June 17 / Administration of William J. Clinton, 1998

almost always gets it right when they have NOTE: The President spoke at 6:15 p.m. in the enough time, and they’ve got plenty of time. Briefing Room at the White House. The transcript So I think we need to do this. made available by the Office of the Press Sec- retary also included the remarks of Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles.

Remarks at the Pritzker Architecture Prize Dinner June 17, 1998

Thank you very much. Mr. Piano, congratula- young Irish architect actually built this White tions, and thank you for your marvelous re- House, he did it by defeating an anonymous marks. Professor Scully, thank you for the almost plan presented by Thomas Jefferson. [Laughter] breathtaking education in such a short few mo- But it is just as well, because Mr. Jefferson ments. I thank J. Carter Brown and the prize was the architect of something even more im- jury and Jay and Cindy Pritzker and indeed the portant than the White House. He built the entire Pritzker family for this prize and for their American creed. many contributions to our Nation. I might say parenthetically, in America ever Frank Lloyd Wright once said that every great since then, all politicians have tried to convince architect is necessarily a poet. He must be a people that they were architects. If you listen great original interpreter of his time, his day, to them speak long enough, you will be con- his age. Renzo Piano has certainly done that, vinced that we were all born in log houses that and we congratulate him and thank him for his we built ourselves. [Laughter] many gifts to our age. But on a serious note, think of the American Your creations will endure as some of our creed: We hold these truths to be self-evident, century’s most timeless gifts to the future. As that we are all created equal, endowed by God Hillary said, we have invited all the American with the right to life, liberty, the pursuit of people to take part in a national celebration happiness. We have bounded together ourselves of the coming millennium, challenging individ- because we cannot fully pursue, protect, or en- uals and communities across our country to hance these rights alone as individuals. And we think about what values and heritage we carry dedicate ourselves to form a more perfect with us into the future, what gifts we want to Union. leave to the future, what kind of millennium In other words, we dedicate ourselves to an we want to build. I invite all of you to lead act of creating and building that will never be us in that celebration. finished. An architect conceived of that. Professor Scully once said that architecture And I say that to you tonight on the edge is the continuing dialog between the genera- of the millennium because Hillary and I and tions. Well, tonight I thank all of you who have the members of our administration who are shaped that dialog, and I ask you to help to here, many in the Congress, and others, we’ve tell the American story in a new century. Our worked very hard these last 51⁄2 years to build buildings, our monuments embody our frontier a good house for America where everybody has spirit, our exuberance, our optimism, our deter- a home, where we share the same foundation mination. In honoring the past, you can help and the protection of the same roof and the us to imagine the future that will continue to same walls, where we respect our differences be full of all those good qualities. and value our unity. Let me say, tonight I listened carefully to And now together we have to build at least what everyone else said. I couldn’t remember— the foundations for America’s home and the I couldn’t believe that Professor Scully remem- world’s home in a new century. Yes, it will need bered the story I told him about the Jefferson steel and stone and wood and glass and light Monument. I don’t believe anyone pointed out and air and trees and garden, music and quiet; that while James Hoban as a relatively unknown it also will need a lot of vision and hope.

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The longer I serve in public life, in many In the end, that is what we have honored ways, the more idealistic I become, but I see tonight, and America is in your debt. Thank day-in and day-out that the world is composed you, and God bless you. of builders, wreckers, and idlers. And most peo- ple in politics are either builders or wreckers. All of you are, by nature, instinct, training, and NOTE: The President spoke at 7:55 p.m. on the will, builders. The country and the world needs South Lawn at the White House. In his remarks, its builders, those with imagination and hope he referred to Renzo Piano, 1998 Pritzker Archi- and heart who understand that with all the dif- tecture Prize laureate; Vincent J. Scully, Jr., Ster- ferences that exist in the world, our common ling professor emeritus, Yale University; J. Carter humanity and our common relationship to the Brown, chairman, Pritzker Prize jury; and Jay A. eternal and to our earthly home is far, far more Pritzker, president, Hyatt Foundation, and his important. wife, Cindy.

Remarks on the Nominations of Bill Richardson To Be Secretary of Energy and Richard C. Holbrooke To Be United Nations Ambassador and an Exchange With Reporters June 18, 1998

The President. Senator Bingaman and Con- gagement around the world and the importance gressman Becerra, ladies and gentlemen, I wel- of leveraging that engagement by living up to come you all here today as I announce my intent our United Nations obligations. to nominate Ambassador Bill Richardson to be- In short, if there’s one word that comes to come our Secretary of Energy, Ambassador mind when I think of Bill Richardson, it really Richard Holbrooke to assume the portfolio of is ‘‘energy.’’ But that is hardly the only reason America’s Representative to the United Nations. I am appointing him to this job. [Laughter] For I’m especially pleased that their families could 14 years representing New Mexico, an energy- join me and the Vice President and, as you rich State that is home to two of our national can see, our entire national security team. Department of Energy labs, and his long service Over the last 2 years, Bill Richardson’s experi- as an active member of the House Energy and ence, energy, and tenacity have made a real Commerce Committee, he has gotten extensive, difference in advancing our interests in the firsthand experience in issues ranging from de- United Nations and around the world. With dip- regulating the oil and gas industries, to pro- lomatic skills honed in one of the most diverse moting alternative sources of energy, to ensuring congressional districts in our country, negotiating that energy development meets tough standards ability tested in some of the toughest hot spots of environmental safety. I thank him for his on our planet, and a personal touch evidenced willingness to serve. ˜ from his first day on the job, Bill Richardson Let me also say that Secretary Pena has left has brought creativity and drive to our leader- a very impressive legacy upon which to build. ship at the U.N. I appreciate his 5 years of service to our Nation He has served the Secretary of State and me as both Secretary of Transportation and Sec- by tackling some of the toughest negotiating retary of Energy, where he surprised, I might challenges from the Congo to Zaire to Afghani- say, even his greatest admirers with the speed stan. He helped to rally the international com- with which he mastered the incredible complex munity to speak and act as one in the crisis issues of the Department and the leadership in Iraq. Today, the international inspectors are he demonstrated in supporting the Comprehen- back on the job, working to end Iraq’s nuclear, sive Test Ban Treaty, in coming out with an chemical, and biological weapons threat, thanks electricity deregulation plan that will save con- in no small measure to his efforts. He has been sumers $20 billion a year, in helping to open a vigorous and articulate proponent of our en- all kinds of opportunities for energy conservation

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