On the snow-covered, bitterly cold museum construction site here, word went out to the assembled crowd: The helicopter had landed.
在白雪覆盖、冷得让人难受的博物馆施工地点，消息在聚集的人群中传开：直升机已经降落了。
The Japanese architect Tadao Ando was making one of his twice-yearly, 7,000-mile trips from Osaka to New York to the Berkshires for a project that had gone on longer than anyone, including Mr. Ando, had expected at the outset: the dozen-year, $145 million expansion of the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, which is finally scheduled to open in July.
日本建筑师安藤忠雄当时正在进行自己一年两次、长达7000英里的旅行，从大阪飞到纽约，到伯克夏郡指导一个耗时超过所有人（包括他本人）最初预期的项目：斯特林和弗兰锡恩·克拉克艺术博物馆(Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute)的扩建工程，它耗时12年，耗资1.45亿美元，终于定于今年7月开幕。
Mr. Ando does not like to leave Japan for very long, and, initially, he didn't know where Williamstown was. He signed on because of the natural beauty of the site and what he called the masterpieces in the Clark's collection.
安藤忠雄不喜欢离开日本太久，起初他并不知道威廉斯敦在哪里。他签约是因为那个地方的天然美景以及克拉克博物馆收藏的杰作。
The Clark, which opened in 1955, founded by an heir to the Singer sewing fortune, is a revered jewel-box museum with a stellar group of European and American works by masters like Degas, Sargent and Monet. The original neo-Classical-style white marble building was joined by a 1970s Brutalist structure, the Manton Research Center. The New York architect Annabelle Selldorf is renovating both of the existing older structures, and the landscape firm Reed Hilderbrand is reconfiguring the grounds.

克拉克博物馆1955年开放，由辛格缝纫财团的一位继承人创立，它是一个令人敬畏的、充满宝物的博物馆，收藏有欧洲和美国的很多大师的杰作，包括德加斯(Degas)、萨金特(Sargent)和莫奈(Monet)。最早的建筑是新古典主义风格的白色大理石建筑，20世纪70年代加入了一个野兽派建筑——曼顿研究中心(Manton Research Center)。纽约建筑师安娜贝勒·塞尔道夫(Annabelle Selldorf)正在整修这两个现存的较老的建筑，景观设计公司里德·希尔德布兰德(Reed Hilderbrand)正在重新布置庭院。

The many-faceted master plan also called for a new visitor, exhibition and conference center designed by Mr. Ando, who has built very rarely in the United States, notably the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth and the Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts in St. Louis.
这个多元化的总体规划还包括一个新的游客、展览和会议中心，设计师是安藤忠雄，他在美国的设计作品很少，其中比较著名的有沃斯堡现代艺术博物馆(Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth)和圣路易斯的普利策艺术基金会(Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts in St. Louis)。
And his arrivals are hotly anticipated. A winner of the Pritzker Prize, he is renowned for instilling a thoughtful air of calm in his simply arranged structures of thick-walled concrete and is treated with great reverence at the Clark, especially since he completed the widely acclaimed Stone Hill Center on a wooded hillside here in 2008. It houses two art galleries and a series of conservation labs with magnificent views of the Taconic Range and the Green Mountains.
人们热切期待他的到来。他是普利兹克建筑奖获得者，以在构造简单的厚壁混凝土建筑中注入一丝深思的平静而闻名，他在克拉克博物馆受到了十分尊敬的对待，特别是2008年他在纽约林木繁茂的山坡上完成广受赞誉的石山中心(Stone Hill Center)之后。石山中心有两个画廊和一系列保护实验室，能看到塔科尼克山和绿山的优美景色。
Trailed by a dozen workers and museum staff members, Mr. Ando immediately made the rounds to inspect the progress on his latest Clark building, a low-slung visitor center set on a three-tiered reflecting pool that provides a focal point for the whole campus. After approving various details — in particular the lack of porousness in the concrete — he pronounced the progress a success.

安藤忠雄很快开始四处走动，察看克拉克博物馆最新建筑的进展，后面跟着十几个工人和博物馆员工。这个低矮的游客中心建在一个三层倒影池上，是整个庭院的焦点。在肯定了各方面的细节——特别是混凝土不漏水——之后，他宣布进展顺利。

