There wasn’t enough local coverage about this, but last month Joshua Prince-Ramus, the Seattle native who managed Rem Koolhaas’s American projects from a New York City office, and is often credited as the real man/mind behind the Seattle Public Library (the building that sealed Koolhaas’s American fame), not only split with his master but also took his master’s 35-member New York staff with him to form a new firm called REX.

Rem is 61; Joshua is 36. Rem opened the doors for Joshua; Joshua ran through those doors and became a young star. The reports say the break was friendly, but we all know that’s perfect bullshit. As human history has shown, breaks like this—breaks between the old and the new—are always emotionally messy.

From Isben’s play Master Builder:

DR. HERDAL. But you—yourself—you rose upon the ruins. You began as a poor boy from a country village—and now you are at the head of your profession. Ah, yes, Mr. Solness, you have undoubtedly had the luck on your side.

SOLNESS. [Looking at him with embarrassment.] Yes, but that is just what makes me so horribly afraid.

DR. HERDAL. Afraid? Because you have the luck on your side!

SOLNESS. It terrifies me—terrifies me every hour of the day. For sooner or later the luck must turn, you see.

DR. HERDAL. Oh nonsense! What should make the luck turn?

SOLNESS. [With firm assurance.] The younger generation!

DR. HERDAL. Pooh! The younger generation! You are not laid on the shelf yet, I should hope. Oh no—your position here is probably firmer now than it has ever been.

SOLNESS. The luck will turn. I know it—I feel the day approaching. Some one or other will take it into his head to say: Give me a chance! And then all the rest will come clamouring after him, and shake their fists at me and shout: Make room—make room—! Yes, just you see, doctor—presently the younger generation will come knocking at my door—-