A high-profile architect and real estate developer, John Portman, 87, has left a lasting legacy that is visible on Atlanta’s skyline.
Boston-based director Ben Loeterman’s documentary “John Portman: A Life of Building,” which airs on GPB on May 23, is a portrait of this enduring, influential figure who is credited with raising Atlanta’s prominence as a significant convention and destination city with his massive development of downtown.
He is also lauded for transforming a utilitarian and unadventurous hotel vernacular. With his first hotel creation, Atlanta’s Hyatt Regency in 1967 and its iconic soaring atrium, Portman invested this previously overlooked form with glamour and drama. In recent years, his work has expanded into the new frontier of China.
In a recent interview, Loeterman spoke about why Portman is special and what made filming a challenge.
Q: What attracted you to Portman as a film subject?
A: On a day off after my last film, also set in Atlanta, I’d gone to the High Museum. I found the exhibit of Portman’s work incredibly interesting, but also a little impersonal. Everything was there but the man. I set out to make a film that could introduce an audience to the person who built all this stuff.
Q: What are Portman’s key contributions to the larger world of architecture?
A: Architects tend to build buildings. Portman tends to build -- or rebuild -- whole downtown environments. When you look at his overall impact and the number of cities -- Atlanta, Detroit, San Francisco, Times Square in New York -- he’s put his imprint on, it’s a singular achievement.
Q: To what do you attribute Portman’s unbelievable staying power and ambition? He is 87 and still going into the office six days a week.
A: I remember architecture critic Paul Goldberger saying some of his favorite Portman buildings are some of Portman’s most recent. He pointed out that is such a rare trait for an architect; for their work to actually improve over time rather than return to the themes of earlier projects. I think it is that sense of being willing to constantly reinvent the wheel and tackle each project as a brand-new, unique challenge that keeps him going.
Q: What was the biggest challenge involved in making this film?
A: The buildings themselves. I’d never filmed buildings before and, as great as they were to be in, I had no idea how to make them look good on film.
Q: You also wrote and directed “The People v. Leo Frank” about the anti-Semitic atmosphere that inspired the 1915 lynching of a Jewish man in Atlanta falsely accused of murder. Did it feel necessary in any way for you to tackle a more positive vision of the city by making this film?
A: I’m not from Atlanta, so I didn’t feel I owed it anything. The Frank film was a very dark subject, and very meaningful to people in Atlanta. But everyone I know was saying, “Please, enough dark, can’t you do something a little more uplifting next time?” I had no idea it would end up being in Atlanta. I often make the next film on the rebound from the last one. It’s good to take a different view and flex different muscles. The two films couldn’t be more different, but I think each is very true to itself.
Q: Is it difficult making a film about a living subject? What has Portman said about the film?
A: I’ve made many different kinds of films, but not a portrait biography of a living person. What took me by surprise was how totally emotional he was after seeing it. He felt laid bare and vulnerable; not in a disrespectful way. But I think he forgot while we were filming, especially during interviews when he was simply telling stories, the impact of compressing a 50-year career into an hourlong film. It was a little bit like the old TV show “This Is Your Life.”
TV preview
"John Portman: A Life of Building"
7 p.m. Wednesday, May 23. Georgia Public Broadcasting, www.gpb.org.
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