count the times

DAVID WALKER: From the outside, it looked like some junky thing. But you walk in and its full of light. That first Saturday I show up with some guys like Bernadette asks. She has no plans, no permits. Instead, shes got brooms and squeegees and we all go to work sweeping the floor and cleaning the windows and skylights. I ask her if I should order a dumpster. She practically shouts, No She spends the next week taking everything in the building and laying it out on the floor. Theres thousands of bifocal frames, boxes of lenses, bundles of flattened cardboard boxes, plus all the machinery for cutting and polishing lenses. Every morning I show up, shes already there. Shes wearing this backpack with yarn coming out of it, so she can knit while shes standing. And shes just knitting and looking at everything. It reminded me of being a and dumping out a bunch of Legos on the carpet. And you just sit there and stare before you have any idea what youre going to make. That Friday, she takes home a box of wire bifocal frames. Monday, she returns and shes knitted them all together with wire. So you have this awesome chain mail with glasses embedded in it. And its strong, too So Bernadette puts the guys to work, with clippers and pliers, turning thousands of old bifocal frames into screens, which she uses as interior walls. It was hilarious to see these macho guys from Mexico sitting in chairs and knitting out in the sun. They loved it, though. Theyd play their ranchera music on the radio and gossip like a bunch of ladies.

PAUL JELLINEK: Beeber Bifocal just kind of evolved. Its not like Bernadette had a big idea going in. It started with knitting the glasses together. And then came the tabletops made out of lenses. Then the table bases made out of machinery parts. It was ing great. Id come by with my students and give them extra credit if theyd help. There was a back room piled ceilingtofloor with catalogues. Bernadette glued them together until they were solid fourfootbyfourfoot cubes. One night we all got drunk and took a chain saw to them and cut out seats. They became the living room furniture. DAVID WALKER: Pretty soon it became obvious that the point was to avoid any runs to the hardware store and use only what was on the premises. It became kind of a game. I dont know if you could call it architecture, but it sure was fun. PAUL JELLINEK: Back then, architecture was all about the technology. Everyone was switching from drafting boards to AutoCAD; all anyone wanted to talk about was prefab. People were building McMansions to within six inches of the lot line. What Bernadette was doing was completely outside the mainstream. In some ways, Beeber Bifocals roots lie in hobo art. Its a very crafty house. The feminists are going to kill me on this, but Bernadette Fox is a very feminine architect. When you walk into Beeber Bifocal, youre overwhelmed by the care and the patience that was put into it. Its like walking into a big hug.