THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, September 22, 1996 TAG: 9609210036
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ALEX MARSHALL, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 83 lines
`DESERT RAT.'' ``Outlaw.'' ``A noble savage'' who spins buildings out of rocks, stone and sand, an American alternative to the European-gazing builders who have dominated the highest realms of architecture.
These are some descriptions of Antoine Predock, a relatively new star who is now mentioned in the same breath as Michael Graves, Robert Stern, I.M. Pei and other reigning deities of the profession.
This man who has lived and worked for 40 years in the New Mexico desert will speak at the annual shindig of the Hampton Roads chapter of the American Institute of Architects.
The brainchild of current AIA president Patrick Masterson, the annual lecture series has brought the top names in architecture to the area for four years. Last year's speaker was Graves, known outside the architecture world as much for his songbird-topped tea kettles as for his buildings. Other speakers were Stern and Hugh Jacobsen.
In a telephone interview, Predock said he intended to show ``an architectural journey.''
``Rather than simply seeing show projects, I'll try to get an idea of process across,'' Predock said. He will show some of his recent projects, including ``a museum in Tampa, . . . a couple of houses.''
He says that when designing a building, he likes to understand both the site and the culture deeply, moving beyond just a sense of local architectural style.
``I like to see what famous authors have to say about an area,'' he said. The American Indian culture of New Mexico also inspired him, he said, because of its sensitivity to land and nature.
Predock has lived in New Mexico since he was 18, and the desert, say the critics, informs his work and his perspective on art and beauty. His buildings emphasize light, space and landscape. He received his architectural degree from Columbia University in 1962, and has had a solo practice in Albuquerque since 1967.
Although he builds internationally, much of his work dots the American West and comes out of that landscape and tradition. He likes his buildings to blend in with and come out of their surroundings, and in one article called his work ``landscape in drag.''
His work includes the Nelson Fine Arts Center in Tempe, Ariz.; the Fine Arts Complex at Arizona State University; the American Heritage Center/Art Museum in Wyoming, and the Las Vegas Central Library and Discovery Museum.
Predock's style appears to be a mix of Patagonia-style worship of nature, with some Ken Kesey love of American pop culture thrown into the mix. His buildings inspire much praise, but are reportedly difficult to sum up or categorize.
He has done several hotels for Disney, a highly sought architectural client these days. . His Santa Fe hotel at Euro Disney outside Paris is fashioned to resemble a mountain studded with artifacts of the West.
Predock was trained as a painter and studied dance before he became an architect. According to a 1992 Vanity Fair article, Predock once created the site plan for a building by running its ridgetop location, noting the best viewpoints, and then drawing a line through his footprints and transferring it to a page.
The same article referred to him as ``deeply American, reaching back to Whitman's metaphysical raptures on the land, to Frank Lloyd Wright's active responsiveness to place,'' as opposed to his Bauhaus and modernist-inspired contemporaries.
Lovers of architecture in Hampton Roads will get a chance to hear Predock explain why he builds what he builds. He usually lectures with a dual slide show, and then answers questions. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
Robert Reck photo
Antoine Predock will speak Tuesday in Virginia Beach. Ticket
information, Page E10.
Graphic
JUST THE FACTS
What: Talk by Antoine Predock, noted international architect.
Occasion will include light appetizers before speech, and champagne
and dessert afterward.
Where: Virginia Beach Center for the Arts, 2200 Parks Avenue.
When: 6.30 p.m. Tuesday.
How much: $30. Tickets will not be sold at the door. For
reservations, call 461-2899. by CNB