PDF version - University of Washington

Architect Steven Holl’s
Refusal to
Play by the Rules
Yields Beauty
Across the Globe
Uncompromising
Vision
BY STUART
GLASCOCK
PHOTOS BY
ANIL KAPAHI
constructed a three-story treehouse and
an underground clubhouse. Holl’s father,
93 and still living in Kitsap County, owned
a business installing heating systems in
buildings. Holl remembers long hours in
his father’s shop laying out complex duct
work and tinkering with building infrastructure
geometry.
Holl often credits UW professors of architecture,
art and philosophy for influencing
his work, too. He calls Professor
Hermann Pundt’s lectures “amazing.” A
pivotal moment in Holl’s college career occurred
during his sophomore year, when
UW Professor Astra Zarina encouraged
him to apply to an architectural program at
the University of Washington Rome Center.
Ed Weinstein (B.A., Architecture, ’71),
founder of Weinstein AU, was Holl’s
roommate at the Rome Center.
“He is extremely focused and hardworking,
inquisitive, driven and passionate,”
Weinstein says. “Everything he does is
about risks. Beyond his innate talent is an
incredible almost relentless focus and passion
for making architecture.”
Today, Holl is a prodigious watercolor
artist, starting his mornings with watercolors
and green tea. In fact, his buildings begin
as 5x7 watercolor drawings. This year,
he published a book of watercolors called
Scale. Watercolor, he says, readily lends itself
to the poetic properties of light.
The quality of light in the Pacific Northwest—the
low angles of the winter sun in
its northern latitudes—frequently pull Holl
back to the renowned oyster skies that
served as some of his earliest influences.
“It’s home,” he says, “still home.” ■
—Stuart Glascock is a Seattle freelance writer.
A longer version of this article can be found at
UWalum.com/Columns.
UWalum.com/Columns June 2012
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