Mark Heyman Memoir - University of Illinois Springfield

Q: Letts first backtrack for a xaent, I W-taltl that you have
the actual date of the pavilian exhibit in New York that you attended.
A: I faund out that it was in 1953. And if ny mry serves rre
right, I nust have seen it in the sumtrrar of 1953. As I didn't join
the Fellawship until N-, actually going to Arizona in NWof
1954, I suspect: there was six nmrths behem the time I first
c\lrote to Taliesin and at I gut to meet=
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Mr. Wright atd join the
Fell-p. So, I must have been thinkirvJ abaut that exhibit for at
least six or eight months before I decided. Now, I also recall that
inthatth, asItoldycxl, Iwas interestedinbecmhgananhitect
and I ms working in this mill do- draft* lxxt basidly
mting pdxtion and so on. I did an ad for an ar&itect
in Lmg Island who wanted an assistant and it turned out to be a
one-man office and he wanted to hixe ne on the spot. I said I had to
think abaut it. The salaIywas, I think abmt half of what I was
earning. It inms a very Enmall office, Wt it wculd have gutta me 100
percent into architecture altlmqh I don't knm what kind of
architecture it was. So, I was thinking of ming jabs. I rmember
that W i e w very dearly.
Q: Okay. I11 short, l3e experience wasn't quite as campressed as you
had remrhrd it, at least it's clear that ym were thhkhg in
1953 axl 1954 about beccaning an architect rme way or the other. And
Wright I s pavilion had inspired yau to apywoach that.
mce
mdel.
~dhaveknumalotabutthat, htatleastwhileIwasworkirgin
the mill I dealt with plans frm a lut of different etects rts I
1emedalotmoreabrtamhi~thanI~dhavem.the
constructicm of just one hcxlse.
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A: Yes. I also had gme into lmhrhg and raillwork because I wanted
to get into architecture thmqh mnstmckion, so while I was happy
do- what I was, I was still try- to work my way wt. As a matter
of fact, I offered a jab as an assistant cmstmctim
W- on a large housing project on bxq
-
Island. And that
was W of like, I Uwught, Well, is this a mwe up or out or closer
to architecture or not." I decided it wasn't. Btxuse I W d have
thmbenlookingatths-hmsef-, atleastforayear
because they built four or five huMmd of the And I
Q: A parerrthetiad question here. In to vhat extent if
at all do you thhk you were affectd in your mkrests in
construction and your oipportunities in constmction by the pst war
building ban?