Under Construction, Upper West Side, 2007

It’s Friday afternoon and one of my early projects as a young, New York designer, is finally assembled on site, heavily detailed with custom mill and metal work.  Diane is coming for a visit.  I’m standing in the main space when she enters..

“Wow Daniel, it looks fabulous,” she says. 
“It’s almost perfect,” I contest. 
“But…?” 
“They forgot one of the reveals around the beam,” I say vexed. 
“Where?” she rightfully wonders, as it is barely noticeable.  I point up to a hidden corner.
“Good!” She exclaims.
“Good?!” I retort.
“It’s a good sign you feel pain!  Architecture is sensual, it’s carnal; a missing detail is like a missing limb. Good architects always feel this pain.”

Public Hearing, Sarasota, Florida, 2008 

Having won an international competition sponsored by the World Monument Fund for an adaptive reuse of the Paul Rudolph Riverview and after nine months of design work and amendments, we begin our presentation to the public.  The panel includes Dr. Peter French, Moderator, Diane, Design Architect, Peter Brown, Administrative Liaison, and me, Project Architect.

The crowd is already hostile, when a group of demolition supporters begin to loudly interrupt any comment made by the panel.  The moderator quickly loses control and tension fills the space. 

Diane looks at me and winks. She takes the wooden model on her shoulder, and goes down the stage like a waitress in a cocktail bar, tending to tables, one by one, intimately sharing our proposal. 

Knickerbocker, West Village, 2009

We are having a dinner on 9th Street at one of Diane’s spots.

“I presented your research about the Paris BNF (National Library of France) when I was in Edinburgh,” she reveals nonchalantly, referring to my idea that Perrault’s BNF was designed as if it were a fragment of Le Corbusier’s unrealized Plan Voisin.

“Yes?” I say, raising an eyebrow.  

“They disagreed and got quite upset!”

“Okay… and… what do you think about it now?”

“First, I still agree with you.  I think Perrault was looking at Plan Voisin while designing the BNF.”

“And second?”

“…And Second, if an argument makes people that upset, then it means that it encapsulates a seed of the truth…”  She takes another bite of her fish. 

The Houghton Gallery, Cooper Union,  2011

We are constructing The End Of the Year Showat Cooper Union; the time of year that always makes the faculty sweat.  I walk out of the gallery into Room 215 to review a student’s work.  

From the other side of the wall, Diane calls my cell, “Where are you?!”

“I’m smoking a cigar in a jacuzzi,’’ I answer. 

Diane almost faints, “It’s the last day; we REALLY need you!” 

Five minutes later, I enter the room and smile.  She laughs.  

I play the ‘Doors,’ we all dance, Diane included, and for an instant Houghton become a dance floor.

The Studio, Cooper Union, 2015

It is Wednesday afternoon.  Faculty are in the studio working individually with students. The project is comprised of three-dimensional autonomous parts inspired by Henri Matisse: The Cut-Outsat MoMA from which an urban architectural partiis formed. 

The studio is quiet up until a loud theatrical voice rises, “No! Don’t touch it!” 

Everyone turns their head. 

Diane continues, “It’s brilliant… don’t move a thing!” 

Eager to see, the class ceases to work, and gathers around the celebrated scheme.  

Diane rolls in the chalkboard and analyzes the historical and literary context of the work, openly challenging me and the other Professors into a larger seemingly natural debate but entirely orchestrated.  Conjectures, arguments, and insights unfold for the next three hours while fascinated students absorb the heated dialogue and share their thoughts. 

Beth Israel Hospital, Gramercy Park, 2017

“Tell me more about Kiesler and the Dead Sea Scrolls,” Diane asks me. 

The nurse sits a few feet away minding her own business. 

As I begin to describe the battle story written in the ancient scrolls, Diane interrupts me, calling the nurse.  She comes running to check what is wrong.

”Do you know the Dead Sea Scrolls? You must learn about them. You should join us for this one.”

Post Scriptum, Mont Blanc, The Alps, 2017

It’s the seventh day into my climb.  I traverse the rocks, rugged edges, soft snow, cavities, steep vertical planes that meet the clouds and alter my depth perception.  Everything is tactile measured by my body. 

I think about New York and how Diane measured its dimensions and scale through historical forces, art, literature, poetry, music, film, architecture, humanism, and psychoanalysis.  Engulfing herself in the hum of the city, she surrounded herself with a crowd of people coming from all these disciplines to meet, exchange thoughts, enjoy a good meal and challenge each other.

And that was Diane, like New York: unexpected, wild, inquisitive, enthusiastic, controversial at times but always ready to listen to a compelling argument, curious to a fault, a good friend, a beacon of knowledge with a whimsical spark in her eyes…and in the background a soundtrack of JAZZ…

“Draw me some JAZZ.”

Daniel Meridor. New York. July 2017