he's one of America's greatest living Architects his buildings distinctive by Design Rita braver takes a closer look at The Artful architecture of Stephen holl plenty of your buildings are sort of Show Stoppers from the outside I hope not too many they have to be better when you go in in a field where the first impression is often the only impression the public ever gets architect Stephen Holl asks us to take the time to experience his works from within the way he experiences them in his mind long before the first brick is ever laid you can't
look at architecture in an image especially on the internet and understand it you need to walk through it you get a sense of the light the texture the Acoustics the smell the perspective of overlapping spaces it's like a piece of music foreign [Music] designs never seems to repeat itself his Works helped Define the cities they stand in from Kansas City Missouri to Beijing China from Helsinki Finland to Washington DC if there is one style that unites them all it's the use of light what Holl calls luminous architecture every corner looks different there's Nooks there's crannies
what's going on that's the interest of architecture it draws you through it's not a kind of grid of you know repetitive boring spaces these curves are all took us on a tour of the reach completed in 2019. it's an unexpected addition to Washington DC's Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts I almost feel like when you walk into the old building there's a sense oh this is going to be very Grand and when you walk into this space you feel this is going to be fun exactly it's a big difference in mood yes and that's intentional
because there's a certain pomposity uh that needs its anecdote kind of the sassy little sister of building that's right a collection of contrasting yet complementary forms the reach is reminiscent of Holl's personal retreat in New York's Hudson Valley two hours north of his Manhattan office walked for 30 40 minutes and not see another house or run into any noise or traffic that's a special moment whole has used his 30-plus acres to build a series of structures including tiny jewel boxes where his imagination can take flight such as this simple Hut where he paints at one
time you actually thought about being a professional painter right and you still paint every day and why is that because I've come at architecture through watercolors and and conceptual strategies and I find that this little 5x7 notebook making a kind of sketch and writing a few words this is a way of getting into a project I've been doing that for my whole life born in Bremerton Washington 75 year old Holl studied in Rome and London he's come a long way since he launched his firm in 1977 when to make ends meet he slept in his
Manhattan office I put a plywood deck there and on the mattress on top of it and I hung my clothes on the on the sprinkler pipe and no one knew where I lived there and then I would shower at the YMCA at six o'clock every night early 90s what do you consider your very first big commission that set you on your way was winning the Kiasma museum in Helsinki there were 416 entries and we won by unanimous vote today whole is the father of two young children and happily married since 2016 you waited kind of
a while before starting a family because I fell in love with an architect I have two divorces before that that both women divorced me because they said it's me or architecture and I said it's architecture I lost out two times but now I hit a jackpot because she's an architect and she loves architecture among the newest Creations to emerge from wholesale books Kinder building at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston and its companion the Glassel School of Art Museum director Gary Tinterow shepherded the nearly half billion dollar project to completion Stephen Holl buildings are not
known to be what you go for if you're looking to be on the shoestring budget they're expensive buildings yes but not extraordinarily expensive there's something very clever and economical about Stephen Holl and Company's vision for architecture it's much more about space than it is about luxurious materials they want to have these large spans these big Open Spaces using humble materials like concrete and sometimes they're at the outer limits of what we can achieve and for architect Stephen hole there's Delight in not knowing the limits of what will come next the joy is immeasurable The Joy
from the creative act that's the most exciting thing that can happen and I don't even know where it all comes from it just happens very quickly [Music]
