..
design
/, .,, ,
. ., -.,, l
,-·
,.,~
'('~
,.
/ '
Ricardo Legorreta
The Color of Conscience as k myself," Mex ican arc h itect Mexico does not require access Rica rd o Lego rre ta says, "'What to pu blic places for the handihas architecture done to build ings and capped .) "I d idn' t sleep th at cities?' and l fee l very uneasy . I ask night," he recal Is, "wondering myself, ·Are we really working for soci- whether the man in the wheelety?'" He continues, " 1 feel very uneasy. chair should be helped at a bulll ' ve always believed that architecture figh t ri ng." He reso l ved that buildings shouldn't shut out the should serve society." If conte mporary architecture has a con- handicapped, e ven if it means 13 science, Legorreta just may personify it. compromising esthetics. "Good g Wi th commissions thro ugho ut the world, architecture isn't the one that ~ and his fame soaring, he still can 't he lp comes out beautifu lly in JJic- ~<( posing these questions. In the monogra ph tures . h' s the one that makes ~ § Ricardo Legorrela, edited by John V. people happy." Le gorreta has a radiant smile ~ Mutlow (Rizzoli, 1997), he c oncludes. " If a rchitectu re doesn 't contribute to and talks a great deal about haphuman peace and happiness, it deserves piness. "You cannot separate architecture from happiness," he ~ to d isappear.'' Over break fas t a t a San Francisc o mai ntains. Indee d, his work- ~ hotel. the lanky, 66-year-old architect with ils sloping planes, strong At the Solana office complex in Dallas, Legorreta touches repeated ly on social concerns. shapes, bright colors, and, often, refers to Mexico's haciendas. llis is a conscience that wo rks overtime. water- reflects this. It also ereNicaragua, which boldly reflects both lsBefore the meal is clone, he repeated ly ates mystery: architecture c ritic Joseph expresses worry about the world's poor: Giovanni ni recently described Legon-eta l111nic and Christian influences- and "l'm guilty," he laments, "of not getting as "a Hitchcock among architects who seems as timeless as Mexico's ancient involved in low-cost housing, and T ex- conjures suspense th.rough the common pyramids. " I a lways wonder ho w my buildings are going to look 50 years from te nd that to al l the architects i n the Mexican wall." Legorreta is known for his walls. They now. How can I design livable rui ns?" world." And he frets about a stranger he Legon-eta grew up in Mexico City in a saw not long ago being lifted in a wheel- enclose and ,1nify, and they contri bute to fam ily that wasn't particularly interested his buildings' spiritual presence. Witness chair down the steps of a Mexico City in architecture. "My father was a banke r. the cathedral he designed in Managua, sports are na. (U nlike the United S tates, The re was no arc hitectural o r artist ic background in my family," he says, but then explains that " we traveled all around the country, and that caused me to fall in love with it. Mexico is magnificent.'" He came to bis interest in art and, ultimately, architecture "through beauty, which. in the encl, is art," he says. He received his bachelor's degree from the Universidad Nacional .Aut6 noma de Mexico in J 952, and worked with Jose Villagran Garcfa, a Mexican modernist who favored the International Style. until 1960. But Legorreta 's love for his country's haciendas and other traditional buildings seemed at odds with Villagran's approach. He had more in common with his friend and mentor minimalist and colorist Luis Barragan. In 1963 Legorreta founded Legorreta Arquitectos with partner Noe Castro in Mexico City. By the mid-1970s, they had established LA Designs, a firm specializing in furn iture and accessories, and in 1985 they opened Legorreta Arquitectos USA in Los Angeles. As Mexican architect Ricardo Legorreta sees it, "if architecture doesn't contribute to human Lcgorreta's son Victor joined Legorpeace and happiness, it deserves to disappear." rcta Arqui tectos in Mexico City in 1991,
I
1 2
Ap ril 1998
ARTncws
137
design bringing with him a slew of other young talented graduates of the Universidad Iberoamericana. "The average age in o ur office, with me not included," the father jokes, •' is probably 28.'' He continues, "To be able 10 work with your son is a b lessing. We' ve arrived at a kind of rule. We don't go ahead with a single detail if we don't all agree." Legorreta has six c hildren. including a daughter, Lourdes Legorreta, an archi tectural photographer who frequently s hoots her father's work. Wherever he builds, Legoretta brings his own version of Mex ico with him . Since the time he worked with Vi llagran. he has adopted a style that seems close to his native country, and to his heart. " In ve rnacular. the re is no reason, just pure emotion:· he . ays. The Hispanic and preColumbian traditions that inform Mexican buildi ng a rc decis ive ly present in his work today: the indoor-outdoor spaces, the use of wate r, the tight integration of structure and landscape. Most of <111, however, everyone talks about color when referring to Legorreta. There's the brick-colored facade of La Colo rada House ( I 996) near M ex ico City: the bright purple and other deeptoned office buildings at the Solana m ixed-use development and office park ( I99 l ) in Dallas; and the "cnchilacla red," as Legorreta calls it, of the San Antonio Main Library ( 1995), to name a few. The architect is the first to say rhat his use of color isn't particularly o rig inal. He notes thm his is a ·•country"of builders." and
