Interview 2: August 23, 2010
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Regional Oral History Office University of California The Bancroft Library Berkeley, California Richard Bender REFLECTIONS AN ARCHITECT’S JOURNEY: LIVING, TEACHING AND PRACTICE IN A WORLD WITHOUT WALLS Introductions by Elizabeth Douthitt Byrne, Allan Jacobs, and John Parman Interviews conducted in 2010 and 2011 by Suzanne B. Riess Copyright © 2012 by The Regents of the University of California ii Since 1954 the Regional Oral History Office has been interviewing leading participants in or well-placed witnesses to major events in the development of Northern California, the West, and the nation. Oral History is a method of collecting historical information through tape-recorded interviews between a narrator with firsthand knowledge of historically significant events and a well-informed interviewer, with the goal of preserving substantive additions to the historical record. The tape recording is transcribed, lightly edited for continuity and clarity, and reviewed by the interviewee. The corrected manuscript is bound with photographs and illustrative materials and placed in The Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley, and in other research collections for scholarly use. Because it is primary material, oral history is not intended to present the final, verified, or complete narrative of events. It is a spoken account, offered by the interviewee in response to questioning, and as such it is reflective, partisan, deeply involved, and irreplaceable. ********************************* All uses of this manuscript are covered by a legal agreement between The Regents of the University of California and Richard Bender dated March 5, 2012. The manuscript is thereby made available for research purposes. All literary rights in the manuscript, including the right to publish, are reserved to The Bancroft Library of the University of California, Berkeley. Excerpts up to 1000 words from this interview may be quoted for publication without seeking permission as long as the use is non-commercial and properly cited. Requests for permission to quote for publication should be addressed to The Bancroft Library, Head of Public Services, Mail Code 6000, University of California, Berkeley, 94720-6000, and should follow instructions available online. http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/ROHO/collections/cite.html It is recommended that this oral history be cited as follows: Richard Bender, “Reflections An Architect’s Journey: Living, Teaching and Practice in a World Without Walls,” an oral history conducted in 2010 and 2011 by Suzanne B. Riess, Regional Oral History Office, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, 2012. iii Dean Richard Bender iv v INTRODUCTION by Elizabeth Douthitt Byrne ix THOUGHTS TO INTRODUCE RICHARD BENDER by Allan Jacobs xiii THE WORLDS OF RICHARD BENDER by John Parman xv INTERVIEW HISTORY by Suzanne B. Riess xvii TABLE OF CONTENTS xix PREFACE by Richard Bender 1 INTERVIEW 2, August 23, 2010 3 Family, Okun, Bender, Brooklyn, Born 1930; Manhattan, Museums, Rockefeller Center; Summers, Beaches and Sand Castles, Camps; Influences, Optical Illusions, Builders, Questions; A Job with Harrison and Abramowitz; IBEC, Construction Technology; The United Nations Building, Corbusier, Nivola; Painting Lesson, Schools, City College Engineering; Pete Seeger INTERVIEW 3, August 31, 2010 49 Paul Bender; MIT, Building Construction Engineering; Structures and Infrastructure; Gropius, Harvard, the Graduate Center, 1951, 1956; Giedion, Construction to City Planning; Influence of Hudnut, Kidder Smith, MacLeish, Stubbins, Bogner; How Technology Changes Building; Corbetta Corporation and the Guggenheim; Peter Steiger; The Draft, Operation Blue Jay, Greenland INTERVIEW 4, September 7, 2010 81 A Secret Project, North Atlantic Constructors, Greenland, 1953; Fort Dix to Fort Monmouth; Going Off Base; Floats for the Army Navy Game; Sue Rosenfeld, The Enchanted Evening, November 1955; Working in Collaboration, Developing a Skill; Thoughts on Prefabrication, Homes, Housing; Thoughts on Systems, Larger Systems; Aside on Joe Esherick, Horst Rittel, Wes Churchman; Aside on Building Costs, Obsolescence, Developers; The People Around Sert’s Office, Maki, Schnebli; Another Enchanted Evening; Marriage and Sailing to Europe, 1956 INTERVIEW 5, September 14, 2010 109 Observations on Office Culture, Viewing A Star, Seeing Three Cubes; Zurich, Haefeli Moser Steiger Office, CIAM and CERN; Apartment in Zurich; Barcelona Chairs, and Friendships; More on CIAM, Corbusier; Aalto; Arieh Sharon, Work in Israel, the Workers, Nazareth, Beersheba, 1958; Seeing with Fresh Eyes; Prefabricated Systems; Aside on Ezra Ehrenkrantz, Boeing and Building; New Technologies; Sue’s Part in Everything, Charms