Word: designate
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Dead Faint. The whole production displayed the Rorschach-test symmetry of design which has become one of Wieland's trademarks; e.g., in the bridal scene, when one chorister inclined his head toward the center, another on the opposite side of the stage precisely imitated him. For the first time anyone at Bayreuth can remember, cuts were made in a Wagnerian score; stage action was reduced to such bare essentials that the production was almost as close to oratorio as opera (Wieland prefers to call it a "Christian mystery...
President Kubitschek wanted Niemeyer to design Brasilia alone. But Niemeyer staged a public competition for the pilot plan, was jubilant when the winning entry-a city plan that from above looks like an airplane-was submitted by his old teacher, Lucio Costa. Said his former pupil: "Costa set high standards and we will keep to them...
Commissioned in 1936 to design a building for Brazil's Ministry of Education, Architect Costa summoned Le Corbusier from France, surrounded "the greatest man in modern architecture" with a group of students who have since become Brazil's best. Among them: Afonso (Museum of Modern Art) Reidy, Jorge (University City) Moreira, Niemeyer. Then Costa pulled out of the project after a series of disagreements. The others elected Novice Niemeyer as their leader, and their building, faced with blue, louver-like sun-breakers, became a famed architectural milestone...
Perhaps too facile, he has whisked off a skyscraper design overnight, took only 15 days to plan Caracas' Museum of Modern Art, a pyramid that will rest upside down atop Bello Monte mountain. "I study the problem, the arc of the sun, the lay of the land," he said. "Then I mull over it for a couple of days. Finally the idea comes." One result of such fast work: dwellers sometimes complain about the lack of closets or kitchen windows in Niemeyer houses; builders sweat over specifications that often make light of construction problems. At Brasilia the builder...
...Brasilia Niemeyer must still design theaters, stations, airport buildings, must approve every private venture, find materials, supervise all projects. For the city's 3,000-seat cathedral, he plans a tepee of concrete poles 220 ft. high, sheathed in translucent plastic and stained glass. "Brasilia," says Niemeyer, "begins a new phase in my work, more geometrical, more simple, more monumental." Post-Brasilia outlook: "I have not thought about it. I suppose I will have to start my life all over again...