(单词翻译:单击)
宝马Jeff Dungan has a keychain full of keys to multimillion-dollar, custom-designed vacation homes on Florida's northeastern coast. They include an all-white, three-bedroom mansion, a 5,000-square-foot shingled Nantucket-style home and a condo in a private residence club with a swimming pool on the roof.
杰夫・邓根(Jeff Dungan)手里掌管着满满一串佛罗里达东北海岸价值数以百万计、为客户量身打造的度假屋的钥匙,其中包括一处有三间卧室的全白豪宅、一套5,000平方英尺(约合465平方米)的楠塔基特(Nantucket)风格的木瓦结构住宅,和一家私人住宅俱乐部内带屋顶游泳池的产权公寓。
Mr. Dungan isn't a billionaire: He's an architect. The homes belong to his clients, who became friends during the design and construction process. 'I just call and say I'm going down there, and they say 'Have fun',' says Mr. Dungan, of Birmingham firm Dungan Nequette. 'It's a great perk.'
邓根不是亿万富翁:他是一名建筑师。这些宅邸属于他的客户,他们在房子的设计和建造期间成为了朋友。“我只需打个电话,说我要去那些地方,他们会说‘祝你玩得开心’,”伯明翰(Birmingham) Dungan Nequette公司的邓根说,“这是一项极大的特惠权利。”
Since Michelangelo, architects have had patrons who finance their work. But as time progressed, the relationship between architects and clients became closer to that of equals, especially at the high end. Fallingwater, the famed home perched over a waterfall, developed from the friendship between businessman Edgar J. Kaufmann and Frank Lloyd Wright. Letters between the two men illustrate the closeness of their relationship, and how Mr. Kaufmann overcame his reservations to allow Mr. Wright to design the unique house.
自米开朗琪罗(Michelangelo)开始,建筑师就有了资助他们工作的老主顾。可随着时间的推移,建筑师和客户之间的关系亲密度变得更甚于对等关系,高端尤其如此。坐落于一挂瀑布之上的名宅Fallingwater就是因商人埃德加・J・考夫曼(Edgar J. Kaufmann)与弗兰克・劳埃德・赖特(Frank Lloyd Wright)之间的友谊而修建起来的。俩人之间的书信可以说明他们之间关系多么亲密以及考夫曼是如何克服自己的保留意见、同意赖特设计这座独一无二的房子的。
As a result of that closeness, architects often become friends with their clients, which can lead to all manner of perks. That can sweeten what isn't always a very high-paying profession. The median pay for architects in the U.S. was $73,090 in 2012, with the best-paid 10% in the profession earning about $118,230. About 48% of residential architects' business comes from repeat clients, according to a 2012 survey by the American Institute of Architects.
由于那样的一种亲近关系,建筑师经常与他们的客户成为朋友,这就可能产生各种各样的特别待遇,从而提高这一并非总是获得高薪的职业的吸引力。根据美国建筑师学会(American Institute of Architects)2012年的一项调查,美国建筑师2012年的平均收入为73,090美元(约合人民币45.5万元),其中薪水最高的10%的人收入大约是118,230美元(约合人民币73.7万元),住宅建筑师的业务中48%来自老客户。
Designing a house can take years. That means countless hours spent together, often over meals and in the clients' homes, with discussions about personal subjects like sleeping habits.
设计一栋宅第可能会耗时几年,这就意味着建筑师和客户经常会在就餐期间和客户的家里一起度过无数个小时,讨论睡眠习惯等个人话题。
'It's such an intense, psychological experience to do a residence together. You learn their idiosyncrasies,' says Stephan Jaklitsch of New York firm Jaklitsch/Gardner Architects. Mr. Jaklitsch has worked on nine homes for Robert Duffy, president of Marc Jacobs International. They include a 6,000-square-foot house in Provincetown, Mass.; a number of multimillion-dollar Manhattan townhouses and, currently, a restoration of the historic Astor Tea House, which was built in 1948 by Vincent Astor in Rhinebeck, N.Y. (Mr. Duffy has since sold all but two of the homes.)
