Distinctly Montana Magazine

THE RELUCTANT Keith, it seems a bit unusual that you are both an accomplished artist and an architect by trade. How do these skill sets influence one another? For the better part of 1,000 years, up until the 1960s, it was considered a prerequisite for any architect to also be an artist or craftsman: one who can create and portray a vision. In fact, many of the great architecture movements throughout history, such as the Renaissance, the Arts and Crafts movement, and the Modernist movement, have been fueled by visionaries who joined many artistic disci- plines to create a whole environment. Today we prefer the specialist to the generalist. I believe this is a mistake. Which do you enjoy more? (art or architecture?) That is like asking which note you prefer on the musical scale. The two are so intertwined that it would be difficult to say one is preferable to the other. Instead, I would say that architecture should attempt, whenever possible, to merge the many aspects of our aesthetic and functional life. Both art and architecture are creative, multi-faceted disciplines, montages of thought, spirit, and emotion. So, who or what is "The Reluctant Architect"? "The Reluctant Architect" is really an idea that grew as I began compiling a book of drawings and observations. "The Reluctant Architect's" thesis is a refusal to embrace the current approach to market-driven architecture, which merely adds square footage to an already over- crowded planet. My book embraces the arts as living entities that improve one's life. In The Architecture of Happiness, Alain de Botten states: "The architect's task is to stand as an eloquent reminder of our full potential". Architects have become so enamored with the phrase "form follows function" that discussions of beauty have all but been thrown out. It seems that you are suggesting the lack of a certain timeless design in modern architecture? In architecture school we were taught about the power and poetry of architecture in society, as well as its im- mense responsibility to solve some of the concerns of city planning, transportation, water resources, urban blight, "ARCHITECTURE SHOULD BE THE BLENDING OF ARTAND THE SCIENCE OF CONSTRUCTION." 60 DISTINCTLY MONTANA • SUMMER 2012

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