I like the attitude expressed by Prince-Ramus about going back to "first principles":

"Don't give us predigested solutions. Tell us what it needs to do, and let us figure out how to build it." 

 Go to the original article with pictures

FEBRUARY 23, 2006

The Koolhaas Kids Come of Age
By Andrew Blum

Rem Koolhaas, the Dutch architect famous for his coy theories on cities -- and, more recently, for dramatic and cerebral buildings such as the Seattle Central Library -- casts a long shadow. No one knows this better than Joshua Prince-Ramus, the majority owner and lead partner of the New York branch of the Office of Metropolitan Architecture (OMA), the firm Koolhaas founded in Rotterdam in 1975. Prince-Ramus and his colleagues are currently designing a theater for the Dallas Performing Arts Center, an art museum and mixed-use complex in Louisville, and an academic building at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

BusinessWeek Online Contributing Editor Andrew Blum spoke with Prince-Ramus at OMA's office in New York, the week before the architect headed out to the TED Conference in Monterrey, Calif.