“一起建造居所是那样一种强烈的心理体验,你可以了解他们的个人喜好,”纽约姚克利奇/加德纳建筑师事务所(Jaklitsch/Gardner Architects)的斯蒂芬・姚克利奇(Stephan Jaklitsch)说。姚克利奇为马克・雅各布斯国际(Marc Jacobs International)总裁罗伯特・达菲(Robert Duffy)设计过9套居所,其中包括马萨诸塞州普罗温斯顿(Provincetown, Mass.)的一套面积6,000平方英尺(约合557平方米)的住房、好几套价值数百万美元的曼哈顿联排别墅以及目前正在修复中的一家有历史意义的阿斯特茶馆(Astor Tea House),该茶馆是1948年由纽约州莱茵贝克(Rhinebeck, N.Y.)的文森特・阿斯特(Vincent Astor)修建的。(达菲在那以后卖掉了除两处房产外的其它所有房子。)
The two met in 1999, introduced by a contractor. That relationship led to Mr. Jaklitsch designing more than 50 stores for Marc Jacobs around the world. Mr. Jaklitsch says Mr. Duffy has become such a good friend they'll often take spontaneous side trips for fun. 'We'll be at dinner in Lisbon and somehow we find ourselves flying to Marrakesh the next day,' he says. On a business trip to Singapore they ended up checking out the Louis Kahn National Assembly Building of Bangladesh in Dhaka, India. Mr. Duffy says the relationship is 'based on mutual respect and trust in each other's abilities to achieve the same goals.'
姚克利奇和达菲俩人1999年经承包商介绍认识。他们之间的那种关系让姚克利奇负责了世界各地50多家马克・雅各布斯商店的设计。姚克利奇说,达菲已经成了关系如此好的朋友,以至于他们经常会随兴地去旅行散心。“我们会在里斯本(Lisbon)吃晚餐,第二天却不知怎么回事就发现自己正飞往马拉喀什(Marrakesh),”他说。他们到新加坡出差,结果却从印度达卡(Dhaka, India)的孟加拉国民议会大楼里走出来。达菲说,这种关系“建立在互相尊重和信任彼此实现共同目标的能力的基础之上。”
Luxury travel is another perk. Garland Lasater, Jr. and his wife Mollie used frequent flyer miles to fly Ted Flato, of Lake Flato Architects in San Antonio, and his wife to Japan for a week, where Mr. Flato designed a trip for themselves and the Lasaters to look at gardens and buildings for inspiration. 'You have the privilege of getting to know these incredibly talented people. It becomes more than a working relationship,' says Mr. Lasater, who is now the godfather of Mr. Flato's daughter. Mr. Lasater learned about the architect/client bond from his father, who was intimate friends with O'Neil Ford, known as the grandfather of Texas Modernism.
豪华旅游是另一份特殊待遇。小加兰・拉萨特(Garland Lasater, Jr.)和他的妻子莫莉(Mollie)就曾使用他们的航空积分里程让 安东尼奥(San Antonio)市弗拉托湖建筑师事务所(Lake Flato Architects)的特德・弗拉托(Ted Flato)及夫人飞到日本呆了一周时间,弗拉托在那里安排他们自己和拉萨特夫妇做了一次旅行,参观花园和建筑以寻求灵感。“你有幸认识了这些才华横溢的人士,我们之间不仅仅是工作关系,”拉萨特说。他现在是弗拉托女儿的教父。弗拉托是从他父亲那里学到有关建筑师/客户关系方面的知识的,他父亲与人称德克萨斯现代主义(Texas Modernism)鼻祖的奥尼尔・福特(O'Neil Ford)是密友。
Miami architect Rene Gonzalez spent a week sailing with a client, Greek shipping executive Ion Varouxakis, in the Greek Islands on a yacht with five staff members. 'He wanted me to see how he lived,' says Mr. Gonzalez. The two went sightseeing together, and Mr. Gonzalez has an open invitation for a repeat trip.
迈阿密(Miami)建筑师勒内・冈萨雷斯(Rene Gonzalez)花了一整周时间与他的客户――希腊船运公司执行长约恩・瓦罗萨基斯(Ion Varouxakis)――及五名职员一道乘坐游艇在希腊诸岛间游历。“他想让我看看他是如何生活的,”冈萨雷斯说。他们俩一块儿去观光,冈萨雷斯还被邀请随时再次重游故地。
Like any friendship, the relationship between architect and client isn't always smooth sailing. They can have differences of opinion and run into tough spots. Still, architects say it is rare that projects become so combative they walk away.
