#215 - STANLEY SAITOWITZ, principal and founder of Natoma Architects
SUMMARY
This week Architect Stanley Saitowitz joins David and Marina of FAME Architecture & Design to discuss his design philosophy, office, upbringing in South Africa, and education and how he ended up in San Francisco, why the practice of architecture is much more challenging today, how architecture relates to cities, and more. Enjoy!
ABOUT STANLEY
Stanley Saitowitz was born in Johannesburg, South Africa and received his Bachelor of Architecture at the University of Witwatersrand in 1974 and his Masters in Architecture at the University of California, Berkeley in 1977. He is an Emeritus Professor of Architecture at the University of California, Berkeley. He has taught at numerous schools, including the Elliot Noyes Professor, Harvard University GSD (1991-2), the Bruce Goff Professor, University of Norman, Oklahoma (1993), UCLA, Rice, SCIARC, Cornell, Syracuse, and University of Texas at Austin. He has given more than 200 public lectures in the United States and abroad.
His first house was built in 1975, and together with Stanley Saitowitz/Natoma Architects Inc., has completed numerous buildings and projects. These have been residential, commercial and institutional. He has designed houses, housing, master plans, offices, museums, libraries, wineries, synagogues, churches, commercial and residential interiors, memorials, urban landscapes and promenades. Amongst many awards, the Transvaal House was declared a National Monument by the Monuments Council in South Africa in 1997, the New England Holocaust Memorial received the Henry Bacon Medal in 1998, and in 2006 he was a finalist for the Smithsonian Cooper Hewitt National Design Award given by Laura Bush at the White House. Three books have been published on the work, and articles have appeared in many magazines and newspapers. His paintings, drawings and models have been exhibited in numerous galleries and museums.
HIGHLIGHTS
TIMESTAMPS
(00:00) Stanley’s upbringing in South Africa and how it influenced his work and life, his education, and moving to Berkeley, California for graduate school.
In the first few years of my [undergraduate] architecture school (University of Witwatersrand) we would get a project every Monday and have to hand it in on Friday. So by the time I come out of third year, I probably designed 60 or 70 different buildings. And it was just random, it was a fish canning factory one week, and then a fast station, and then a church, and then a house. It was actually a really interesting way to learn architecture. (11:02)
(23:20) Starting his office and his first projects.
I was quite lucky because I met some South African people who been friends of one of my teachers who had moved to Palo Alto. Soon after I arrived they gave me a job to remodel their house and the payment was a Ford Mustang. (24:00)
(25:25) Why the practice of architecture now is so difficult.
I think it’s really a lot harder now… Honestly, I would hate to have to begin a practice now. […] When I started here it was really difficult, but now I think it’s almost virtually impossible. (25:44)
Why his real passion is cities and how he understands them.
I developed my whole approach to architecture through building in natural landscapes. When I began to think of the geography of the city as absolute in a way as the natural environment. So treating the city like nature and having a real ethic and character. (31:58)
(36.00) Translating traditional styles of architecture to modern aesthetics and the changes in the architecture in San Francisco.
For me the quality of San Francisco is about its continuity and about the similarity… even though it’s built out of small pieces, the pieces add up to a greater whole. […] And what seems to have taken off now in San Francisco is more the idea about pieces… and I think a lot of that started with the hippy movement… (37:15)
(48:00) The idea of ‘authorship’ in creating architecture and working through the Post Modern era of design.
(55:05) The different architectural mindsets of San Francisco and Los Angeles and convincing the general public of his designs.
(01:00:44) The importance of conveying the value of architecture to people.
A lot of the architecture that we are surrounding ourselves with is like Taco Bell; it’s real junk food and junk architecture. Honestly, go somewhere like Barcelona. You can walk around and your jaw drops, on every corner there’s a piece of architecture that’s of value and good. […] I was a teacher for years and years, so I try really hard to make people understand that there is such a thing as knowledge in architecture, there is value. It’s not all about my taste versus yours. It’s not about taste or preference. There’s actually a baseline of reality and knowledge that is inherent in architecture. You can say, ‘I’ll have a macDonald’s and it’ll fit me up.’ Yeah, but at the same time fill up your arteries with cholesterol. We need to help people understand what it (architecture) offers. (59:22)
(01:03:40) His design process and his office.
I was always interested in a pragmatism that could be a road to something poetic. (01:15:13)
(01:20:12) Stanley reveals his favorite architect!
