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USA: Modern Architectures in History
Abstract
From the Reliance Building and Coney Island to the Kimbell Museum and Disney Hall, the United States has been at the forefront of modern architecture. American life has generated many of the quintessential images of modern life, both generic types and particular buildings. Gwendolyn Wrightâs USA is an engaging account of this evolution from the late nineteenth century to the twenty-first. Upending conventional arguments about the origin of American modern architecture, Wright shows that it was not a mere offshoot of European modernism brought across the Atlantic Ocean by émigrés but rather an exciting, distinctive and mutable hybrid. USA traces a history that spans from early skyscrapers and suburbs in the aftermath of the American Civil War up to the museums, schools and âgreen architectureâ of today. Wright takes account of diverse interests that affected design, ranging from politicians and developers to ambitious immigrants and middle-class citizens. Famous and lesser-known buildings across America come together--model dwellings for German workers in rural Massachusetts, New Yorkâs Rockefeller Center, Cincinnatiâs Carew Tower, Frank Lloyd Wrightâs Taliesin West in the Arizona desert, the University of Miami campus, the Texas Instruments Semiconductor Plant, and the Corning Museum of Glass, among others--to show an extraordinary range of innovation. Ultimately, Wright reframes the history of American architecture as one of constantly evolving and volatile sensibilities, engaged with commerce, attuned to new media, exploring multiple concepts of freedom. The chapters are organized to show how changes in work life, home life and public life affected architecture--and vice versa. This book provides essential background for contemporary debates about affordable and luxury housing, avant-garde experiments, local identities, inspiring infrastructure and sustainable design. A clear, concise and richly illustrated account of modern American architecture, this timely book will be essential for all those who wonder about the remarkable legacy of American modernity in its most potent cultural expression.
... Tres cúpulas inflables de diámetro diferentes de film de polietileno transparente, dispuestas en el predio y comunicadas entre sí, están a medio camino de las utopías lunares y las bases antárticas Figura 6: BDELTV: Bóvedas de chapa de poliéster y cúpulas acrílicas en la cubierta de Koch Polito. (Wright, 2008). La volumetría geodésica proviene de los experimentos de Buckminster Füller, sobre el que Banham y los ingleses estaban llamando la atención (Frampton, 1981). ...
La Papelera Koch Polito constituye el último de los proyectos en los que Baudizzone, Díaz, Erbin, Lestard, Traine y Varas -BDELTV- experimentaron con sistemas estándar de mercado y materiales novedosos en formas innovadoras. El caso permite verificar la agenda del BDELTV: relación entre forma, logística y costos; el vínculo entre mercado de la construcción y las expectativas de patrones y clientes y sus especulaciones respecto de los contenidos de la arquitectura y la comunicación pública. Con edificios específicos o sorpresivas instalaciones artísticas inspiradas por sitios determinados, identificadas en el medio artístico como los happenings, la modernización “tomó el mando” y el ciudadano común se encontró inmerso en un universo cotidiano de creatividad y sorpresas. La arquitectura de BDELTV parece haberse nutrido de ese ciclo de creatividad y fuga, de exploración y desafío a las convenciones, cruzando los campos de la arquitectura y la plástica.
... "Research" referred, sometimes interchangeably, both to the products of scientific, systematic inquiry in the natural sciences and to the technological development of new building systems. It also referred to the social sciences, where the city had become the locus of ground-breaking studies, with an accumulation of arsenals of "unbiased" information seen as relevant to architectural practice (Wright 2008). "Research" also comprised the work of New Deal and wartime housing reformers and planners, who claimed authority over a large portion of building in the US. ...
In 1946 the American Institute of Architects established a Department of Education and Research (E&R), under architect Walter A. Taylor. The name given the new department signaled the importance of research for architecture, and the AIA’s intended leadership role in promoting research-based architectural practice. E&R developed research policies under an advisory board and in 1959 convened a conference on research for architecture, funded by the National Science Foundation. Butthe AIA never assumed full leadership in research for architecture: The scope of the project was beyond the means of either academia or the profession, and postwar research policies remained decentralized. Although E&R played a role in directing applied research, academic institutions provedmore able to assume leadership of basic research. This history illustrates the complexity of leadership in a field that bridges academia and professional practice, as well as the importance of multiple leadership roles.
Kevin Roche John Dinkeloo and Associates (KRJDA) fueron arquitectos pioneros al introducir en la arquitectura variables derivadas del uso masivo del vehículo privado en la arquitectura norteamericana. Construyeron obras para ser vistas desde la velocidad de la autopista, estudiaron distintas posibilidades para minimizar el impacto de los aparcamientos en los edificios administrativos de los suburbios e incluso modificaron costumbres y elementos tan asentados en la arquitectura como la manera de llegar y entrar a un edificio para adecuarlo a la posibilidad de no acceder a pie, sino en coche. Este artículo analiza ejemplos clave de su obra en los tres marcos de actuación mencionados anteriormente: la escala del territorio, la innovación tipológica y la puesta en duda de la entrada como elemento arquitectónico. En estos ejemplos se descubren soluciones innovadoras y singulares en las que se aprecia cómo detectaron que el vehículo imprimía una nueva cotidianidad a la sociedad que influía en la manera de ver, utilizar y acercarse a la arquitectura.