与任何友情一样,建筑师和客户之间的关系并非总是一帆风顺。他们可能会有意见分歧,遭遇困境。尽管如此,建筑师说很少出现因项目争议太大而不欢而散的情形。
'Every client expands my life. You go into their world and you always learn something,' says Jim Olson, founding principal of the Seattle-based firm Olson Kundig Architects. 'But it's like family -- there are some you become closer to than others.' Mr. Olson spent his 70th birthday at Fallingwater with longtime clients and friends Nora and Vincent Petrucelli. Another client, in Korea, sent Mr. Olson and his wife on a weeklong vacation to historic temples and inns.
“每一名客户都会拓展我的生活。你走进他们的世界,总可以学到些东西,”总部位于西雅图(Seattle)的奥尔森・昆迪希建筑师事务所(Olson Kundig Architects)的创始负责人吉姆・奥尔森(Jim Olson)说,“不过这就像家庭一样――你跟一些人的关系比跟其他人更亲密。”奥尔森和他的长期客户及朋友诺拉(Nora)和文森特・彼得鲁切利(Vincent Petrucelli)一道在Fallingwater度过了他的70岁生日。在韩国的另一位客户出资让奥尔森和他太太去度假一周,入住酒店、参观历史名刹。
Joe Luna of Luna Design Group in Danvers, Mass., is passionate about small aircraft, so it was fortuitous that syndicated radio star John Garabedian liked a building that Mr. Luna had designed and interviewed him for home project priced around $2 million. Mr. Garabedian became a confidante, and Mr. Luna has gotten to fly on some of the 20 rare airplanes (including every early model of Piper) in Mr. Garabedian's collection.
马萨诸塞州丹弗斯(Danvers, Mass.)卢纳设计集团(Luna Design Group)的乔・卢纳(Joe Luna)热衷于小型飞机,因此当联合电台的明星约翰・加拉贝迪安(John Garabedian)喜欢上卢纳曾经设计过的一栋楼并就他家200万美元(约合人民币1,246万元)左右的工程与卢纳面谈时,这事就太凑巧了。加拉贝迪安成为了卢纳的知己,而卢纳则得以搭乘上加拉贝迪安收藏的20架飞机珍品中的部分飞机(其中包括风笛手飞机早期的每一种机型)。
Mr. Luna says that while he's happy when his clients become friends, that doesn't necessarily mean he wants his friends to become clients. 'There's always the expectation of if it's a friend, they should get a discount,' he notes, adding that he avoided doing work in his hometown for many years because 'I didn't want to be designing houses for the parents of the kids my kids played baseball with.'
卢纳说,虽然客户成为朋友时他很高兴,但那并不意味着他希望朋友成为自己的客户。“我总觉得如果客户是朋友的话,应该要给他们折扣,”他指出。他还说自己多年来避免在家乡接活,因为“我不想为跟我孩子一起打棒球的那些孩子的父母们设计房子。”
Having a well-connected client can also mean benefits like opera, theater and concert tickets. Architect Chris Pardo recently caught the main acts at the music festival Coachella in the desert south of Palm Springs, Calif., and met the hip-hop duo Outkast backstage. Mr. Pardo is designing a home for one of the executives at Goldenvoice, the festival's producer and the two have become friends.
拥有关系亲密的客户还可能意味着得到歌剧、戏剧和音乐会门票等好处。建筑师克里斯・帕多(Chris Pardo)最近在加利福尼亚州棕榈泉(Palm Springs, Calif.)南部沙漠中的科切拉音乐节(music festival Coachella)中参与了主要活动,并在后台遇到了嘻哈音乐二人组合Outkast。帕多正在为音乐节的制作商Goldenvoice公司的一名高管设计住宅,两人已成为了朋友。
Steve Rugo designed Chicago three-star Michelin restaurant Alinea, in the process becoming good friends with co-owner and chef Grant Achatz and co-owner Nick Kokonas, whose home he then designed. As a result, Mr. Rugo says he can now get a table at pretty much any restaurant anywhere in the world. It's often a very special table, like the one on a private upstairs candlelit terrace he and his family were recently given at the tiny La Villa Mahana on Bora Bora, run by Damien Rinaldi Dovio, formerly the chef at L'Orangerie in Beverly Hills. 'There's always a table for me. I just say Grant said I should come here to eat,' he says.
