Charlie Rose

Iraklis  01/27/2013 05:33 AM Report

I happen to be part of the Property Development team (INDOCEAN), who has commissioned Safdie Architects to design our new project called Altair, which is a mixed-used urban development, based in Colombo, Sri Lanka.

The interview was both very entertaining and so real as having actual experience working with Moshe and his team of Architects, Moshe’s values are followed as Altair is a high density urban living development however each Apartment has a hanging garden, to maximize the view, climate and light the orientation of the development follows the sun path and the form of the two towers with one leaning on the other creates an organic sculpture form.

Moshe is a unique Architect and he is a true joy to work with him and his team.

learnerWP  03/03/2012 10:59 PM Report

I love Charlie, but gee I hate it when he interrupts his guest too much, as he did in this case. Moshe Safdie showed the kind of temperament someone like him needs when dealing with clients.

I understand why Charlie does it--he wants it to be a conversation. But sometimes when your guest is this good, having a conversation can be more about listening.

exeterline1860  10/03/2011 08:45 PM Report

I enjoyed your Moshe Safdie interview. He's one of the few organic architects in the limelight today. Most of them lack the thoughtfulness of this approach. He's a real master. Thank you. [I meant to comment on this before.]

JohnGelles  08/31/2011 06:53 AM Report

My wife (age 81) died at 4:45 am Tuesday morning. She had been spared the possible effects her doctors said were the fate of patients who had same age related maladies. It is a fearful fate, and we her whole family thank God she never suffered any of those things we all fear for our loved ones and ourselves.

Moshe Safdie has an important work in the Los Angeles area.

From Wikipedia:

Designed by Israeli-born architect Moshe Safdie, the campus of the Skirball Cultural Center is nestled in the Santa Monica Mountains and has been admired for its intimate scale and sensitivity to the natural environment.

[( Among Safdie’s recent and current civic, cultural and educational commissions are: the headquarters of the United States Institute of Peace, Washington, DC; Exploration Place, Wichita, KS; Eleanor Roosevelt College at the University of California, San Diego; the federal courthouses in Springfield, MA, and Mobile, AL; the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, Kansas City, MO; as well as the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem and the Yitzhak Rabin Memorial Center in Tel Aviv, and the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR.)]

==== end wikipedia ====

When I visit the cultural center memories of my wife will

be prominent -- she was a skilled artist in her own right.

Please again accept my thanks for you comment.

BENEZRAA  08/30/2011 01:44 PM Report

JOHN GELLES -

The best testament to HaShem is a life well lived and well loved, as clearly is the case with you and your wife and in the legacy of your family. My own family gathered around my mother five years ago similarly to you and yours now, and my father lives on TG since then, sustained by a lifetime of love and memories since their marriage in 1950. You touch us all with your life. Best wishes to you and yours, and when the time comes, may you be comforted in the mourners of Zion. Shalom.

BENEZRAA  08/30/2011 01:36 PM Report

JOHN GELLES -

The best testament and legacy to HaShem and His world is a life well loved and well lived. My family gathered around my sainted mother five years ago in the same way as you and yours do now, and my father TG lives on these past five years, sustained by a lifetime of memories (their marriage began in 1950). Best wishes to you and yours.

JohnGelles  08/30/2011 05:53 AM Report

Thank you.

Her children, siblings, and husband, are gathered under nature's God around her while she sleeps between two worlds. Medicine stands aside as hospice comforts and deep sleep protects all of us as best it can.

Moshe Safdie dealt with the extremes of WW II and its war within a war by an insane Germany against millions of civilians (Jews and certain gentiles).

Safdie's body of work therefore includes a civilized approach to evil and tragedy (not comparable to an ordinary end of life we all will see if we are born) -- but -- his pages in this archive welcome our prayers and concerns over death at the end of life.

Behind me at this instant Charlie Rose is talking to women in repeats of significant conversations between male and female -- largely focused on opportunity and achievement by women in our time. The words exchanged fit well with the life my loved one lived and shared with her family, friends and nations.

It was an admirable life. It did include the shock of war (in Korea) -- but also and primarily the joys of peace. She has lived for 81 years, starting in 1930. She is four and a half years younger than me. We married in 1968 and raised her daughter and my sons as one family -- with children then 9, 11, and 13. We remain tight with them and their spouses.

