some of the at times The the ashes really right so this was going to be phoenix out of the ashes, but It didn't happen and so there to the right you see a rendering of how we thought we might create a new separate circulation Circulation spine in this dramatic Hole of a building And so now at the very end I will just flip through very quickly Project that we're working on currently We are privileged to have been invited to participate in Designing a visitor or an information center for the tin lung gardens in the Forbidden City What you're looking at here, of course is the big entrance at the Forbidden City And the many layers and many beautiful incredible details that you encounter when you're Going to the Forbidden City It was one of those experiences that I found strictly overwhelming and it's pretty interesting to think that this Is this this was created in the 1770s so that the kind of Overlaps in time where you're 1720 in clandon at clandon house and then encountering the The tin lung gardens In the Forbidden City, so the Forbidden City is going to to celebrate their 500th birthday next year, but this little part here the tin lung gardens Came into being in the 1770s as a sort of retirement Garden for the emperor puyi And it's a garden that consists of four courtyards and not all of them are available to the public The second garden is going to be the one where this information center happens You have to imagine that everybody in china anybody in the world can go and wants to go to the Forbidden City But it's so enormous and it's so difficult to sort of find your way around it That from time to time you want to rest and you want to sort of understand what happens world monument fund has For a long time worked very closely with the palace museum and teaching and and dialoguing about Restoration techniques not just restoration of architecture, but specific surface restoration of some of the incredible Materials and surfaces used There are 27 pavilions in the four court garden And three of the pavilions in this second courtyard the west hall the main hall and the east hall are going to be dedicated To this information center for us One of the things that was particularly important is to always Be sure that you understood how it relates to the whole the scale is very different there and And so when you are coming from the main Areas in the in the Forbidden City and you enter the the gardens there the scale changes completely there are small pavilions and And to observe the restoration work is simply stunning There is a level of craft and And Sophistication in how the work is being done that is really fascinating Our attitude was to sort of divide the the information center into areas of Where people can understand what the structure of the architectural pavilion the architectural structure of the pavilions is and Build a model of the entire garden so that you can always orient yourself This is a 19th century architectural model one of many that are done in this manner that are Existing in the palace museum and they're absolutely beautiful. And so The entire team fell in love with this kind of model making and I hope that will be able to produce an entire model of the of the gardens And here is a quick image of some of the Totally refined materials from inlaid jade inlays Marketry Paper Things It's really fantastic to see what once existed and what can be restored in Much the same way here are some images of some of these restorations in other parts of the of the garden I just think it's really very interesting to see how phenomenally beautiful the The painting is etc etc And these are just some images of the spaces inside that are surprisingly Empty and void of detail now because since 1923 They have been left alone and Barely and we're very lucky that they're still standing and available And that's it finally Sorry to have gone on for so long, but thank you very much Wonderful Wonderful presentation. I I wanted to Obviously, I want to make time for The audience to ask you some questions. So They're all thirsty The hardcore audience to ask you for Ask you some questions So as you think of of those I said I would maybe ask you a little bit about this This idea of working in museums working with museums, it seems that you know And museums appear and in paul's book a great deal because there are these great sort of types of buildings that keep growing and also That are able to To hire really great architects. So you have a conversation among among really Um an extraordinary architects With clients that really care about what the argument is and so I wanted to ask you In your experience now that having worked with museums for a long time How is the argument that museums Or some museums are are making To the public or towards the public Changed or different than let's say 20 years ago Well, I think museums like libraries Are beginning to think that they want to bring a wider or diverse public into Inside And present themselves not as The prison of art but rather as As somebody who wishes to dialogue about ways of art making ways of looking at art and Be more Interdisciplinary I would say um I think it's of course a little bit different in every In every circumstance um But certainly from my perspective The idea has got to be that you bring that you make the dignity of the visitor a prime Prime factor And that's not always easy sometimes. I mean probably a lot of us Experience these overcrowded Places where people walk around with I don't know that thing And And that's the opposite of a great experience. So I don't have A good answer, but I think the When you're working with collections and museums It is all about the compassion for people In relationship to the passion for art and always architecture obviously that That sort of sets the sets the dialogue do um one of the Words that you used in your presentation Or two of the words you used in your presentation was spectacle Versus elegance And you're clearly on the side No way clearly on the side of elegance You um, and so I wanted to ask you a little bit about elegance You know on how At what scale Do you feel you Enter into the the question of elegance. Is it at the level of Sort of form of the building