BARBARALEE DIAMONSTEIN
787
world, and Frank Lloyd Wright, when he was young, believed
that there were only two architects that ever lived- Michelangelo
and himself- which he wasn't at all hesitant to tell you.
BLDD:
And you did not hesitate to argue that point with him once
in your career.
Pj:
That was embarrassing. I told him he was the greatest architect
of the nineteenth century, and it was way into the twentieth when
I said that. That was very unfair, because he did a lot of his best
work after that, but as I told you before, the International Style
was a moral movement as well as an intellectual one, and Wright
didn't fit. We were very mean to him. I apologize, Frankie.
BLDD:
During 1948 and 1949, you designed the famous "glass
house" for yourself in Connecticut. How does that look to you to–
day?
PJ:
It's marvelous. I wouldn't want to live anywhere else, but I also
wouldn't build another like it now. It isn't interesting enough. I
spent all my time thinking, "How do you hold up glass? With a
piece that size by that size." It took months, years, to do every one
of those little details.
It
wasn't one of your broad-brush interesting
shapes.
BLDD:
What was the most important aspect of that design for you at
the time that you were creating it?
Pj:
The siting; if you have a glass box without any character, and
without any interesting details, then it damned well better look
well placed. So, I found a glorious site in Connecticut that I've
never tired of.
BLDD:
After building that glass box, you continued to expand that
environment. How many houses are there now?
Pj:
I forget- five or six. Every time I get an idea, I build it there for
myself. There's only one good client, and that's oneself!
BLDD:
A concern of every architect is the initial perception of a
space in a room or a building, and I wondered if you would tell us
what you think about when you plan that entrance. How are your
designs different in the design of a building and that of a room?
Pj:
A room is the opposite of a building. We always talk in our office
of our "inside buildings" and our "outside buildings." Some of our
buildings are very successful outside, but the interiors are not ex–
citing, while others have great rooms, but we just tacked the out–
side onto the great room. The great trick in architecture, and I
don't think I've ever totally succeeded at it, is the combination.