BENEZRAA  08/29/2011 01:51 PM Report

JOHN GELLES -

Refuah Shelemah. May HaShem bring a New Year of physical, emotional, and spiritual healing to you and to the world.

doodah  08/29/2011 07:04 AM Report

JG, That's Very Sad. My condolences to you and your family; I hate dealing with death of Loved ones, expected or not; it's the worst part of life, that can make us physically ill. I have enjoyed reading your posts, and hope you will continue posting when you feel like it. God Bless.

JohnGelles  08/29/2011 05:32 AM Report

For personal immediate family reasons I am focused on end of life at the moment. We all meet "end of life" and it is very often a blessing. Life is not endless for the individual. It is not even endless for planets and their human achievement and experience.

My own cannot be far away. My loved one will await me.

God wants her near Himself as I wait my turn. I have not been as good I should have been -- but she has.

I still may have a very short time to earn His forgiveness and be invited to return His side and hers.

JohnGelles  08/29/2011 05:15 AM Report

doodah 08/28/2011 09:44 AM ~

Doodah says:

'Buddy Roemer' as President would be a practical first step to addressing the problems you speak of, JG. In fact, he may be enough ...

I agree. I read some of his thoughts. He seems to think many of the thoughts I have expressed in recent posts.

They say he will make a try in New Hampshire. I will be rooting for him and his ideas on supporting workers who have too little support from the major players whom the press is following.

JohnGelles  08/29/2011 04:57 AM Report

hsilver ~

You may be asking if "Ey Msaz." = "Amos Oz" ?

Wikipedia reports:

Amos Oz (Hebrew: ???? ????) (born May 4, 1939, birth name Amos Klausner) is an Israeli writer, novelist, and journalist. He is also a professor of literature at Ben-Gurion University in Be'er Sheva.

hsilver  08/29/2011 01:20 AM Report

He mentioned towards the end of the interview someone who's name sounded like "Ey Msaz." I've looked through google and the haaretz website and couldn't find the individual he was referring to. Can someone please enlighten me? thanks a bunch.

doodah  08/28/2011 09:44 AM Report

'Buddy Roemer' as President would be a practical first step to addressing the problems you speak of, JG. In fact, may be enough. You should listen to what he says; his Focus; his PRIORITIES. It's right in line with yours (but you may have to advise him on the nuts and bolts of implementing your Economic Monetary theories; esp. how it will end poverty in the real world.). .. maybe you could comprise, and suffice with a strong economy on 'a better Foundation' than the one(s) the bought and sold republicans and democrats want 'to settle' with (10%Plus Unemployment still gets them reelected and keeps the Power ($$$wink-wink$$$) in Wall Street (casino fun and games for morally deficient Brats).

JohnGelles  08/28/2011 06:25 AM Report

What about Moshe Safdie's suggestion that mega-cities (of more than 5 million people ?) that suffered from congestion, confusion, corruption, radical contrast of wealth that affected badly the health and morale or millions of poor people, etc., offered us a opportunity to re-think the depopulation of the great spaces in between such mistaken over-development of small spaces -- driven by low costs if the poor were contained in sub-standard conditions?

If we followed up on solving the millions of problems presented by the above, might we not have to deliberately build new livable rural towns and countrysides to more evenly distribute our citizens -- and by so doing protect them better from flood, fire and unexpected disasters, including acts of enemies, even lone wolf terrorists ?

Might we not even consider the political error we make when we assign two senators to places with very few people ? We have a system today that invites corporate corruption and anti-labor laws in small states that can be bought for a song. I have no empirical studies at hand that spell out the effect of a Senate that does not fairly represent the urban poor. The rural poor have it little better, but they can be bought cheap -- and the effect of large city slums and less than middle class lives has done more damage to national educational and good-conduct achievement than we know. Who says? I say. And our high jail population and level of poor health will bear me out.

Why should we not price rural development on purpose -- giving heavy weight to the thought that if hell is other people, reducing the density of low performance cities and spreading our people out ahead of rare but necessary evacuations of flood plains and fire hazards is what we ought to do -- and rural planners ought to show us how to do it right.

