Tell us about your time teaching overseas. I got a call one day from a cousin in Jordan. He asked me to come and teach at an American University in Jordan. I thought my wife would just say, “That’s ridiculous.” ISIS was fighting over there. But she said, “I think this would be interesting.” I retired from Architectural Nexus. We packed our bags, rented our house, went to Jordan and taught at a university there. Two of the classes I taught I had no preparation for except, “Go into this room and teach the class.” I said, “What class?” I asked the students, and they said, “This is graphic design.” I’m not trained in graphic design. I said, “Okay, what do you want to learn?” They said, “We want to know concept development.” I thought, “Okay, I can do that,” so I got out my whiteboard markers, and we started discussing what a problem was and how to solve it. Our experience in learning how to solve problems helped me teach those students who were Muslim, Christian and Arab. They were from all over: Armenians, Egyptians and Turks. Another course was called Cultural Development. One young Palestinian woman said, “I want to take one street in Amman, Jordan, and change it from incandescent lighting to LED lighting on the streets.” I said, “Do it.” She went off and, in six weeks, she came back with all of the metrics and financial studies, the operational cost and how much lumens. It was great. Three months after I returned, there was an article in the Amman, Jordan Times, that the municipality of Amman were changing all of their lighting from incandescent to LED. She changed the world. What happened when you came back? I came back and talked to Nexus and said I’d like to join them again. They said, “You have too many gray hairs. We want the young people to do the marketing.” I called construction companies, and Wadman was a great fit. My job then was to go to my former competitors and take them to lunch. It turned out that it was not marketing; it was making friends. That’s really what it’s about — loving people and having relationships that you can build. I counseled some of them about mergers or getting better profitability because I had already gone through that. Disappointments? Every time I lost a job, it broke my heart. I still walk by those buildings and say, “Dang.” But once I learned that we weren’t selected, I let go of it and moved on to the next project. It always hurts to lose a project, but you move on. We did fine. I suppose if I was highly egotistical, I would keep trying to think that I was the best designer, but I found people who were much better. So, I moved over and found different things to do. I could let that bother me, but it doesn’t because I can enjoy the work that they did. Explain the evolution of architecture during your career. When I started, it was drafting pencil on paper, and then to mylar, and then pin bar and then computer. Now they’re into things that are way beyond me. You used to wait till the end of a job and then get a rendering by some artist out in California. Now they want a rendering every week or every day. The ability for the designer, using computers, to see things in 3D and rotate and expand and pull things apart blows my mind. I believe that great architecture comes out of it. Some doesn’t. Just because you have a fancy tool doesn’t mean you’re going to have a great sculpture. Materials have changed. We used wood and concrete and brick and steel. Now it’s all these polymers and exotic materials that create finishes way beyond what we thought of. The structural systems and new technology … think about what Santiago Calatrava does! Zaha Hadid created organic architecture. Gehry’s Museum in Bilbao — when I walked into that building, I started crying because it was a spiritual experience that was created out of engineering. You can use the technology to create something that touches the soul. Any advice you’d give architects who are beginning their careers? Architecture, you have to love it. Don’t go into it for the money. You can make some money, but it’s not nearly as much as medical or lawyers. You have to love it, and you have to be willing to sacrifice for it. When I was doing Logan Hospital, I was averaging 16 hours a day, and I got sick, but it turned out to be a good thing. They need to know that. They also need to know that they are good at some things but not good at everything. I thought I was a great designer, and it turned out that I was a much better marketer and other people were better designers. Nobody could tell me that; I had to find it out. I decided when I was four years old. It turned out to be a good thing for me. I would not want to spend my life selling computers or being a lawyer. I don’t think I could do that. I love interacting with people. I love solving problems. And I think that’s what it’s all about. 17
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