Robert Oshatz (image courtesy of the architect)
BY LUKE AREHART
The latest installment in our ongoing series profiling local architects, their careers and passions takes us to one of the city's most venerable and iconoclastic designers.
Robert Oshatz practices an organic architecture of bold curves and forms guided by the natural environment - and without regard for current trends. With homes and other projects across Oregon, the United States and Japan, Oshatz's style is born from the anything-is-possible 1960s and '70s. But although early in his career he studied under Frank Lloyd Wright Jr., Oshatz has long marched to his own drummer.
Portland Architecture: When did you first become interested in architecture as a possible career?
Oshatz: When I was in the seventh grade I had a choice between various industrial art classes in school, so I chose mechanical drafting. It was the first time in my life where I was praised for my efforts, other than sports. People would say, “you should be an architect.” Of course, I had no idea what an architect was at the time. When I was 12 or 13 I began to design houses and build models just for fun, and then it started to grow as a hobby.
When I started high school at age 15, there was an architect that had an office a block and a half from my house in Los Angeles. One day I asked him if I could come in each day after school and clean up the space, or perform other odd jobs. I figured it was a good way to watch and observe what an architect actually did. He agreed, and because he wasn’t too busy at the time, he started to teach me directly. As a result, I ended up going to school from 9am-12pm, and then from 1pm-5pm I worked for that architect. That is how it all started.
Chenequa residence, Milwaukee, Wisconsin (image courtesy Robert Oshatz)
Where did you study architecture and how would you rate the experience?
A lot of my studying was done in the early years when I worked for that architect during high school. Being young and impressionable, I thought he was the greatest architect in the world. There were other young people that came to work there as well, including architecture students from USC and other great schools. They tried to convince me that there were many great architects in the world by showing me magazine articles of different architects and their works, and then we would talk about them. That is where the education really started.
My institutional education began after I graduated from high school. I attended Arizona State purely because it was the closest school to my home in Los Angeles that I could afford to attend and I actually got accepted to. Since I had only attended high school for just half-a-day, my transcripts didn’t make me look like the most academic person in the world. The in-state schools considered it strange. Attending half-a-day school back in those days meant you were likely going to drop out of school and end up pumping gas for a living. Arizona State was close to home and more affordable than in-state schools at the time, so it was a good fit.
Miyasaka residence, Hokkaido, Japan (image courtesy Robert Oshatz)
What is your favorite building project that you’ve worked on?
I won’t take a job unless it’s going to be something that I know I am going to be in love with. Some architects have bread-and-butter work, but all of the jobs I’ve done were jobs that I really enjoyed and wanted to do; otherwise I would have turned them down. In the end, they are all my favorites.
Who has been an important mentor among your colleagues?
There haven’t been any face-to-face mentors in my career. I have independently studied a lot of different architects, both living and passed, and tried to understand as much as possible of each one. Even if they did work that I didn’t particularly appreciate, I still wanted to understand how and why they were doing it. I didn’t have a real mentor like they have today and I never worked for a long period of time in any one office to establish a relationship with a person who could become my mentor. I never had that luxury.
Fennell residence, Portland (image courtesy Robert Oshatz)
What part of the job do you like best, and as an architect what do you think you most excel at?
I enjoy trying to solve problems that clients present. I enjoy working on the floor plans and the initial design ideas. I particularly enjoy seeing the client’s reaction when I show them what I think is the solution to their problem. However, working drawings are a blessing and a curse.
When I first start to design a project, there is the initial excitement and all that goes with a new project. Then, the reality sets in of all the physical hard work of getting what is in my mind on to paper so that it can be explained. It’s the old adage of 10 percent of inspiration and 90 percent perspiration.
Many times, I can visualize in my mind things that I don’t technically have the skill to translate on to paper or the computer screen, which can be frustrating. Sometimes I get into the working drawings of a project and I really love it, other times I think I’m tired of working drawings and I don’t want to do it. I certainly go through different moments. It also depends on my mood.
Stevens-Harnell residence, Los Angeles (image courtesy Robert Oshatz)
When it comes to the technical side, before there were computers, I really liked the trigonometry I had to do on a lot of my buildings to find dimensions for my working drawings. I actually enjoyed sitting down and going through the math and getting instant gratification. That has all been taken away from me with the use of a computer.
What are some Portland buildings (either new or historic) that you most admire?
That’s hard to answer because particular buildings don’t stick in my mind. I can’t think offhand of a particular building in Portland of another architect that I’m particularly moved by. Most buildings I don’t care for, but I can find details and different elements that were done particularly well that I can appreciate. I mainly look at the building and try to think about if the architect understood what he was doing or if he was just copying from a magazine. If they understand what they are doing even if it’s something that I don’t care for personally, I can appreciate the fact that they were being honest and creative without copying something that was popular for a moment.
Who is a famous architect you’d like to see design a building in Portland?
The architects I like and appreciate the most probably would not get a good reception in Portland. I think Portland tends to be a little bit conservative in terms of design. Unfortunately there is not a lot of imagination going on in the buildings that are being built. More lip service is given to wonderful ideas, but when execution time comes it seems to be the same old thing over and over again. I don’t keep a close eye on what’s going on here. Even though I live here, I hardly ever do any work in the Portland area. I’m not intensely involved in what’s going on around here while I’m working in other parts of the country or other sections of the state; my work keeps my focus and concentration enough that I don’t really have time to pay attention. Sad to say, considering I have lived in Portland since 1969.
Wilkinson residence, Portland (image courtesy Robert Oshatz)
Name something besides architecture (sneakers, furniture, umbrellas) you love the design of.
Music, especially classical. I really enjoy the structure and the compositional aspects of classical music. Architecture and music have a very close relationship with one another in their use of compositions. In all of the arts, in fact, the basic composition is the same; the architect might build a wall with bricks, a landscape architect might build a wall with plant material, a musician might build it with sound, and a painter might build it with color. In the end, we are all using the same basic compositional structure.
What are three of your all-time favorite movies?
That’s another tough one, because my tastes change and evolve. For example, I saw a movie in the early 60’s and I thought it was the funniest movie I ever saw. For years and years I looked for a copy, including online and in movie stores, and I couldn’t find it. Then one day about a year ago all of a sudden it appeared on Netflix so I watched it immediately. When it was over, I thought to myself, “What was so funny about this movie?” It really wasn’t that good.
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