For two years nobody talked about anything other than the name arrangement. There was no fund-raising and no progress being made on construction and design.

I love New York, but I'd felt like an outsider here.

I had a dual role: designer and advocate.

I built a series of supporters that had my back. I never abused that trust. You can't cry wolf. You have to solve most problems yourself.

I really appreciate artists of the 20th century, and I can see a lot of their influence on my work, but to suggest that my design only fits within an 'ism' kind of bothers me.

How do you design it so that people can form a space of their own, and feel quiet and contemplative?

I pushed the process forward by saying, 'We should do this, this, and this right now. Please find the budget for me to find a structural engineer, a mechanical engineer, a civil engineer, so we can do the preliminary work.