Daily News from New York, New York • 149

Daily News, Thursday, April 15, 1982 I ji.iwwwiu,ui jMjinH in i. i jiluii mm.ii wm nmf Md3 B3Eb0 By PAUL LA ROSA IROM THE GLASS OBELISK de sign of the UN Plaza Hotel to the glass-enclosed Temple of 1 iK lf4-" IT frss s-v SSf i 'ss i fII'4 Umr Mt -J 1 The Ford Foundation building, with its lush gardens in a huge atrium, was built for a mere $16 million in 1968. Compare that with the proposed Portman Hotel, which will weigh in with a price tag of $292 million this year. When Roche was given the job of creating the new Ford Foundation building in the early '60s, his firm was relatively unknown. But instead of playing it safe, Roche sought to break new ground with his design for the 12-story building.

He rejected the idea of giving the building the usual urban plaza that is present in so many Manhattan buildings. He understood that such plazas "in New York really mean a piece of unused sidewalk it's a zoning definition." The years have proved Roche right. Just last week, the Parks Council which has blasted building owners for their "phantom parks" large empty and often ugly plazas that serve no purpose. In his plans, Roche decided to make the inside of the building the plaza, which at the time was a precedent-setting decision. In addition, he came up with the idea of filling the atrium with nearly 1,000 types of plants.

In doing so, Roche fulfilled the Continued on page 3 Dendur wing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, architect Kevin Roche has left his mark on the streets of Manhattan. Yesterday, he was recognized and rewarded for his designs by being presented with the 1982 Pritzker Architecture Award for a lifetime of creative achievement. This international award is considered by those in the architectural sector to be as prestigious as a Nobel Prize. A past winner of the award, Philip Johnson, bemoaned the fact that Nobel Prizes are never given to visual artists, "much less architects." In accepting the award at the Whitney Museum yesterday, the 60-year-old Roche said: "There are many fine architects around, men who are more deserving of this than I am." "Who they are, I cannot think of at this moment." If Roche was a little less than humble in his acceptance speech, it is understandable, considering his impressive track record. Besides the two buildings mentioned above, he also has designed the Tord Foundation building on 42d St.

and Second Ave. Kevin Roche: At the Ford Foundation, he put the plaza indoors. From boardroom to Bowery By MARTIN KING l.llJIIIIJH1UIUj.l..lllMI,UjllU UU III U.JHII.,.. ..111 IIJ IIIUJUIIIUI HJ HU .1 'i. if ft fx 1 A i A- -fv.

si'f i i stamp to hide his uncontrollable shakes. In telling his story at Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, Charlie says that even with this, he had to have the firm's art director forge his signature for the stamp. Charlie's story may sound extreme, but it's a prime example of how alcoholism is invading the executive boardroom at an ever-increasing rate. Charles Shirley of the New York Affiliate of the National Council on Alcoholism said that it Is unrealistic to assume that deterioration in Job performance helps to identify the executive alcoholic. Quite the opposite is true, he maintains.

"The theory Is that if we wait for the executive's work performance to deteriorate to the point where he or she can be confronted with It, we will be dealing with a group of very well-dressed, late-stage, chronic-alcoholic people," Shirley said. The pressure on most executives to be one of the boys and show they can handle their booze is "unbelievable," according to Dr. Robert Cancro, president of the affiliate. "Manhattan has become super-urbane and cosmopolitan," Cancro continued, "Everything ts Continued on page 3 M. has a Ph.D.

in economics and I taught in two of New York's most prestigious colleges. He was 35 before he had his first drink. After that, however, he progressed rapidly into alcoholism. Charlie figured it was cheaper to drink whisky at home than in bars. The trouble was.

Charlie recalls, "I shook so much I spilled more than I could drink from a tiny shot glass." So Charlie began to put his booze in containers with larger circumferences. He went from a shot glass to a water glass, and then to a beer mug, but he still spilled too much of what had become very precious stuff to him. To reduce the spillage, he ended up sippmg his booze through a straw from a frying pan that he placed in the kitchen sink. Charlie's drinking eventually cost him his teaching jobs, but his credentials landed him a job as an executive with a nationwide company with administrative offices in Manhattan. This job frequently required his signature on important documents, so Charlie got a rubber i in, Lost weekends, ruined careers.