ORAL HISTORY of BERTRAND GOLDBERG Interviewed by Betty J
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ORAL HISTORY OF BERTRAND GOLDBERG Interviewed by Betty J. Blum Complied under the auspices of the Chicago Architects Oral History Project Ernest R. Graham Study Center for Architectural Drawings Department of Architecture The Art Institute of Chicago Copyright © 1992 Revised Edition © 2001 The Art Institute of Chicago This manuscript is hereby made available for research purposes only. All literary rights in the manuscript, including the right to publication, are reserved to the Ryerson and Burnham Libraries of The Art Institute of Chicago. No part of this manuscript may be quoted for publication without the written permission of The Art Institute of Chicago. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface iv Outline of Topics vi Oral History 1 Selected References 306 Appendix: Curriculum Vitae 308 Index of Names and Buildings 310 iii OUTLINE OF TOPICS Early Life 1 Harvard College and Cambridge School of Architecture 9 Study at the Bauhaus, Mies van der Rohe and Experiences in Germany 12 Employment with George Fred Keck and the Century of Progress International Exposition, 1933-34, Chicago 54 Employment with Paul Schweikher 67 First Commission: Harriet Higginson House 75 New Bauhaus in Chicago 77 Mies van der Rohe in Chicago 82 Frank Lloyd Wright, Mies van der Rohe at Taliesin 96 Early Goldberg Office 101 Federal Government Housing: Indian Head, Maryland and Suitland, Maryland 107 Observations on Prefabrication 110 General American Transportation Company, Calumet City Project 114 Concept of Housing Cost 119 Mast-hung Structures: North Pole Mobile Ice Cream Store and the Clark-Maple Gasoline Station, Chicago 125 American Novelty Furniture Factory, Chicago 128 Designs for Use During World War II 130 Prefabrication: Bathroom Appliances, Pressed-steel Freight Cars 133 Prefabrication in Custom Homes 142 Post-War Goldberg Office 143 Drexel Garden Apartments, Chicago 148 Pineda Island Recreation Center and Motel 66 150 Marina City, Chicago 154 Raymond Hilliard Homes, Chicago 191 Health Facilities Designs 205 Health Center at New York State University, Stony Brook 213 Prentice Women’s Hospital, Northwestern University Medical Center, Chicago 221 Goldberg and Associates: Practices, Associates, and Honors 226 iv River City, Chicago 239 Wilbur Wright Junior College, Chicago 276 American Broadcasting Company Project 286 Unbuilt Projects 291 The Computer in Architecture 293 Overview 298 v PREFACE Bertrand Goldberg is widely known as the architect who builds round buildings, but little is known about his innovative theories of space and his utopian ideas that have generated these sculptural forms. His work speaks with a vocabulary that is still unfamiliar to some and unappreciated by many. Goldberg’s often repeated statement, “for the first time in the history of the world we can build whatever we can think,” seems to have been the beacon guiding his career. While many projects have been fully realized, some others have been only partially implemented, but all have grown out of Goldberg’s unique philosophical, aesthetic, and technological thinking. Goldberg’s cutting-edge solutions emerge from the fusion of the brilliance of his special vision and his willingness to take risks with his customized education that brought together a Beaux-Arts training with a theoretical exposure at The Cambridge School of Landscape Architecture (now Harvard University); a total-design approach at the German Bauhaus, set in the volatile social and political climate pre-World War II in Europe; and structural instruction at Armour Institute (now Illinois Institute of Technology). These and other disparate factors have been synthesized in the production of a life’s work that includes commercial structures, residential structures—including mixed-use towers and communities—factory-made buildings and facilities, educational campuses, health care facilities, and furniture designs. Goldberg’s award-winning Marina City instantly became, and continues to be, an emblem of the dynamism of Chicago. He has been called “the most Chicagoan of the Chicagoans” since Louis Sullivan. Goldberg’s distinguished career of more than fifty years as told in his own words is an important addition to The Art Institute of Chicago’s oral history program of architecture in Chicago. Between February 12 and April 17, 1992, Goldberg and I met in his home in Chicago to record his recollections. Our sessions were taped on twelve ninety-minute cassettes that have been transcribed, edited, and reviewed to maintain the tone, spirit, and flow of the narrative. Goldberg has been widely published in English and foreign language journals throughout his career, among which is a comprehensive book with an extensive bibliography (Bertrand Goldberg: On the City, 1985) published in connection with a vi retrospective exhibition of fifty years of