The Foundation

Some autobiographical information will help put the project in perspective. Because, I was clearly born to build something.

When I was about 5, I began taking my parents' LP records out of the sleeves to build houses on our living room floor. I would stand the sleeves on their sides, using the double-sided sleeves - big in the early '60's - as supporting corners, leaning the single sleeves against them for walls. Apparently I was a structural integrity prodigy. I did layouts of the entire house with rooms - nothing too elaborate, just the average designs of a 5-year-old architect. My dad, never quite having gotten over my breaking his original 78 of "Sing, Sing, Sing" as a toddler, wasn't all that happy. My mother was more encouraging.

Around Thanksgiving 1966 my family moved into a new house. Well, new for us - it was actually about 20 years old at the time. An expanded Cape Cod-design, it consisted of several rooms, with none of them large enough to easily arrange furniture in. I occupied the second downstairs bedroom behind my parents'. After living there for a few months, my mother heard of an interior design class being taught at the local adult night school. Thinking this could provide some much-needed ideas, she enrolled and quickly threw herself into the first assignment - the students had to draw scale layouts of their own homes, with tiny scaled cutouts of furniture. She diligently completed the assignment and proudly brought it into class one evening, showing it to the teacher and asking for his advice. After studying it carefully for a few moments, he politely yet firmly replied, "Sell the house." My mother was highly offended. I, at 7, was highly amused. I should have paid more attention.