A graduate of McGill University, Safdie took charge of the master plan for the 1967 World Exhibition, where he also realized an adaptation of his thesis as Habitat '67, the central feature of the World's Fair.
He was responsible for major segments of the restoration of the Old City in Jerusalem and the reconstruction of the new center, linking the Old and New Cities.
Safdie has taught at Yale, McGill, and Ben Gurion Universities. He was responsible for the design of six of Canada's principal public institutions as well as many in the U.S. including educational facilities, civic buildings, and performing arts centers. His current work includes two airports.
Safdie has written several books including his upcoming theoretical work discussing the architecture of humanity in the age of mega-scale. He has been featured in several films and has been the recipient of numerous awards, honorary degrees, and civil honors.
What were the influences on your design for the Renaissance Square?
The Renaissance Square is a very complex urban design puzzle. The project has very wide ranging objectives. On one hand it's trying to revitalize downtown; it's trying to bring people back to downtown; it's trying to clean up the transportation mess that is there today. One objective is to have a very efficient bus terminal. The other one is to use the bus terminal as a catalyst for other functions so that the performing arts center and the college — together with the transportation elements — work in synergy with each other. So you begin with trying to develop a response to that puzzle, how to put things together in a way that they complement each other and reinforce each other. So it's more reading the issues and responding to their problem-solving that you begin with rather than sort of external design influences.
How much influence did the Urban Land Institute's recommendations have?
In a direct way, not at all, but in a broader way I'm very sympathetic and I'm after the same objectives that the Urban Land Institute is after. There have been land institutes that have spent many years studying downtowns — why they deteriorated, how to revitalize them. They understand the role of retail, what retail works in the way of encouraging pedestrian flow in the city, the damage done by introverted internal retail malls in the downtown areas. They are experts as to what created problems in the city in the past 30 years...and since we are students of the same issues, our responses are very similar. We understood from the outset that it is the flow of people from transportation to other functions that become the key to making this area work better; how to deal with street fronts and how to use the existing historic buildings on the site to great advantage. These are all issues we've dealt with that I'm sure the Urban Land Institute would be equally concerned with. We have the same agenda.
What obstacles do you see in the development of this project?
I think the biggest obstacle is getting all the parties who are part of this to come to consensus because while there is a common agenda, there are also
"The Renaissance Square is a very complex urban
design puzzle. . .
You begin with trying to develop a response to that puzzle, how to put things together in a way that they complement and reinforce each other."
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individual agendas. The college is worried about getting a very good college to be working there. The transportation people are worried about their own efficiency. The performing arts and arts groups have their own agenda. At the same time thereÕs a common agenda. So one issue is to get everybody to buy into a consensus of what works the best for the individual groups as well as the whole, the city. The second challenge is monetary: there is always going to be a gap between the available resources and what everybody wants to do there. In fact I'd say from the outset the funds available clearly already committed are sort of crawling behind the aspirations that each group has for their own facility. That is also going to be a challenge — how to make resources stretch to achieve what everybody wants to achieve.
How do you strike a favorable balance between function and form?
It's never a contradiction. You pursue satisfying the purpose of a building, which to me is a better word than function because function tends to sound utilitarian, and that will help you evolve architecturally satisfying forms. There is no contradiction between the two in my approach to architecture. They merge together. They grow together.
How are your projects designed to change the way a community functions as well as views itself?
I think a project has a potential when designed in a creative and uplifting way to change the sense of the community and of itself. I've achieved it in such buildings as the Salt Lake Public Library or the Peabody Essex Museum. Whole cities have sort of transformed their sense of themselves and their self image as a result of having my buildings in those communities. But if I could tell you what the prescription for achieving it is, that's a complex and long journey.
Would you tell us what your favorite building is and why you feel that way?
There is absolutely no way I could even begin to answer this question because I have so many favorite buildings in different places for different reasons and with different affections. It's like asking me which is my favorite child amongst my four children. I just can't answer that because I have so many favorite buildings. It's just not possible.
Which architects had the greatest influence on you?
Many architects kind of had an influence on me in a direct way—Louis Cobb because I apprenticed with him and worked with him in my youth, so this was a very direct influence. But since I began being an architect, as a young architect, I admired the work of Frank Lloyd Wright. It was very inspiring for me as I evolved as an architect to know his work. I was equally influenced and excited by visiting great towns and cities, which probably were not designed by architects at all, like the hill towns of Italy or the villages of the Middle East. These have always been inspiring even though probably we can't quite name the architect who designed them.
Governor Eliot Spitzer at this time?
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