INTERVIEW
EOK: Are you a member of the AIA?

ABP: Yes, for about 60 years.

EOK: At the height of modernism in the middle of the 20th century, modernists were competing with Mediterranean revival and neoclassical ideals. Today modernists are still dealing with that competition. Many of these competing ideas have become and are regularly becoming design standards for large areas of Florida cities. Can you believe that we’re still struggling against the same issues that you and your colleagues were struggling with 60 years ago? How do you feel about government going beyond building codes and now defining the style of architecture?

ABP: I think the government defining style is absolutely terrible. It’s commercial. It’s the buck that’s become part of everything. There’s no question about that. Money has always controlled architecture, but today it’s the overpowering thing. I remember a thing I read the other day about children and their ideals for when they grow up, who they want to be. Do you know what most of them wanted to be? Most wanted to be in the business of making money. Make a lot of money; that’s what they wanted to do. No real goals. It’s like when you think about the environment. To hell with the environment, as long as you can make a lot of money, forget the environment. Then when you get the money you can build a great big house that shows everyone how much money you’ve made.

You know they’re doing a symposium on me here at the University of Florida for a week.

My assistant Derek Winning is putting it together. I call it M&M like the candies. It stands for… Memoirs of a Master, that’s it. I guess I’m supposed to be the master. That’s pretty heavy. Like I’m up there with Mies van der Rohe and stuff, except his clients sued him. He had a hell of a time.

EOK: How do we educate the public about the values and benefits of modernism?

ABP: Oh. Well that should be easy. Examples of architecture… of stuff that will survive, you see. The good stuff will survive and the public has to look at those.

EOK: Do you feel the AIA, our largest collection of architects, is effectively promoting the advancement of architecture?

ABP: My answer to that is, yes. They’re trying very hard and they’re doing a lot of publicity with a lot of good examples.

EOK: Not unlike Carlo Scarpa, Paul Rudolph, Nils M. Schweizer, Frank Lloyd Wright and others, on most of your projects you’ve worked on site with the contractor. This allowed you to refine details and design with your hands, creating forms, mixing concrete, etc. In today’s workplace, the architect has been all but removed from the jobsite, their experience minimized to weekly or even monthly administration visits. Where do you see the practice headed?