veinteun dias

i learned before coming to argentina that the pritzker ceremony [info here] would be held in this city. i even brought peter zumthor's book [thinking architecture, 2nd ed., 2005, birkhauser] to read on the plane coming over. but who would have thought that i'd encounter him on our last sunday brunch at the park hyatt duhau's Gioia Restaurant-- reviewed, incidentally, by residents and visitors alike, to have an elegant- albeit, indulgent [unlimited champagnoise, unlimited malbec, etc, etc] sunday brunch that lasted for the better of three hours...

anyway, upon arriving at the hotel from the nearby bellas artes [seeing for the last time the sole morandi in the city, and the works of modern argentinian painters: berni, barradas, solar, figari, pettoruti, schoavoni] a tall white haired and bearded gentleman in loose grey coat and shawl was surveying the hotel's lobby and restaurant entrance. i heard him exchange some remarks in english with the restaurant's maitre'd and then saw him go out into the garden between the two buildings, up the stairs, then saw him enter the old palace where he surveyed the view from the terrace of the main restaurant [duhau, park hyatt link]. i thought nothing of it. then my dining companion and i were seated. and then this same gentleman came back to Gioia Restaurant. then it hit me that he oddly resembled too closely the photos from the two books that i owned and, lately, his mugs from the pritzker announcements. i seriously suspected that he must be the pritzker winner. my friend encouraged me to go and shake his hand and congratulate him but i could not, for the life of me, remember his name right then and there. he started to gather food from the cheese and and salad station and it first appeared that he was to dine alone. not two minutes upon returning to his table and where he commenced to eat, he was interrupted by two ladies and a gentleman, i'd guessed staff from the pritzker foundation or local architects and whisked him away. i overheard them mentioning a private dining room.

i asked later discretely from the maitre'd if the gentleman [at this time, i remembered his name] was indeed peter zumthor. he nodded. and that he had been staying here for the last three days [the hyatt foundation administers the pritzker and it's only fitting for zumthor to stay here; the pritzker cememony was held this past friday near plaza san martin, nearby] the maitre'd also informed me that he was to leave after brunch.

that, folks, is my near brush with genius and the handshake with the 2009 pritzker winner that was NOT meant to be... [though my iPhone was on the ready, pics above.]

nytimes links on zumthor

slide show of his work