Fortune Favors the Brave

lbjlibrary: May 12, 1966. Lady Bird, President Johnson, Max...

Thu, 29 Nov 2012 11:25:48 -0600

May 12, 1966. Lady Bird, President Johnson, Max Brooks, W.W. Heath, and Bill Moyers, among others, meet with architect Gordon Bunshaft to see his concept model for the future Presidential Library which will be built on the UT Austin campus.

In his oral history, Bunshaft describes the presentation:

Bunshaft: The President walked in and he said, “Mr. Bunshaft, I only have five minutes.” God, I ran him back and forth between these two things, and he stayed about fifteen minutes. I didn’t ever figure out how he could understand what I was talking about. This is a complex building, if you see it, especially on drawings. I ran him back and forth. That was a Friday. He didn’t say a word [about] whether he liked it or not. He left and Mrs. Johnson said, “Well, we’ll have to do a lot of thinking and talking about this.” Then that was the end of it. Monday the President called up Heath in Texas and said, “I approve the design.”

Mulhollan: From a lengthy fifteen minute briefing.

B: Yes. That floored everybody, because we assumed it would take at least a month. […] Frank [Stanton] had thought that the President might talk of this. He didn’t know about the approval. In fact, I didn’t either Tuesday. And [Johnson] described the building to his wife. After dinner, President Johnson described every damned detail of this building to Mrs. Stanton.

M: And got it right.

B: Got the whole damned thing. Now, how the hell he could have understood it and remembered it from fifteen minutes is beyond me. In fact, the next meeting I had, I talked to one of the secretaries, Juanita Roberts, and I said, “Look, he must have come back and studied that model.” The model was taken away the next morning, but he could have come back that evening. She’s very close, not his secretary, she’s an assistant; she’s not out there, but she’s in Washington—anyhow, swore up and down that the President never went back.

— Transcript, Gordon Bunshaft Oral History Interview I, 6/25/69, by Paige E. Mulhollan, Electronic Copy, LBJ Library.

Photo

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 08:11:50 -0600

It’s been a long and terrible week, but I can mark...

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 10:55:01 -0600

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lbjlibrary: Meanwhile, in Manitou, Colorado: Claudia Alta “Lady...

Thu, 08 Dec 2011 16:40:49 -0600

lbjlibrary:

Meanwhile, in Manitou, Colorado: Claudia Alta “Lady Bird” Taylor (age 13) and her friend are riding donkeys. 1926.

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