East Eats West

Two Swiss museums by the outstanding architect Renzo Piano

Picture: The Paul Klee Museum by Renzo Piano, Berne. 

Most people might be familiar with the Centre Pompidou. One of its architect is the Italian Pritzker Price winner Renzo Piano. The interesting thing about Renzo Piano is that he does not easily have one signature architectural style as for example Frank Gehry with his Bilbao Guggenheim museum. Renzo Piano is much more nimble and continues to surprise me. One of his more recent work is a museum for the Swiss artist Paul Klee. The museum is located in Berne, Switzerland, next to a highway. The striking feature of the museum is its wave-like roof structures that blend into the green hills surrounding the museum. It is humble, discreet but still has a very distinctive structure. Therefore it blends easily with the medieval UNESCO heritage town of Berne. However, his more internationally acclaimed and revered museum in Switzerland is the Fondation Beyeler in Basle. Again, the building easily blends into the surrounding landscape. In contrast to his newer structure in Berne, the interior is as exciting as the exterior. With big windows opening on both sides to the lily ponds, art can be in a dialogue with the surrounding nature, simply brilliant! This became very obvious with the current massive steel structures by Richard Serra, the famous American sculptor. Despite being inside, the structure somehow extends into the surrounding fields and the open space. Absolutely breath-taking and well-worth a visit!

Websites: www.paulkleezentrum.ch and www.fondationbeyeler.ch

Picture: The Fondation Beyeler Museum near Basle. 

I found the office of my dreams (and a job)

It happened at the end of May: I found the workplace of my dreams! The building is located in a quiet residential area and used to be a window factory (hence the huge space). The office houses a collection of young and senior entrepreneurs, ranging from designers, photographers, illustrators to architects and an advertising guy. The office is basically one big open-space with about a dozen tables. The building has a beautiful wooden floor and even sports its own, custom-made kitchen with free coffee! I immediately fell in love and have decided that I want to work there. Shortly after moving a stroke of good luck happened: I got my first strategy consulting client! Therefore I have an office and a new job now, wonderful!

Swiss men spend little money on their shoes

I recently happened to have a chat with the head of sales of a well-known Swiss fashion brand that also sells men's shoes. He told me that it is devilishly difficult to sell good quality men's shoes in Switzerland. Apparently 300 swiss francs per pair is the upper limit whereas a good hand-made and goodyear-welted men's shoes will likely cost 450 swiss francs or more. Swiss men, according to the head of sales, prefer to buy cheaper shoes, wear them for months on end (without using shoe trees or cleaning them), then throwing them and replacing them with another. Another sales person in a menswear shop told me that clothes and shoes rank very low on any Swiss men's things to buy (apparently cars and watches are on top). My hope is that the influx of better dressed Germans (mostly from Bavaria) will improve the Swiss men's sense of dressing. And my hopes may not be unfounded as I see more and more men wearing bright colored pants this spring (red being the favorite)!

The economy is changing speed

Are you also playing the guessing game of how the various economies will develop? Will America fall back into recession (Japan just did)? Will China continue to grow at break-neck speed? How come that Germany is the only EU economy solidly growing? Luckily, Switzerland did not have a housing bust in 2008/2009 and we are back on the growth track. Almost. Over the course of the last few months I have been speaking to several dozens of people in business. The fields ranged from banking to hedge funds and from architecture to law firms. Interestingly everyone is singing the same tune: future anxiety. Despite a solidly growing Swiss economy, managers are uncertain about the future. It seems that everyone is afraid of making decisions. It is the time of the OTH-guy (on the other hand) who constantly sees the glass half empty. The cons of this behavior: procrastination and decision making angst. It doesn't matter if you are a banker, hedge-funds-start-up, architect or a lawyer. Clients love to procrastinate indefinitely. Everyone has ample time and would rather have another meeting, phone call or presentation. Everyone, of course, is interested in new products, ideas and hiring people. But no one wants to pull the trigger. No one. Employees who have jobs stay on. People on the look-out for jobs are faced with assessment periods of two to six months. And in rare cases when a decision is made, the speed changes from snail's pace to warp-speed. Patience turns into mania! Results need to show in months, or better still in weeks. The same person who spent months evaluating a decision suddenly wants to see results. They forget, Rome was not built in a day.

Drinks with a view in New York

It is very hard in New York to find a place to sit and have a drink. Parks are in short supply and traffic is so heavy no one wants to sit at the roadside. So where to go for a drink with a view in New York? 48 Ink is the place to go. The al fresco roof top bar is situated close to the Hudson river and offers a splendid view of the New York skyline. Just be aware that drinks will be only served in plastic cups (safety regulations)! Website: www.ink48.com

Shoe shine for 3$

I couldn't resist getting a shoeshine in New York. The staff was Mexican and next to me a guy in a suit got his shoes polished. He looked like he was out of TV series CSI New York and guess what, he was caring a gun and a badge! That was a cool shoeshine, for real.

Irish whiskey against the flu

On a recent business trip to London I caught a cold. During the day, full of heavy rain, I felt worse and worse. However, I soldiered on and went to a festive dinner. The next day I felt worse. A lovely elderly Irish lady counseled me to take an old Irish recipe against a cold: a hot Irish whiskey. Here is the deal: you take a generous helping of Irish (apparently important) whiskey, add two cloves, some lime juice and stir it with hot water. Then drink. Quite a disgusting concoction I must say. Did it help? Not really, but it made the barkeeper smile!

Kill a cop reward

While staying in New York I came across this very interesting bumper sticker on a New York patrol car. Yes, the Big Apple can still be dangerous!

How to visit an art museum

Visiting the Museum of Modern Art in New York is an experience in mass art tourism. Very likely you will be viewing Vincent van Gogh or Pablo Picasso over the heads of two dozens Asian tourists or American students. The sheer amount of people visiting the museum is mind-boggling. However, while spending a few hours at the museums I got a feeling of the masses moving through the museum. Due to the size of MOMA visitors would only spend 5-15 seconds in front of a piece of art. This time might be longer in case of the most famous artists like Picasso or Monet, but on average, most art pieces only receive a casual glance. And most visitors would systematically walk through a room, giving most art pieces a quick look. In between visitors would rest on a bench or sit in the garden to recover from the sheer number of paintings on display. How visitors moved reminded me a bit of my time as a night guard when I had to systematically walk through rooms, scanning badges with a handheld device in order to get a proof of my lonely work. Visitors at the MOMA had a similar walking pattern. I do not think this is the best way of appreciating art. So here are some easy rules on how to go about it:

• You can't see everything, so you have to be selective.

• Go for artists you like, not only for big names.

• If you like a piece of art, give yourself a minute or two to suck it in.

• Do not spend longer than sixty minutes viewing art. Anything longer and you will not remember. Better to have a coffee in between or sit in the garden. Viewing art is not a marathon nor is it sightseeing. You do not get any brownie points for viewing all the art that is on display.

• And most importantly: follow your heart. Yes, it is okay not to like a famous artist (in my case Cy Twombly is just not making the cut).

Let me know if you find those hints helpful!

No cranes in New York

Picture: View from the Rockefeller Observatory, New York.

On my recent visit to New York I visited the observatory of the Rockefeller center. While peering at the skyline of Manhattan I felt that there was something missing. After staring for a while it hit me: no giant construction cranes. There was hardly any construction work going on. In contrast to Hong Kong, Shanghai or Singapore the difference was stark. I wondered if that was all due to the real estate crisis in 2008.