A History of Interior Design

The Ascendancy of Modernism 399

20.5 Sven Markelius, included such pre-war established individuals Swedish trade unions. The largest meeting hall
Folkets Hus, Stockholm, Swe- as Hans Wegner, Borge Mogensen, and Paoul has been called Markelius’s finest work. He was
den, 1934. Kjaerholm. Younger designers were Peter one of several architects responsible for the UN
Hvidt, Grete Jalk, and Verner Panton, along headquarters in New York, where he produced
The large auditorium has seat- with Finn Juhl and Arne Jacobsen, who are the interior design for one council chamber, a
ing in curving rows that are mentioned above. Modern Danish cabinetry and space similar in form to that designed by Finn
widely spaced to permit easy shelving systems also became popular, while the Juhl but with a ceiling formed as a large, smooth
access. The simple, functional availability of related ceramics, silver, and other panel studded with recessed lights. The impact
forms are enlivened by the household products made “Danish modern” an is more formal and sedate than Juhl’s chamber.
ceiling design, in which lighting internationally popular style.
takes the form of bright disks The fine quality of Swedish design is evident
that seem to float against The design of post-war Sweden was strongly in many private homes and housing groups.
a darker background. concentrated on advanced ideas of town and Household products of superior design qual-
city planning, but many individual works also ity are sold in retail stores. Swedish furniture,
came into notice. Gunnar Asplund’s last work, textiles, and decorative objects, such as the glass
the Forest Crematorium at Sockenvagen near of the Orrefors firm, has become well known and
Stockholm (1934–40), is a serene grouping with popular. The AGA stove (kitchen range) and
a woodland cemetery and a main chapel with a the unique Ericofon telephone continue to offer
bronze and glass gate forming its front wall. The Swedish design for any suitable interior.
gate can be lowered into the ground, making
the outdoor court and the chapel interior into Finland has maintained a high standard
a single space. Sven Markelius continued his of design, its roots going back to traditions
distinguished career with such works as the of simplicity and craftsmanship. Alvar Aalto
Stockholm Folkets Hus (20.5; 1934), a grouping continued to exert a strong influence in Fin-
of meeting rooms and other facilities to serve nish design through his later work and his
role as a teacher. Aalto’s Technical University in

400 The Ascendancy of Modernism

Otaniemi (1955–66), with its distinguished Switzerland. A group of mostly cubical, modu- 20.6 Paatelainen and Pietilä,
lecture hall, is close to the student union build- lar elements enclosed in glass with a few solid Kaleva Church, Tampere,
ing called Dipoli (1964–6), by Raili Paatelainen panels, this almost complete building stands Finland, 1964–6.
and Reima Pietilä, a sprawling building of below a steel “umbrella” of triangulated panels
irregular shape with interiors enriched by supported by just four steel structural columns. The tall interior space is created
natural rock formations that have been pre- Part of the building is a demonstration ideal by fin-like concrete walls, which
served as interior walls. Their Kaleva Church house, part an exhibition center with a project- have been widely spaced to
at Tampere (20.6; 1964–6), with walls of tall, ing enclosed ramp connecting two levels. make room for bands of win-
curved slabs of reinforced concrete separated dows. The roof is made up of
by bands of glass, is a space of impressive dig- GERMANY concrete panels, positioned to
nity. In contrast, the small chapel at Otaniemi match the spacing of the walls.
by Kaija and Haikki Siren is a simple, box-like One of the other great pioneers, Mies van der The color scheme is subdued
form facing a front wall of glass looking out on a Rohe, demonstrated his idea of “universal grays, except for
beautiful landscape. The Helsinki City Theater space” in Germany in the great, open glass- the warm wood tones of the
(1967) designed by Timo Penttilä has an extra- walled enclosure of the National Gallery in seating and case for the pipe
ordinarily successful theater auditorium. Berlin (see p.  341) The Philharmonic Hall of organ on the right.

Viljo Revell (1910–64) was first known for
a  factory building at Hango (1954–6), which
included simple, brightly lit office spaces. He
became better known internationally with his
winning design for a new city hall for Toronto,
Canada (1958). Its two curving tall buildings
look across lower buildings that hold council
chambers and other facilities.

Finland has had a particularly distinguished
history in the design of furniture and other
household products. The hollow ball chair by
Eero Aarnio (b. 1932) of 1963–5, and his 1967
armchair, cup-shaped on a pedestal base, are
among the designs that made Finnish furniture
internationally known. The Finnish shipyards
of Wartsila at Turku produced an outpouring
of passenger ferry ships, large floating hotels
with many handsome interior spaces. The ferry
Finnjet (1973), for example, provides handsome
staterooms and distinguished public spaces on
its five passenger decks.

FRANCE

Le Corbusier’s later works dominate post-war
design in France. The chapel in Ronchamp and
the Unité d’Habitation in Marseille have already
been discussed (see p. 346). His idea for city
planning, focusing on large, tall, residential
buildings that would each constitute a complete
neighborhood, finally came to reality with the
building of the Unité. Le Corbusier was commis-
sioned to build several other Unité buildings in
Nantes and Firminy in France and in Germany
and Belgium.

One of Le Corbusier’s last works is the inter-
esting Centre Le Corbusier of 1967 in Zürich,

The Ascendancy of Modernism 401

20.7 Kurd Alsleben and
Quickborner Team, open-plan
office, Germany, 1968.

The plan for a large German
corporation’s administrative
offices adopted the approach
called Bürolandschaft (meaning
“office landscape”). Private
offices and closed spaces are
replaced by freely positioned
groups of furniture, which are
sited according to patterns of
communication. The swirling
lines indicate circulation paths.

20.8 Frei Otto, German Pavil- 1959–63 in Berlin by Hans Scharoun (1893– by Dieter Rams (b.  1932) and Hans Gugelot
ion, Expo 67, Montreal 1967. 1972), with its tent-like curving roof forms, (1920–65). The elegant products of the Braun
includes handsome foyer spaces leading to the electrical industry and furniture such as the
The use of tension cables hang- vast concert hall within. In the hall, angled M125 modular furniture group of 1953 were
ing from masts and supporting planes define platform-like elements for the typical examples of the influence of the school
a net of cables, which, in turn, seating; a large organ with exposed pipes occu- of Ulm. The school was closed in 1968 but its
supports a plastic skin, encour- pies an asymmetrical position on the right-hand influence continues.
ages the development of freely side. The orchestra takes up its position in a cen-
curving shapes. The translu- tral area, surrounded by the audience. Several major office buildings for German
cency of the roof material made corporations sprang up during the post-war
it possible for the interior to be In Ulm an effort was made to reconstitute the years. Most are of typically restrained Interna-
filled with light by day while at Bauhaus in a new institution, the Hochschule tional Style modernist character. Many of their
night interior lighting made the für Gestaltung, founded in 1952. The building interiors made use of a concept developed by
exterior glow in the dark. (1955) was designed by its first director, Max management consultants, the brothers Eber-
Bill, and is appropriately International Style in hard and Wolfgang Schnelle working in the
character. It became a center for the develop- organization known as the Quickborner Team.
ment of the austerely minimalist style favored Their approach to office planning called for
the elimination of all partitioning into separate
office rooms and the substitution of open space
called Bürolandschaft (“office landscape”), in
which furniture and movable screens could be
freely placed to permit easy communication
(20.7). Early examples of such open planning
were at first considered radical, but accept-
ance, in somewhat modified form, has become
the norm of modern office planning. The Buch
und Ton offices in Guttersloh (1961), those of
Krupp at Essen (1962), and the 1963 offices of
Orenstein-Koppel in Dortmund-Dorsfeld are
typical early examples of office landscape.

The works of Frei Otto (b.  1925) generate
exceptional tent-like interior spaces as a result
of dependence on suspended cable structures.
His German Pavilion at the Expo 67 World’s Fair
in Montreal (20.8) made the possibilities of such

402 The Ascendancy of Modernism

structure visible to a large audience of visitors. 20.9 Herman Hertzberger,
The Munich Olympic Stadium (1972) is a larger Centraal Beheer, Apeldoorn,
and more dramatic example of such a structure. the Netherlands, 1973.

THE NETHERLANDS The office building that Hertz-
berger designed for the insur-
The architect Aldo van Eyck (1918–99) has ance company Centraal Beheer
criticized the aim of modernist designers who moves away from the concept
seek an “ideal” solution to problems, usu- of the open-plan office in favor
ally on the basis of their own Euro-centric and of a more cellular organization.
middle-class values. He has urged a freer view Modular platforms or balconies
in which constructed space leaves openings for at various levels are placed in
user and occupant participation in the organiza- a complex, constantly varied
tion of interiors. Herman Hertzberger (b. 1932) pattern. More than a thousand
employed similar ideas for the office building office workers are placed in
of  Centraal Beheer (20.9; 1973), an insurance locations that offer each worker
company in Apeldoorn. The building is made a unique setting.
up of modular units stacked in rectilinear but
irregular patterns. The interior space is, as a and lounge called The Lookout. The room was an
result, a complex of small spaces where the observation lounge stretching the width of the
individual workers are encouraged to arrange ship; its forward bulkhead (wall) slanted inward
furniture, equipment, and personal accesso- and was studded with large windows overlook-
ries in any desired way. The resulting clutter is ing the bow of the ship. There is a piano in bright
surprisingly humane, quite unlike the uniform vermilion, the only touch of strong color. Pen-
order that is the effect of so many office projects. tagram has been responsible for a number of
other interior and exhibition design projects
BRITAIN of outstanding quality, including office interiors
for Reuters, British Petroleum, and Pentagram’s
Post-war work in Britain was dominated by the own London offices.
planning of new towns and by housing projects
of a generally high level of design. The Royal David Hicks (1929–98) established his
Festival Hall, built as part of the Festival of practice in 1955 and became a leading British
Britain exhibition of 1951, remains as the only designer. His distinctive designs for textiles and
permanent survivor of that fair. The architects carpets are based on rectangular blocks. Pat-
were R.  H.  Matthew and J.  L.  Martin of the terned floors, with strong colors, often in rooms
London County Council. The 3000-seat main with large paintings and traditional furniture,
hall is one of the first distinguished concert hall marked his personal style. Furniture by Robin
interiors to be built in the post-war era (20.10). Day, Ernest Race, and a number of other design-
ers was assembled by Terence Conran to provide
The Smithsons (Alison and Peter) are thought designs for the highly successful chain of
of as leading proponents of the new brutalist Habitat retail shops.
direction (see p. 348). Their best-known work
is  the Economist building (1964)—which is UNITED STATES
actually three towers—in St.  James’s Street,
London. The interior spaces of the original Gropius, Breuer, Mies van der Rohe, and Aalto
entrance lobbies and other public areas display continued to exert their influence in post-war
the austerity of brutalism. America. Eero Saarinen designed the TWA
terminal at Kennedy airport (20.11; 1956–62),
The last great ocean liner, the Queen Eliza-
beth  II (1968), had interiors coordinated by
Dennis Lennon and Partners that were examples
of British design at its best. Theo Crosby of the
firm Pentagram was the designer of a particu-
larly handsome room on the upper deck, a bar

The Ascendancy of Modernism 403

20.10 R. H. Matthew and its free forms in reinforced concrete generat- the terminal to airplanes waiting on the field.
J. L. Martin, Royal Festival ing large, open, sculptural interior spaces with This scheme made a more compact terminal pos-
Hall, London, 1951. curving elevated walkways looking out over the sible than would have been required to give
complex, curving surfaces. Access to the aircraft direct access to planes. At the Massachusetts
The large concert hall was was through tubular passages, also curving but Institute of Technology, Saarinen designed
part of a complex built on the contrasting in their sense of closure with the a small, round chapel, lighted by the chang-
South Bank of the Thames. The openness of the main terminal building. ing reflections from a surrounding water-filled
ceiling forms and curved fronts moat, and the related Kresge Auditorium within
of boxes on side walls were Saarinen’s design for the terminal build- a great shell structure (1955). His austere black-
planned to favor acoustical ing for the Dulles airport serving Washington, tower skyscraper designed for CBS in New York
considerations. The ceiling D.C., located at Chantilly, Virginia (1962), used (1965) housed elegantly colorful interiors that
incorporates concealed light- a different approach. Its cable-suspended roof were designed by Florence Knoll.
ing, and the natural wood of the structure generated an impressive and vast inte-
three panels at the front focus rior concourse. Special vehicles called “mobile After Saarinen’s death, the successor firm
attention on the platform area. lounges” transported passengers to and from of Roche Dinkeloo designed the office complex
The exposed pipes of the large
organ provide a decorative ele-
ment above
the stage.

404 The Ascendancy of Modernism

20.11 Eero Saarinen, TWA
Terminal, Kennedy Airport,
New York, 1956–62.

Saarinen explored the pos-
sibilities inherent in reinforced
concrete as a structural mate-
rial to create
the freely curving forms that
characterize the building both
inside and out. Curving stairs
give access to upper levels,
while simple metal railings
act as decorative detail. Large
glass areas admit light in ways
that accentuate the sculptural
forms of the structure.

for John Deere at Moline, Illinois (20.12; 1955), tects who developed what is often called a Bay 20.12 Kevin Roche and
and the distinguished New York headquarters Region vernacular, centered on San Francisco John Dinkeloo, offices for
building for the Ford Foundation (1967). The and its bay. The style draws on the tradition of John Deere & Co., Moline,
John Deere space has the character of a two-story farms and ranch structures to produce a form Illinois, 1955.
garden conservatory, which makes the office fur- of modernism that is unpretentious and direct.
niture a minor element in an area dominated by The Pope ranch house of 1958, for example, has Work spaces are arranged on
growing plants. In the Ford Foundation build- a gable roof and is surrounded by wide veran- two floors of two rectangular
ing, office floors form an L-shape on two sides of das. The Coleman city house in San Francisco blocks, which have a spacious
a high garden atrium. Windows look into this (1962) has crisp white-painted steel framing garden atrium between them.
skylit interior space, where trees and smaller with broad glass areas giving views of the bay. Every work station is within
plantings make the garden equal in importance From the street, the house is an unassuming two- sight of either the atrium or
to the surrounding offices. Warren Plattner the park setting in which the
developed its interiors of great dignity and sim- building stands. Structural
plicity, often with furniture of his own design. members are of COR-10 steel.

