If You’ve Got the Money (I’ve Got the Time)
Working for developers you realize it’s all about the “money shot.” The one photograph that will pull in the most buyers. Whether it’s reeling in customers or seducing the architecture press, I would like to think fantastic photographs are just the amuse-bouche. I would like to think that architecture is best experienced in the flesh rather than in the frame. But it takes time. Time to approach slowly, thoughtfully, calmly. Would Le Corbusier been so awestruck by the Parthenon had he not been quarantined and forbidden from running up the acropolis upon his arrival in Athens. From setting an edifice on a hill to hiding the entrance, the best architects have manipulated their sites to slow down the experience of their work. Fay Jones meanders a path through a scrim of pines. In doing so he extends the experience of Thorncrown Chapel. Wright’s Falling Water is all about delay. It’s world renown image is discovered not guaranteed. And here, as I take the time to experience Gordon Bunshaft’s LBJ Library, my appreciation is heightened by the care taken in setting up the approach. If you got the money (shot), I’ve got the time to time to experience your architecture.