Then came the banter. He and Michael Conforti, the Clark's director, have been involved in an odd-couple relationship since 2001, when, after a long selection process and a long courtship, Mr. Conforti persuaded him to take on the project. In an era when huge new museum projects are par for the course, the interplay at the Clark demonstrates how the give and take between designer and client turns divergent ideas into a synthesis of bricks and mortar — or in this case, concrete and granite.
接下来是谈笑时间。他和克拉克博物馆的馆长迈克尔·孔福尔蒂(Michael Conforti)从2001年开始了一段古怪的搭档关系，当时在长时间的挑选和恳求之后，孔福尔蒂说服他接下了这个项目。那个年代，兴建大型新博物馆是常事，这个项目表明设计师和客户之间的互动能把不同意见变成砖与泥的混合物——在这里也许应该说成混凝土与花岗岩的混合物。
"He's a visionary," Mr. Conforti said of Mr. Ando. "We needed an architectural vocabulary that could unify the campus without copying the two styles of building we already have."
“他是个有预见力的人，”孔福尔蒂这样评价安藤忠雄，“我们需要一个能把这个庭院统一起来的建筑词汇，而不只是模仿两个已有建筑的风格。”
But no one ever said hiring a starchitect would make life easy.
但是没人说雇佣一位明星建筑师会让事情变得轻松。

"The director is very critical," Mr. Ando burst out at one point, through a translator who shadowed him on his visit. He had a large smile on his face as he continued: "He is a strong man. He has an opinion, and he sticks to it."
“馆长非常挑剔，”安藤忠雄一度大笑着说。全程陪伴他的翻译替他翻译。他脸上充满笑意地继续说道：“他是个很强势的人。有自己的主见，而且很执着。”
Mr. Conforti followed up by saying, "It's been an energetic relationship."
孔福尔蒂跟着说道，“我们的关系很积极。”
The back and forth between the proudly self-taught Mr. Ando — who was once a boxer — and Mr. Conforti, a Harvard Ph.D. who has been running the Clark for 20 years, has pushed the project to be more ambitious than it might otherwise have been.
骄傲的自学成才的建筑师安藤忠雄（他曾是个拳击运动员）和哈佛大学哲学博士孔福尔蒂（他担任克拉克博物馆馆长达20年）之间的互动把这个项目变得比最初的设想更有野心。

The telling details are two walls of red granite at the entrance, as well as the tiered reflecting pools in back. The first was Mr. Conforti's idea and the second, Mr. Ando's. Neither of them was thrilled with the other's suggestion at first, but they learned to embrace both elements in the process of working together.
其中最显眼的两个细节是入口处的两堵红色花岗岩墙壁和后面的分层倒影池。第一个是孔福尔蒂的主意，第二个是安藤忠雄的想法。一开始他们都没有为对方的建议感到兴奋，但是他们在合作过程中学会了接受这两个元素。
Mr. Ando's close friend Kazuhito Yoshii, a New York art dealer, was trailing along during Mr. Ando's recent Clark visit and has witnessed the interplay many times.
纽约艺术商吉井和弘是安藤忠雄的密友。在他最近访问克拉克博物馆期间，吉井一直陪着他。吉井多次见证了他们的互动。
"It's a long-term relationship. It's like a marriage," Mr. Yoshii said.
“他们之间是一个长期的关系，就像婚姻，”吉井和弘说。

Since completing the Stone Hill Center, Mr. Ando has focused on creating a visitor center that can accommodate modern museum necessities like a gift shop and cafe, as well as the large temporary exhibition spaces the Clark has always lacked. It is scheduled to open on July 4 with "Make It New," a show of abstract paintings from the National Gallery of Art.
在完成石山中心的项目后，安藤忠雄把注意力放到设计这个游客中心上来，它需要既能容纳现代博物馆的基本需求，比如礼品店和咖啡店，也能容纳克拉克博物馆一直缺乏的大型临时展览空间。它计划7月4日和“让它变新”(Make It New)展览同时开幕，这个展览是国家美术馆的抽象画展览。
To emphasize the natural beauty of the Clark's 140-acre setting and to defer to the original white marble building, beloved among the Clark's patrons, both Mr. Ando and Mr. Conforti were keen on putting much of the center's mass underground, while avoiding gloom.
为了凸显克拉克博物馆140英亩的环境的天然美景，而且与深受克拉克博物馆的出资人们喜爱的最初的白色大理石建筑相呼应，安藤忠雄和孔福尔蒂都渴望把游客中心的大部分人群转移到地下，同时不能太阴暗。
Mr. Ando has shown an ability to suffuse rooms with light in surprising ways. One of his most famous projects is the Ibaraki Kasugaoka Church in Ibaraki, Japan, which is known as the Church of the Light because of the cruciform-shaped opening in the concrete wall behind the altar.
安藤忠雄已经表现出用令人意外的方式让房间充满阳光的能力。他最著名的一个项目是日本茨城县的光之教堂，因神坛后面混凝土墙上的十字形裂缝而得名。