Richard Neutra continued to produce many
distinguished projects after the war, including
schools, medical facilities, and private houses,
all in the International Style vocabulary of recti-
linear simplicity. His house of 1946–7 in Palm
Springs in the California desert for the Kauf-
mann family (who had been Wright’s clients
for Fallingwater) is a particularly fine example
(20.13). Vast areas of floor-to-ceiling glass con-
nect the simple interiors with the surrounding
outdoor spaces.

Modernist residential design was particu-
larly welcomed in California. William Wilson
Wurster (1895–1973) was one of several archi-

The Ascendancy of Modernism 405

20.13 Richard Neutra, Kauf-
mann House, Palm Springs,
California, 1946–7.
The simplicity of the Interna-
tional Style continued
to characterize Neutra’s later
work, and the influence of Mies
van der Rohe can be seen in
the Kaufmann House. The
large, roll-away glass areas and
simple treatment of floors and
ceiling give the interior space a
unity with the carefully planned
garden areas outside.

20.14 Charles Eames, Eames
House and studio, Pacific
Palisades, California, 1949.
Better known as the designer
of the Eames chair (1940–1)
Eames in his own house gave
an early example of the direc-
tion know as “hi-tech”
in his use of metal and glass.
Exposed open-web joists sup-
port the roof, while the exterior
walls are made up
of glass and solid panels in
standard industrial window
and structural elements. In this
view of the studio, a stair leads
to an upper level where the
primary colors of an Eames
storage unit can be seen.

406 The Ascendancy of Modernism

story structure, but once inside it opens up into Frank Lloyd Wright had a continuing,
a play between large, open internal spaces and active career in the post-war era which led to
the expansive vistas over the city provided by one of his most famous (and final) works, the
the curtain wall of windows forming the back Guggenheim Museum in New York (1956–59).
of the house. The interiors use simple, white- Its interior, a round funnel-like space holding a
painted walls, and natural wood for floors, winding spiral ramp, is one of the most remark-
doors, and trim. able designs in any modern building (20.15).
Controversy has centered on its suitability as a
Farther north, in Portland, Oregon, Pietro museum space, with critics suggesting that the
Belluschi (1899–1994) became known for his strength of its architectural form overwhelms
Equitable Building of 1948, one of the first tall any art work displayed there.
buildings in America of strict modernist charac-
ter. Built three years later, his Central Lutheran Another museum of comparable importance
Church, also in Portland, is a construction of to the Guggenheim is the Whitney Museum of
redwood, inside and out, suggesting an affin- American Art in New York (1963–6) by Marcel
ity with the vernacular barn structures of the Breuer. The massive, heavy structure houses
Pacific Northwest. Belluschi became dean of spaces of austerity and dignity (20.16). The
the architectural school at MIT in 1951 and entrance across a bridge over an open garden
managed to continue his practice on the west leads to a lobby area. It and the basement café
coast while accepting commissions in the east prepare the visitor for the gallery spaces—
as well. He was the designer of many churches, open areas with a ceiling structure of concrete
such as that of the Portsmouth Priory in Ports- in a triangulated grid. One large projecting
mouth, Rhode Island (1961), an octagonal window, asymmetrically placed, allows the visi-
building with walls of redwood and fieldstone, tor a glimpse of the out-of-doors and the outside
the warmth and texture of wood dominating world a glimpse into the galleries. Breuer had
the interior. (For Belluschi’s role in the design of a number of major commissions in the United
the Pan Am Building and the Juilliard School in States, including a  dormitory building, Ferry
New York, see pp. 407 and 409.) House, at Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New

20.15 Frank Lloyd Wright,
Guggenheim Museum,
New York, 1956–59.

The museum’s main rotunda
space is formed by the great
spiral ramp. Art works are dis-
played against the outside wall,
which follows the curve
of the ramp. Visitors can look
down to the ground below or
up to the skylight dome above.
Color is a cream off-white, with
plants providing green accents.

The Ascendancy of Modernism 407

20.16 Marcel Breuer, Whitney York (1950), and St. John’s Abbey Church and Denver (1976–7), with its open stretches of office
Museum of American Art, library in Collegeville, Minnesota (1953–68). space treated in office landscape fashion.
New York, 1963–6. The church interior is a large, auditorium-like
The floor of stone rectangles space with walls and ceiling of folded concrete Other exceptions to the indifferent qual-
and the functional overhead slab. A balcony is an independent concrete struc- ity of many office towers include the Citicorp
grid, which contains adjustable ture standing within the church auditorium. building in New York (1977), a tall office build-
lighting fittings, combine with ing of outstanding quality by Hugh Stubbins
the white walls to provide a Breuer’s office in New York designed many (1912–94). Its handsome inner atrium is a shop-
setting in which works of churches, college buildings, office complexes, ping center, its many stores and restaurants
art may be seen without com- and private houses. The giant headquarters surrounding a high open space with escalators
petition. In the center of the far building for the U.S.  Department of Hous- connecting several levels. An unusually inter-
wall can be seen one ing and Urban Development in Washington, esting office interior can be found on one of the
of several trapezoidal windows D.C. (1963–8), houses nine floors of routine higher floors: the offices of BEA by Tod Wil-
that project out from the build- office space within an exterior grid of concrete liams and Associates. Partitions of sand-blasted
ing’s exterior walls. above an entrance floor bordered by sheltered glass and red- brown columns housing lighting
outdoor passageways. give the space a quiet and attractive quality.
20.17 Edward Larabee Barnes,
IBM World Trade Offices, Urban Office Buildings Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill were the
Mount Pleasant, architects and interior designers for the Ameri-
New York, 1974. Walter Gropius organized The Architects’ can Republic Insurance Company building in
The three-story building has Collaborative (TAC) in 1945. Together with Des Moines, Iowa (1965), with its distinguished
walls of continuous glass. Pietro Belluschi he was a consultant in shap- interiors. The firm produced many projects
A circulation space follows the ing the design of the New York office tower of outside the field of office design. The Mauna
glass walls, while work stations 1963 originally known as the Pan Am Building. Kea Beach Hotel at Kamuela, Hawaii (1965), for
are grouped within so that all The firm of Emery Roth and Sons carried out the example, has interiors that refer to local tradi-
workers have equal access execution of the project. Gropius’s influence can tions through their materials and craft-related
to the light and views of the be seen in the plan of the tower with its tapered forms. Guest rooms use furniture of local wicker
pleasant exterior space. ends, and in the public spaces at ground level and sliding screens of narrow strip louvers.
Each floor is carpeted in an (now unfortunately badly modified), enlivened Rooms face on galleries that surround an open
identifying color, here red, by distinguished art works by Josef Albers, court with tall palm trees.
pleasantly contrasting with Gyorgy Kepes, and Richard Lippold. The
the many green plants. Architects’ Collaborative has designed many Edward Larrabee Barnes (1915–2004) was
school and college buildings, as well as govern- the architect and designer for several  IBM
mental and institutional buildings, such as the projects including the World Trade offices at
Johns Manville office building in Colorado, near Mount Pleasant, New York (20.17; 1974), its
three floors of open office space surrounded by
windows opening on to the countryside. Where
the program called for the enclosure of private
spaces, clear glass has been used for floor-to-
ceiling partitions that allow visual openness.

Philip Johnson was the designer of the
A.T.&T. headquarters office building of 1984
in New York (now the Sony Building). It is an

408 The Ascendancy of Modernism 20.18 I. M. Pei and Partners,
National Airlines Terminal,
architecturally controversial project, discussed in John F. Kennedy International
the following chapter. The office interiors by the Airport, Queens, New York,
firm ISD are in many ways backward-looking, 1972.
with their rich areas of marble, elaborate wooden This open space roofed with
paneling, and similar references to the corporate a space-frame structure has
styles of the past. The lobby of 885 Third Avenue exterior walls of glass.
(also a Philip Johnson project) of 1986, jokingly
called the Lipstick Building in recognition of its 20.19 I. M. Pei and Partners,
stepped, elliptical shape, has ground-floor lobby City Hall, Dallas, 1977.
space more allied to the Art Deco directions of the The dramatic interior atrium of
1930s. the lobby with the upper floors
opening onto it, and even canti-
levered into it, create a sense of
a building within
a building.

The Ascendancy of Modernism 409

20.20 Belluschi and Catalano, The work of I.  M.  Pei (b.  1917) extends ency—both highly desirable qualities in a local
Juilliard Theater, Lincoln from his own serenely simple country house in goverment. (For later work by Pei and his part-
Center, New York, 1968. Katonah, New York (1952), to a range of major ners see Chapter 21.)
(after restoration) projects for which his office also provided inte-
rior design. Apartment buildings in New York, The group of buildings forming New York’s
This theater-concert hall is Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C., are typical Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts is a
housed within the extensive examples, as is the Denver Hilton Hotel (1960), monumental cluster with disappointing interior
building that contains the Juil- where Alexander Girard cooperated in the spaces. The best of the three major buildings
liard School of Music. Its moder- interior design. The National Airlines Termi- from an interior-design point of view is the New
ate size and extensive use of nal of 1972 (now TWA terminal B) at Kennedy York State Theater (1964) by Philip Johnson.
natural wood give it a comfort- airport in New York is a vast open space topped The entrance-level lobby and the grand foyer
able quality, which makes it a by a space-frame truss roof supported by col- above it are distinguished spaces where traver-
highly successful setting for umns that stand outside the glass walls of the tine floors and walls and, in the foyer, balconies
recitals and chamber-music building (20.18). It suggests a strong attachment on several levels provide a setting for two major
concerts. to Mies van der Rohe’s concept of universal sculptural works by Elie Nadelman. The aud-
space. This is also evident in his design of the itorium expresses some of the sense of the great
City Hall in Dallas (20.19). The dynamic canti- opera houses of the past, with much gold leaf
levered façade fronts a grand public space on and red plush. It is far more successful than the
the ground floor that opens out into an atrium banal interior of the Metropolitan Opera House
rising the height of the building. The adminis- adjacent. The nearby Juilliard School of Music
trative offices open off the atrium on the upper of 1968 by Pietro Belluschi and Eduardo Cata-
floors, while the public has free access to the lano (20.20), is the best of the Lincoln Center
space at ground level, giving a sense of not only buildings: its moderately sized Alice Tully Hall
grandeur, but also of openness and transpar- auditorium is an outstanding interior, both vis-
ually and acoustically.

410 The Ascendancy of Modernism

Office Planning for fourteen floors of offices for Time-Life Inc.
in the New York Time-Life building of Rock-
The design of office facilities has become so efeller Center). Sidney Rogers Associates were
important an aspect of interior design practice the planners for the twenty-six floors of the
that a specialized profession has grown up, usu- Montgomery Ward headquarters building in
ally called Space planning. Space planners Chicago. Carpeting in differing bright colors
also deal with institutional, hotel, and retail serves to differentiate the floors of the project,
projects. Their approach begins with the devel- which are otherwise almost totally similar.
opment of the plan, and moves into furniture All use landscape planning (discussed below).
placement and the more decorative aspects of Rogers Associates were also office designers for
interior design. The goal of such planning is to the headquarters building in Tacoma, Wash-
provide for efficient office functioning along ington, for the Weyerhaeuser Company. Knoll
with comfort for workers and flexibility for office furniture was used in open-plan configu-
growth and organizational change. rations with broad areas of glass opening on to
the surrounding landscape. The building archi-
ISD (Interior Space Design; no longer in tects were Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill.
existence) was one of the best known and most
successful space planning organizations. Their The office of George Nelson (1908–86) pro-
office interiors in  the Boston City Hall, the duced an exceptional interior for the Aid
A.T.&T. Building in New York, and the Xerox Association to Lutherans building (1976) by
headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut, are John Carl Warnecke (b.  1919) in Appleton,
good examples of ISD practice. The interiors of Wisconsin. The special open-office furniture
the Boston building for the American Academy system was produced under the firm name Stor-
of Arts and Sciences (1961) by the architectural wal International. An unusual feature was the
firm of Kallmann, McKinnell, and Wood finds use of small conference areas made up of mov-
ISD working with more varied spaces, where a able panels arranged in a circle, with a central
sense of calm and dignity is developed through umbrella forming a kind of internal roof. On
the use of wood surfaces with other carefully a smaller scale, the New York restaurant La
chosen materials and objects. Potagerie (1971, now demolished) shows the
Nelson office (with Judith Stockman in charge
Other space planners include the firms SLS of design) producing spaces that were colorful
Environetics, the Space Design Group, and and cheerful as well as highly functional.
Designs for Business (the latter responsible

20.21 Bill Stumpf, Ethospace
Interior, Herman Miller, Inc.,
1985.

The office furniture and screen-
partition system from a major
American manufacturer is
shown in a typical grouping,
with work surface, ergonomi-
cally designed chairs, and a
lamp contained in a space
defined by wall panels. The
interchangeable panels may be
fabric covered in a variety of
colors, or made of clear or ob-
scure glass to provide privacy,
light, and open or closed vision
as desired.

The Ascendancy of Modernism 411

20.22 (top) Brian Alexander,
Flo workstation and storage
units, United States, 1997.

