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So that was the beginning of a very rugged and difficult period, and I'll give you some idea of how difficult it was. We were having trouble about what kind of a skin to use on the building. I wanted a granite facing on the building, and Paley thought he wanted limestone. I said it was just like every other goddamned building in Radio City, and if we were going to have any distinction, I thought we had to go to a different exterior.

I took Eero to lunch about that time over at the Four Seasons, and I was wearing an old topcoat--God knows how old it was--a Harris tweed. Very dark gray. Almost as dark as this carpet. Very rough. And I remember saying to Eero, when we were talking about skin--because he wanted to go in a different direction. I said: “If you can give me a stone like this coat, then I'll be happy.”

He said: “Okay.”

And I said: “I also promise you that since you want me to consider a mosaic that [you] used in Oslo, I think, I'll fly over to Oslo and have a look at it before I say we won't consider that.” So that was the kind of trade we had on it. Because it was a negotiation.

The mosaic was just not right, and Eero agreed later that it wasn't right. Then we had to get a granite that had that rough texture and was that color. Now when you take a piece of dark granite--and this is going clear around the barn here.

It's terrific.