Mack & Merrill: The 1999 Charles & Ray Eames Lecture

fac_pub_scogin_mackandmerrillThe things here are products of fantastic clients, not with great budgets, but with great expectations and a lot of energy and a lot of trust. More importantly, a great deal of curiosity about the power of architecture and the ability of architects to, through their medium, somehow touch their spirit and their dreams and fantasies. They talk about these things. These are not things that we are very comfortable talking about, but what we’ve learned is that great clients are comfortable with talking about those things and they do believe that architecture can do that. We have been fortunate to have wonderful clients over the years, and we have been fortunate to have an amazing group of young people working with us through the years that have believed in the principle that architecture can change lives and can make things that are of great value and fun, and can be fun and can actually be built with care and craftsmanship. It has been a fantastic adventure for us and we are not sure where it all goes from here, but I guess we’ll see. Thank you once again; thank you for your patience and thank you for coming.

— Mack Scogin, from his closing remarks

Edited by Jason Smart,

Michigan Architecture Papers, no.7, University of Michigan College of Architecture + Urban Planning, 1999