This futuristic proposal for an
office workstation was given
the name “Flo” to suggest its
goal of making the work experi-
ence more individual
and therefore making it easier
to tackle tasks.

20.23 (far right) Don Chadwick Office Furniture intended to be beneficial to the physical comfort
and Bill Stumpf, Aeron chair, and health of the user. Designs by Bill Stumpf
graphite frame, flexible mesh With the vast expansion of office building, (the Ergon chairs), Niels Diffrient, and then
seat and back, metal base, and increased use of Bürolandschaft (office a host of other designers all aimed at provid-
made by Herman Miller, landscape) planning, American furniture man- ing superior office seating. They have become
designed 1994. ufacturers soon began to develop systems in essential elements in modern office design.
which work surfaces and storage were inte-
One of the most successful of grated with screens or panels that provided a Interior Designers
the new-generation ergonomic degree of privacy and also dealt with the pleth-
office chairs, the Aeron is ora of electric and telephone wiring that modern Interior design is often undertaken without
light, adjustable, and has an office equipment requires (20.21). Robert Propst strong involvement in architecture, especially
aesthetically-pleasing design. developed a system that he called Action Office by those active in the design of residential inte-
for the Herman Miller Furniture Company in riors. The work of some designers is regarded as
20.24 (right) Robert Probst, 1964. Before long an increasing number of simi- so exciting and glamorous that it can enhance
Action Office, wood and lar systems began to appear, each system named the status of their clients. Among such “star”
metal, for Herman Miller, for its designer. The Stephens, Zapf, Hannah, designers working in America, the elegant inte-
1964 and later. and Morrison systems were introduced by riors of Mark Hampton (1940–98) and Albert
Knoll. There were also the Haller system from Hadley (1911–2012) recalled the work of the
Pioneering the rethinking of Switzerland, the Marcatre and Olivetti systems eclectic decorating pioneers. Hadley went into
office furniture for changing from Italy, the Lucas system from England, the partnership with Sister Parish in 1962, and ran
practices in the workplace, Race system from Canada, the Voko systems the firm of Parish-Hadley after her death in 1994.
Action Office provided flexibility from Germany, and the products of Haworth Angelo Donghia (1935–85) used striking back-
and freedom of movement and Steelcase in the United States (20.22). grounds with a mix of furniture types to create
with varying desk heights and a more contemporary effect. Mario Buatta (b.
many possible configurations. The discovery that full-time office work 1935) established his reputation with the skilled
seated in a chair at a work station could generate use of colorful patterned fabrics, translating the
physiological problems led to the development
of so-called ergonomic chairs that offered designs

412 The Ascendancy of Modernism

The Ascendancy of Modernism 413

20.25 (left) Adam Tihany, English country-house look for American taste. Benjamin Baldwin (1913–93) was a prod-
Aureole restaurant, The work of John Saladino (b. 1939) places his- uct of the Cranbrook Academy, who became
Las Vegas, Nevada, 1999. toric references in more clearly contemporary known for some of the most distinguished inte-
settings. Ward Bennett, mentioned earlier for his rior projects of the 1960s and 1970s. His style,
The 42-foot-high “wine tower,” work at the Chase Manhattan tower, designed close to minimalism but with a strong sense of
focal point of Tihany’s design, simple interiors suggestive of the International color and form, made it possible for him to work
is a conversation piece with a Style together with his own furniture. Joseph with a number of modern architects, includ-
purpose: the steel-and- glass Paul D’Urso (b.  1943) was trained both as an ing Edward Barnes, Louis Kahn, and I. M. Pei.
enclosure houses 10,000 bot- interior designer and as an architect and worked For Kahn, he was responsible for interiors of
tles, which are accessed to for a time with Ward Bennett before establish- the library and dining hall at Phillips Exeter
order by black-clad “angels” via ing his own practice. His work, sometimes called Academy, Exeter, New Hampshire (1967–72),
a system of trapeze-like pulleys “minimalist,” used simple surfaces along with and for furniture and related details at the Yale
... a theatrical touch suited to elements of industrial products (shelving, table Center for British Art at New Haven, Connecti-
the Vegas locale. bases, light fixtures) to generate what may also cut (1969–74). The exceptionally fine interiors
be called an industrial style. of the Americana Hotel in Fort Worth, Texas
(1980), are also his work. His own house at East
Sarah Tomerlin Lee (1911–2001), editor of Hampton, New York, is a fine example of the
House Beautiful, who took over the firm Tom Lee way he approached design.
Ltd. at her husband’s death in 1971, developed
a practice that specialized in hotel interiors, The work of the New York designers Mas-
many called “romantic” in their use of period simo and Lella Vignelli (b.1931 and 1933) and
furniture and textiles, in hotels such as the has included a wide range of design projects,
Parker Meridien of 1981 (made over from an including graphic and industrial design as
older hotel) in New York, or in interiors of tra- well as furniture and interiors. The New York
ditional design dating from an earlier era. The St. Peter’s Church incorporates modern form and
Helmsley Palace in New York is made up, in part, lively color in a space where a large pipe organ
from the great Villard houses of 1884 by McKim, and chancel fittings of unique design establish a
Mead, and White. The 1980 conversion to hotel religious interior full of life (20.26).
use gave Sarah Tomerlin Lee a setting of eclectic
opulence in which her richly ornamental inte- Restaurant design has become a specialized
rior style seems entirely at home. aspect of interior design practice. The Aure-
ole restaurant in Las Vegas (1999), redesigned

20.26 (right) Massimo and Lella
Vignelli, St. Peter’s Church,
interior, New York, 1977.

This church, included as a
related element at the base
of a skyscraper office building,
has an interior designed by the
team best known as industrial
designers. The seating and
liturgical fittings, including the
colorful textiles, are all the
work of the designers.

414 The Ascendancy of Modernism 20.27 Harry Bertoia, wire
chair, for Knoll Associates,
by Adam Tihany (b.1948), is an example of a 1950–2.
major project by a firm that concentrates on this
type of work (20.25). This chair of welded steel
wire was designed for Knoll
Barbara d’Arcy (1928–2012) helped set fash- in 1950–52. Its designer, the
ion trends with the imaginative model rooms sculptor Harry Bertoia, was
she designed (1958 to 1973) for Bloomingdale’s commissioned to develop a
department store in New York to show off new furniture group for Knoll. A wire
furniture in attention-getting environments. “chicken mesh” chair with a
diamond-shaped back was to
In 1985 Interior Design Magazine, the lead- become his best-known design.
ing trade publication in the field, established an
annual Hall of Fame award to recognize the out-
standing members of the profession.

Industrial functions also have called for
some interiors that are of remarkable quality.
The power houses produced by the U.S. Ten-
nessee Valley Administration (TVA) under
the direction of Roland Wank have interiors
that are austere but striking in their simple,
functional forms.

FURNITURE AND OTHER INTE-
RIOR FURNISHINGS

Modern furniture that came into use post-World he was commissioned to develop furniture
War II includes many of the “classic” designs designs for Knoll (see Chapter 19). His wire-
of the 1920s and 1930s, such as those of Aalto, framed chairs of 1952 for Knoll (20.27) have had
Breuer, Le Corbusier, and Mies van der Rohe. a continuing long life, being popular as items of
Charles Eames, the office of George Nelson, furniture in modern interiors.
Warren Platner, and many other Americans
joined the classics and imports of more recent Textiles
designs from Italy and the Scandinavian coun-
tries to provide interior designers with a rich The wide acceptance of the modernist aesthetic
variety of available furniture of excellent design propelled the major manufacturers of textiles
quality. Charles Eames provided a steady flow toward production of a vast range of simple, solid
of distinguished designs, often by-products color patterns, plus stripes, checks, and other
of interior projects that he and his wife, Ray, geometric designs suitable for use in upholstery
worked on together. and drapery. There was also continuing produc-
tion of the floral and other decorative prints and
Such designs were generally familiar only weaves used in traditional interior decor. Among
to architects and designers; most households American designers, Dorothy Liebes (1899–1972)
of middle-class families made do with shoddy became known for rich, over-scaled textures in
products in designs that pretended to be “colo- thick yarns. Boris Kroll (1913–91) established a
nial” or “French provincial.” Exceptions to firm offering varied textiles of high quality in
this pattern are the designs of Paul McCobb both design and structure.
(1917–69)—simple wooden cabinets and chairs
that seem to have a basis in American colonial Most production textiles and carpets were
or Shaker precedents without being in any way anonymous patterns produced by staff designers
imitative. McCobb’s inexpensive furniture, employed by manufacturers; but some furniture
available in department stores, and the designs manufacturers turned to offering proprietary
of Jens Risom, as well as the more costly designs lines of textiles. The designs were then coor-
of Edward Wormley, found their way into dinated with a special stylistic approach using
at least some American homes. Harry Bertoia distinguished designers identified with indi-
(1915–78) was a sculptor who had worked at vidual styles. The work of Alexander Girard for
Cranbrook, and with Charles Eames, before Herman Miller, based on the color and pattern of

The Ascendancy of Modernism 415

20.28 Larsen Design Studio,
foyer of the Rainbow Room,
Rockefeller Center,
New York, 1996.

Strong patterns in a jacquard
fabric on the curving wall and
a pattern of rings in the Wilton
carpet demonstrate the way
in which woven materials
can elaborate a basically
simple space.

Mexican and South American folk art, has already Modernism has been a significant style for many
been mentioned. Knoll employed a series of decades. Its emergence in the 1920s, its rise in
able designers, including Eszter Harastzy for the 1930s and 1940s, and its dominance in the
such patterns as the linear Tracy, and Anni 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s mean that it has lasted
Albers (1899–1994) of Bauhaus origins for through two to three generations of design-
abstract geometric patterns. Angelo Testa ers and public, always finding new forms and
(b.  1918–84) contributed some of the first new expressions. It was inevitable that the
abstract prints offered by Knoll. Practical and ascendancy of modernism would continue to
colorful upholstery fabrics also joined such evoke criticism. Some work that often adopted
textile programs. the superficial qualities of modernist design
without understanding its underlying inten-
At Cranbrook, Loja Saarinen (1879–1968) tions helped to encourage a backlash against
organized a weaving studio and was the it. Modern design was accused of ignoring the
designer of many craft-based weavings. Later needs and desires of occupants and users in pur-
Cranbrook textile designers included Ed Ross- suit of abstract ideals that had more significance
bach (1914–2002) and Marianne Strengell among professional colleagues than among a
(1909–98). The work of Jack Lenor Larsen wider public.
(b. 1927) in developing a great variety of creative
weaves, often using newly developed fibers and Modernism, as a stylistic designation, covers
abstract prints, has established textile design a broad spectrum of design. The least success-
as a distinctive art form (20.28). He has been the ful of these, such as indifferently-designed large
strongest of Cranbrook influences in textiles. housing projects and monotonous glass-tower
office buildings, came under attack and led
The color and bold patterning of Finnish some critics to assert that modernism was a fail-
textile art became widely known under the ure. Though not always justified, that criticism
trade name Marimekko with design by Armi encouraged the exploration of new directions in
Ratia (1912–79) and Maija Isola (1927–2001). design, leading to developments that could be
Imports such as the Thai silks of Jim Thompson seen as alternative aspects of modernism. They
(1906–77), Danish designs by Verner Panton will be discussed in the following chapters.
(1926–98), and Swedish and German textiles by
lesser-known designers came into wide avail-
ability and use.



C H AP T E R T W E N T Y- O N E

After the International Style:
The Late Twentieth Century

21.1 I. M. Pei, Pyramid, Louvre By the 1970s the International Style was important early projects was built in Japan.
Museum, Paris, 1983–9. moribund, and many observers declared mod- After World War II, air travel, and particularly
ernism a style whose reign had ended. The the advent of jet air travel, enabled movement
The public space acts as a question of how to replace it was, however, anywhere on the globe in a matter of hours.
new entrance to the famous one that confounded critics, historians, and Improved communication, through elec-
museum. Although initially the architects and designers charged with the tronic media as well as printed matter, brought
controversial, the glass and task of coming up with something new. Critics broader awareness of design, helping to make
metal structure has come to be decried the style for its tendency to generate it a more international profession. This was rec-
recognized as a great success. look-alike buildings, its abandonment of deco- ognized in the formation of the International
Glimpses of the surrounding rative details, and the elitist attitude that led to Interior Design Association in 1994, which
Renaissance architecture a lack of broad public acceptance. As architects counts among its members practitioners from
are set off by the pyramidal and designers searched for new approaches, many countries.
geometry and the flow of the the last two decades of the twentieth century
great winding stair that leads brought several diverse and competing move- Honors for architecture and architects
to the lower level entrance ments, each suggesting a possible future style began to cross national lines as well. The
concourse. direction, or hinting of developments yet Pritzker Prize, an international award initi-
undefined. The result was an amalgamation of ated in 1979, is the architectural equivalent
21.2 (below) Luis Barragán, possible paths, as well as an increasingly inter- of the Nobel Prize. Sponsored by the Pritzker
San Cristobal Estates, Mexico national and global view. Foundation and judged by a panel of experts,
City, 1966–8 it became an important factor in bringing rec-
The international nature of design had ognition to architects and their contributions
Barragán’s interpretation of the begun earlier in the century. Neutra, Lescaze, to society. The first award was given to Philip
International Style modulates Eliel Saarinen, Gropius, Breuer, and Mies van Johnson, and subsequent winners include Luis
geometric concrete and stucco der Rohe had brought the International Style Barragán (21.2), James Stirling, I. M. Pei (21.1),
forms with vivid color, textural and its variations to Britain and the United Richard Meier, Hans Hollein, Kenzo Tange,
contrast, and water. States. One of Frank Lloyd Wright’s most Gordon Bunshaft, Oscar Niemeyer (21.3), Frank

21.3 (below right) Oscar
Niemeyer, Cathedral, Brasília,
Brazil, 1970.

