Organic, free-flowing architecture of Bart Prince
Architects Rule
May 1, 2002
“Money is important, but it’s not everything,” Margaret McCurry maintains. Bart Prince agrees: “It’s never strictly a question of money. Sometimes the most attractive clients are the ones without much to spend. The desire to do something interesting with no real preconceptions is the thing for me.”
Queue Up And Have Plan B
; function voidFunc() { } voidFunc(); "Michael Graves' own house")
Signature architecture can take a long time to materialize (two to four years is standard), or it can be out of reach altogether. In nonrecession times, most busy architects will so much as tell you to get in line. “I always have to consider my schedule—and those of the four studios in my office that support the architectural work—in order to make sure we can do any project within the time requested by the potential client,” says Michael Graves. “When we have to decline a project, we do our best to refer the applicant onward, typically to another architect who has worked with our office before starting a practice on his or her own.” (Click image to enlarge)And of course there is the slim-to-no-chance category of architects—those who have essentially eliminated residential projects from their practice. Architecture demigod Frank Gehry, for one, has not worked in the residential sector for about a dozen years. His office does consider (“even if only briefly”) every project that comes its way; still, unless your tandem commission is a major museum in São Paulo, you can pretty much save yourself the call (another reason to “know the architecture”).
advertisement
advertisement
