He worked here. And he comes back about once a year. He and I had been in conversation for several months via e-mail. After the AIA convention, he trekked up to Gotham for pleasure, ideas, and conversation. As we broke bread together at Le Madri, a Chelsea fixture of a restaurant, the world faded away and we connected as fellow professionals.
Australian architects seem to face many of the same issues their American peers do.
Architects there, though removed from the rest of the world, build with an entrepreneurial spirit, look to America more than England as a spiritual homeland, and fight for work. Like American architects, they are looking for inspiration for the projects that they make. Government seems to be scrutinizing their work, much as the Justice Department looked over the shoulder of the AIA some years ago. A mini-summit ensued, when Columbia Dean Bernard Tschumi came in an clapped me on the shoulder. He was being visited by his university history professor from Zurich.