Interview with David Baltimore - Caltech Oral Histories

Baltimore-97
LIPPINCOTT: Well, they liked to play Frisbee on that lawn, for one thing.
BALTIMORE: That’s what they said. [Laughter] I’ve checked. There was very little activity
that had ever been on that lawn, and many people knew it. They played much more on the Court
of Man than they did [in front of Beckman]. No, it was all an excuse to be Luddites about
contemporary art.
LIPPINCOTT: That’s so like kids, to be that way.
BALTIMORE: Right. Some of the faculty members were helpful, and some were not very
helpful.
LIPPINCOTT: What about the community Were there objections there
BALTIMORE: No, it was all inside. So I finally decided that it was not worth the effort—the
internal disruption. There were more important things to worry about than that, and so I gave up
on it. Which I felt very sad about. And had I not given up on it, then they couldn’t have used it
for the set-up for these buildings, and we wouldn’t have that eyesore, which we’ve had for years
now, sitting on the campus.
LIPPINCOTT: You mean the construction stuff
BALTIMORE: Yes.
LIPPINCOTT: When is that going to be over
BALTIMORE: Well, I guess when the chemistry building is finished—probably in six months.
The Annenberg building is open. I haven’t been there, but—
LIPPINCOTT: That was the one that Rem Koolhaas was going to do, and then you dropped him.
BALTIMORE: Right. I mean, he just— First of all, he split off his American activities from his
business and put them under the control of a man named Joshua Ramos.