[Marxism] Oscar Niemeyer: Legendary architect to celebrate 100th birthday

["Walter Lippmann" <walterlx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

MIAMI HERALD
Legendary architect to celebrate 100th birthday
Fellow Brazilians spared no expense in celebrating the 100th birthday 
of Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer.
Posted on Fri, Dec. 14, 2007

http://www.miamiherald.com/579/story/344265.html 

BY JACK CHANG
McClatchy News Service
France's ambassador to Brazil Antoine Pouilliete, left, toasts with 
Brazil's architect Oscar Niemeyer at an event commemorating 
Niemeyer's 100th birthday in Rio de Janeiro on Wednesday. 
Niemeyer was born on Dec. 15, 1907.
RICARDO MORAES / AP PHOTO

RIO DE JANEIRO --

When the legendary Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer turns 100 on
Saturday, he'll mark the milestone in typically humble fashion, with
an intimate lunch for friends and family.

His fellow Brazilians, on the other hand, are sparing no expense in
piling on the pomp and circumstance for a man many consider an
artistic genius, national founding father and living legend, and
whose buildings still shape the way Brazilians think about
themselves.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva led the way, declaring 2008 the
''Year of Oscar Niemeyer'' and asking that all of Niemeyer's
buildings in the country be added to a registry that protects them
from alteration or destruction without special permits.

In Niemeyer's hometown of Rio de Janeiro, the newspaper O Globo is
projecting images of his work on buildings throughout the city, and
exhibits about him are drawing thousands of visitors. The country's
school texts already amply cover his career.

''In three centuries, maybe no one here will be remembered, but the
name of Oscar Niemeyer definitely will be,'' said Godofredo Pinto,
the mayor of Niteroi, a city near Rio that's been transformed by a
new complex of Niemeyer-designed buildings.

Lula joined the chorus of praise while visiting the architect in his
Rio de Janeiro studio Nov. 30. ''Oscar Niemeyer is my inspiration,''
the president said. On Wednesday, France awarded the architect the
Legion of Honor, its highest award.

Niemeyer began his career in the 1930s and has never stopped working.
Along the way, he befriended legends such as Brazilian President
Juscelino Kubitschek, French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre and Cuban
leader Fidel Castro.

The famed workaholic single-handedly designed dozens of government
palaces, ministries and other major buildings in Brasilia, the
country's capital, which was built from scratch during the 1950s.

Outside Brazil, his most famous project is the layout of the United
Nations headquarters in New York, which he helped plan.

He's also dreamed up theaters, libraries, prefabricated public
schools in Rio de Janeiro state, the stadium for the city's annual
Carnaval parade, the slum house of his retired driver, the
headquarters of the French Communist Party in Paris and a sprawling
monument to Latin America in the Brazilian city of Sao Paulo.

Responsible for more than 175 projects worldwide, he won the Pritzker
Architecture Prize, the field's most prestigious honor, in 1988.

A die-hard devotee of old-school communism, he spent 18 years in
exile during Brazil's 1964 to 1985 dictatorship and was barred from
entering the United States for about two decades.

His ever-growing body of work, however, made him legendary. The
Niemeyer look is unmistakable, with its curving ramps, white domes
and monumental arches, all cast in reinforced concrete.

Even as he attains the 100-year mark, Niemeyer's studio is as busy as
ever, overseeing eight projects on two continents.

Niemeyer didn't grant many interviews in anticipation of his
birthday. Speaking to McClatchy last year, he played down the
superlatives and described himself as a simple architect doing his
work.

He said his designs were meant to trigger the imagination of the
layperson who might not know anything about architecture.

His wife of 76 years had died two years before the interview, and he
would marry his longtime secretary, then 60-year-old Vera Lucia
Cabreira, a month later.

''I have to live, I have to have a woman at my side, I have to have
friends at my side, I have to work like any other person,'' he said
in his studio overlooking Copacabana Beach.

``I don't do anything extraordinary. I adapt.''

Last weekend, Niemeyer remained the humble giant while attending the
opening of an exhibit about his work at the flying saucer-shaped art
museum in Niteroi that's quickly become one of his most famous
creations.

With his great-grandson Joao Pedro and his wife supporting him,
Niemeyer gingerly stepped down the museum's curving ramp into a crowd
of admirers, who burst into applause.

Looking embarrassed by the attention, Niemeyer flashed a shy smile
before climbing into a waiting car that whisked him away.

Such modesty didn't throw high school student Mariana Baptista, who'd
come to the museum with two friends to catch a glimpse of the
architect.

Although Baptista was born decades after the construction of
Brasilia, she said she had learned about Niemeyer through the
theater, museum, churches and other buildings he'd designed well into
his 90s for Niteroi.

''He's a genius!'' Baptista said. ``No one else would have thought of
putting a flying saucer here!''



















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