and Abilities; Home on the Fethiye vi INTERVIEW 6, October 5, 2010 137 Back in New York, 1959; Interviews, Work for Peireira and Luckman, Charles Luckman Associates; William Lescaze; Developers and Contractors, A Game; Teaching at Columbia Night School; Brooklyn Heights, Sue Teaching in New Rochelle, Learning Ceramics, Michael is Born, 1960; Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture, a Door Opens; Percival Goodman at Columbia; David is Born, 1961; Working with Paul Lester Wiener; I.M. Pei; Idea of a House and a Community in Amagansett, 1962; Life in Amagansett, with Friends; Sue Begins to Show her Work; More on Wiener Office; Esmond Shaw, Teaching at Cooper Union, 1962, the Cooper Union Students INTERVIEW 7, October 26, 2010 173 Aside on Lost Artisans; Planning from the Bottom Up, Lofts, Self-Help; Ken Snelson, Tensegrity, Making Things, Norman Mailer; UHAB, Meeting Don Terner; Ivan Illich, Eduardo Terrazas, George Nelson, Cuernavaca; Wiener Office, Town Planning Associates, 1963; Interiors; The Hamptons, Artists, Dealers, Patrons; Dan and Joanna Rose; A Crack in the Rear View Mirror, 1973, Forrest Wilson, Open Systems; An Experiment in Instant Rehabilitation; Dogsleds and Elephants; Aside on Renzo Piano, Richard Rogers, Norman Foster; Videoconferencing, or Taking a Walk; BRIDGE and Communities; Bender Seeing the Bigger Picture, the Power of Listening; More Development in Amagansett, 1966; Thinking India; Jerry McCue, Invited to Berkeley; But First to Europe with Michael and David INTERVIEW 8, December 8, 2010 205 Jane Jacobs, Neighborhoods; Driving across the Country; Arriving in Berkeley from Southern California; The College of Environmental Design, 1969, More than Expected; Sue Discovers the Ceramics Studio; Boys, Schools, and Life in Berkeley; Teaching Structures; Bender Chairman of the Department of Architecture 1974-1976; Architecture Education vis a vis the Profession; Flexner Report, and a Practice in Wurster Hall; Teaching, Computers; Teams, Architects with Special Skills and Interests; Current Challenges, Interest Groups, in CED; Generational Leap, “Without Walls”; Looking at Alternatives to Traditional Office Building Use; People’s Park, Spirit of Berkeley; Inspired by Telesis; Catherine Bauer; Graduate Class, Structures and Construction INTERVIEW 9, December 15, 2010 235 Bay Region Architecture, Maybeck, McCue, Wurster, Eckbo; Finding a House on Santa Barbara Road; School Component System Design and Ezra Ehrenkrantz and BSD; Operation Breakthrough; Aside on a Life Crisis; Involvement with Sam Davis, Chris Alexander, Roger Montgomery, Roz Lindheim, Horst Rittel, Jean Paul Protzen; Environment Design Research Association; Adapting Houses; Letters and Science and the PhD Level, Academic Evidence; Creativity, Ray Lifchez; The JAE and Styles of Research; Maintaining Challenges; Dean, CED, 1976-1988, Administrative Work; Joe Esherick, Charles Moore; Arthur Rosenfeld and Connection to LBL, Energy Studies; Training the Next Leaders of the Profession; Joe and the Student Store, and the Drawing Class; The Dean’s Office, People Wanting Things; A More Complex Place; Thriving on the Challenges; Enneagrams; More on Chris Alexander; Spiro Kostof; vii The Bill Wurster Inner Circle; Ada Louise Huxtable, Gae Aulenti, Denise Scott Brown; Campus Planning Study Group; Institute of Urban and Regional Development and Center for Building Technology INTERVIEW 10, February 2, 2011 273 Urgency of Planning the Campus, Advocacy; New Visions, Council of Deans; Bechtel Center, a Catalyst; Open Spaces, the Precinct Concept; A Look at Campus History, John Muir at the Roots of CED; Preservationists; Al Bowker; Targets of Opportunity; Taking the Ideas on the Road with Mike Heyman; Life Sciences Precinct; Design Review Board and Campus Planning Study Group; Selling the Regents on The Vision Thing; Allan Jacobs; Master of Urban Design Program; Strengthening the School; Peter Bosselmann and the Environmental Simulation Lab; Russ Ellis, More on Ray Lifchez; Using the Campus to Teach Environmental Design, ED-1; Ramona’s Cafe, Cutting Across a Number of Things; Marc Treib, Tony Dubovsky; Elizabeth Byrne and the CED Library; Heartbreaks of Campus Planning, the Stadium; Phil Enquist and Signage; Jung’s Dis-Integration, Middle Age; Michael and David, Family and Friends; J.B. Jackson INTERVIEW 11, February 9, 2011 309 More on the East Coast/West Coast Thing; Building a Bed; Stepping Back, Starting with the Landscape Architect; The Pleasures of Triangulating; Bill Lacy; Getty Trust Invitation to Join the Advisory Board; Thinking About it From Venice, 1983; The American Academy in Rome, 1979; Advising the Getty, Expectations; Going First Class; The Fellow Advisors, the Field Trips; John Walsh; Brentwood Neighborhood Association; Harold Williams; The Parking Lot and the Monorail Idea; The