and the the the public facing or is it at the level of of Detailing interiors Well, I think that if architecture isn't provocative and challenging then You're not doing enough However, I also think that It would be nice to think that you don't have to hit everybody over the head with that so it's A back and forth right in trying to understand how do spaces Relate to one another. How do you confront people in them? How do people perceive? themselves And how can they receive and be challenged and provoked by By the art or by the exhibits that they are and so I haven't answered you Because I don't know what the answer is Well, maybe I can ask you on that On that note about staircases which seem to be an obsession of yours Because I I I seem to I think they're really an obsession of everybody in the office Everybody But the the staircase seems to be a place where you really focus a lot of attention both in clandon park at the Frick You mentioned the staircase at the Frick is Everybody has wanted to go up the staircase and now you can That is one great staircase though. You have to say so. What is it in a staircase that really? That draws you I mean what what well the staircase I think is the exemplified Monument of circulation and it is the place that connects you vertically And it's cumbersome to go upstairs or it's elegant to walk downstairs sometimes maybe so Stairs are complicated. They are The thing that brings us together in a house in a museum in a public space And They give you a different perspective. They give you a different sense of presence of yourself and Allow you to relate to space and And they're complicated when they're not resolved so Ultimately, I think I'm not obsessed with staircases, but I think staircases are a particular aspect of making space and connecting spaces that is vital to to the functioning of of a building and They have to be just so I mean I think of the great circuses of the opea ganea and so on these are spaces of these are spec These are space. These are staircases for spectacle right Whereas I think I mean if I if I can see like your your staircases are still Places to see and be seen or Well, you just haven't given me an opportunity yet to make a really spectacular I'm not adverse to that. I but I think so much of it is really the opportunity of Um generally speaking I feel that architecture is For people and it becomes better when people use it and if they can use it Flexibly and freely and without being coerced into That perpetual wowl moment because guess what once you've been wowed the second time you come around you say like that's pretty good I think architecture is great at any time Over a long time. I know great architecture when I see it and not because I have to exclaim but But there's a place for everything and And so yes, I think theater is a part of it and I think you Point this out. It's you know, who who are you in that building and how do you relate yourself to that building? I think those are considerations and they're different in each circumstance I wanted to follow up with that in terms of working with old buildings because you know stairs are a lot of times Transitions between the new and the old are different floor plates So you have to resolve the aesthetic of one and of the other but also that you pointed out to Things that you wouldn't have done especially in the first project, you know Your earliest project and here you are having to deal with the old building and you're making this filigree that you're As if the building is making you do something you didn't want And so I'm curious about those kinds of moments in which the um In which the old building pushes You to do something you didn't want to do. Do you fear those moments? Do you look forward to those moments? Do you? I love those moments because I think that um It and it doesn't really matter whether it's old or modern or It's it creates dialogue. It creates friction creates provocation and challenge and um and Sometimes I think as architects we are brought up with a certain dogma and Architectural education today is very different from the architectural education that I received And it's interesting to see how students do that. There is sort of the gestural parametric design that is comes at a different period and None of it is per se right all of it is Related to circumstance and in In reaction or in answer to something else and That's what I'm interested in. I'm interested in the relationships and in the response and I'm interested in Not falling down um Not shy But I'm also not interested in over Trumping somebody and um and so there Um some questions From the audience Oh, so I'm in the front row You said your father you said your father was an architect. Did any of his design philosophy influence your own? Yes Well, you can't leave your um your upbringing behind and um And I think that my father because he didn't receive an academic Education had a very Um intuitive response to Space and a lot of that has to do with how you move in space. What dimensions are And all of those things I think uh reverberate in in the work we do Too far to travel When spare you to become an architect since you were little You say that you were from uh, I find you know architects But internally how you felt why why make you took that decision to be an architect Um, it took me a long time to want to be an architect. Uh, I didn't I wasn't at all sure that that's what I wanted to do. Um It certainly looked like it was a lot of work and I wasn't so keen on that Um, it also seemed like you could never make any money and I really didn't like that um, but For a long time not knowing exactly what to do. I let myself be convinced that doing some internships on construction sites and In a variety of offices I Realized that what I really liked was the relationship that you had with people and with um was sort of so many different aspects that make our life better or interesting and um And so then once I study started to study architecture. I I got into it When you look at um Buildings like the Frick Collection and the Contemporary Museum of Art, Mahoya with multiple layers of existing architecture Some of which may shout and some may be more quiet different