JohnGelles  08/27/2011 07:25 AM Report

A delightful topic and informative near half-hour. Safdie is a natural teacher and talker. Architecture, blending art, engineering, economics, history, urban planning, and all the sciences and social sciences, etc., has the greatest intellectual scope of all the professions. We honor novelists and playwrights in greater number than architects. But that is, in my view, because it takes a great architect to understand what they do and how well the do it.

Of course, Safdie pointed out, it takes a great client to contribute the money and mission of the great projects that are built in the real world.

One would think that documentary films that took an audience of lay people into the details of design and construction of landmark buildings and planned cities for hours and hours, with Safdie as your guide, would be a college course not to be missed by any student of life. Such films would develop a visually oriented language that would serve similar presentations of history, economy, and maybe political science -- the study most in need of humanizing in ways at which Safdie hinted.

Lyndastarb  08/26/2011 08:42 PM Report

The Moshe Safdie interview opened me up in a very unexpected way. Art, architecture, nature and the human spirit all combined produced a much needed hero as to what this woman needs and the world is starving for. Moshe speaks from heart and soul with the mind following. His wish for Israel and Palestine made me feel anything is possible. When I listened to Moshe I felt "awake". Thank you

SharkswithfrikingLazers  08/26/2011 12:27 PM Report

Yes to design in nature. Yes to architecture as an oasis. Yes to merging nature and art.

There are too many concrete jungles. Nature actually reduces anxiety. Working in a garden is a great way to mental health.

There should be a E=MC2 ratio of yards of concrete poured to number of trees and bushes planted.

SharkswithfrikingLazers  08/26/2011 02:34 AM Report

Great question: how do you humanize mega scale?

Then he says he had never been in a Wal-mart.

Wow, Alice Walton--you should have called him a wee bit earlier and for something other than a personal indulgence.

SharkswithfrikingLazers  08/25/2011 01:58 AM Report

On this same program we heard Jerry Jones talk about his new $1.2 billion stadium that could have only cost $800 million. He said it had to have pageantry, be built for television, have a positive ethos and be as powerful as the Roman Coliseum.

Since only seven percent of NFL football fans have ever been inside a football stadium--per Jerry--what does Moshe think of this architecture?

An important question because of who usually funds these stadiums.

ShalomFreedman  08/24/2011 09:09 PM Report

Safdie is tremendously expressive as spokesman for his own Architecture. It was moving to hear him single out 'Yad Vashem' as the project he would like to most be remembered by. He seems to be a true cosmpolitan in the best sense, one aware of the global situation and the requirements for making a better world. His sense that Architecture must serve a purpose and fulfill the needs of the community for which it is constructed makes much sense. It was informative to hear him speak about the 'mega- cities' and the kinds of new problems the world is facing especially in Asia.

On the other hand and as a small coda to all this Safdie spoke quite naively about the situation in Israel. Dreaming of Peace is wonderful but the fact is Israel' situation has worsened through the so- called 'Arab spring'. Mubarrak 's authoritarian regime may be gone but we seem to be on the way to an Islamist regime in Cairo. Certainly it is one far more negative toward Israel. As for the Palestinians it is wonderful to depict them marching toward the border in Peace, but the posture of their leaders is invariably hostile and refusing of real negotiations.

However once again Safdie's importance has nothing whatsoever to do with his political positions on the Middle East. I am not a competent judge of his Architecture but he makes a strong case for it in this interview.

BENEZRAA  08/24/2011 02:10 PM Report

MOSHE SAFDIE - It is a wonderful dream, that half-million each Arabs and Jews will meet at a defined border and shake hands. And it is a wonderful dream as well, that the "Arab Spring" be contagious in the overthrow of tyrannies, preferably in a non-violent way, which we have yet to see. May I take issue with some of your characterizations pertaining to the current protests in Israel? The protests in Israel are not about regime change, as is the case in Arab countries. The protests in Israel are about economics. The disparities between rich and poor are great, and the costs of housing, food and basic necessities have become so great that regardless of political orientation or religious orientation, poor Israelis are united in these protests, and this includes the religious elements you have disparaged as "non-working". There is a divide in Israel between the haredim and the secular. They disparage each other. The secular disparage the haredim, saying that the haredim neither work nor serve in the military; the haredim disparage the secular, saying that the secular violate Shabbath and neither keep nor learn Torah. There are elements of truth both ways. So I would add a dream to your dream [that Arabs and Jews shake hands]. My dream is that religious and secular Jews shake hands, perhaps even integrate their strengths, so that all Jews keep the Shabbath and learn Torah, and so that all Jews work and serve in the military. L'Dor v'Dor.

