John Portman was revolutionary for a number of reasons – the use of exposed concrete, the hotel atrium, his urban planning perspective [[those damn berms), because we was a real estate developer as well as an architect. The fact that Portman was creating the same forms in multiple cities actually set him aside from other architects, who seek to create something different with each project. Henry Ford II and company could have hired architects, planners, and designers to create whatever they wanted, and they chose Portman, with all of the things that he stands for. That is making a statement – it is not accidental.

Do you think Frank Lloyd Wright wasn’t making a statement with his architecture because he designed a whole bunch of usonian houses?