many use pigmented plaster as a matter of course. " In Mexico we are irresponsible in our use of color," he says. ''The way we see color is very natural. We just put it in; we don' t think about it.'· Still, there's an audacity in the way he exports
dren's Discovery Museum-he astonished those present by answering "l can't explain it'' when asked for the rat ionale be hind us ing s uch a shocking s hade. " Why I select yellow or blue or red is purely an e motional decision," he says. Even when zoning considerations prohibit using color, he finds ways to sneak it in: for the new GBS Residential Learn ing Center at Sta nford Un iversity. Legorreta conformed to campus regulations by designing a building that's neu1ra l on the outside, but with a bri 11 iant blue inner COL1rtyard. Among his c urrent projects is the Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose. Its s imple geometries-including a huge d omed cylinde r contained in a rectilinear building- and predictable brightness ( the d ome wil l be s ky blue, the building mango. and the re'll be a bright pink pillar out front) nicely sum up Legorreta's style. "I think it's good for an architect to be designing a great variety of buildings," he says. ·'It's The "enchilada red" of Legorreta's San Antonio ve ry helpful to be designing a M ain Library puts a happy face on the city. fac tory at the same rime as an office building.'' Accordingly, his this tradition to places where it is by no Bradley International Student Center is me,ms expec1ed. now rising on the campus of the UniverLegorreta doesn't inte llectua lize the sity of California at Los Angele~, as are shades he chooses or. indeed, any other the Chiron Life & Science Laboratories aspect of his design. Once, at a planning in suburban San Franc isco, Te levisa ofhearing in San Jose, California- he ld to fices in Santa Fe, and other projects. Still approve plans for his bright violet Chi!- in the design s tage are private houses in Reno, Nevada; Zushi, Japan: ancl Sao Pau lo, Brazil; as well as the Hispanic C ultural Arts Center in Dallas. Legorreta's professio nal acti vi ties e xte nd beyond arc hitectu re. He is increasingly taking on interiors, for example, designing furniture and accessorie s so that the insides and outsides of his buildings become organic wholes. o maile r where he rakes it, his architecture is human scale , never grandiose. His interest in art- he favors such La tin Ame rican a rti sts as Pedro Come!, Chucho Reyes, and Rufino Tamayer-resonates in exhibition spaces he has designed, suc h as San Jose's Tech Museum and the s prawling Vis L1.1) Aris Center at the College of Santa Fe. In a few years, his tomato-red Legorreta can't explain why the Children's Discovery Museum in San Jose is bright violet Mex ican Muse um should rise in 138 A RTncw,
April 1998
design San Francisco's South of Ma rket dis trict. the city's new cultural mecca (which include~ the San Francisco Museum of Modem Art and the Ye rba Buena Center for the Arts) . Othe r museum projects
Legorreta says cheerfull y. " It 's really noisy, it's really a nightmare. That confim1s that we did it for the kids.'' Of living American architects, he admi res Frank Geh ry. " He's uniqu e,"
Illuminating the urban landscape with its bright colors and bold geometry, the Tech M useum of Innovation in San Jose embodies Legorreta's style.
frorn his firm include another children's museum, in Mexico City. He describes it-the first ever 10 have been built specifically for kids, he says- as "a game of volume," with its green-roofed blue facade and blue sphere and yellow triangle out front. '·Parents complain,"
Legorreta says. ''You cannot g roup Frank with anyone else. Like Gaudf, he's extremely inspired." Even so, he decries the star system that seems to rule in architecture today, with its " prima donna architects" and its preoccupation with the bonom line. " If a building is done by so-
and-so architec t, it 's better business. It may not be a bener building, but it's better business. I think we've gotten to the point where architecture as fashion is so boring, as is the fascination with star architects. The on·ly thing that's missing is for us to take dancing lessons and go on a stage." With LegoITeta, superstardom- and its accompanying ego-seem very far away. He has an infectious. self-deprecating sense of humor, and he makes free use of it when discussing his work. ·'There's nothing more frightening than an architect with fo ur slide carousels," he joked as he prepared to show his work to a lecture audience at Stanford University last spring. He calls a sense of humor "fundamental in life ," add ing : "You do your best. If you're able to laugh about yourself. you can say. 'This is not a masterpiece.' If you say, 'This time I'm going 10 do a masterp iece,' you 're dead already." Continuing in this vein he concludes, "I can't understand how an architect can think he's a genius. Every day I see my mistakes." P ENELOPE ROWLANDS
Penelope Rowlands is an ARTnews San Francisco correspondent.
71 3 East Palmetto Pork Rood Boca Raton, Fl 33432 56 l -367-0390
"Reclining Figure" Stainless Steel
H-43" W-57" D-23.5" 140 ARTnews Apri l 1998