BENEZRAA  08/24/2011 01:48 PM Report

HABITAT - DOODAH, You should take the time to actually visit that "boxy thing on the hillside". It is an extraordinary achievement in urban architecture, making it possible for dense population to live in an urban setting and yet experience privacy, greenery, and excellent views of the surrounding terrain.

URBANIZATION - REMANT, Your remarks are always interesting, though I rather doubt that Safdie is living in the past and in fact he is more likely on the cutting edge of architecture and always has been so. I agree with you that "our number one priority" ought to be to make sure that "population and urbanization [do not] continue apace... before nature does it for us." In the USA for example I would like to see a complete ban on the sale of woodland, marshland, and farmland for anything other than similar use. It is a crime to see our choice sustainable natural resources destroyed in order to build McMansions or industrial parks, while simultaneously our cities are neglected and their destructive implosions/explosions mushrooms out into the suburbs and countryside. The question is less what needs to be done and more what the kakistocracy will actually do, given it's lack of imagination except as regards printing and collecting more and more paper money at the expense of real value. Architects like Moshe Safdie may point the way as to how we can revivify our cities and even more intelligently distribute some population outside the cities. Yet, as Moshe Safdie said, an architect can do nothing without a "good client". Our kakistocracy is hardly a good client, and as you rightly point out, there is an ominous quality to the penchant for building museums and memorials, ignoring the needs of the living, and establishing a Romaesque idolatry.

SharkswithfrikingLazers  08/24/2011 01:41 PM Report

Beautiful work!

Perhaps a few questions on cost?

Perhaps a few questions on the effect this movie describes changing the architecture of the suburbs:

http://www.endofsuburbia.com/

The End of Suburbia explores the American Way of Life and its prospects as the planet approaches a critical era, as global demand for fossil fuels begins to outstrip supply. World Oil Peak and the inevitable decline of fossil fuels are upon us now, some scientists and policy makers argue in this documentary.

As energy prices skyrocket in the coming years, how will the populations of suburbia react to the collapse of their dream? Are today's suburbs destined to become the slums of tomorrow? And what can be done NOW, individually and collectively, to avoid The End of Suburbia ?

REMant  08/24/2011 11:03 AM Report

I think he's living in the past. I wouldn't assume population and urbanization will continue apace. Indeed, I'm quite sure our number one priority ought to be to make sure they don't, before nature does it for us. Much of this revolves around the question of individualism vs socialism, ie, whether we want to still live like the hunters and gatherers we were or become busy bees, and much of this rests in turn on consideration of our financial policies. There is a clear division politically, ethically, religiously, economically, and sexually between these two positions, being contested increasingly the world over, and, as was mentioned much later, in Israel. On a more mundane level I wouldn't expect to see museums, nor certainly libraries, to remain as they are, nor likely, theaters and concert halls. And then there're the memorials turning the capital into some kind of museum of its own, like a Victorian parlor or medieval cathedral...

doodah  08/24/2011 10:28 AM Report

The thing in Singapore and the auditorium in Kansas City, Muy Magnifico. They work in the spirit of Frank Loyd Wright; actually everything I saw here was Magnificent, everything Except the last photo of that Boxy Modern thing on the hillside (maybe it was that 'Habitat' thing?), Ugly, did Not fit in to the terrain at all; maybe the View from out of the building is good (but that requires No skill to accomplish, one can build a shed on a hill and accomplish that). But it looked like one of those Fancy gerbil cages.

I like some of the modern style, when Light and Space is used Impressively, it takes some focus off of the expansive coldness of the bland materials used (concrete and steel). Never let a Modern Style Architect design your house, unless you want your house to look like a battleship (Literally).