When Oscar Niemeyer (who designed his own museum, see top photo) died at the age of 104 a few years ago he joined a long list of architects who never seem to die. I.M. Pei is still going at it at the age of 98. And let’s not forget 93-year-old Kevin Roche and 90-year-old Robert Venturi. It’s a profession where no one ever seems to retire. I guess if you’re doing something you love, why stop? 98-year-old Philip Johnson and 93-year-old Ralph Rapson were still working right up to the end. It’s interesting to note that most architects don’t achieve greatness in their youth, but really hit their stride in old age. Mies van der Rohe was 62 when he designed the 860-880 Lake Shore Drive Apartments, which became the model for all subsequent steel-and-glass towers, and he went on for another twenty years with his last work being Berlin’s Neue Nationalgalerie art museum. One of the pioneers of modern architecture, Le Corbusier did not live as long as some of the other architects mentioned here, but he was 63 when he built the influential chapel, “Ronchamp”. Louis Kahn was 64 when he designed the Salk Institute’s picturesque campus, probably one of the most photographed buildings in the U.S. And considering this blog is all about museums, Frank Lloyd Wright was in his eighties and Frank Gehry was in his sixties when they produced designs for Guggenheim in New York City and Bilbao, which both changed museum architecture forever. So I guess what I am trying to say is don’t think your life is over once you reach a certain age, you can keep creating and doing things you love. Also, if you’re designing a museum, hire an old guy.
Guggenheim Museum in New York City and Bilbao
