1980s, Bob Stern

ROBERT AM STERN (M.Arch ’65) Interview with Dima Srouji (M.Arch ’16) and Nicolas Kemper (M.Arch ’16)

The first time I got to know Zaha was at the AA, under Alvin Boyarsky – I must have been giving a talk, and Zaha was a beginning teacher. At the end of the talk Alvin said ‘let’s go and have dinner’ and he invited her along, and I frankly didn’t know what to make of her – we were on different planets – but there was no question in my mind that she was an amazing person. I have to say I had my doubts that she would become an architect – an architect who builds – given her conversation and that subsequently the drawings I saw which were dazzlingly beautiful, the early drawings and the drawings for Peak, I don’t even think Patrik could figure out how to make those work. But that’s where I met Zaha.