How old can an architect get...

[John Kavanaugh]

Like I said...Each of these old guys are just paying tribute to their earlier works. It's all great, just no longer ground breaking.

[Joe Perches]

I think Logan's Run had it about right.

Then you should volunteer for the carousel John.  Renewal!

[Peter Pallotta]

JK, of course, is asking specifically about our Tom D and whether as an 'aging' architect-artist he will have anything new to offer or instead will merely bask in/repeat his best work of the past. To me, few of the examples provided so far suggest that the latter is anything but inevitable. As JK points out, Newman didn't win an Oscar for The Hustler (which he should have), he won it for The Colour of Money (which he shouldn't have). BUT:
FL Wright and Cohen and Jefferson and Picasso and Newman etc etc all had this in common -- they'd grown *comfortable*: comfortable financially, comfortable with their place in the world/acclaim, and most importantly comfortable in their own skins.
I don't know him, but my guess is that our Tom D is *not* comfortable, and indeed is probably made *uncomfortable* at the very hint of being comfortable.
My guess is that this will make all the difference. The work/courses will keep evolving.
Signed
Dr Katz's Student

[Sven Nilsen]

Peter:


Dr. Katz would have looked deeper.  This isn't really a question about Doak, or even any architect.  Its a question about JakaB himself.


Age is going to get all of us.  Time marches on and all that.


Sven

[Peter Pallotta]

Sven - sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. JakaB isn't self-referential, nor does he go for deep. Mostly he just likes to cause sh-t. But sometimes his questions do merit an answer.
Peter

[Matthew Rose]

Dye?

[John Cowden]

Methinks in this case the answer has been delivered.  Move on or, perhaps, deal your Tarot Cards

[Ulrich Mayring]

I would agree that most geniuses (those breaking new ground) do it when they're a certain age (usually 20-40) and thereafter they just keep riding the horse. Which is not a negative comment, because most of us don't even have that one breakthrough. We're just riding someone else's horse for all our lives.

Those with two or more breakthroughs are few and far between. Simply because it's such a rare event and one human lifetime is short compared to that rarity. But there are examples, of course, only not very many. One breakthrough is already unlikely and it becomes exponentially more unlikely after that.

So in my eyes age may correlate with it, but there is no causal relationship. It is true that conservatism increases with age, the brain starts to deteriorate etc. but those factors are all only statistically true. Which in this case is irrelevant, because geniuses are so few that they can (and usually do) defy any statistics. The probability of someone breaking new ground is far smaller than the smallest margin of error ever produced by any kind of statistic.

Ulrich

[Steve Lang]

   Even FLW built a gas station when he was like 90... Cloquet, MN which you'll likely pass on way to play Giant's Ridge and others near Biawak

[Jeff_Brauer]

  Even FLW built a gas station when he was like 90... Cloquet, MN which you'll likely pass on way to play Giant's Ridge and others near Biawak

I stop every time!

[Jud_T]

Philip Johnson, Grandma Moses, Betty LaVette, Bill Traylor, Noah Purifoy, Mary Delaney, Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash...

[Chris_Blakely]

Frank Lloyd Wright designed Fallingwater in his mid 60s and the Guggenheim more than a decade after that.

Have you been to either? They are non functioning tributes to the past. Neither works well now as originally intended.

Of course The Kaufmann Redidence does not now work as originally intended - the families summer home.  Since, Edgar Kaufmann Jr donated to Western PA Conservancy (as he did not have children to share it with) in 1963.   And yes I've been to Fallingwater several times both before and after the renovation and when you were still allowed to wade in Bear Run.


Chris

[Thomas Dai]

Isn't there a cliche along the lines of "The brightest star burns out the quickest"?
Atb

[Steve Lang]

   Thomas,


One of first jokes I heard in Houston... "You know the sun is going to burnout in 4 billion years... know what that means?  They'll be finishing the freeways in the dark!" 


So burnout is relative... As long as the brain cells are functioning, I'd think a gca or any professional can pursue applying their skills learned over a lifetime of experience.

[cary lichtenstein]

Anyone care to push JakaB's wheelchair for him/