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Frank StantonFrank Stanton
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Session:         Page of 755

Stanton:

It was not to be believed. It would have been a full-time job. I was running the company at the same time.

Q:

I was wondering how you were managing to do anything else.

Stanton:

I loved it, because it was something I was interested in; so there wasn't any problem. And I loved her. I really fell in love with her. If I hadn't been married, I probably would have run off with her some place. She was--she still is quite a woman.

Of course, then Eero was gone and Kevin Roche was the chief design man, and Kevin came into see me one day and said that he didn't think that Eero was ever happy with the rough gray. I was outraged, and said so, and I said: “What do you want?” And he wanted to use granite, but he wanted it polished. I said: “I don't want a mirror over there; I want the rough surface.”

In fact, he and I pretty well split, design-wise, over that. He went to Paley, to try to persuade Paley that I was wrong, and God knows why, but Paley didn't buy it. But we were just lucky we ever got into the building. Oh, I tell you, it was just terrible.

And now the building has gone all to hell. It's just a sad, sad situation. That kind of a building--any modern building with sharp edges and so forth and flat surfaces and clean design--has to have good maintenance and the present ownership or direction of the company just couldn't care less about maintenance. So it's gone downhill.

Q:

Were you happy with the end result when the work was completed?





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