ABP: As you wind up you ask, Where do you see the practice headed? My answer to that is, I don’t know where it’s heading. I only know that my own practice, my own small output, and by the way it is a very small output it the overall scheme of things. My own practice, I know where it’s heading because I’m in control of it. And I can tell you where it’s going or where it’s not. It’s a continuation.

EOK: Can you explain more about the benefit of the architect being on site, being there, your three-in-one process?

ABP: Sure, I’m teaching a class in that. I tell them that this is one way to make it useful and beautiful and have a hands-on experience and, in the process, they can make a little money. Because, by and large, unless you’re one of these computer guys making big silliness, architects really don’t make very much money. They go to school for a long time and they come out and work hard and don’t make very much money. But the three-in-one process allows them to continue learning; we all continue learning. You have a little money, so you find a piece of land, or you go to a financial institution or your folks if they can finance you. And you get yourself a loan. You learn about the financial aspect, getting a loan. From there you assess your site and have the fun of being an architect and get permits and all that. And now you’re building your own house as the builder. You’re bringing in plumbers and electricians and landscapers and interior furnishings. And you have to keep it in budget. And that’s where it gets interesting, because you are the owner. Everything you do affects your own pocket book. So you’re very aware of what things cost. Now it’s sitting there as a house and you’re living in it. You own the building. And whatever you’ve done right, you can point to it and say, “This I did right and this I did wrong.” It’s all a learning experience and there’s no way you can lose as an architect in that process. You’re learning. That’s why I think it’s the best thing. Design it, build it, make it useful and make it beautiful.

EOK: How much of the actual construction did you do yourself as opposed to managing people?

ABP: How much have I done? A lot more then than now. [Laughs]

EOK: With most of your residences, you designed furniture that correlated with the design. Mies, Breuer, Le Corbusier, Wright and, of course, Eames to name a few also designed furniture. What was your process and methodology towards your furniture design? Did you ever try to market any of the pieces separate from the structure they were designed for?

ABP: Yes. Right now my wife and the director of the school of architecture [University of Florida] are marketing some of the furniture that I’ve done. A lot of the furniture that I’ve designed, at least some of it, was shown down at the Bass Museum in Miami and it’s still being shown there. It’ll be moved up to the Harn Museum with the M&M display.


NOTE: The exhibition “Promises of Paradise : Staging Mid-Century Miami” ran at the Bass Museum in Miami from December 5, 2007 to April 13, 2008. The exhibition will be at the Harn Museum of Art in Gainesville Florida from October 11, 2008 – January 25, 2009. For more information visit www.harn.ufl.edu/index.php An exhibit entitled “Of a Master’s Hand” will run from September 22 to October 3, 2008 at the University of Florida J.W. Reitz Union Gallery. For more information visit www.alfredbparker.com.

EOK: Define architecture as you would have at the start of your career. How would you define it now?

ABP: The last thing. I’ll define it exactly the same way very simply. Make it useful… make it beautiful. That’s all I’ve ever tried to do and that’s what I’m still trying to do.

But I’ve done a lot of buildings. I’ve done Essex Village and Hialeah — I did over 4,000 homes right there. Of course I didn’t build all those by hand. They were what we used to call merchant built. But I designed some for some fairly big people, too. They gave me a lot of money. Many of them are dead now of course. Robert Wood Johnson, you know the Band-Aid guy. I did his home in Princeton, New Jersey. He had me come up there and I remember walking around and here comes Albert Einstein. Didn’t get to do his house though.

EOK: How did you meet Mr. Johnson?

ABP: He came to the Surf Club in Miami. The owner of the club called me and said, “I want you to come down and meet Bob Johnson. He just joined our club and was asking me about the best architect in the area. So I recommended you.” So Bob Johnson invited me to the club as his guest for dinner. The club was very fancy. The guy in charge was the epitome of social arbitration in Miami. He put on a ball once a month and he would spend $250,000 on one ball, and this was back when money meant something. So anyway I went to the Surf Club and I met Bob Johnson and his wife and we got along so well. So he said, “Next time come over to our house,” a house he was renting. When I went over as soon as I came in he said, “I want you to design a new home for me. I’ve got a site here in Miami.” That never did work out. But I did do the house for him in Princeton, New Jersey. Bob live in it till he died.

EOK: What about the other Johnsons?

ABP: The son who’s name was Samuel C. Johnson, he came to Miami and he hired me to do his home in Racine, Wisconsin. That’s an irony isn’t it? Why didn’t he hire Wright? [Laughs.] Samuel died last year or before; his wife is still living in the home. It’s a good one. They wanted it right on the lake. He wanted to come in by helicopter. So I fixed it that he could come in over the lake and land on the roof. She wanted an observatory. So I put an observatory in there too. There again, I was just trying to make it useful and make it beautiful. n