Gottesdiener inspired by great teachers of architecture

Real Estate Weekly, May 26, 2004 by Peter Moore

Architect/developer T.J Gottesdiener attributes some of his inspiration to his legendary professors at Cooper Union, back when he was a student at the Village school in the 1970s.

But, he quickly added, much of his early inspiration also came from being in New York.

"Going to school in New York is a very unique experience," said Gottesdiener, who is a managing .partner at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP and is responsible for some of most complex and challenging projects in New York City.

"It's unmatched anyplace else. With the amount of diversity and cultural things you have in front of you, you just can't help being influenced."

After graduating in the late 1970s, Gottesdiener got his first job working for Polshek Partnership, led by New York architect Jim Polshek and his partner in charge Joseph L. Fleischer.

At the time, the firm was involved in a pharmaceutical company's project in New Jersey and developing an embassy in Lyon, France.

"Unfortunately, Jim had to make those trips" to France, Gottesdiener said.

For a year after, Gottesdiener left New York for Hartford, Conn. to work with a professor from Trinity College, where Gottesdiener had attended prior to Cooper Union.

There, he worked on smaller suburban office projects.

But in 1980, Gottesdiener's then girlfriend (now his wife of more than 20 years) came to New York for law school and Gottesdiener followed her.

He was "just pounding the pavement looking for work," he said, when SOM hired him.

"I was one of those classic Skidmore stories where I thought I would come, get a job work for a year, see what it was like to be in a place that did big projects, learn everything I needed to learn in a year or two and leave and do something else," he said.

"And that was 24 years ago and I still can't leave yet."

What stopped him?

"Skidmore stopped me," Gottesdiener said.

"They just gave me wonderful opportunities. The firm is very unique in its partnership ideas and its rejuvenation idea and they start looking for young people to take very strong leadership roles in project. And every time I got on a project, they started giving me more and more responsibilities and more and more opportunities and gave me the freedom to start being more involved in shaping projects. As soon as one project was finished--or even before--they were ready to hand me another one to start working on."

Many of the projects that Gottesdiener managed on were outside the United States. They included the Don Mills Road suburban office project, headed by Gordon Arnell, who later came back as chairman of Brookfield.

He also helped design the landside terminal at Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv, Israel.

Gottesdiener also became heavily involved in the reconstruction of the Philippines after dictator Ferdinand Marcos fled in 1986.

"It was one of those great opportunities when a client came in, knew of the SOM name and asked us to do a project and the partners at that time said, 'Look, why don't you see what you can make of this,'" Gottesdiener said.

He continued, "Before I knew it, I wound up with four, five or six different projects there--just meeting new clients and representing the firm and having the practice grow there."

The Philippines, which had not experienced a construction boom since the post-World War II era began to thrive and Gottesdiener said be enjoyed helping the area grow.

The architectural issues, he said, could be tricky, however.

"It was a whole new level of architecture to bring to them and it was a bit of a challenge to balance some of the growth there in zoning terms and match it with some of the urban issues of transportation and bringing the work force into downtown Manila," Gottesdiener said.

Gottesdiener's latest projects include recently handling the development of the Time Warner Center and, of course, the Freedom Tower at the World Trade Center site, working alongside architect David Childs.

The sometimes negative publicity the Time Warner Center generated in its development and opening weeks, including the death of a construction worker and a small fire in a restaurant soon after the center's opening.

Gottesdiener said he's taken the criticisms in stride.

"New York's a tough town," he said.

"The articles that get written are the articles about the problems (and) about the concerns--about the issues that make sale-able newspapers and make interesting articles," he said.

"These are not atypical problems. An unfinished building is a bit of an art along with a science."

He continued, "It's a dangerous business--being in the construction field. Sometimes I'm kind of amazed, when I see what's being done on a construction site, how safe things really are."

One thing that hasn't changed about the development field, Gottesdiener said, it's the opportunities afforded to those new to the business. Though they may not share the recognition afforded to him and David Childs, Gottesdiener said, projects are a team effort.

"I think that's one of the great things about Skidmore," he said.

"We have a young team very involved in the architecture and the engineering and the process of developing a project."