Today, I bring you a reggae star and a leading architect both of whom received prestigious awards recently. Jimmy Cliff [pictured above] won a Grammy last Sunday for Rebirth and Steven Holl won the AIA Gold Medal last year—and his firm is about to begin designing the John F. Kennedy Center expansion. I write about both in today's Wall Street Journal.
As part of my "Anatomy of a Song" series for the WSJ's Arena section, I interviewed Cliff, bassist Jackie Jackson and guitarist Hux Brown on the making of "The Harder They Come"—the title song of the soundtrack that introduced reggae to the U.S. when it was released in February 1973. You'll find this article here.
Meanwhile, Steven Holl [pictured above] is the subject of my "House Call" column for the Mansion section today. Holl talks about his weekend property two hours north of New York City. He started by buying a 1952 fieldstone house, adding an "L" for his dining room and then a warped cube and a T-shaped art gallery—all facing a 29-acre lake. In March, he's heading home to Washington State to celebrate the spring equinox with his dad.
The house he designed there is aligned so that on March 20, the sun will pass directly through a notch in the fireplace. Let's hope for a clear morning. You'll find the article here. [Pictured below, Steven Holl's Museum of Art & Architecture in Nanjing, China]
