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comment Power Player: The Many Lives of Bill Lacy
AR: Is that how your consulting career began?
BL: No, it started when I was at Cooper. I teamed with Ada Louise Huxtable and served on a jury for the San Francisco library. That produced a little teeny tiny item in the Wall Street Journal headlined, “Architects Discover Consulting.” We became a team, going on juries together. She had left The New York Times, and her husband had just died.
Consulting was a natural evolution for me. When I was a young dean at the University of Tennessee, I became part of a review board that included the state architect, the campus architect, and myself. When I went to the Endowment, I was looking at and selecting projects to fund. Beginning in the early ’80s, I was also one of a three-person State Department jury that selected architects for embassies all over the world. By the time I was in New York, people were coming to me for advice on competitions or their search for an architect. I met with Bill Paley [president of CBS] and helped him select an architect for the Museum of Television and Radio [the Philip Johnson–designed project that Paley helped fund.] Then Jacob [Lord Rothschild] asked me to run the competition for the Israeli Supreme Court. So, I kind of eased into it.
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AR: I see. It sort of grew.
BL: Yeah. We didn’t sit down one day and say, architecture needs a consulting process, but it became like an executive search company that makes sure a client gets an architect that’s right for the job and has the credentials checked out.
And it grew as I ran the Pritzker jury. If you review as many applications and see as many buildings and architects as I did, you accumulate a lot of knowledge. You learn to sense if a particular architect would be a good fit for any number of reasons.
AR: What project stands out from your consulting work?
BL: The Getty. I felt good that they wanted me to do the Villa as well as Meier’s museum. When I was president of the American Academy in Rome, I got a call from the Getty’s Nancy Englander, whom I’d known at the Endowment. She asked for advice on selecting a site. So I called Paul Friedberg [the landscape architect], and we went to L.A. and gave the pros and cons of three different sites.
AR: What other projects stick out in your mind?
BL: The U.S. Courthouse in Boston [designed by Henry N. Cobb, FAIA, of Pei Cobb Freed], which Judge Stephen Breyer [now U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice] helped shape. We took the ball from the GSA and ran with it. At an early meeting with the GSA, someone pointed to me and asked Breyer, “What’s he doing here?” Breyer said, “He’s my clerk.”
There was also the West Kowloon cultural center, a massive cultural hub in Hong Kong. I served as professional adviser for an international design competition for the site. Norman [Lord Foster] won it with a huge shed roof. It was like Bucky Fuller’s dome over New York, except Norman’s was a little more free form. [The project ran into political problems and has not moved forward.]
AR: Working for the Kimbell on its current expansion, did you have any trepidation dealing with such an iconic building?
BL: No, I didn’t. It’s interesting how it happened. I suggested my usual format for getting the right architect. But they were really set on having Renzo [Piano]. And I thought and thought but couldn’t think of anyone better. Not just because Renzo’s at a plateau in his career, but I think that he has the sensitivity and ability to sublimate his ego and pay homage to Lou and the existing Kimbell. And he has the personality to get along with the clients. The Kimbell is going to keep me gainfully occupied for years.
AR: I know you have some reservations about competitions.
BL: I have run many competitions, and when I was at the Endowment, I promoted competitions to encourage younger architects. However, the jury or selection committee selects a design, but they get an architect. Too many times the design changes and they still have the architect. The committee might prefer to go look at work and have a show of credentials. I think that you cannot rely on imagery to replace the actual experience. It’s like going to the theater. You have to be there.
I’m consulting for Novartis now. When I first met with the C.E.O., I told him I don’t believe in competitions except for special projects, like monuments and memorials. He surprised me by agreeing, because, he said, he lost control when he brought in a jury. He couldn’t overrule them. He told me to give him three names, and he’d visit each one. We now have Gehry, Chipperfield, Moneo, Siza and Suto de Moro, Sejima, and others working for Novartis in Basel. And we’re doing a master plan for a U.S. headquarters.
AR: From your experience as a consultant, do you have advice for architects seeking a commission?
BL: Interviews are the make-or-break thing. You have to understand what the client wants. Forget about everything but the client’s project. Clients don’t take the same keen interest in what you’ve done as in what you’re going to do for them. I’ve seen architects fail by being arrogant. The top architects are generally excited about the possibilities of what a project can be and how they can do it. It’s that intensity about the client’s project that’s more important than almost anything else.
AR: Is there a thread that unites all parts of your varied career?
BL: One of the major things I hoped to do at Tennessee, the American Academy, Cooper, and Purchase was to improve morale and image. Cooper had gone to sleep. It was in the doldrums. The Academy—when I was there—had to deal with people asking, “Why Rome?” They thought it was passé, not interesting. So I did the first New York exhibition of fellows’ art since 1898. I had a first-ever Academy concert. I tried to enliven the place and modernize its programs. I changed the direction by bringing Robert Motherwell onto the board. At Purchase, I brought in Pentagram. At these institutions, I wanted to make people feel proud again of the place. I thought if you told the truth about the place, it would be a big plus.
AR: What qualities do you think you have that qualified you for one uber-architecture position after another?
BL: Part of it was having ideas, the vision thing. I had the benefit of lots of different kinds of experience, from being in the military and handling a lot of men in Germany, going to Rice and teaching, starting several firms and getting to know a great many, many people along the way. Also, I have the ability to meet people and put them at ease, and I have a sense of humor.
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