Workplaces Today is a kaleidoscopic survey of the contemporary work environment. The book discusses a large variety of places for knowledge work, ranging from shiny corporate head offices and cubicled call centres, to raw designer studios and hip cowork spaces. The book also looks at how people work from home, on the road, and in public spaces such as cafes, parks and hotels. With illuminating texts and examples from across the world, the book provides an in depth look at the world of today’s office worker.
The modernist architect and critic, Alfred Lawrence Kocher, proposed and commented on many bibliographical references in the Architectural Record in the years 1924-25. Recent studies on American architecture of the 1920s and 1930s have recognized the peculiar character of modernism in the United States and have gone in search of its cultural and social roots. However, Kocher's extensive lists have so far been completely overlooked. They were based for the most part on the correspondence he exchanged with a number of American and British architects and George Bernard Shaw: he had sent to them a circular letter, asking for recommendations on texts on background literature that a young architect should know. The unpublished correspondence that Kocher had with Louis Sullivan and the 19 texts on "Aesthetics and Theory of Architecture" are analyzed in particular by the author. Although from 1927 onwards Kocher became a passionate supporter of European rationalist architecture, his bibliographies cannot be considered a conscious foundational literature on modernism and modernity. They rather give an idea of the 'cultural trunk' on which the discussion on modern European architecture was going to be grafted; they help to illuminate the scene on which American architects moved in the mid-1920s. In some of the texts, the pragmatic notion of utility shines through, as − sometimes connectedly − does the concept of a creative act as a free, 'natural' act, which derived from American transcendentalism. Independent from Kocher's will, a line of thought is even identifiable, through which one can explain the apparently contradictory combination of 'maximum of utility' and 'maximum of free creativity', openly advocated by the skyscraper architect Raymond Hood at the end of the 1920s. Such way of thinking was based on the recognition of the beauty of utility.
The modernist architect and critic, Alfred Lawrence Kocher, proposed and commented on many bibliographical references in The Architectural Record in the years 1924-25. Recent studies on American architecture of the 1920s and 1930s have recognized the peculiar character of modernism in the United States and have gone in search of its cultural and social roots. However, Kocher’s extensive lists have so far been completely overlooked. They were based for the most part on the correspondence he exchanged with a number of American and British architects and George Bernard Shaw: he had sent to them a circular letter, asking for recommendations on texts on background literature that a young architect should know. The unpublished correspondence that Kocher had with Louis Sullivan and the 19 texts on “Aesthetics and Theory of Architecture” are analyzed in particular by the author.
Although from 1927 onwards Kocher became a passionate supporter of European rationalist architecture, his bibliographies cannot be considered a conscious foundational literature on modernism and modernity. They rather give an idea of the ‘cultural trunk’ on which the discussion on modern European architecture was going to be grafted; they help to illuminate the scene on which American architects moved in the mid-1920s. In some of the texts, the pragmatic notion of utility shines through, as − sometimes connectedly − does the concept of a creative act as a free, ‘natural’ act, which derived from American transcendentalism. Independent from Kocher’s will, a line of thought is even identifiable, through which one can explain the apparently contradictory combination of ‘maximum of utility’ and ‘maximum of free creativity’, openly advocated by the skyscraper architect Raymond Hood at the end of the 1920s. Such way of thinking was based on the recognition of the beauty of utility.
Nos anos 1950, na cidade de São Paulo e em outros grandes centros brasileiros, a arquitetura moderna conquista sua hegemonia e chega à classe média. Na revista “Casa e Jardim”, naquela mesma década, constitui-se uma arquitetura — voltada a essa camada —, com linguagem moderna a que nomeamos “bem viver”. O contexto em que surge o “bem viver” é o da modernização brasileira, nos anos da década de 1950, particularmente na metrópole paulistana, com transformações econômicas, sociais, políticas e culturais e o da ampliação da influência econômica, política e ideológica dos EUA. O modo de vida americano é visto como modelo. O “bem viver” também reflete esse aspecto, apresentando paralelos com a arquitetura do Good-Life Modernism, que se desenvolve ao final da Segunda Guerra, nos Estados Unidos, igualmente voltada à classe média. Ambas, Good-Life Modernism e “bem viver”, estão profundamente imbricadas com a questão do consumo e constituem cenário para uma vida confortável, moderna e prazerosa. Existem, ainda, similaridades entre as linguagens utilizadas nessas duas arquiteturas. O objetivo deste trabalho é investigar algumas analogias e as prováveis divergências entre ambas, Good-Life Modernism e “bem viver”, a respeito das questões do consumo e da linguagem utilizada. Esta pesquisa envolveu a revista “Casa e Jardim” da década de 1950, além de revistas americanas — algumas técnicas e outras voltadas ao público leigo.
