An architect is given a program, budget, place, and schedule. Sometimes the end product rises to art - or at least people call it that.

When people condemn me for designing iconic buildings in cities and not having an idea what a city is, they haven't done their homework. I started in urban design and city planning. It's just that when I got out of school there wasn't much of a market for that. There still isn't.

Artists dismiss me as an architect, so I'm not in their box, and architects dismiss me as an artist, so I'm not in their box.

Chicago's one of the rare places where architecture is more visible.

Computers allow architects to remain parental instead of being marginalized by the contractors and managers.

I didn't have any interest in doing rich people's homes. I still don't.

You have freedom, so you have to make choices - and at the point when I make a choice, the building starts to look like a Frank Gehry building. It's a signature.