Middle age, for architects
Oscar Niemeyer is still making buildings, smoking, saying charming things (like quoting Lenin) and ogling women.
"He's Still Shaping a Legend" (latimes).
At 97, Niemeyer is eagerly watching one of his most ambitious projects take shape, a mile-long seafront esplanade of buildings and open space in Niteroi, Rio's sister city across Guanabara Bay.
When completed, Niemeyer Way will house two cathedrals, a theater, film institute, plaza, ferry station, memorial and a foundation named after the architect. Situated on enough land for 15 football fields, the promenade will be Niemeyer's biggest creation after Brasilia, the sleek, futuristic capital he designed in the 1950s and that remains his magnum opus.
...
"I can't complain. I was never ill, I was never operated on, my friends are still friends. I like women, I like to laugh, drink wine, say foolish things," Niemeyer said, dressed casually on a recent morning in khakis and an open yellow shirt.
"I am a person like any other. I was thrown onto the planet, I will tell my short story, and, as with all others, time will erase it. It's enough to look at the sky to see how small we are," he said. "But Lenin said it was necessary to dream. If not, things don't happen."
* Ray, 3/29/2005 11:15:34 AM