The hyperboloid form of curved
concrete columns suggests two
hands reaching toward heaven.
Natural light streams in through
stained glass panels.

417

418 After the international style: the late twentieth century

21.4 Louis I. Kahn, First
Unitarian Church and School,
Rochester, New York,
1959–69.

The austerity of the interior is
relieved by the daylight that
enters at each of the four
corners of the room from
windows above the ceiling,
which are not readily visible
from normal seating or standing
positions. Color comes from
the woven tapestry panels on
the side walls, the work of Jack
Lenor Larsen.

Gehry, Robert Venturi, Fumihiko Maki, Tadao architectural practice. After beginning teaching
Ando, Rafael Moneo, Renzo Piano, Norman at Yale in 1947 he became better known within
Foster, Rem Koolhaas, Herzog & de Meuron, the design professions as an outstanding theo-
Jørn Utzon, Zaha Hadid, Thom Mayne, Richard rist–philosopher than for his executed work.
Rogers, and Jean Nouvel, as well as others His first important building was an art gallery
whose names are not so widely known. for Yale University (1951–3). The gallery floors
are open spaces made special by ceilings formed
PROPHETS OF DESIGN by triangular coffers of concrete structural
slabs, with four levels connected by an elevator
Two examples help to make this point. Louis I. and stairs housed in a cylindrical enclosure.
Kahn (1901–74) was an internationally admired
figure, little known until the 1940s and 1950s, The Yale Art Gallery was followed by the
when reputations began to develop quickly even more striking Richards Medical Research
and dramatically through printed commu- Laboratories (1957–61) at the University of
nications. César Pelli (b. 1926) is still in active Pennsylvania. Here Kahn developed a concept
practice with work around the globe. Both are of separation between what he called “serv-
architects whose work has a special concern ing spaces” and “served spaces.” The serving
for interior space; both are difficult to classify spaces are towerlike enclosures that stand out-
as proponents of any particular style direction. side of the larger laboratory spaces that they
serve, and house stairs, ducts, plumbing, and
Kahn similar utilities. The serving towers are of
windowless brick, while the laboratories are
Kahn was born in Estonia, graduated from arranged in a concrete-framed structure on
the  architectural school of the University five floors of glass-walled, pavilion-like units.
of Pennsylvania, in 1924, and worked as a The external forms of the building were unlike
draftsman and designer in several architec- any modern work previously built and,
tural offices. In 1941 he joined George Howe in despite its relatively utilitarian interiors, this
building made Kahn a major figure in
American architecture.

After the International Style: The Late Twentieth Century 419

21.5 César Pelli, Winter Kahn was deeply concerned with the His first major building was an art gallery for
Garden, World Financial expression of materials and with the ways in Yale (1951–3, renovated and expanded 2012),
Center, Battery Park City, which light reveals form and determines the with ceilings formed by triangular coffers
New York, 1980–8; nature of interior spaces. The First Unitarian of concrete structural slabs, and four levels
rebuilt 2001. church of Rochester, New York (21.4; 1959– connected by an elevator and stairs in a cylin-
69), is a cluster of multipurpose rooms drical enclosure.
With its obvious echoes of surrounding a central sanctuary, with light
London’s Crystal Palace of entering from windows high up on roof projec- Kahn’s library for Phillips Exeter Academy
1851, this structure offers a tions. The windows cannot be seen from most in Exeter, New Hampshire (1965–72), has
huge space that can be used positions within the church—the light seems stacks arranged on balcony floors that surround
for concerts, exhibitions, and to enter from invisible sources. With its simple, a central atrium viewed through huge circular
other special events. When gray masonry walls the space is austere, but is openings. Light comes from skylights above the
not so used, it forms an atrium enlivened by brightly colored tapestry hang- atrium. The Yale Center for British Art in New
circulation space, from which ings by Jack Lenor Larsen. The effects of light Haven, Connecticut (1969–74), provides gallery
there is access to surrounding in relation to the limited color create a power- space on levels surrounding two skylit courts.
shops. Color comes from floor fully moving effect. The Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas
patterns, painted columns, and (1966–72), is a single-story building, a kind
the green of trees. As his reputation grew, Kahn’s practice of pavilion of parallel concrete vaulted elements
became international. The Indian Institute of where light is led in from hidden sources at
Management in Ahmedabad, India (1962–74), the top of each vault. Artificial light comes
and the new Capitol of Bangladesh in Dhaka from the same locations. As a teacher, Kahn
(1962–83) are among his most impressive tended to speak in mystical phrases about form,
works. In each, masonry forms are penetrated light, and materials, a style that fascinated
by openings that create interiors in which a his students and, ultimately, the design
constant play of light modulates the space. professions that came to regard him as a leader
and a prophet.

Pelli

César Pelli, born in Argentina, is a more
worldly figure—a maker of gigantic
projects with interiors that seem to be a by-
product of massive building structures. In
1972 he designed the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo,
a rectilinear mass clad in mirror glass and alu-
minum. In 1984, his expansion of the Museum
of Modern Art in New York added an adjacent
apartment tower and extended the original
museum building with a glass-enclosed atrium-
like space to house escalators connecting the
exhibit floors. At the World Financial Center at
Battery Park City in New York, Pelli designed a
group of tower buildings with complementary
geometric rooflines. The glass-roofed interior
of the Winter Garden (21.5; 1980–8) suggests
London’s Crystal Palace of 1851 (see p.  247).
It was damaged, but rebuilt, after the World
Trade Center destruction of September 2001.

The 1995 NTT building in Tokyo by Pelli is
a thirty-story tower, basically triangular but
with a curved hypotenuse, giving typical office
floors light and a view out over the  adjacent
plaza and small service building. The public
entrance lobby at plaza level is marble-floored
with a ceiling of perforated aluminum plate.

420 After the International Style: The Late Twentieth Century

A curving open stair to the mezzanine level their impact leads to the special quality of
provides a visual accent. high-tech design. Interiors in this style use
structural columns, beams, ductwork, and
The towers of Pelli’s Petronas Center in other elements as decorative framework,
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (1998), were, when and industrial and laboratory equipment
built, the tallest buildings in the world. They as accessories.
house, at base level, a variety of lobby and
shopping atrium spaces; upper levels form bal- Fuller
conies surrounding open areas, one topped
with a flat dome. Pelli also designed one of Even before this way of thinking took on a
Los Angeles’s most distinctive landmarks, the name, it was the basis of the work of Richard
Pacific Design Center’s bright blue glass-clad Buckminster Fuller (1895–1983), the American
building (1978) known as the “Blue Whale,” engineer, designer, inventor, and philosopher
followed by a trapezoidal green building (1988) whose activities became known as far back as
and a bright red curving one in 2011. the 1920s. Fuller was the inventor–designer of
projects that were usually called “futuristic”
The works of Kahn, with their intro- and therefore not implemented beyond the few
spective sense of restraint, and of Pelli prototypes he managed to build. He coined the
with their exuberant excesses, form an word “Dymaxion” (conflating “dynamic” and
interesting contrast. Both defy classifica- “maximum”) to identify such projects as his
tion as representing any recognizable style Dymaxion house of 1927, its elevated living
or school. floor cable suspended from a central mast. The
three-wheeled Dymaxion automobile followed
The era of exploration and experiment that in 1933, as did a factory-made, prefabricated
followed the domination of International Style bathroom, in which fixtures and plumbing
modernism crystallized into several categories, were an integral part of a unit that could be
each of which was eventually given a popu- shipped fully assembled to a site. Although
lar title. They are: high-tech, post-modernism, all Fuller’s projects attracted interest, none
deconstructivism, minimalism, and an unclas-
sifiable group that is, for want of a better term,
sometimes called late modernism.

HIGH-TECH 21.6 Richard Buckminster
Fuller, United States Exhibit
The modern movement viewed new technol- Pavilion, Expo 67, Montreal,
ogy (steel, concrete, and glass) as one of its 1967.
prime bases. In recent decades technology has
made vast forward steps, particularly the tech- A partial sphere, constructed
nology associated with aircraft, with space with the geometry of Fuller’s
exploration, and the associated advances in geodesic domes, housed
communication and computers. The popu- exhibits on platforms reached
lar term given to design based on advanced by escalators. The geodesic
technology is “high-tech,” taken from a 1978 domes were hemispherical,
book of the same name, which documented space-frame constructions,
the trend toward using industrial materials formed from lightweight rods,
in design. The style was interpreted in both joined to create hexagons.
architecture and interior design. Designers The design of the exhibition
of high-tech style note that more than half was by a company called the
the cost of any modern project is gener- Cambridge Five. Automatic
ated by electrical, telephone, plumbing, and shutters controlled the daylight,
air-quality systems. Adding basic structure which poured in through the
and mechanical transport (elevators, esca- plastic panels that formed
lators, and moving sidewalks), technology the outer skin for the metal
becomes the major component of any build- structure.
ing or interior. The decision to make these
systems visually dominant and to maximize

After the International Style: The Late Twentieth Century 421

21.7 Renzo Piano and achieved the mass production that he had chemical plant. The spaces within are equally
Richard Rogers, Centre visualized. However, his development of a honest in their display of overhead duct-
Pompidou, Paris, 1972–6. geometric concept that enabled the building of work, lighting, and piping: elements that are
hemispherical domes from triangulated units carefully concealed in more conventional con-
Part of the interior space is resulted in the geodesic dome, an idea that struction. The building has become a mecca for
used as a gallery, housing proved workable in many different materials tourists and Parisians alike, generating new life
work from the French national and at many different scales. The most spec- in the surrounding area.
art collection. The wall and tacular use of the geodesic dome was the U.S.
ceiling panels are movable, exhibition pavilion at Expo 67, the World’s The partners went their separate ways after
while the quality of the space Fair at Montreal in 1967. The huge structural the Pompidou project. Piano designed the
is established by overhead dome (more than a hemisphere) was enclosed Menil Collection Museum in Houston, Texas
patterns developed by the by plastic panels admitting light controlled (1981–6), its exterior structure supporting
way in which the structural by mechanically operated shades. The interior overhead louvers that continue inside to form
and mechanical system housed exhibits on platforms accessed by esca- gallery ceilings. His Galerie Beyeler Museum
elements are left entirely lators, while the enclosing structure formed (1998) in Basel, Switzerland, is a work of great
exposed. The emphasis on an independent membrane high above (21.6). dignity. Piano also did the master plan for
the technological elements The resulting interior was considered both dra- the restoration of Potsdamer Platz in Berlin
supports the Centre’s popular matic and beautiful. (1992–2000).
designation of “high-tech.”
Rogers and Piano Rogers’s most spectacular independent pro-
ject is the Lloyd’s office building in the financial
Probably the best known and most accessible district of London (1978–86). Like the Centre
of  high-tech projects is the Centre Pompidou Pompidou, the building carries much of its struc-
in Paris (21.7; 1972–6), a multipurpose cultural ture and mechanical systems (including elevators)
center. Its design is by the team of the Italian on its exterior. Inside, office floors surround and
Renzo Piano (b.  1937) and the Englishman overlook an enclosed central court topped by a
Richard Rogers (b. 1933). The large, multistory half-cylinder glass skylight. Banks of escalators
building exposes and displays its structure, rise within the lower levels of this central space.
mechanical systems, and vertical transport The building gives a sense of being entirely of
(escalators) on its exterior in a way that sug- glass, structure, and services. The Richard Rogers
gests, on the west side, the scaffolding of a Partnership also designed London’s Millennium
building under construction, and, on the Dome (1999), and Paddington Waterside, a
east, the pipes and tubes of an oil refinery or major urban-renewal project for the area around
London’s Paddington Station, as well as commer-
cial projects in many other countries.

Foster

Norman Foster (b.  1935) was in partnership
with Richard Rogers from 1963 to 1965. He
later designed the office building of Willis,
Faber, and Dumas in Ipswich, England (21.8;
1970–5). Glass walls follow the form of an irreg-
ular site. Inside, two floors of offices surround
an open central area, with various services on
the ground floor. Escalators connect the three
floors and a roof penthouse housing a restau-
rant. Open planning links the interior to the
glass perimeter and the central atrium, where
the overhead structure of open trusses under-
lines the high-tech character of the space.

In the United States, Foster developed an
addition to the Art Deco Joslyn Art Museum
building in Omaha, Nebraska (1994). In it,
serene white space with a ceiling curved to
trap daylight from hidden skylights establishes

422 After the International Style: The Late Twentieth Century

ideal gallery space for the display of modern 21.8 (left) Norman Foster,
art. Other projects by Foster include the Law Willis, Faber & Dumas offices,
Faculty Building at Cambridge, England Ipswich, England, 1970–5.
(1995), which uses a high-tech truss structure
of half-cylindrical form as a glazed shell above A three-story office building for
multi-level platforms holding stacks and read- the insurance company has an
ing areas; a spectacularly tall skyscraper tower open central atrium, in which
office building in Hong Kong for the Shanghai the escalators connect the
National Bank (1986); and the Sackler Galleries, floors and introduce movement
a new interior inserted into a courtyard in the into the areas where 1,300
Royal Academy in London (1991), which uses workers are accommodated.
subtle detailing to relate the classicism of the The visible structural framing
older buildings and the art they contain to the of the skylight at roof level and
technically advanced new spaces. A contem- the aluminum strips forming
porary art gallery and médiathèque, the Carré ceiling panels emphasize the
d’Art (1984–93), in Nîmes, France, places a technological focus of the
glass-fronted grouping opposite the Maison building’s design. Yellow wall
Carrée, an ancient Roman temple. Foster also panels and green flooring
designed the Millennium Bridge (1999/2002), establish a bright and colorful
a striking modern structure that crosses the atmosphere.
Thames to London’s regenerated South Bank
and the Tate Modern.

