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BT: But as far as... you were working, and then how did you come to being an, putting up your own sign, Sata Architecture, that whole period?

FS: We have enough time for that? [Laughs]

BT: I'm kind of curious about your career there.

FS: Yeah. It happened in a lot of ways because all of a sudden this discovery of travel, and then we went to Mexico several times, too. And in the meantime, I was still working for a year or two after I graduated at a firm up here in Pasadena, Neptune and Thomas. And in working there and working in the other firm -- I only worked for two companies, one in Los Angeles while going to school and then by then I worked up here. And then we traveled, and then I worked... well, at Neptune and Thomas, and then I decided I wanted to travel, or learn more. I was very serious about architecture and the people, big time people of that time. And so Marian, you know, to her whatever reasoning, she said, "Oh, you go ahead." I wanted to go to Japan to look at what Tange did in Olympic Stadium, 1964. I saw that and I thought, wow. And I had a chance to then meet another architect who was part of that group, Kikutake, who had lectured at USC, my first professor I met that I really liked, the landscape architect, Emmet Wemple, he knew Kikutake, and he talked to him, an architect, young architect, wanted to go look at all of that new construction going on because of the Olympic time. So when Tange and about half a dozen architects, very prominent, they were doing all the new stuff. So Kikutake set up a whole tour for me. So I spent at least a month or more with my classmate, Tom Furushiro, and we traveled most of Japan looking at the architecture, all that new stuff they were doing.

And so from there, I don't want to go on and on, but then I came back and then I worked again because they still wanted me at this firm. Because I guess, even though I'm fairly young, I knew how to get along with some of the big clients they had. And I worked, and then I got a call from this other classmate that also traveled -- he was a single guy -- traveled in Europe together. He had a chance to join this guy he worked for in Portugal, so he asked me if I wanted to go. Well, first of all, he asked Tom Benton, who was good friends, too, with him. And Tom said, "No, I'm trying to build," his little art gallery house in Aspen, and so he didn't want to go. So I asked Marian and I said, "Can I go and work on the design of a new city?" I had never done that, I thought, well, that will be a challenge. So she said sure, so I went. [Laughs] And I was there about a month or two, and called my phone, and she said, well, "The kids, boys are kind of missing you," because they were small. And so I said, "Why don't you join us?" Because it was kind of early pre-planning stuff that I guess the people funding it, again, the big money, there was enough play money that they could pay me what I wanted and I could call my wife and kids and they could join us. So they joined us over there.

BT: What city in Portugal was that?

FS: Hmm?

BT: What city was that?

FS: Well, it's called Vilamoura. I'm not wild about... well, that's my philosophical self, but anyway, it's like Orange County, looks like Orange County. It's hot, it's become really hot. They've got five major golf courses, it was a golf course-oriented place. And as it turns out, because now, there's a lot of stuff on the tube now, and they got beautiful slips for boats and all this stuff if you've got the money there. And if you don't have a whole lot of money, it's a place where a lot of people and expatriates apparently are trying to gravitate to. It's a hot market because the people are nice, the food is inexpensive, and now it's become kind of upscale, shi-shi, lots of nice restaurants. I recommend that because the climate is just like California. My recollection is the '60s, '65, I guess, or '66. It was very similar. The beaches, beautiful beaches, all that stuff. It's a nice place.

BT: So your family came over to Portugal, and how long were you there?

FS: Oh, probably a little... I don't know. Because we were just doing preliminary work, and I could have stayed longer. Marian and the kids were having a harder time, because what was fascinating is that they, wherever they walked, she had a stroller for Warren, and Leigh was about four or five. And he could run aside with them, but they would be surrounded by, like, twenty kids. They were like an animals in a zoo. They couldn't go anywhere without getting surrounded by kids wondering what the hell are these people with funny eyes? There weren't any Asians, didn't see any Asians, and I don't recall any Blacks. We've gone back a couple of times, changed quite a bit.

BT: Was it a bad or a good experience for them, for the boys?

FS: I think it was harder on Marian because everything... well, we had a maid. But she's pretty independent, not used to somebody being in your house all day long and doing this for you, doing that, going shopping, because you can't speak the language and all that. So I had my little studio office with these other guys that were doing the work, and we were living the Life of Riley. I mean, when you're on the top side of society, since it was a dictatorship and Salazar was in charge, and I think it was the same name. Caetano was a Portuguese guy who had a team of guys, but the Caetano, there's a Caetano that took over after Salazar that got over, they got rid of him. And I think they're the same family? But there were two architects apparently, when I started researching, that had a similar name. So I would think, they had to have been the same Caetano that was connected to the upper class so that we had parties on weekends or you go out for two or three hour lunches and go to the horse stable and swimming pool and ride horses. It's surreal. It's not my world, but so that's what we did. And I could have stayed longer.

<End Segment 10> - Copyright © 2022 Densho. All Rights Reserved.