史蒂夫・鲁戈(Steve Rugo)设计了芝加哥的米其林三星餐厅Alinea,在这个过程中,他与餐厅的共同所有人兼厨师格兰特・阿卡兹(Grant Achatz)以及共同所有人尼克・科克纳斯(Nick Kokonas)成了好朋友,他随后还为科克纳斯设计了住房。结果,鲁戈说,他现在在世界任何地方的几乎所有餐厅都能得到餐位。那餐位经常都是一张非常特别的餐桌,就像他和他的家人最近在波拉波拉岛(Bora Bora)上La Villa Mahana餐厅楼上私密烛光露台上享用的那种餐桌。小小的La Villa Mahana餐厅由贝弗利山庄(Beverly Hills)橘园餐厅(L'Orangerie)前厨师达米安・里纳尔迪・多维奥(Damien Rinaldi Dovio)经营。“总是有我可以用餐的桌子,我只需说一声,格兰特说我应该到这儿来用餐,”他说。
There are benefits for the clients, too. Mr. Dungan, the Birmingham-based architect, says when he visits all those homes in Florida that he's designed, he also checks up on them and makes tweaks, and then incorporates what he learns in future designs. 'It's one thing to design a house. It's another to have to live with the decisions you've made,' he says. One night at a home in Alys Beach, he realized he'd designed a room without anywhere to put a cup of coffee or plug in for his cellphone while reading in bed. So he created a niche in the armoire and added an outlet.
客户也可以从这种关系中获益。家住伯明翰的建筑师邓根说,当他到访佛罗里达州那些他设计的所有宅第时,他也会对这些房屋进行检查,进行一些调整,然后把他吸取到的经验融入到未来的设计中。“设计房子是一回事,必须接受你所做的决定是另一回事,”他说。一天晚上在埃利斯海滩(Alys Beach)的一处居所中,他意识到他设计的一个房间里没有能在床上阅读时放杯咖啡或给手机充电的地方,于是他在大衣柜里做了一个孔位,加上了一个插座。
The closer a client becomes, the easier it is to design for them, say architects Elissa Morgante and Fred Wilson of Chicago firm Morgante Wilson Architects. The couple met Jim and Ann-Marie Streibich 20 years ago when they did an addition to their home in Wilmette. It turned out their children went to the same nursery school. Eight years later, when the Streibiches asked their now-close friends to design an 8,000-square-foot home on Lake Michigan, Mr. Wilson says he and Ms. Morgante plotted the floor plan as if they were there as guests. They even designed themselves the ideal guest room, where they now stay about three times a year on vacation.
客户与设计师的关系越亲近,为他们做设计就越容易,芝加哥莫尔甘特・威尔逊建筑师事务所(Morgante Wilson Architects)的建筑师埃莉萨・莫尔甘特(Elissa Morgante)和弗雷德・威尔逊(Fred Wilson)说。这对夫妇20年前在吉姆(Jim)和安-玛丽・斯特赖比奇(Ann-Marie Streibich)扩建位于维尔梅特(Wilmette)的住房时结识了他们。他们的孩子原来上的是同一所托儿所。八年后,当斯特赖比奇夫妇请现已是密友的两位设计师为其设计密歇根湖畔一栋8,000平方英尺(约合743平方米)的住宅时,威尔逊说他和莫尔甘特做楼层平面规划时权当自己是那里的客人。他们甚至给自己设计了理想的客房,现在他们一年要到这里来度假三次。
Mr. Streibich says he and his wife 'let [the architects] do what they want' with the design because they know them well enough to understand their aesthetics. As for visiting, Mr. Streibich says it is an open-door policy. That's a good thing, since Mr. Wilson plans on crashing at the couple's 4,000-square-foot Chicago penthouse after an occasional night on the town. 'If I get overserved and I need to sleep over, that is where I'll go,' he jokes.
斯特赖比奇说,他和他妻子“让(两位建筑师)做他们想做的”任何设计,因为他们足够了解对方,知道其审美情趣。至于到访一事,斯特赖比奇说他们实行的是门户开放政策。那是件好事,因为威尔逊打算偶尔在城里逍遥一夜之后到这对夫妇在芝加哥4,000平方英尺(约合372平方米)的顶层公寓去过夜。“如果我喝过了头,需要在别人家里过夜,那里就是我会去的地方,”他开玩笑说。