Great Architects

When I was a teen, I wanted to be an architect. That faded, partly because I didn't know any architects and partly because I felt I didn't have the imagination needed. Since then I have met some architects and they all assured me that too much imagination was a bad thing for most architects.

My idol back then was, of course, Frank Lloyd Wright. I especially admired Fallingwater. I've never seen it, in fact I can't recall but one of his designs that I've actually visited; the Phillips Petroleum tower in Bartlesville, OK, which now houses the Price Tower Art Center.

I once drove up the "driveway" of Taliesin West, but chickened out before I reached the main building; they didn't hold tours in those days.

There are actually people who collect Frank Lloyd houses and the FLW Conservancy currently lists 16 such homes that are for sale. Today, my idols would have been Frank Gehry and Richard Meier. Renzo Piano is no match for either of them, though all three have won the Pritzker Prize. Jørn Utzon, another prize winner, is worth remembering, if only for his Sydney Opera House.

Richard Meier is probably best known for his design of the Getty Center and Frank Gehry for the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain.

But all architects have their critics. The Prince of Wales is one of them.

Who is your favorite architect?