Stirling The most widely noted of Stirling’s later 21.9 James Stirling,
work is the addition to the Neue Staatsgalerie Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart,
James Stirling (1926–92), a British archi- in Stuttgart, Germany (1979–84), which Germany, 1977–84.
tect, began his career as a proponent of moves away from technology and toward a
high-tech style but is generally considered a more adventurous direction; it is primarily A central courtyard—really a
post-modernist, largely on the strength of his this project that labeled him a post-modernist. room open to the sky—forms
later work, though he himself did not favor Gallery spaces are set around a circular court- the core of the art gallery,
the designation. Early projects include the yard (21.9) where marble walls, statuary (from which was a modern addition
Engineering Building at Leicester University the museum’s collection), and a portal using to an older museum building.
in England (1959, with James Gowan as a part- stubby versions of Tuscan columns make ref- Statuary, an arcade of stone
ner), which attracted wide attention with its erences to historic architectural styles. The faced in marble, and stubby
glass office tower, wedge-shaped adjacent building is totally original, but still suggests Tuscan columns at the
blocks containing lecture halls, and ship’s- complex relationships to classical art and entrance point on the left hint
funnel-like ventilator. The exposed structure at a movement toward post-
and mechanistic qualities of the interior also modernism. A winding ramp
suggest the engineering-related role of the leads to an upper level.
building. The History Faculty Building (1964–
7) at Cambridge University, England, is mostly
devoted to a library, with a large gallery atrium
topped with glass skylight roofing. Here again
the mechanics of structure set the character
of the large and impressive interior space. As
Stirling’s career progressed, the technologi-
cal emphasis of his work moved toward a more
complex range of expression. At the Olivetti
training facility in Haslemere, England (1969),
interiors were more flexible, so that a “multi-
space” could be converted to accommodate
meetings of varying size and character. Glazed
galleries with ramped circulation paths con-
nect elements of the building.

After the International Style: The Late Twentieth Century 423

21.10 (right) Robert Venturi, architecture, though it retains some of the are still seen in the provocative use of color and
Vanna Venturi House, Philadel- rigors of high-tech design. The exhibition gal- whimsical elements in current architecture
phia, 1964. lery spaces are restrained in form and color, and interiors.
while the entrance lobby, shop, circulation
In this interior, the visual spaces, and restaurant use brilliant, saturated Venturi and Scott Brown
consequences of its unusual hues, as do many exterior details. Stirling’s
planning can be seen in the stair last major work was the Clore Gallery (1987), Robert Venturi (b. 1925) developed the theoret-
and fireplace-chimney element an addition to the Tate Britain, whose cross- ical basis of post-modernism in his Complexity
that constricts it. Conventional hatched façade and striking interiors employ and Contradiction in Architecture (1966). It sug-
furniture contrasts with these the stylized classical detailing and lively color gests that the devotion to simplicity and logic
unusual forms. that marks post-modernist design. that was the cornerstone of the modern move-
ment was a limitation, leading ultimately to
POST-MODERNISM dullness and boredom. The book cites many
examples from architectural history (Blenheim
The term “post-modern” would seem to iden- Palace, Hôtel de Matignon, Jefferson’s
tify any work that follows the style now called Monticello, and Butterfield’s All Saints,
modern (often Midcentury Modern), but it Margaret Street, for example) in which great-
has come to identify a particular movement ness derives instead from complexities and
that belongs to the continuum of modernism. contradictory forms. He suggests that accept-
Adopted from French philosopher Jacques ance of such qualities can bring design into
Derrida, the term was used primarily in lit- closer touch with human qualities, which are
erature and the arts. Post-modernist style, full of complexity and contradiction. It is inter-
short-lived but enormously influential, was esting to note that Venturi uses many examples
a reaction to the perceived sterility and same- that have been drawn from the work of the
ness of modernism, particularly the products pioneer modernists, Le Corbusier and Aalto in
of the International Style. Post-modern design- particular, in which these masters felt free to be
ers rejected the rigidity of International Style complex and contradictory in complete viola-
design, seeking instead to adapt elements of the tion of the announced goals of modernism.
classical vernacular, and reintroducing color
and pattern into the design vocabulary. Much The house that Venturi designed in 1964
of it, particularly in furniture and furnishings, for his  mother, Vanna Venturi, at Chestnut
was deliberately tongue-in-cheek, poking fun Hill, a suburb of Philadelphia, is the first
at more straitlaced conventional objects. Post- important demonstration of the ideas that char-
modern design was too extreme to last, and was acterize post-modernism (21.10 and 21.11).
out of fashion by the 1990s, but its after-effects Its basic symmetry is modified by surprising
asymmetries. Interior spaces have unexpect-
edly angled forms that upset their routine

21.11 (far right) Ground floor
plan of Vanna Venturi House.

In the plan, Venturi
demonstrates some of the
complexities and contradictions
that are central to his design
thinking. Rooms have corners
cut off at diagonals, a central
entrance requires a sharp turn
to reach the doorway, and
a stairway that begins at
an angle widens and is
suddenly narrowed.

424 After the International Style: The Late Twentieth Century

rectangularity. The furniture is traditional Venturi and Scott Brown added the out- 21.12 Robert Venturi, Chip-
and nondescript rather than the modern clas- standing Sainsbury Wing (1991) to the 1835 pendale chair, manufactured
sics that might be expected. Guild House, a National Gallery on Trafalgar Square in by Knoll International, New
residence for the elderly in Philadelphia (1960– London. Externally, the classical detail of York, 1978–84.
3), and the Brandt House of 1970 in Greenwich, the older building is repeated in the form of This whimsical design of
Connecticut, embody similar complexities. variations on its theme. Openings lead to a modern molded plywood
monumental stair with arch-shaped metal construction has a back cut
In Learning from Las Vegas (1977, with frames overhead. The stair gives access to out in a pattern suggesting
Denise Scott Brown and Steven Izenour), the lower levels, housing an auditorium, restau- the design of eighteenth-
authors noted the relevance of vernacular rant, shop, and other facilities. At the top of century Chippendale furniture.
architecture and buildings that signaled their the stair there is a bridge link element that Such conflation of modern
purpose with signage—a reminder that com- connects with the older building. The stair and traditional forms is
munication was one of architecture’s primary and the bridge give alternative access to the characteristic of the direction
functions, and one that modern architects main galleries, which consist of sixteen rooms called post-modern.
had largely neglected. In later unbuilt pro-
jects and actual buildings, Venturi embraced 21.13 Venturi, Scott Brown
decorative ornament and references to his- and Associates, Venturi
toric precedents. A 1997 proposal for a house in House, Philadelphia, 1980s.
Greenwich, Connecticut, is a version of George The Venturis occupy an
Washington’s mansion at Mount Vernon, older house as their home,
oddly condensed and distorted. Venturi’s 1984 and they have introduced
furniture designs for Knoll introduced both into it their design idiom in
decorative pattern and witty references to his- which traditional and modern
toric precedents, both elements that became elements are easily mixed. The
hallmarks of post-modern design. A number of painted frieze above the picture
chairs were developed, all structurally alike— molding, the glass and wood
two elements of molded plywood, one the seat built-in cabinets, the hanging
and front legs, the other the back and rear legs. light fixture, and the dining
The plywood planes were cut in decorative sil- room furniture all suggest this
houettes evoking Chippendale, Queen Anne, highly personal blend.
Sheraton, or Art Deco deco styles (21.12). The
surfaces of some are silk-screened with playful,
decorative designs suggestive of conventional
wallpapers, while others are patterned in bright
colors. In their own home, Venturi and Denise
Scott Brown (his partner and wife) have used
traditional furniture and decorative patterns
in wallpapers to generate an atmosphere that is
both eclectic (in the literal sense) and comfort-
able (21.13). The Venturis have also designed
office spaces that include a showroom and con-
ference area for Knoll International in New York
and furniture with a strongly post-modern char-
acter for the same firm.

As his career advanced, Venturi began to
receive commissions for major architectural pro-
jects in which his interiors generally showed the
whimsical and contradictory qualities of post-
modernism. A faculty dining room at Penn State
University, State College, Pennsylvania (1974),
has screen walls with decorative perforations,
a truncated arched opening on a balcony, and
an ornamental lighting fixture overlooking the
sedate dining room, which is furnished with
chairs of traditional design.

After the International Style: The Late Twentieth Century 425

21.14 Michael Graves, connected by arched openings, some of which complex of chambers with unusual forms and
Sunar furniture showroom, are edged by stubby versions of Tuscan col- contrasts of bright and pastel colors created
Houston, Texas, 1979. umns. The galleries are sufficiently simple in striking backdrops for office furniture, includ-
character to provide ideal settings for the paint- ing some of Graves’s own design. His growing
Graves’s use of such ings on display, but subtle details of moldings reputation as the foremost proponent of post-
unexpected elements as the and columns serve as a reminder of the build- modernism was dramatically advanced when
paired columns supporting ing’s unique design. The more recent Seattle he won a competition in 1980 for a city office
blocky capitals that support Art Museum (1991) follows many of the same building for Portland, Oregon. The build-
indirect lighting units and conceptual patterns, but on a rather more ing is a massive cubical block, but its unusual
his use of a palette of strong modest scale. and varied surface treatment, with projecting
secondary colors supports the wedge-shaped elements, changes in surface
view that such an interior is Graves material and window shapes, and its bands
post-modernist. The showroom of ribbonlike decoration, shocked the estab-
for the Sunar Furniture Michael Graves (b.  1934) began his profes- lished architectural profession, and the public
Company offers visitors visual sional career working in a modernist direction as well. The interiors of the building are largely
entertainment together with a together with four other New York architects— unremarkable, although the main entrance
display of furniture designed by, Richard Meier, Charles Gwathmey, Peter lobby is an essay in the eccentric post-modern-
among others, Massimo Vignelli Eisenman, and John Hejduk—who became ist vocabulary. Graves’s San Juan Capistrano
and Graves himself. known as the New York Five, or the Whites, Library (1980) is a low building with a cen-
for their devotion to that color in their works. tral courtyard using clerestories and exterior
Graves pulled away from this group, however, pavilions to modulate light entering quietly
and moved in a more post-modern direction, detailed reading areas. A winery, Clos Pegase at
embracing decorative details, strong color, and Calistoga, in the Napa Valley, California (1984),
forms drawn from classical architecture that explores post-modernism by hinting at the
might seem arbitrary and even eccentric. His design of the eighteenth-century French neo-
1978 design for the Kalko residence (unbuilt) classicist Claude Ledoux.
shows a house that is basically symmetrical, but
its two sides do not match. A stair, too narrow Two hotels for Walt Disney World at Buena
to climb and with steps too high for any but Vista, Florida—the Swan and the Dolphin
giants, moves up one side of the façade, while a (1990)—are huge masses, each sporting sculp-
pergola ornaments the other side. tural ornaments on rooftops. They gave Graves
the opportunity to design interiors with flam-
Graves designed the interiors of several boyantly eccentric forms and colors. The
showrooms for the Sunar Furniture Company Disney connection with entertainment pro-
(no longer in business) in 1979 (21.14). A voked a design that is playful in a way that
pokes fun at conventional standards of “good
taste.” Graves has also designed offices for
Disney and a Paris Disney project in much the
same vein. These buildings and their interiors
are a source of amazement and delight to the
public. Such design borders on “kitsch,” that
is, design that is deliberately tasteless to reflect
the human appetite for mischief, or the gen-
eral public’s lack of design sophistication. The
determination of post-modernism to abandon
logic and order may reflect a modern world in
which logic is subverted by the excesses of an
affluent society and much of the public draws
ideas from television, film, the internet, and the
culture of celebrity.