Levels of architects that have already been there. Do you approach each one of those? eras or layers the same exact way or do you sort of take each one for what it is in your Heady task of trying to create something new for these institutions I certainly would hope the latter um I think that Our approach really is to know as much as you possibly can to learn um With the idea that the more, you know the more, you know, um, but to not Not blind yourself to your own intuition or your own experience and to sort of have um A constant dialogue to the two Gunnar Asplund Never allowed people in his office to look at the drawings from previous projects And I always thought that that was such an interesting thing because it meant that every time when you do something you have to reconsider the context and Make sure that you never do anything formulaic, but always strive for the specific and I think that's kind of How we're trying to do things You have collaborated with so many different kinds of institutions and museums um, I want to ask a question that um, you know How so we're and david swenor. They are commercial galleries which are kind of different from the museum because they They somehow they have to sell the art. So will these um commercial goal affect the architecture or affect your collaboration with the client um Yeah, of course everything I think really specificity is Is some part of it in the commercial art gallery The light levels are way less important. In fact, you want people to really see the art In a museum, you don't want them to see the art. You keep it really dark. I'm just kidding, but um, but The it's not so much about whether it's commercial But it's are you making good space that serves its purpose? And I don't think that our thinking about the space in the recycling facility in in brooklyn Is different than How I think about space at the Frick Having said that I'm not getting the too confused They are doing very different things and so Again, I think what you try to do is you try to really understand what is the problem And how do you deal with it? And how do people fit into it or? What are the what are the? Practical realities First of all congratulations on a uh, exquisite body work um, I have a question about how so much of your work is involved with Historic buildings. How do you discern between how referential your design? Attitude might be or how contemporary and what are the factors to Result in the design which is on one end or the other a continuum I think that's an excellent question because I think uh, what you're Pointing out is I'm not a preservationist. I'm an architect. I'm a modern architect and The reason why we Are often confronted with projects like that because they are not in the first place about preservation or restoration However much respect I obviously have for that But I think that we are often entrusted with projects that where The purpose and the logic is a very important part and so When you think about what is a building's new purpose for example, uh, you kind of again put yourself into The place where you're trying to understand How people come together how they move how much room they need and um, and so It's not about being reverential to the building but about understanding what For lack of a better term what constitutes quality and and so I think It includes respect it includes ideas about dignity and And coherence maybe um and A certain amount of Humility to the sort of larger purpose I really do believe that it's better if you can give buildings a new purpose if that's possible And I'm sure that many of you who are architects here walk around and Look at buildings and you see them in the way in which you would like to see them You would sort of make changes to the windows and and maybe sort of repaint The The exterior and so it's a little bit like that. It's like you're Practical about it Does that make sense? A little bit of bills Last question perhaps I want to go back to that first image of cologne because one of the striking things going to any big west german city From the 60s onwards was that you'd see a big neon Mercedes sign and then in the square by the cathedral. You'd see more neon signs for agfa and for various other 11 exactly Could you talk a little bit about your battles over signage and Even branding because there's something very striking about what you've shown us today that there's only one project We see a sign and that's the Refectoir in fact, that's not there Yet as well as I know and I think this is really significant. It seems like a minor issue but to be able to make projects where you can avoid We can retain a kind of dignity to a building and also the experience of the visitor by by By the way, they approach and arrive at something and begin to enter Well, I guess I sometimes think that that is Signage of its own I haven't really Thought about signage per se, but I do remember that you and I had a conversation about signage in arle and I remember we'll never forget you saying I don't want any of that signage that's in great taste. That's so tiny that you can't see it and So I've stepped back from that curb And thought maybe I let other people deal with that No, but I I think It's it's a complicated one. I think that for example in in San Diego people had a very difficult time finding the entrance and so Somebody put signage into place so that they would find the entrance to me that was Too bad because you had to add something in a place where I would rather see less. Generally speaking, I prefer less If I can if you intuitively find the entrance admittedly in our building you can't overlook it um But But I think there there has to be a balance to things and of course now in In uh, Los Angeles, there is a big debate about the encyclopedic museum Where no piece of art needs any signage whatsoever because you don't need to know You just need to look at that beautiful piece of art and that should be enough well I think That's a bit silly but Yeah, so I think it's a debate. I think there can be extraordinarily beautiful signage and Lucky strike is one of the best Branded things I can think of To be continued Everybody go home now. Yes, thank thank you for a magnificent lecture You