Oscar Niemeyer - Happy Birthday

Oscar Niemeyer the modernist architect who allowed the sensuality of Brazil’s environment to create the “Brazilian Free-Form Modernism," turns 101 today (12.15.08) I have been bewitched by Mr. Niemeyer’s forms since I stumbled upon a book of his early work during my first year of architecture school. I am most intrigued with his early work in the 1940’s and 50’s. The work was lucid, dramatic and well detailed.

My Top Ten Favorites
10. The National Congress Complex, Brasilia (1958-60)
09. University of Constantine, Algeria (1969-77)
08. Ministry of Justice, Brasilia (1962-70)
07. Alvorada Palace, Brasilia (1956-58)
06. The interior of the Senate, Brasilia (1958-60)
05. The Copan Building, San Paulo (195157)
04. The bris soleil on the Brazilian Pavilion for New York World’s Fail (1939)
03. The Stair in the Palacio de Itamaraty, Brasilia (1962)
02. Ministry of Education and Health Building, Rio de Janeiro (1936-43)
01. Hospital Sul-America, Rio de Janeiro (1952)

“It is not the right angle that attracts me, not the straight line – hard and inflexible – created by man. What attracts me is the free and sensual curve, the curve that I fined in the mountains of my country, in the sinuous course of its rivers in the body of the beloved woman.” - Oscar Niemeyer

Unexpected Encounters

Per the last Census Bureau numbers, New York City has approximately 8.2 Million residents. For discussion’s sake an average 30 year old has approximately 50 friends and another 150 colleagues and close acquaintances. The odds do not favor the accidental encounter with someone you know, yet they happen, and they seem to happen frequently.

The possibilities are 41,000 to 1.
There is actually a better chance of winning an Academy Award: 11,500 to 1.

I believe what makes these encounters possible is that New York is made up of nodes linked together by a matrix of crossroads. Inevitably, two bodies come together as they pass from point A to point B.

There have been countless meetings by chance - when I have been sitting in a café, reading a book (or studying for the A.R.E.) and a tap on the window lifts my eyes to a familiar face waving and spelling hello. It was just this past weekend that I was walking down the street doing errands when I ran across a colleague – for a moment your internal voice says, “I know that person, where do I know that person from?” and then out of your mouth, “Hey Robert, what are you doing on the West Side?” He had come to the city from New Jersey with his family to walk through the American Museum of Natural History. Even rarer, yet it happens, are the occasional encounters from someone passing through town. A few years back, on Broadway near Lincoln Center, I ran into a high school friend, someone whom I had not seen for at least 8 years. She did not know I was living in New York and of course I did not know she was traveling through. We chatted for the rest of the day right there in the street.

When I bring this concept up with friends, each and every city dweller has a story of someone they have bumped into from the present or the past.

For me, chance encounters completely make my day, and sometimes my week. They reinforce the notion that the City is not the mega-metropolis it is labeled, but a quilt of small neighborhoods woven together. Each encounter seems almost serendipitous, created to keep oneself in touch with friends and to re-enforce humanity.

It was midweek; the sun was bright and the cloud storms from the morning had pasted. Conference calls in the A.M. with contractors and a meeting with a client had put me in a funk - I had decided to take a long lunch and started walking east on 10th. Within a few blocks of my journey a friend waved, a true sight for sore eyes, an unexpected encounter that instantly put a smile on my face. Our short conversation brightened my whole day.

Political Ambitions Of New York Have All But Dwindled Away In 2008

In the summer of 2007 the Empire State was poised to be a national political powerhouse. A title the state had not seen for seven decades back when Franklin D. Roosevelt swept into the presidential office in 1933.

It seemed to be New York’s year; the state produced three presidential candidates, two of whom were frontrunners. New York City’s mayor was continuously in the national spotlight with rumors of running an independent bid and potentially becoming the first non-party president. In addition, a promising young political star was elected to governor and poised for promotion to D.C. as the nation’s attorney general, presidential advisor or even a vice president.

New York had an impressive run of Presidents with a total of six - starting with Martin Van Buren (1837-1841), Millard Fillmore (1850-1853), Chester A. Arthur (1881-1885), Grover Cleveland (1885-1889 and 1893-1897), Theodore Roosevelt (1901-1909), and Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933-1945). The state has also seen promising presidential bids from Governor Alfred E. Smith, Jr., Vice President Nelson Rockefeller, and Senator Robert F. Kennedy.

2007 began with the promise of a restoration of domination on the national political scene and a probable return to the Whitehouse. Fourteen months later the political ambitions of New York have all but dwindled away. The first to fall was presidential candidate and previous Governor George Pataki. In late 2006 Pataki expressed publicly his intentions to seek higher office but after it was determined that he could not beat former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, among other things, Pataki ended his presidential ambitions before they even stated. Giuliani announced his plans for presidency in 2007 and lead national polls as the Republican frontrunner during most of that year. National political pundits saw a possible New York presidential showdown between Giuliani and New York Senator Hillary Clinton, a presidential candidate and frontrunner for the Democratic ticket. Giuliani’s campaign started to falter after scrutiny of his positions on national issues, political associations and contacts, and personal matters. After a poor showing in the first caucus and primary elections, Giuliani chose to focus on key delegate states, which proved disastrous and dropped out of the race in late January 2008. High speculation, national polling, and ambiguity from advisors fueled suspicion that Mayor Michael Bloomberg would make a possible bid for president. It is a hypothesis that Bloomberg needed polarized candidates in order for him, a third party candidate, to get the independent and moderate votes to win. When John McCain, a moderate Republican, became the established Republican candidate Bloomberg’s window of opportunity was closed. The last man (woman) standing is Hillary Clinton. Although still in the running, she has not produced the strong showing that political pundits expected just a few months ago. Win or lose, a long drawn out primary will leave Clinton or her rival Barack Obama embattled, beleaguered and behind on the campaign fundraising for the general election.

The saddest and most depressing of this group is the fall from grace of Elliot Spitzer. A promising political future shaped by high moral standards which would have eventually led to a bid for the Whitehouse, crumbled in the speed of light.

Who would have predicted in 2007, with such high expectations, the devastating political punches of 2008? Looking back, it was exhilarating although the highs and lows has left this political junkie exhausted and bewildered. Perhaps we will all have to wait until the next political cycle to see if New York makes another potentially great showing.