In 1995 Graves designed a witty new addi-
tion to the Denver Public Library, Colorado, a
cluster of polychrome pastel-clad geometric
forms with abstracted classical motifs and neat
symmetrical rows of windows. The interior

426 After the International Style: The Late Twentieth Century

is distinguished by a defining grid motif that 21.15 Philip Johnson, A.T.&
unifies marble floors, ceiling skylights, and T. (now Sony Plaza) Building,
openings on the levels surrounding the central New York, 1978–83.
atrium. On a much smaller scale, his designs for
a teakettle, scarves, and kitchen tools brought The ground-floor entrance
his work to a large public of fashion-oriented lobby of this building, a modern
shoppers. Graves has also designed a number skyscraper, introduces such
of major projects in other countries. surprises as arched and
vaulted spaces, with columns
Other Post-modernist Work in the US reminiscent of a Romanesque
cloister in front of paneled
Philip Johnson, once a modernist in the manner elevator doors, a geometrically
of Mies van der Rohe, appeared to have joined patterned marble floor, and,
the post-modernists when he topped his New on a central pedestal (to the
York skyscraper headquarters office building right of the photograph), a
for A.T.&T. (1978–83) with a whimsical motif gilded statue of a winged male
suggesting pediments of Chippendale book- figure. The shadow of the
cases. The entrance is through a vast archform statue flickers on the wall in this
portal leading into a marble lobby with details view. Johnson’s design is not
that suggest a medieval monastery (21.15). In altogether surprising when it is
the center he placed the gilded statue that once remembered that he had long
topped the old A.T.&T. building in downtown since abandoned Mies van der
New York. The majestic claims of a giant cor- Rohe’s precepts.
poration appear to be interpreted ironically
in whimsical and decorative terms. The office Graves. Graves provided a dressing-table
building lobby on Third Avenue in New York design for Memphis in 1981. Its stepped forms,
suggests both post-modernism and 1930s strong color, and pinnacle top relate clearly to
Art Deco. such designs as Sottsass’s Casablanca sideboard
and iconic Carlton bookcase (21.17; 1981) with
There were several other examples of post- their bright colors and angular shapes. Having
modernism in the United States; the most properly disconcerted the furniture design
noteworthy are the whimsical Piazza d’Italia establishment, Memphis disbanded in 1988.
public plaza in downtown New Orleans (1978) Its members produced some of the most origi-
by Charles Moore (1925– 93) and Mario Botta’s nal works of the late twentieth century, both as
(b. 1943) design for the San Francisco Museum part of the collaborative and independently.
of Modern Art (1995).
Sottsass’s firm, Sottsass Associati, created a
Post-modernism in Europe new gallery for the Museum of Contemporary
Furniture in Ravenna (1994). The result-
In Europe the claims of modernism encoun- ing spaces, enclosed gallery, portico, and
tered a major challenge in the work of the open courtyard use simple rectangular and
Milan-based collaborative that took the name arch-shaped openings that generate spatial com-
Memphis in 1981. Ettore Sottsass (1917–2007), plexity accented by bright color (21.18). The
the leader of the group, along with associates fantasy of Memphis can be traced here in the
Andrea Branzi, Michele de Lucchi, Alessandro perspective illusions of wall painting, while a
Mendini (21.16), Matteo Thun, Marco Zanuso, tranquil serenity dominates the spaces intended
and others, broke away from mainline mod- for “open studio” gatherings of artists.
ernism by designing furniture, textiles, and
decorative objects of deliberate eccentric- Hans Hollein (b. 1934) was the designer of
ity and playfulness. Bright color, decorative a remarkable post-modernist interior in 1978,
surface pattern, and shapes that have little the Austrian Travel Bureau office in Vienna.
reference to function are characteristics of Its toylike elements are intended to symbolize
Memphis design. Designers from other coun- travel to various regions—a column fragment
tries joined as well, including Shiro Kuramata, to suggest Greece and Rome, a garden kiosk
Arata Isozaki, Hans Hollein, and Michael pavilion, and, most obvious, metal palm trees
to suggest tropical and desert destinations. A

After the International Style: The Late Twentieth Century 427

21.16 (right) Alessandro
Mendini, Proust Armchair,
carved and handpainted wood
and fabric, Italy, 1978.

Designed when Mendini was
a member of the avant-
garde Studio Alchimia, this
design plays with a classic
form, tweaking concepts of
good taste at a time when
modernism was viewed as
rigid and formulaic.

21.17 (far right) Ettore
Sottsass, Carlton Bookcase,
wood, polychrome, printed
laminate, Italy, 1981.

An iconic work from the
Memphis collaborative; the
irregular forms and whimsical
coloration are typical of
post-modernism’s rejection
of modernist conventions.

floor in pale green patterns and a glass skylight playful inserts. These elements are used as a

ceiling create a restrained setting for the ele- basis for new design that draws upon, but does

ments of fantasy. not precisely copy, the old.

21.18 Sottsass Associati, THE REVIVAL OF TRADITION Greenberg
Museum of Contemporary
Furniture, Ravenna, Along with the fantasy and freedom of post- The most serious and committed form of this
Italy, 1994. modernism, another, related development was new Neoclassicism appears in the work of Allan
a return to classicism—not the accurate repro- Greenberg (b.  1938). His design for a large
Simple geometric shapes duction of past design that characterized the house for a Connecticut horse farm (1979) takes
combine with strong colors to eclecticism of the 1920s and 1930s, but an effort the scheme of Washington’s Mount Vernon,
create visual surprises that are to produce new work based on classic princi- enlarges it, and corrects the “errors” present
used to generate interior space ples. Palladian design ideals, the classic orders, in the original design (21.19). The columns of
in the spirit of the Memphis columns, and pediments appear in such work the original veranda have become paired col-
design movement. The as literal quotations from history, rather than umns and all  minor irregularities have been
openings in rectangular and eliminated. His  courthouse for Manchester,
arched forms produce changing Connecticut (1978–80), could easily be mis-
patterns of sunlight, which taken for an eclectic design of the 1930s.
contribute to the surprisingly
calm overall impression.

Stern

Robert A.M. Stern (b. 1939) is generally classi-
fied as a post-modernist, although most of his
work stands somewhere between the adven-
turousness of the post-modernists and the
restraints of classic revivalism. In interiors,
Stern focuses on small details that look back
to strict classicism and forward to post-modern
variants. Much of his work has been residen-
tial, including city apartments and country
houses. In both, logical planning creates rooms
with a strongly traditional flavor, although
details are often given enlarged and exagger-
ated form. Country “villas” suggest the eclectic
work of Stanford White or Edwin Lutyens
recast in contemporary terms. Pediments,

428 After the International Style: The Late Twentieth Century

domes, classically inspired columns, urns, and De-architecture (1987) by James Wines (b. 1932) 21.19 Allan Greenberg, farm-
other details place his interiors for office build- of SITE Projects, whose unconventional build- house, Connecticut, 1979.
ings, hotels, and other large projects between ings for Best Products (a company no longer in The drawing shows a design
revivalism and post-modernism. existence) in the 1970s were eye-catching con- for a house based on George
versation pieces with seemingly broken façades Washington’s eighteenth-
Stern’s Disney Yacht and Beach Club or falling brickwork. Highway 86, a centerpiece century mansion in Virginia. A
Resorts at Buena Vista, Florida (1987–91), exhibit of the Canadian World Exposition in proposal by Robert Venturi in
near Graves’s hotels, form a virtual village of Vancouver (1986) was an undulating concrete 1997 had a similar theme: the
large buildings that suggest resort hotels of ribbon covered with sculptures of vehicles condensation of the famous
the nineteenth century. Their interiors are charting the progress of transportation. house into a post-modernist
richly ornamental without slipping into exces- fantasy. In Greenberg’s design,
sive display. Stern’s Disney projects tend The term “deconstructivist” came into gen- however, the house is not
toward flamboyance; the Feature Animation eral use after a Museum of Modern Art  New condensed but, if anything,
Building at Burbank, California (1991–4), and York exhibition in 1988 organized by Philip expanded, with the veranda
the Casting Center at Lake Buena Vista, Florida Johnson and Mark Wigley. Drawings and columns made into six paired
(1987–9), are both filled with colorful decora- models showed unbuilt works with broken twins in place of Washington’s
tive detail. In France, at Villiers-sur-Marne, a up, loosely assembled parts, and elements that eight single columns.
visitors’ center for Euro Disney (1990) exhib- were seemingly torn apart and reassembled
its the playfulness of an amusement park. In in chaos, illustrating both the imperfection of 21.20 Robert Stern, Columbus
contrast, the interiors of the Columbus Indiana the modern world and, in Johnson’s words, Indiana Regional Hospital,
Regional Hospital (21.20; 1988–96) resemble “the pleasures of unease.” The seven archi- 1988–96.
early Frank Lloyd Wright in their extensive tects whose work was shown were Coop Materials in warm color tones
use of brick and natural wood in warm colors. Himmelb(l)au, Peter Eisenman, Frank Gehry, generate an atmosphere of
Stern’s international practice includes projects Zaha Hadid, Rem Koolhaas, Daniel Libeskind, calm in this public space of
in the Netherlands and Japan. and Bernard Tschumi. Most of them have a large hospital complex.
since moved on to other, or more varied, style

DECONSTRUCTIVISM
AND MINIMALISM

The term “deconstructivism” has come into
use to identify a strain of design practice that
emerged in work of the 1980s and 1990s. The
term refers to the works of the Russian con-
structivists Tatlin, Malevich, and Rodchenko,
who often focused on assembly of broken frag-
ments, and also to deconstructionism, a theme
in French philosophy and literary criticism
that breaks the elements of any  text into its
component parts to reveal meaning that is not
apparent on the surface of the narrative. The
application of such theory to design stretches
the  concept of a “text” to include any built
reality. The approach was documented in

After the International Style: The Late Twentieth Century 429

corrugated metal and wood planks became
an archetype of the style, though one that
was rarely adopted for buildings other than
those designed with provocative intent.
On the other hand, Zaha Hadid’s design
for The Peak (1982), a private club in Hong
Kong, was too extreme for the clients to
accept. In their later work, Gehry and Hadid
abandoned deconstructivism to create
architecture with serpentine curves and bio-
morphic forms.

Eisenman

21.21 Bernard Tschumi, directions, pointing up the difficulty inherent Peter Eisenman (b.  1932), first known as one
Exhibition Building, Parc de in placing style labels on designers. of the New York Five, has developed work of
la Villette, Paris, 1982–5. complex deconstructivist geometry. A series of
This is one of a number of The MoMA exhibition included the park at his houses use plans of overlapping grids, with
structures distributed through La Villette in Paris (1982–5), in which Bernard the color white used inside and out. The Miller
the large park. A ramp leads Tschumi (b.  1944) placed small pavilions, all House (House III) at Lakeville, Connecticut
to an upper level accessible formed from basic cubes deconstructed into (1970), is developed from the forms of two
to the public. Red and blue complex geometric realities, painted bright red cubes that intersect and overlap in collision, one
elements enliven the mostly and placed according to a geometric grid in an at a forty-five-degree angle to the other. The
white interior. open park. The pavilions have various func- resulting interior space is an abstract study in
tions—a café, a children’s play space, a viewing rectilinear sculptural forms. In the Museum of
21.22 Peter Eisenman, platform—so that most can be entered, making Modern Art exhibit, Eisenman was represented
exhibit installation, Canadian it possible to see their cutaway forms from by a building for the University of Frankfurt,
Centre for Architecture, within (21.21). Several larger building units Germany, in which a long spinal circulation path
Montreal, 1994. contain complex elements in intricate relation- penetrates and connects a series of laboratory
In this exhibition, which was ships that can seem accidental. Tschumi was blocks, each a small building in itself. The sense
devoted to his own work dean of the architectural school at Columbia of elements torn apart and loosely recombined is
and was entitled “Cities of University in New York from 1988 to 2003. For typical of deconstructivism.
Artificial Excavation,” Eisenman Columbia, he designed a student center, Lerner
retreated from his customary Hall, where long glass ramps cross through a In the Wexner Center for the Visual Arts for
practice of using white to glass-walled atrium facing into the main campus. Ohio State University in Columbus (1985–9),
introduce strong color. Each Eisenman again used a long spinal passage to
color identifies the location of Among the exhibited projects that came to
the projects on display. The fruition were Coop Himmelb(l)au’s remodeled
green, for example, relates to rooftop apartment (1985) in Vienna, which is
design for projects intended for seen in many design books, its jagged skylight
Long Beach, California. in provocative discord with its conservative
neighbors. The firm’s Old Master Gallery at the
Groninger Museum, the Netherlands (1994) was
a later example of deconstructivist style, with
tilted, jagged steel projecting plates in an explo-
sive structure punctuated by ramps and stairs.

Probably the best known of the pro-
jects shown at MoMA was Frank Gehry’s
own Santa Monica home (21.23;1978), whose
angular shapes and pedestrian materials like

430 After the International Style: The Late Twentieth Century

loosely connect a series of elements including, at
the main entrance point, some curved tower-like
units. An all-interior Eisenman project was an
exhibition of his work called “Cities of Artificial
Excavation,” organized by the Canadian Centre
for Architecture and installed in their museum
building in Montreal (21.22; 1994). The exhibit
inserted new galleries, designed as overlap-
ping Greek-cross forms, into the older building.
The four arms use color to identify the sepa-
rate themes of the projects that they house.
Green stands for Long Beach, California; rose
for Berlin; blue for Paris, and gold for Venice.
The complex forms and strong colors make
the installation the key element of the dis-
play. In the Aronoff Center for Design and Art
in Cincinnati, Ohio (1988–96), Eisenman intro-
duced complexities of surfaces and spaces that
justify the designation “deconstructivist.”

Gehry

Frank Gehry (b.  1929), a native of Toronto, stainless steel. The gallery spaces are simple, 21.23 Frank Gehry, Gehry
Canada, moved to the United States and estab- white-walled rooms at eye level, but become House, Los Angeles, 1978–88.
lished his practice in Los Angeles in 1962. He startling overhead where great truss forms (all In the kitchen of his remodeled
became the best-known practitioner working in white) and curving skylights challenge the suburban house, Gehry
in the deconstructivist idiom with the uncon- simplicity of the plan. demonstrated his enthusiasm
ventional design of his Santa Monica home for elements that appear to have
(21.23). In this and in other residential pro- Gehry also designed furniture. In 1972, he been torn apart, tossed about,
jects in the Los Angeles area, Gehry brought introduced a collection of pieces made from and reassembled in surprising
the seemingly random and chaotic interplay corrugated cardboard, laminated to form slabs relationships. Although the
of common materials and colors inside. Gehry several inches thick. Their surprising strength working level of the kitchen is
was awarded the Pritzker Prize in 1989, before allowed for curving forms that retained springi- quite functional, the skylight
designing most of the buildings for which he is ness. The Wiggle chair, the best-known design elements above justify the term
best known. He gradually began exploring a “deconstructivism”.
vocabulary more varied than the deconstruc-
tivist one, using complex, curving forms that 21.24 Frank Gehry, Wiggle
seem to collide externally and produce interior side chair, corrugated card-
space of unusual variety. The Vitra Museum at board, United States, 1972
Weil am Rhein, Germany (1990), is an assembly In the “Easy Edges” collection,
of white boxes of varied shapes, curved and Gehry devised a new
straight-sided, joining at unexpected angles. application for an everyday
Internally, the complex provides spaces to suit material; layered in alternate
the display of modern chairs and other objects. directions, laminated, and faced
The American Center in Paris (1991–4) jux- with hardboard, cardboard is
taposes similarly complex forms with more strong enough for furniture.
conventional masses to express the varied
functions for which the building was planned.

The Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum
in  Minneapolis, Minnesota (1994), combines
a simple, almost conventional, gallery plan
with complex curving skylight forms and an
entrance area of amazing complexity, empha-
sized externally by its cladding of gleaming

After the International Style: The Late Twentieth Century 431

21.25 Rem Koolhaas, of the group, was reintroduced by Vitra in 1992 post-modernism, high-tech, and decon-
Maison à Bordeaux, Bordeaux, (21.24). Gehry’s giant fish-shape structure for structivist concepts. The Maison à Bordeaux
France, 1998. the Barcelona Olympics in 1992 inspired other (1998) is a striking hillside residence with an
objects with the same motif, including illu- interior living space on an elevator that can
Koolhaas designed this house minated sculptures. In 1990–2, he developed move to several different levels, to accommo-
for a disabled owner. It has a group of chairs and tables for Knoll. The fin- date a wheelchair-bound client (21.25). He
an elevator platform in one ished pieces are of strips of laminated maple received a Pritzker Prize in 2000, but he has
room that gives access to all woven into ribbon-like configurations for chairs since gained international recognition and his
three levels of the house, while and an ottoman, all named for hockey terms. most significant designs have been executed
also providing access to the in the years that followed. Koolhaas buildings
bookshelves that line one side Hadid are aggressively provocative in form, but are
of the shaft. meticulously thought out to deal with the chal-
A student of Rem Koolhaas and later partner in lenge of designing for a changing world.
his OMA firm, Iraqi-born and London-based
Zaha Hadid (b. 1950) is the most prominent Libeskind
woman architect of her generation, and perhaps
the best known to date. She opened her London Daniel Libeskind, born in Poland in 1946,
office in 1980. After mostly unbuilt early work emigrated to New York in 1959 and has since
in deconstructivist style, including a celebrated become a citizen of both the United States and
design for an opera house in Cardiff, Wales Israel. He studied architecture at Cooper Union
(1995), the Vitra Fire Station (1994) in Weil and the University of Essex, and established
am Rhein, Germany, gained her international Studio Daniel Libeskind in 1989 after work-
attention. Like Gehry, she began to design in ing briefly in the offices of Richard Meier and
an entirely different aesthetic, one that relies on Peter Eisenman. He has become known for a
the computer to make possible the realization distinctive style that balances a deconstructiv-
of designs that would be impossible to execute ist aesthetic with commitment to emotionally
on paper. Some of her most important buildings evocative architecture that makes a political
are described in the next chapter. or social statement. His visually striking but
disturbing design for the Jewish Museum in
Koolhaas Berlin (1999, opened 2001) gained international
notice, drawing visitors for its arresting exte-
Known as an iconoclastic writer and explorer rior well before any exhibits were installed.
of social issues (Delirious New York in 1978,
S, M, L, XL in 1995, and Volume Magazine in LATE MODERNISM
2005) as well as a visionary architect, Rem
Koolhaas, born in Rotterdam in 1944, founded An alternative theme toward the end of the
his Office of Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) twentieth century rejected the characteristics
in 1975. Koolhaas’s architecture bridges of post-modernism, remaining loyal to the con-
cepts of earlier modernism. “Late modernism”
might be the term used to describe work that
does not imitate that of the modern pioneers,
but moves ahead in ways in which they might
have developed their ideas if they were still
designing buildings.

Pei

The work of I.M. Pei (see pp. 416, 432) can, as
his career moved onward, be thought of as late
modernism. The County Library at Columbus,
Indiana (1963–9), is a simple rectangular block
of brick with asymmetrically placed areas of
glass at the entrance. Inside, a balcony level

432 After the International Style: The Late Twentieth Century

overlooks the main reading area where natural international representation in Singapore, 21.26 I. M. Pei, East Wing,
colors of materials and simple forms generate a Hong Kong, Japan, and China. National Gallery of Art,
sense of calm and order. An addition to the Des Washington, D.C., 1968–78.
Moines Art Center (1966–8), Iowa, has strong Gwathmey
geometric forms that create a simple setting for An atrium space leads to
sculpture and painting in the gallery spaces. Charles Gwathmey (1938–2009) and Richard exhibition galleries on several
Meier (b.  1934) were included in the group levels. The plan of the building,
In the Municipal Center (City Hall), Dallas, called the New York Five, but both moved to based on triangular forms,
Texas (1977), the vast public space flooded practices producing work that adhered to the makes for complex, interesting
with natural light is overlooked by balconies modernist themes of simplicity, geometric spatial relationships. Balconies
that give access to the various city offices. The form, and total absence of decorative detail. overlook the atrium, where a
concrete surfaces of a warm beige color are sur- Gwathmey designed a small house for his par- skylight roof floods the space
prisingly pleasant despite their vast areas; it is ents at Amagansett on Long Island, New York with light. The color scheme
one of the most successful American govern- (1966). Its abstract, geometric forms suggest is neutral but is enlivened by
mental public buildings. Another Pei project, the work of Le Corbusier. Then in partner- the bright red of the mobile by
well known and well liked by its public, is the ship with Robert Siegel, the firm  produced Alexander Calder (1898–1976).
East Building added to John Russell Pope’s work that range from the residential (the
eclectic classical main building of the National Cogan House of 1972 at East Hampton, for
Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. (21.26; example, or the De Menil House of 1983, also
1968–78). The new structure is based on tri- at East Hampton; 21.27) to increasingly major
angular forms that dominate the main atrium works. The addition to Whig Hall at Princeton
space; the skylight roof is formed by a trian- University, Princeton, New Jersey (1970–2), is
gular structural grid. Balconies on several in effect a late modern building inserted within
levels overlook the main open space and give the shell of the preexisting 1893 classical struc-
access to galleries and other secondary spaces ture, which had suffered from fire damage.
on seven levels. A giant mobile by Alexander
Calder introduces brilliant red color into the Gwathmey’s addition to Wright’s
otherwise neutral tonality of the space estab- Guggenheim Museum in New York is, like
lished by its marble wall surfaces. most of his office interior projects, late mod-
ernist in style. The Sony takeover of the
Glass and steel also form the structure of the former A.T.&T. building in New York gave the
huge exhibition areas of the Javits Convention Gwathmey Siegel firm an opportunity to gen-
Center in New York (1979–86), which recently erate such spectacular interiors as the “sky
underwent a major expansion. The build- lounge” reception area, its simple furniture in
ing recalls the Crystal Palace of 1851 with its a setting of travertine marble dominated by a
glassy overhead grid braced with triangulation brilliantly colorful wall fresco.
along its edges. Triangulation is also a central
theme for Pei’s pyramid structure in the court In 1996, Gwathmey Siegel inserted into an
of the Louvre in Paris (21.1; 1983–9). The steel
and glass pyramid forms a new entrance to the
museum, giving access to stairs and an eleva-
tor leading to a vast lower concourse that acts
as entrance foyer and location for shops, exhib-
its, and a café. Although the introduction of the
modern structure into the court of the historic
Louvre was controversial, it has been acknowl-
edged as a major success. Pei’s firm became
I.M. Pei and Partners, and then Pei Cobb Freed
& Partners to recognize the contributions of
Henry Cobb and James Freed. The Myerson
Symphony Hall by Pei Cobb Freed & Partners
in Dallas, Texas (1982–9), is successful both
in the visual qualities of its main hall, with its
warm wood and brass tones, and in its acous-
tical excellence. The firm has been responsible
for a  huge number of major projects, with

After the International Style: The Late Twentieth Century 433

21.27 Charles Gwathmey, older former department-store building a new a central court, the usual white walls have
De Menil House, East Hamp- Science, Industry, and Business Library for been abandoned in favor of aluminum surfaces
ton, New York, 1983. the New York Public Library. The entrance with rounded corners. The High Museum in
at street level gives access to a lower-level Atlanta, Georgia (1983), clad in white enam-
A double-height living room lobby by elevator and an open stair. Original eled steel, is distinguished by a soaring, sunlit
has an overlooking balcony and columns, now encased in green surfacing, central atrium that suggests Frank Lloyd
seating area facing a fireplace. emphasize the height of the space. Electronic Wright’s Guggenheim Museum, with ramps
The mounted trophy is signage provides directions, many stations that circle the atrium, but the ramps have win-
a favorite possession of are fully computer-equipped, while all 500 dows that admit light and allow city views,
the owner. reading desks provide connective sockets for and art is displayed in galleries accessed by the
portable computers. Five levels of stacks above ramps rather than on them.
the lobby level occupy floors of the old store.
Meier’s practice has become international,
with projects in several European countries,
Japan, and China. The Stadthaus (town hall)
at Ulm, Germany (1993), is a complex build-
ing woven into spaces in the old city. It stands
in a plaza, its curving, white forms creating a
striking contrast with the medieval cathe-
dral tower that stands opposite. Open space is
threaded into the center of the building, giving
access to offices and public spaces, includ-
ing gallery spaces, on a top floor (21.28). The
interior is flooded with light from triangu-
lar gabled skylights that offer glimpses of the
cathedral tower, maintaining contact between
the ancient and the modern building. In 1984,
Meier became the sixth winner of the pres-
tigious Pritzker Prize. His most important
commission, the Getty Center in Los Angeles
(1997), claimed to be the largest building com-
plex of the twentieth century.

21.28 Richard Meier, Meier
Stadthaus, Ulm, Germany,
1993. The work of Richard Meier, most of whose
buildings reflect the strong influence of Le
A complex arrangement of Corbusier, has gradually moved from the
interior spaces with smooth complex late modernist geometry of early resi-
white surfaces forms a dential commissions, such as the Smith House
contrast with the medieval (1965) at Darien, Connecticut, the Saltzman
cathedral nearby. The curved House (1967–9) in East Hampton, New York,
perimeter walls and walkways and the hillside Douglas House (1971–3) in
echo Meier’s earlier design for Harbor Springs, Michigan, to increasingly
the High Museum. complex large projects, such as the Atheneum
in New Harmony, Indiana (1975–9), and the
Hartford Seminary in Hartford, Connecticut
(1978–81). In the Bronx Development Center in
New York (1973–7), a four-story cluster around

434 After the International Style: The Late Twentieth Century

INDIVIDUALISTS

Starck

Some late twentieth-century work of great massive framed reproduction of a detail from 21.29 Philippe Starck,
interest does not fit any of the stylistic desig- a Vermeer painting dominated the modest- Café Costes, Paris, 1987
nations devised by critics. Philippe Starck size bedrooms, while typically quixotic Starck (no longer in existence).
(b.  1949) first became known as a furniture furniture was placed on a carpet of two-toned Shades of apricot and olive and
designer, but his work has moved onward to checkerboard. In the bathrooms, conical wash- the giant clock at the head of
interiors and architectural projects that are basins of stainless steel taper to a point at floor the tapering stair demonstrate
often flamboyant and exotic, putting him in level. In Miami’s South Beach district, Starck the post-modernist acceptance
alignment with the post-modernists. Starck’s renovated the Delano Hotel (21.30; 1994) with of unconventional, often
furniture designs often use  plastic and metal a white-curtain-wrapped lobby furnished fantastic, elements.
parts in unexpected combinations, and simi- with a provocative assemblage of unmatched
larly unexpected mixes of cubistic straight-line designer-seating pieces, all-white bedrooms, 21.30 Philippe Starck,
and flowing curved forms. The cast aluminum and furniture in the swimming pool. lobby, Delano Hotel, Miami
three-legged stool of 1990, with its tiny seat Beach, 1994.
on tapered flowing legs, can be  viewed as Putman Updating a venerable Art Deco
more sculpture than functional object. The landmark with a crisp white-
whimsical nature of Starck’s chair designs is Like Starck, Andrée Putman (1925–2013) main- on-white scheme and iconic
emphasized by the names he gives them (Lord tained an international practice. From 1978 to modern seating, Starck and
Yo, Dr. No, Miss Trip, and Prince Aha). As an 1997 she headed Ecart International, which hotelier Ian Schrager brought
industrial designer, Starck has produced tooth- produced early modern furniture classics, the boutique-hotel approach to
brushes, an orange-juice squeezer, and other trendy South Beach.
objects, all more sculptural than practical.
In interior design, Starck has been similarly
unpredictable. The Café Costes in Paris (1987;
no longer in existence) was dominated by a
staircase that widened as it ascended, facing a
gigantic wall clock at its top (21.29). Fantasy
elements appear in his designs for restaurants,
nightclubs, and hotel interiors.

Several of his most attention-getting pro-
jects were conversions of rundown hotels into
high-profile venues that attracted a fashion-
able clientele and lent cachet to the concept
of the boutique hotel. His 1988 design of the
Royalton Hotel in New York (recently rede-
signed by others) turned a dingy midtown
location into a stylish hotel, Its long and
narrow lobby had bright blue carpet with a
white calligraphic pattern creating a provoca-
tive “runway” effect for entering guests, on
view to those gathered in groupings of Starck
furniture in a sunken area along one wall. The
public bathrooms drew notice with communal
steel sinks and a waterfall urinal in the men’s
room. In the double-height lobby of New York’s
Paramount Hotel (1995), his focal point was
a dramatic center stair that starts narrow and
widens as it rises. Starck placed an unmatched
assortment of post-modern furniture in groups
on a carpet of large squares placed diagonally
on a marble floor. In place of headboards, a

21.31 Andrée Putman, After the International Style: The Late Twentieth Century 435
bathroom, Morgans Hotel,
New York City, 1984. boldly black-and-white checkerboard bath-
rooms, which were widely published (21.31).
To transform a downscale The understated interiors and compact spaces
facility into a luxury venue, became prototypes of the new genre in hospi-
Putman adopted a bold black- tality design.
and-white scheme, applied
here in a bathroom with OTHER TRENDS
striking, polished-steel fittings.

