I don’t put my faith in “if you build it they will come;” I believe if you build it it better be damn good or no one will care it’s there.”



 

 


 


"Architecting my Life” By the Owner of OPA, Steve Goldstein, AIA

There are two quotes that impress me as an architect: the first is from Winston Churchill who said, “We shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us.” The second comes from world class architect Yoshio Taniguci, who redesigned the Museum of Modern Art . Not a bad accomplishment. Yoshio observed that “Architecture is basically a container of something. I hope they will enjoy not so much the teacup, but the tea.”


While I am a great admirer of Yoshio, I like to think my clients appreciate the teacup and the tea-- though a number of them are beer and wine-drinking aficionados. I believe in form and function. You could say that the form of the Museum of modern Art or any building for that matter, has to be held in context of its function – – in fact, I’m not sure you can separate the building from the art it houses. The building is part of the art—maybe the heart of it.


For those who care to know little bit more about my background here are some…


Fast Steve Goldstein Facts:

  • I attended The University of Illinois at Chicago School of Architecture while Stanley Tigerman was the director. How amazing was Tigerman? Using Google, you only have to type in the word “Stanley” and the first thing that comes up is Stanley Tigerman, not Stanley Cup or Stanley who said “Dr. Livingstone, I presume”? Tigerman is a Chicago native who completed 175 architectural works of art. I was honored to work in his presence and I have to say that he inspired me enormously and gave me the tools to start thinking as an architect.


  • After graduation, I worked for Witmer & Associates in Lake Forest. This experience was invaluable and terrifically satisfying. He taught me how an architecture firm should be run with his fantastic design ability, managerial skills and professionalism.


  • In order to get large firm experience, I went to work for ISI, Interior Space International. At that time, this was the interiors group of Epstein, Inc. Discovering  how a large firm operated with projects on a global scale with the ability to utilize different disciplines  of architecture including MEP, interiors, architecture and civil engineering, gave me a vision of how advanced and performance-oriented a firm could be. I’m proud that I can offer my clients big-time experience, stylistic and functional diversity, and complete commitment to customer service and personal involvement.


  • Everyone I work with is part of a pretty huge extended family that includes contractors, subcontractors, many other different types of associates and my actual family. Because I wanted to learn more about the business literally from the ground, I spent years with my family building one of the largest property restoration contracting businesses in the Chicago area pretty much throughout Illinois or wherever else. We constructed quite a resume, completing over 18,000 jobs valued at hundreds of millions of dollars over a 15-year period. This experience was invaluable in terms of my ability as an architect to know technically what will and won’t work. At OPA, we hold our structures in the context of reality versus physical reality.  I don’t put my faith in “if you build it they will come;” I believe if you build it better be damn good or no one will care it’s there.”