A Remembrance of Influential Architect Léon Krier from Geoffrey Baer and His Producer

Léon Krier, an influential architect and theorist who rejected modernism in favor of classical architecture and traditional urban layouts that emphasized walkable cities and local materials, died in June at the age of 79. I was lucky enough to interview Léon on several occasions for documentaries about winners of the Richard H. Driehaus Prize for Classical Architecture, a recognition that Léon himself helped inaugurate and later won. He was quite a character, which made him a very entertaining interview. Dan Andries, who produced those documentaries, recalls more:

"Léon was a provocateur and an architect who had very little built work, but whose ideas about cities and urbanism were brilliantly articulated and had a profound impact on an entire generation of urban planners. He hated modern architecture, and he hated the city of skyscrapers. He hated the ways cars dictated landscapes and distances between places. He preferred design that quietly resisted the car.

Léon was bold, fearless in his opinions, and, in some people's eyes, ridiculous. Chicago architects like Stanley Tigerman had a complex relationship with Léon: they were intrigued, and appalled, by some of his pronouncements. Peter Eisenman, who was a close friend with Michael Graves, was a hardcore modernist, and thought Léon dragged Michael into his orbit, resulting in the work that made Michael famous, and might have made Peter cringe – a story told in our documentary on Michael. 

We interviewed Léon for both the documentary on Scott Merrill – Léon was instrumental in helping Scott build a career, and has one of his only built works in a planned community on the Florida coast designed by Scott – and for the documentary on Italian architect Pier Carlo Bontempi. 

Léon built a house for himself in southern France, where we visited him while filming the Bontempi documentary. While there, I captured a video of him playing piano – something he loved, and did well."