So a few years and a billion pounds or so later, the great architect delivers his monumental vision - a cloud-tickling skyscraper, a giant gleaming obelisk that emerges from London Bridge train station like a rocket about to take off.
Most of us seem to think that successful people have a clear vision - and a clear desk.
The idea is like having X-Ray vision--or a Web browser implanted in your head.
At last month's auto show in Detroit, Mercedes-Benz showed a vehicle called "Vision-B, " a small but tall five-door cross between a small station wagon, a small minivan and a small SUV.
Features included a heads-up display with night vision, a DNA-based entry and ignition system, body panels that changed color on the driver's command and an "auto valet" feature that let the car drop off its owner then park itself for recharging.
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More the strategy was intertwined in a vision for the U.S.--a vision of leadership through innovation.
The producer, who retired four years ago, won a Grammy in 1989 for his work on Folkways - A Vision Shared: A Tribute to Woody Guthrie And Leadbelly.
It was the only game developer Men-A-Vision ever released.
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Dyslexia was long thought to be a vision-related problem, but there's a growing consensus that dyslexics instead have difficulty associating letters with spoken sounds and blending them together fluidly to make words.
Both critics and supporters of US President George W. Bush's post-September 11 vision of a new, freedom-loving Middle East have noted the strong similarities between the president and his predecessor Woodrow Wilson.
"They must come forward with a unified position -- a vision, if you will, of the kind of Syria that they are working to build, " Clinton said.
The first try came when the Samoan fly-half exhibited his vision by floating a 30-yard pass into space for Connor O'Shea to latch onto.
For anyone who has been compelled to give a long-term vision or read a marketing forecast for the next decade, Mr. Taleb's chapter excoriating "The Scandal of Prediction" will ring painfully true.
Coaches certainly have a say in the players their team pursues, but many clubs employ a technical director whose job it is to work toward a long-term vision for how a team should play and to maintain this vision even as head coaches come and go.
Some implied that Fresh Start were labouring to produce yesterday's vision of tomorrow - a reform option which might have looked attractive five years ago, but which had now been overtaken by President of the EU Commission Jose Manuel Barroso's call for more federalism, at last week's sitting of the European Parliament.
Thanks to market conditions, though, Mr Kleisterlee might find, as many other managers have done recently, that a well-argued strategic vision becomes a secondary concern when there are pressing operational problems to solve.
And so to the extent that they have a vision from sci-fi and they pursue that vision can sometimes lead them down a dark alley.
But more than 60 years later, a startup company in Japan is bringing back the Smell-O-Vision concept for a smaller screen.
Huawei's initial line-up includes its Blaze and Vision smartphones and a 7-inch tablet, the MediaPad.
Matthew Evans is an 18-year old who had the vision to create a non-profit called Discover Green, which is based in Pflugerville, Texas, raises awareness around energy and water conservation, and constructs sustainable landscape models throughout the community.
You came to us with a clear message that no one should let skepticism win the day -- a vision that states clearly that peace is not only a wish, but a possibility.
Storage Options is a UK-based technology brand created with a vision of offering great value, high-performance products without compromising on quality or service.
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Among Ellison's novel-hero gifts are clear vision, a willingness to gamble big against convention and a knack for re-inventing himself at just the right time.
With its teasing play of light-merging direct vision and reflection within a single frame-the entrance is the first of many screens that visitors encounter at the Museum.
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Yes, blinkered because they cannot understand that the preservation of our countryside demands not a rose-tinted vision of it, but a steely determination to utilise it effectively.
In this digital world, where mixing cultures could be as easy as pressing a few buttons, it still takes good old-fashioned vision to imagine a sound that reflects an honest expression of what it's like to be from two great histories.
Yet time with George reveals a few blind-spots in their vision of a future together and glimpses of loves that they both left behind.
But not giving a CEO enough time to realize his vision--after all turning around a multinational is a bit trickier that running a corner deli--can be equally damaging.
The president should install a hardcore supply-sider with a vision for the future who can explain to the American people why tax cuts and tax simplification are needed.
He has built one its most famous and successful companies through relentless, aggressive growth-seeking risk-taking, while keeping to a vision of an internet-connected world.
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