Herhold: Designer of two San Jose museums dies in Mexico

Above all, Ricardo Legoretta understood the light of San Jose. The Mexico City architect, who designed the Children's Discovery Museum and the Tech Museum of Innovation, died last Friday at 80. He left behind a legacy of color and drama -- and a story about bubble-gum pink paint.

The tall, patrician Legoretta was famous for his bold choice of hues. He decorated the exterior of Mexico City's Camino Real hotel in pink and yellow. He erected a 10-story purple bell tower in Los Angeles' Pershing Square. And he designed the red-rock-colored San Antonio library.

Already in his mid-50s, he burst on the San Jose scene in the 1980s, when he was selected as the architect for both the children's museum and the Tech, then expected to be built next to each other south of San Carlos Street. When the Tech's site was moved to Plaza de Cesar Chavez, the children's museum opened first.

The 1990 building marked a revolution in San Jose architecture, a m?lange of triangles with a sweeping roofscape in a city that had clung to the safety of gray and tan rectangles. It might have been more revolutionary still had San Jose's leaders kept to the bubble-gum pink color Legoretta chose.

No pink

They did not. Ex-Mayor Tom McEnery described the events in his book, "The New City-State.'' Impressed by Legoretta's persuasive manner, the museum's board members adopted a pink they privately

thought disastrous. At the last minute, McEnery and redevelopment director Frank Taylor persuaded Legoretta to change to a more muted purple.

(At the time, reports circulated that the city had taken delivery of a quantity of pink paint. I was never able to nail those reports down. But the bubble-gum shade never appeared on city buildings).

The Children's Discovery Museum, alas, was afflicted with problems that stemmed from its design. The interior was suited imperfectly for children's needs. The roof leaked, and the joints were not sealed properly. Two years after the museum's opening, the redevelopment agency embarked on a repair job that cost almost $1 million. Agency officials blamed the architect's drawings.

San Jose leaders nonetheless stayed with Legoretta as the designer for the Tech Museum, bringing in the local firm of Steinberg Associates to assure practicality. Legoretta's first design for the Tech, which had a soaring cylindrical tower, was muted when the building was completed in 1998.

Sense of perspective

Even though he had his difficulties in San Jose, the famous architect retained a sense of perspective. McEnery has a story of Legoretta inviting him on a San Jose tour one afternoon a few months after the decision to dump the pink. The ex-mayor says they visited the children's museum and saw the differences as light struck it at noon, late noon, and dusk.

McEnery remembers no rancor. "Tom,'' the ex-mayor recalls Legoretta saying, "there are only three places on earth where the light is so very unique -- the high plains of Spain, the highland spots of Mexico, and here. That's why I love to work here.''

As an endorsement of San Jose, it was not shabby, not shabby at all. Even if the color wasn't bubble-gum pink.

Contact Scott Herhold at sherhold@mercurynews.com or 408-275-0917.

Source: http://www.mercurynews.com/scott-herhold/ci_19660901?source=rss

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