KAUFFMAN CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS

Kansas City, MO

With a sketch on a napkin by architect Moshe Safdie, this building became an architectural icon. Safdie, a citizen of Israel, Canada and the United States, also designed Habitat in Montreal. Another example of organic architecture, a friend described it as a pair of sliced pineapples. Again, I wonder what entitles architects to venture into the realm of metaphoric design like this one. But now having studied a number of similar buildings, I’m beginning to realize it is not an entitlement, but instead an expectation. Communities expect to be known by emphatic design statements. I wonder if the architects of past eras had the same charge. Think of the pyramids, St. Peters in Rome, or the Washington Monument – all equally adventurous for their times.

Kaufman is another building that is difficult to fully appreciate as a pedestrian. For this sketch, I ventured to the 27th floor of a nearby hotel, and from a window in the elevator lobby, found this perfect view of the full 16-acre site. The sun was just coming up, casting sharp shades and shadows on the building, to best delineate to its mass and detail. A few days later, a friend who knew I sketched sent me a photo of this building, suggesting it might be a good subject for my next artistic attention.