The aim of this study is to explore the notion of stylistic hybridity in architecture by using shape grammar as a computational design methodology. The mid-twentieth-century architecture produced by William Hajjar is used as a case study for this exploration. Hajjar was a member of the architecture faculty at the Pennsylvania State University (Penn State), a practitioner in State College where the University Park campus is located, and an influential figure in the history of architecture in the area. The residential architecture he designed for and built in the area incorporates many of the shapes, rules, and features of both modern European architecture and traditional American architecture. Using computational methodology, this study offers an investigation into this hybridity phenomenon and explores the possibility of producing hybrid architectural designs for future uses.
In the present study, shape grammars are used specifically to verify and describe the influence of Bauhaus/European modernism on Hajjar’s domestic architecture: rules from the grammar developed for his single-family houses in the State College area will be compared with rules from the grammar developed for the Gropius–Breuer partnership in the United States. The potential of shape grammar will be discussed as an effective complementary tool for architectural historians to use in a mathematically rigorous way to verify the formal and functional similarities between styles. In short, it is proposed that shape grammars be used broadly in detective work to verify or disprove hypotheses.
The article examines the nostalgic landscape of Miami depicted in Susanna Daniel’s debut novel Stiltsville (2010). The setting of the novel is the actual community named in the title of the book and it refers to a group of houses built on pilings about a mile offshore in Biscayne Bay. The analysis proceeds according to methodology presented by the literary theorist Hana Wirth-Nesher in her article titled “Impartial Maps: Reading and Writing Cities”, published in Handbook of Urban Studies (2001), in which she identifies four aspects of cityscape in the representation of the city in narrative: the built, the ‘natural’, the human, and the verbal. The paper discusses the nostalgic construction of the past in the novel. Nostalgic notions of preserving the past have been linked with the concepts of cultural heritage and the preservation movement.
While the explicit aestheticization of modern architecture during MoMA’s first decade of exhibitions is well known, it is too often forgotten that this interpretation was countered from the beginning by exhibitions advancing an understanding of architecture that emphasized its social effects. Coinciding with America’s first large-scale public housing projects, part of the New Deal’s attempt to end the Great Depression through relief, recovery, and reform, MoMA installed several shows advocating for public housing during the 1930s — an overlooked facet of the museum’s well-documented history. This article explores how MoMA was instrumental in introducing and promoting the concept of public housing to the American public by cooperating on several exhibitions with local and federal public housing authorities, such as 'Housing Exhibition of the City of New York' (1934), 'Architecture and Government Housing' (1936) and 'Houses and Housing' (1939). Figures involved in several of these exhibitions such as self-acclaimed ‘housing expert’ Catherine Bauer were also active as part of governmental and non-governmental housing organizations, creating the laws that radically reformed housing in the United States. And yet, these exhibitions simultaneously presented housing as a distinct subcategory of architecture — a category in which quantity and affordability were valued over excellent design. The housing exhibitions made the living environments of the poor visible but perpetuated the divide between a prized elitist modernized aesthetics and built environments for the working-class masses.
The Garrett Birkhoff House, located at 45 Fayerweather Street (Fig. 1), is significant for its associations with the mathematician who commissioned the building and the architect responsible for the original design. These two men, Garrett Birkhoff (Fig. 2) and Walter Bogner (Fig. 3), were contemporaries on the Harvard faculty and were both involved in significant theoretical advancements in their respective fields during the early 20 th century. Birkhoff studied mathematics, quantum mechanics and abstract algebra. His academic writings included groundbreaking discoveries about the role of proportions in the study of physics. His published theories continue to serve as fundamental academic texts for contemporary mathematicians.
This article contributes to the current discussion of design as research by examining the ideological basis for the enthusiastic pursuit of scientific research in architecture in the postwar period. The concept of “research” was steeped in theory and ideology, but the research itself was shaped by the research economy—its policies and its institutions. Three very different case studies illustrate this phenomenon and demonstrate the importance of considering the research economy as a factor shaping the direction of architectural research.
High Modernist residential architecture of the mid-twentieth century embodied an austere beauty of simplicity and purity of form. Applying strict design theory to material and structure, architects connected man, architecture and nature in a way that enabled a surreal experience, pushing a residential structure beyond a dwelling to a spiritual place.
Over time, some of the most famous and iconic pieces of this architecture have shifted ownership and are no longer used as residences. A new demand for public access and visitation has transformed them into museums and public spaces, turning each into a piece of art in its own right. The function has now shifted in part into the public sphere.
As ownership shifts, places originally designed as private retreats for their occupants are now under pressure to open to the public for view and exploration. Highly appreciated as works of art, they draw crowds eager to experience the unique and sensational lifestyle they provided. While this transformation gives a second life to buildings that otherwise might be threatened by destruction or unsympathetic ownership, it also presents problems. Issues of practicality (public access), integrity (durability of physical fabric), and theory (conceptual continuity) raise questions about the most appropriate future for Modernist residential architecture.
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