22 REFLEXION | 2022-23 | AIA Utah To watch the full interview, please scan this QR code: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HK7FDZhECO0 I look back on that, how little we knew, and how unqualified we were to even begin to think about a project of this nature. I knew a young man, Tim Hoagland, who was an incredible craftsman contractor. Tim was so bright, and I was so dumb. He said, “Max, I think there’s such a thing as an architectural conservator. I have a good friend who is a conservator at the Museum of Natural History. Let’s give her a call and see what’s the next step.” How do you know what to do, with all of the beveled leaded glass, all the wood, not to mention the Tiffany offshoot dome melted and in fragments on the floor we were walking on? So, we called Ann and she gave us the name of the historical entity that oversaw most of the historical monuments in the Northeast. The head guy spent 45 minutes on the phone with Tim and me. He said, “If you’re willing, I will send our key conservator out.” He sent a gentleman named Tom Gentle, who was there within two days. In the meantime, we had gone through the building using Tom’s instructions. We isolated all of the hardware putting a gel on them; we sprayed gels on all the glass to stop the acidic soot from etching it. We were doing all the right things. We loaded all the pieces of glass from the dome into boxes. The dome was put back together by Willie Littig, a fabulous glass artist in Salt Lake, working under Tom’s direction. I could go on and on and on: the stories about the woods we found in Indiana at Stem Woods, a four-generation company; how we found flitches of flame mahogany veneers that were forged the same year the mansion was built. We succeeded. Lots of accolades. There was a wonderful party reintroducing Leucadia National to the mansion. We even got to take a bow; that was rewarding in ways other than dollars, but we were well paid, too. So maybe ten years later, the same damn thing happened to the Governor’s Mansion. Same thing right up through the middle. Mike Levitt was governor. And fortunately, Ian Cumming (Leucadia) went to bat for us with the state building board because we had no experience with them. The Salt Lake Tribune announced that “a nationally renowned architectural firm” has been put in place to restore it. I loved that. Nobody knew us outside Utah, although we did do some houses in Maine, and we did a house in the Puget Sound. But how do you like that? Nationally renowned! That led to the commission to do the Capitol with VCBO. Then Artspace started buying these historic warehouses; the historical component married to creating new spaces called adaptive reuse. Then we started doing adaptive reuse for private developers, and they were a blast. The wonderful team of Tim Lewis and Mike Martin — just creative guys — developers who were out there trying to figure out how to do something that could be more interesting to the people who were going to live there. We did a number of projects with them: the Dakota Lofts, and the J.G. Macdonald Chocolate Factory, now known as Broadway Lofts. What are the differences you see in practicing architecture in the late sixties, seventies and now? I’m not sure there’s a lot of difference. At least there wasn’t for us. But maybe, maybe we didn’t change when we should have. A friend and I had numerous conversations, and he brought me up to speed on how whole systems are in packages in the computer, and how architecture in his mind had become a matter of combining these things into a building. I guess the truth is, I missed that whole part. I was starting to see it come in, when I left the firm in 2008. Did you have any disappointments? Oh, there were some terribly disappointing buildings, and there are a few of them out there. I’m not going to identify them for the record because they are embarrassing. The unfortunate part of architecture is once you start riding that pony in one side of the stream, you got to ride it on through. We didn’t have anything ever fall and kill anybody. I’ll put that down to a bit of luck because we were out there stretching on occasion. One of the really positive things was dealing with the people I worked with. I think we were almost a family in a way. Sometimes there were people there who didn’t fit, so I can’t say everything was perfectly wonderful, but on balance, there are no regrets. Any advice you’d give to younger people starting out? Architecture is not something to love. It’s just a misuse of the word. But you can be, and should be, completely committed to it — but keep a balance. I lost sight of that balance a number of times. God love my wife; she went through those times with me, and we survived it. But it can really take a hold of you. I would advise anybody going into it today to keep a balanced life and develop some business acumen. I developed mine by making mistakes. There are ways to stretch your imagination and your muscles without taking inordinate risks. Any final thoughts for me? The profession can be a wonderful way to benefit humanity. And that’s what was so wonderful about Artspace. We always felt like we were really impacting the world in a positive way. Architecture is not something to love. It’s just a misuse of the word. But you can be, and should be, completely committed to it — but keep a balance.
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