Rock ‘n’ Roll Architect

What misbegotten muse, I wondered could have driven Austrian architect Wolf Prix to come up with his unearthly junk pile pictured in the story “Dramatic Dwelling That Says ‘I Love L.A.’ ” (by Leon Whiteson, Feb. 5).

The answer came in the telling of how Prix shuts his eyes--”literally”--and begins scribbling out his phantasmagoric concoctions with the nerve-fraying blare of Jimi Hendrix and the Beatles filling his Vienna workplace.

Influenced by such aural dissonance, little wonder Prix is drawn bizarre, cacophonous images. In computer parlance, “garbage in, garbage out.”

A far--and sad--cry from the nightmares of this “deconstructivist” were those of the late Raphael Soriano. This architect’s residential and commercial structures reflected a highly refined discipline that were always sensitively tuned to be in harmony with the challenges of site and client.

The difference between Prix’s ephemeral novelties and Soriano’s timeless concepts is that the latter sought his inspiration from the sounds of J. S. Bach in his studio.

ED MITCHELL

Los Angeles