his work at the Paris Art Center. References that I found especially helpful in preparation of this document are attached. This oral history is available for study in the Ryerson and Burnham Libraries at The Art Institute of Chicago. Although Goldberg continues to maintain a demanding work schedule, he graciously made time to share his first-hand memories with me. For an articulate and thoughtful presentation of his interesting ideas and experiences, for his patience and candor in response to questions, I sincerely thank him, as will scholars in years to come. I am grateful to his wife Nancy who cooperatively made her study and desk available for each of our recording sessions. Special thanks go to the Graham Foundation for Advanced Study in the Fine Arts for funding Bertrand Goldberg’s oral history and for their ongoing support for our effort to document Chicago’s recent architectural past. To Gail Schenning of Tape Writer, Inc., for her skillful transcribing, and to Susan Parmentier, whose thoughtful and careful editing helped shape the final form of this document. Betty J. Blum July 1992 The above preface remains unchanged since it was written more than nine years ago but inevitably the intervening decade has brought change. Bertrand Goldberg died on October 8, 1997, and electronic communication has vastly increased in importance as a method by which information is transmitted. In 2000 the Illinois Humanities Council awarded a grant to the Department of Architecture to scan, reformat, and make this entire text available on The Art Institute of Chicago’s website. We are grateful to them for this opportunity to make this document available for research worldwide. Annemarie van Roessel deserves our thanks for her masterful handling of the process. Betty J. Blum November 2001 vii Bertrand Goldberg Blum: Today is February 12, 1992, and I’m with Bertrand Goldberg in his home in Chicago. You were born in 1913 in Chicago and you are unique among Chicago architects. A colleague described you as “a comprehensive, anticipatory, design scientist,” meaning you are concerned about the moral as well as the technological implications of what you build. In reading over all of the material that I gathered, your individualism was really apparent in your training. Your training, or your education, was a very special mix of Harvard, the Bauhaus in Germany, Armour Institute and tutorial. You began your career after a few ingenious prefab projects. Your name became a household word with Marina City, a building that has come to symbolize Chicago to the world. That was followed by the Hilliard Center, which was a singular success among Chicago Housing Authority projects. Your many medical facilities proposed an innovative reorganization for health care, and River City was conceived with the hope of revitalizing an unhealthy section of the city. Throughout your career, you have pushed the existing boundaries of design and engineering as you sought architectural solutions to improve social conditions for people. If we can, I would like you to begin at the beginning and talk about how all of this took shape. Did your father or your mother’s work influence you to become an architect? What was your father’s [Benjamin Goldberg] work? Goldberg: My father was a man whom I came to understand much more after his death than during his life, which I think is an experience that is not unique. We were not close. I was probably a disappointment to him in many ways, but I am grateful to him for respecting the fact that although I was his son, I was a person with a choice. My father grew up in what was then the countryside in the northern suburbs of Chicago—Highland Park and Deerfield—and I can remember drinking fresh cow’s milk from my grandfather’s farm out there. My father loved animals; he loved the country. It was my mother [Sadie Getzhof Goldberg] who brought him into the city, I suspect reluctantly. Blum: Didn’t he have a farm? Goldberg: No, my grandfather had a farm and my grandfather also had a brickyard and my grandfather also was a horse trader. My grandfather also had a general store. My grandfather was part of the development of this part of the Middle West. Blum: What was your grandfather’s name? Goldberg: Isaac Goldberg. My father wanted me to have a successful career as he saw a career in his mind. For him my career was different than what he anticipated. On the other hand, my mother was a city dweller. She was brought up in Chicago. I should have known more about her life, but her life was, like most mothers, always so close to mine that I thought that was the only life she ever had. My mother was very concerned about making sure that my education and that of my sister as well—there were just the two of us—was a full education and that we had all the things that the country would not have given us. So I suppose that this had a great deal of influence also in giving me a sense of freedom in making a choice.