Lucky Strike

Beinecke Rare Book Library, New Haven, 1963, Gordon Bunshaft

The simplest thing I can say is I’m very pleased with what I did with my life. I think it was due to several things. One, that I had a dedicated family that saw that I had every opportunity to learn and be educated. Two, that I think I had a fairly sound mind that was not too poetic but had a good deal of logic. And, three, that I lived at the right time as far as architecture was concerned. There are probably more reasons, but perhaps the most important thing of all is that I persevered stubbornly on what I believed. Last, and probably more important than any of them is that I was very lucky.

Bunshaft, in Oral history of Gordon Bunshaft / interviewed by Betty J. Blum, compiled under the auspices of the Chicago Architects Oral History Project, Department of Architecture, the Art Institute of Chicago.