Bold, simplified gestures like that are his stock in trade. "I pursued simplicity to an extreme," Mr. Ando said of his visitor's center design, which is essentially two concrete and glass pavilions connected by a long gallery. "It's like a swan with its wings spread."
那种大胆、简洁的手法是他的惯用手段。“我追求简单到了极致，”安藤忠雄谈起游客中心的设计时说，“它像一个展翅的天鹅。”这个游客中心本质上就是由一个长廊连接起两个混凝土玻璃展馆。
Mr. Ando's devotion to concrete is part of his architectural signature. "Using a material that is ubiquitous, that is everywhere, but still creating something that nobody else can — that's my motto," Mr. Ando said.
安藤忠雄对混凝土的钟爱是他的建筑标志之一。“用随处可见的材料创造出别人创造不出来的东西——这是我的座右铭，”安藤忠雄说。
But Mr. Conforti was also keen to have Minnesota red granite as an integrating element, because it is already featured on the campus, notably the cladding of the Manton building. He recalls the architect resisting for a time (though Mr. Ando now remembers otherwise). In any case, Mr. Ando agreed to use the granite for the first time in his career, for two red walls that serve as the focal point of the entrance. Visitors will walk through the point where the two walls almost meet. They also create an outdoor courtyard and help hide the building's mass upon approach.
但是孔福尔蒂也渴望把明尼苏达州的红色花岗岩作为一个组成要素，因为它已经是这个庭院的特色了，尤其是曼顿中心的外墙。他回忆说这位建筑师抵制了一段时间（不过安藤忠雄的回忆不是这样的）。不管怎样，安藤忠雄在事业中首次同意使用花岗岩，用在两堵红墙上，作为入口的焦点。游客们将走过两堵墙几乎相交的地方。这两堵墙还创造了一个室外庭院，帮助隐藏刚到达这个地方的游客。

From the beginning, Mr. Ando felt strongly that a water feature would unify the campus. "I use water quite often in my work," he said. Mr. Conforti acknowledged that he hadn't jumped at the idea of the tiered pools at first, nor had his trustees.
从一开始，安藤忠雄就强烈感觉一个水景将把这个庭院统一起来。“我经常在作品中用水，”他说。孔福尔蒂承认自己一开始并没有欣然接受分层水池的想法，董事会的人也没有欣然接受。
He said: "I think some of the practical people on the board thought, ‘Why build a water feature if it's nonfunctional?' It's not a very New England thing to do." Mr. Conforti decided that humor was the best strategy when it came to convincing others. "When I first introduced the concept to the community in a slide show back in 2003, my first image of it had a Zamboni," he said. "I wanted people to think of it as a fun place to be, not as an architectural affectation."
他说：“我想董事会里的一些注重实用性的人当时在想，‘为什么要建一个没有实用功能的水景?' 它不是一个非常符合新英格兰作风的做法。”孔福尔蒂认为，在说服别人的时候，幽默是最好的策略。“2003年我第一次用幻灯片把这个设计介绍给董事会的时候，我的第一张图是赞博尼磨冰机，”他说，“我想让人们把它当成一个好玩的地方，而不是建筑虚饰。”
Mr. Ando, 72, does not strike most who meet him as affected. Given the severity and serenity of his work, his personality takes some people by surprise: a cross between a Japanese philosopher king and an impish uncle, cracking jokes at news conferences and at forums for Clark patrons.
72岁的安藤忠雄给大多数见过他的人留下的印象都不是矫揉造作。鉴于他的作品庄重、宁静，他的个性让有些人感到意外：他是日本哲人和顽皮大叔的结合体，他在新闻发布会上以及为克拉克博物馆的赞助人们举办的论坛上开玩笑。
He takes his work seriously, but not solemnly. He once named his dog Le Corbusier, after his architectural idol, and kept him around the office. "He could tell the good clients from the bad clients," Mr. Ando said. "He would have been quite alerted when he saw Michael."
他认真看待自己的作品，但并不郑重其事。他曾经用自己的建筑学偶像勒·柯布西耶(Le Corbusier)的名字给自己的狗命名，并让狗待在办公室里。“他能判断客户的好坏，”安藤忠雄说，“他要是看到迈克尔，一定很警惕。”
The legacy of Mr. Conforti will surely rest on the expansion plan's success, and on compromises made over the decade.
孔福尔蒂的遗产无疑将是扩展计划的成功以及这十年做出的折中方案。
He's thousands of miles away, Mr. Conforti said, "and he's an architect who is special because of his sculptural, light-filled spaces and not necessarily his devotion to museum programming."
孔福尔蒂说，他在几千英里之外，“作为建筑师，他的特别之处在于雕塑般的、充满阳光的空间，而不必是对博物馆规划的投入。”
"The respect we had for each other's point of view evolved over time," he added.
“我们对彼此观点的尊重随着时间在增长，”他补充说。
As he wrapped up his visit, Mr. Ando seemed pleased. "Ultimately, we got what we wanted," he said. "When the common goal is to have good architecture, usually the fight doesn't end as a fight. It ends as a collaboration."
在结束旅行的时候，安藤忠雄似乎很高兴。“最终，我们得到了我们想要的，”他说，“如果共同目标是设计一个好建筑，那通常争论就不会以争论结束。而是以合作结束。”