I haven't thought about him in decades. I remembered him last year. And now the news of his death shook me as if my closest friend had passed away. In November 1962, student Stojan Maksimović and I moved into a new building at 24 Draže Pavlovića on the same day, he into a studio apartment on the third floor, and I into a two-and-a-half-room apartment on the fourth floor. I was already a kind of journalist and writer, he, four years younger, nearing the end of his studies in architecture.
That interested me because I graduated from the architectural department of the Construction Technical School in Novi Sad, enrolled in the first semester at the Faculty of Architecture in Belgrade, but then defected to German studies, although I never dreamed of becoming a citizen until today. In Stojan, I found a partner for dreaming about architecture. I had several valuable professional books, rare in our country at the time, lent them to him, and then gave them to him. I don't know what he was hoping for, but I had no idea, and maybe he didn't even suspect that he would become the best and most famous architect from our area.
Stojan was born in Subotica, lived in Vršac for a while, spent part of his youth in Valjevo, so he liked to emphasize that he was from Valjevo. All the same, the fact that we were older tied us together, and he also spoke good German, and worked in Munich for a while.
In that house of ours, where we both lived at the same time, he designed and in 1963 built his first building in Belgrade - the restaurant "Ušće" on the left bank of the Sava (today it is called "Nacionalna Klasa"). The Belgrade fair with its unique dome was built five or six years earlier, but Stojan understood that it was the future of construction in the world, no pseudo-classicism favored by Belgrade's nouveau riche between the two world wars. The small box of his bistro headed in that direction. For some time he served there for free, sometimes he took me for coffee and to gaze at the Sava.
Sava center
He built a lot in Belgrade, then around the world, but it is certainly his masterpiece Sava center. In 1974, the office of the President of the Republic contacted him as a client with very specific requirements: a congress center was needed for the Non-Aligned Conference. It is often written that it is a futuristic loom made of concrete, steel and a lot of glass, that it has been nominated for the biggest architecture awards in the world, but little is said about the feat that Stojan created the conceptual project in a month, and the building of 120.000 square meters in 11 months, built so solidly that nothing collapsed until the latest renovation, although according to our custom it was neglected for decades.
When he led me through the finished building, I gave him a whirl, what am I talking about Wrote "Time" before, that he made a "giant reprise of the Theater on Terazije".
"What do you mean?"
"Your stage is too shallow."
He laughed: "It wasn't my fault, they stole fourteen meters from me."
At the last minute there was a request to have more salons, to make the foyer much larger, and this could only be achieved by shortening the depth of the stage. It is not uncommon for an investor to suddenly demand changes to the project, who pays and orders the music.
Global builder
I will not list all 18 of Stojan's significant architectural achievements and urban planning projects, 9 of which are located in Belgrade, that would be convenient for an architectural professional magazine. I think that among the big buildings around the world, the Congress Center in Kuwait and the University Library in Boston should be highlighted. From 1987 he continued his career in America and established his architectural studio in Nahant, Massachusetts. He also built his family house in Nahant, I would like to have seen it, I wonder if he made something comfortable for himself for a nice small-town life in his old age or another masterpiece for professional architectural magazines
I imagine that he managed to combine: a facade that fits your mind, and a cozy nest inside. A year ago I found his email relatively easily, I was about to write to him. I didn't.
When we were last in contact, it was high time for the reconstruction of the Sava Center, Stojan said to introduce new installations, repair the acoustics, and modernize the equipment. At that time, the company "Delta" offered to buy it, but they refused, because the hated Miroslav Mišković was behind that offer.
In the meantime, the situation changed, "Delta" took over the Sava Center complex. They restored the facade, but did not change it, the interior was reconstructed in consultation with Stojan. He should have come to see how it turned out when the big hall was finished, the one from which they stole 14 meters.
And what does all this have to do with me? Objectively nothing, but subjectively it is a part of my youth. With Stojan's departure, my dream about architecture definitely came true, he embodied it.
