Before that even in Germany, you know, again... again because of the recognition from some of the smaller works. You know, people like Siemens and Daimler-Benz all asked me to do projects for them, you know, of a fairly large scale... office complexes. The Getty was an amazing experience in terms of the whole selection process. Since, they didn't quite know what they were doing, they asked 110 architects to send, you know, a resume and samples of their work for them to review. And they had a professional advisory committee that went through all the brochures and out of the 110, selected 30 architects. So then from the 30 they asked for more information and recommendations and an interview. And so from the 30, they then selected nine and they disbanded that first committee, and had a second committee which was composed of members of the board of trustees and other advisors. And they went to all of the nine to look at a building and to come to the office, and from that, they selected three. And with the three, you had... they went... every member of the committee came to the office at different times. They had to take them to show them different projects. I remember going to Atlanta three times with different people to show them the High Museum and went to Frankfurt. They went everywhere, I mean they travel around the world and after a year of this, finally I was chosen as the architect.
[Q] Who were the other two?
Jim Sterling and Maki were the other two finalists.
[Q] [Unclear]
And so that was the beginning of... of the Getty and that took a year. And I remember when I... it was... it was a Sunday night and I was sitting at home with my children, Joseph and Anna. And we were having dinner and the phone rang, and it was Harold Williams, who was the president of the Getty Trust. And he called to say, Richard, we're very happy to tell you that the board of trustees has finally chosen you as the architect for the Getty. I said, that's great, Harold that's wonderful, and he said, do you think we could have the building completed in three years? I said, it's taken a year to select the architect, I don't think we're... we don't even have a program for the... for the... what we're going to build there. I don't think we're going complete it in three years. I said but maybe in 12 years it would be finished. It took 12 years.
[Q] Yes, I remember when you were moving the mountains.
That took three years, just to move the earth but it was worth it. If you go there today it's amazing. It's really... if ever I'm seriously depressed, I should just get on a plane and go to the Getty.
