I wish there were some way to share with you, Gentle Readers, the meandering course that an issue of arcCA takes as it gradually comes together. I enjoy the meander, and I think you might, too. But I’m not sure how to convey it.
For this issue, it was fascinating to see how, here in the Bay Area (I live in Berkeley), all roads lead to Jerry Weisbach. As you’ll read in David Meckel’s interview, Jerry is an attorney who was first an architect. The legacy of his and his architect-turned-lawyer partner Ken Natkin’s practice suffuses the Bay Area architectural community to an astonishing degree. It began to make sense, then, to organize a portion of this issue around their legacy, which is what we have done.
There are, of course, other attorneys who began their working lives as architects and who have contributed in similar ways to the profession. We don’t mean to slight them by focusing on Natkin & Weisbach; rather, we hope that this focus can be seen as representative of other, similarly integrative practices. (One also hears of the opposite—lawyers who’ve become architects—but surely that’s craziness.)
As we like to say around the editorial garret, we cast a wide net, but poorly mended. Our catch is, consequently, broad but not comprehensive. The biggest problem, for me, is that some of the most interesting material emerges when it’s too late to include in the issue. Such has happened again, with the popping-up of an insightful article on the photography of buildings, which you will recall was the theme of 04.3, “Photo Finish.” I just couldn’t bear to file it away this time, so we’ve instituted a section called “Continuation,” where from time to time you may expect to see follow-up material on a topic covered in a previous issue.
Originally published 1st quarter 2005, in arcCA 05.1, “Good Counsel.”