East–West Crossovers

including those of Eileen Gray and Robert The emergence of several Japanese architects
Mallet-Stevens. Establishing her own firm, and designers as prominent figures in cur-
Putman also designed a number of offices, rent practice in Europe and America reflects
showrooms, and shops around the world. The the growing internationalism of design prac-
showrooms and offices of Ecart are outstand- tice. Earlier, Western design had exerted its
ing examples of her approach, which related influence in Japan through such projects as
the simplicity of early modernism to restrained Frank Lloyd Wright’s Imperial Hotel in Tokyo
decorative detail and quiet colors. In 1988 (1916–20) or Le Corbusier’s Tokyo National
she designed new office interiors for the Villa Museum of Western Art (1955–9). Widely
Turque in La Chaux-de-Fonds, an early work circulated design publications, and oppor-
of Le Corbusier. tunities for travel and study abroad made
many younger Japanese professionals aware
Putman’s museum interiors in older build- of modern design in the West, while the sim-
ings in Bordeaux and Rouen adjusted simple plicity and logic of Japanese architecture
details to existing spaces, such as the mag- generated an affinity between Japanese tradi-
nificent stone vaulting of the Bordeaux tion and Western modernism.
building. Club, hotel, and restaurant interi-
ors in Kawaguchiko-Cho and in Kobe, Japan, Perhaps the most widely published modern
in Monaco, and Seville, and many shops and sacred structure, Tadao Ando’s (b. 1941)
private apartments in England, France, and Church of the Light (1989) in Osaka, Japan, is
the United States follow the same patterns of a Zen-like space of stark concrete cubes, where
quiet serenity, often combining elements of sunlight streams in through a cruciform cut
an existing space with furniture of the early into the altar wall (21.32). It has become his
modern era and, occasionally, antiques. The
21.32 Tadao Ando, Wasserturm Hotel in Cologne (1990) is fitted
interior, Church of the into a gigantic water tower built in the nine-
Light, Osaka, 1989. teenth century and preserved as a historic
monument. The round form of the tower and
Light defines the perception its massive brick construction generate spaces
of space in this minimalist that Putman put to good use with thoughtfully
concrete structure, a simple related interior detail. In New York, interi-
concrete box. Its stark lines ors for  the Morgans Hotel (1984) became the
are interrupted only on the model for a new type of venue, the boutique
east wall, where intersecting hotel, with small spaces compensated by strik-
voids form a cross, admitting ing modern interiors that attracted a stylish
natural light to illuminate clientele. The interiors were notable for their
the interior.

436 After the International Style: The Late Twentieth Century

21.33 Fumihiko Maki,
Kirishima International
Concert Hall, Aiura,
Japan, 1994.

Maki developed the idea of
the angled ceiling planes and
the leaf-shaped plan of the
auditorium to improve the
acoustic of the space. Balcony
seating is extended in a series
of stepped levels as it nears the
stage. Natural wooden surfaces
introduce warm color.

best-known work as well as one of the icons In the Kirishima International Concert Hall
of modern sacred spaces. Ando has designed at Aiura, Japan (1994), by Fumihiko Maki
many shrines and temples and Christian (b. 1928), an entry hall and foyer wrap around
churches. Unique among leading contempo- the main auditorium with an outer glass wall
rary architects, Ando had no formal training giving views of the surrounding mountain ter-
in the field, but taught himself by studying the rain (21.33). The main hall is leaf-shaped in
work of modern masters. Since establishing his plan, with balcony seating stepped down in
studio in Osaka in 1968, he has become identi- terrace platforms on either side of the central
fied with buildings that are deceptively simple space. Walls are natural wood, while the ceil-
but with the deeper implications of Zen philos- ing consists of triangular white panels placed
ophy or haiku poetry. His elemental forms are together in an irregular arrangement both visu-
dictated by the natural landscape; solids and ally interesting and acoustically effective.
voids configured to interact with natural light.
He received the Pritzker Prize in 1995. Shigeru Ban (b. 1957) studied with John
Hejduk at Columbia School of Architecture,
The Chikatsu-Asuka Historical Museum and was influenced by Hejduk’s interest in
in Osaka, Japan (1994), by Ando is at once a experimental applications of modern archi-
minimalist work of modernism and a seemingly tecture. Ban’s Curtainwall House (1995) in
timeless cluster of spaces relating to the ancient Tokyo was featured in the 1999 MoMA exhi-
tombs that are the focus of the museum’s bition “The Un-Private House.” The corner
exhibits. Interior spaces are dark and somber, structure, which is elevated on columns above
their exposed concrete walls permitting a street level, has draped white fabric walls that
play of light and shade that changes with the open or close like traditional shoji screens to
movement of the sun. The same architect’s filter the light or leave the interiors, and their
Suntory Museum (1994), also at Osaka, is occupants, entirely exposed. Ban has since
a seafront structure with a great IMAX theater explored the use of environmentally conscious
rising in a tapered cylinder drum from stepped materials such as bamboo, cardboard tubing,
plazas leading down to the waterfront. and shipping containers for distinctive yet
Rectangular elements house a restaurant and a functional structures.
gallery and contribute to the strongly geomet-
ric forms of the building. As Western influences have moved into
the Japanese design world, there has also been

After the International Style: The Late Twentieth Century 437

elements, like Ron Arad’s Rover chair, furni-
ture transforming once-rejected plastics into
high fashion (21.35), or limited-edition pieces
like the Lockheed Lounge by Marc Newson
(21.34). This eclecticism foretold a new free-
dom for furniture and interior styles, and the
blurring of barriers between design, art, and
craft that would characterize much of the
coming decade.

NEW MUSEUMS

21.34 Marc Newson, a reverse flow of Japanese design into Europe The last few years of the twentieth century
Lockheed Lounge, and America. Arata Isozaki (b.  1931), who saw the first signs of a virtual building boom in
aluminum and polyester trained under Kenzo Tange (1913–2005), the art museums, a trend that would accelerate in
resin, Australia, 1986. most prominent of the modern Japanese archi- the first decade of the twenty-first. In addition
tects to emerge in the years after World War to the benefits of greater access to art, these
Named for the midcentury II, developed a strong presence in the United have made many exceptional interior spaces
aircraft that inspired the States. In Los Angeles, his terracotta-sandstone available to the public in a way that private,
blind-riveted surface Museum of Contemporary Art (1988) became commercial, and institutional spaces are not.
treatment, this limited-edition a focal point for redevelopment of a depressed
design updates downtown area. In his four-story adminis- Three landmark projects set off an explosion
the classic chaise. trative-center building for Team Disney at of museum-building: one gained international
Lake Buena Vista (1990) a variety of masses are attention for its exceptional scale (and commen-
21.35 Ron Arad, Rover grouped in seeming collision. surate cost), one for its groundbreaking design,
Chair, enameled steel while the third was an important commission
and leather, London, The selection of Yoshio Taniguchi (b. 1937) for an American designer in a country with its
England, 1981. as the designer of a major reconstruction of own architectural tradition.
New York’s Museum of Modern Art is another
A Rover automobile seat and indication of the extent of internationalism in Richard Meier’s 1997 Getty Center in Los
a frame of vintage scaffolding the design fields. Angeles (21.36) is a sprawling compound of
are the components of separate units with a variety of classically
this early “ready-made”
piece, combining industrial
materials and handcraft.

NEW FURNITURE

21.36 Richard Meier, In the closing decades of the twentieth cen-
Lobby of Getty Center, tury, furniture departed from the restrictions
Los Angeles, 1997. of a particular style direction to become
increasingly eclectic and often experimen-
The lobbies of all the tal. New materials and technologies generated
buildings in the complex explorations into uncharted territories, and an
are characterized by light, eclectic mix of objects and styles was the result.
sweeping architecture which There was furniture reclaimed from industrial
makes good use of southern
California’s bountiful sunlight.

438 After the International Style: The Late Twentieth Century

conservative interior spaces, perched atop a Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim Museum in 21.37 Frank Gehry,
hill with views over the entire Los Angeles Bilbao, Spain (1997), applies the concepts of Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao,
basin. In deference to the California sun, Meier his Weisman Museum to the total mass of the Spain, 1997.
used warm travertine marble for most exte- building, a complex of forms wrapped in The computer-generated form
rior cladding, in place of his customary white. gleaming titanium metal (21.37). The inter- of undulating polished-titanium
The museum galleries are housed in five nal spaces reflect the exterior forms in their panels became an instant
buildings, which are linked at the second story intricate and varied configurations. The devel- landmark and established new
by glass-enclosed bridges and open terraces. opment of such complex and curving spatial parameters for museum design.
The interiors alternate grand, light-flooded volumes had been limited in the past by the Some galleries are in standard
spaces with more intimate exhibition galler- practical difficulties of making drawings and orthogonal plan, while others
ies. In addition to the museum, the Getty Center engineering calculations, as well as by the cut- echo the curves of the exterior.
houses offices and research facilities for the ting and assembly of the building materials in
Getty Institute. ways that depart from basic orthogonal shapes. 21.38 Steven Holl, Kiasma
Gehry was a pioneer in exploiting the potential Museum, Helsinki,
of computer-aided design to make these freer Finland, 1998.
forms possible. A curving ramp leads to
galleries whose white
The following year, American archi- plastered walls and tinted
tect Steven Holl (b. 1947) won a competition, concrete floors create a
from among more than 500 entries, to design a neutral background. Skylights
new museum for Helsinki, Finland. Kiasma, as admit maximum natural light,
he called it, is a five-story sweeping curve of even in winter.
frosted and clear glass that provides bold con-
trast to the adjacent landmark buildings, and,
even on winter days, directs precious natu-
ral light down to a sweeping curved ramp that
navigates the central space (21.38). Instead of
white-box galleries, each room has a single curv-
ing wall, offering a different aspect for viewing
art. The design won Holl the coveted Alvar
Aalto prize, and, despite a solo exhibition at the
Museum of Modern Art in 1989, it was Kiasma
that brought him international attention.

Major museums by major architects would
be among the most important design projects
of the next decade, a phenomenon that is dis-
cussed in the next chapter.

After the International Style: The Late Twentieth Century 439

reflected in a biomorphic-shaped blue rug with
abstract forms in tan.

SOCIALLY CONSCIOUS DESIGN

21.39 Gae Aulenti, Musée PRESERVATION Social consciousness in design is rooted in dec-
d’Orsay, Paris, France, 1986. ades-old writings: Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring
A surge of public interest in preserving his- (1960), noting the dangers of pesticides; Jane
A magnificent Parisian Beaux- toric structures emerged in the last decades of Jacobs’s The Death and Life of American Cities
Arts railroad station that had the twentieth century, inspired largely by the (1961), calling for sensitive urban planning;
become derelict when the loss of several high-profile buildings due to and Victor Papanek’s 1972 Design for the Real
rail line was relocated, has economic pressure or indifferent owners, and World: Human Ecology and Social Change, sug-
now been given new life as a new respect for obsolete but architecturally gesting that design could deal with social needs.
an art museum housing a worthy sites like railroad stations and techni- It is only recently that these concerns have been
variety of work from French cally outdated manufacturing facilities. The taken seriously, with growing public awareness
national collections that had loss of New York’s old Penn Station, an impres- of the gravity of environmental damage and the
no adequate display space sive work of Roman classicism by  McKim, depletion of the world’s resources.
previously. The dramatic shell Mead & White (1911, destroyed 1963), inspired
of the old building forms an the restoration and retrofitting of structures In the coming years, it is likely that stronger
impressive surround to the like the old Union Station in Washington, D.C. government restrictions on air pollution and
varied spaces and levels (c.  1975), and the tasteful restoration of New carbon emissions will make environmentally
constructed to house York’s Grand Central Station (1998). In Paris, sensitive design as universal as accommo-
the exhibits. the conversion of the Gare d’Orsay into the dations for the disabled have become since
Musée d’Orsay (21.39; 1986) by Gae Aulenti the passage of the 1990 Americans With
(1927–2012) is a successful example of how Disabilities Act (ADA), which defines stand-
the details of historic architecture can serve as ards of accessibility for buildings and
background for modern elements inserted into interiors. The stringent Clean Air Act of 1993
an existing structure. was another precursor to the sustainability
movement; similar efforts are being seen in
A nineteenth-century building in Budapest, many European countries, and even in devel-
Hungary, became the basis for a drastic oping nations like China and India. The 1987
reconstruction by EEA—Erick van Egeraat Brundtland Report, for the United Nations,
(b.  1956) Associated Architects—in 1995 for summarized the dangers of environmental
the ING Bank. The new construction was damage and introduced the idea of “sustainable
inserted into the center courtyard of the old development,” leading to the Earth Summit in
building and rises above the roof to become a Rio de Janeiro in 2002, which produced treaties
virtual new building on top of the old. Offices on climate change and biodiversity. Although
occupy the floors surrounding the center their mandates have been slow to take effect,
space, while the rooftop structure became an a second event in 2012 drew 50,000 attendees
anthropomorphic “whale” formed of wood and more than 100 heads of government. The
ribs and glass that serves as the boardroom sustainability movement is now worldwide.
for the bank. The  unique interior profile is
GREEN DESIGN

The result of an increasingly technol-
ogy-dependent world has been greater
consumption of raw materials and energy. The
typical mid- to late twentieth-century build-
ing relies on artificial lighting, heating, air
conditioning, and mechanized vertical trans-
portation. As increased demand began to strain
resources, it became logical to turn to design
that was oriented toward conservation rather

440 After the International Style: The Late Twentieth Century

21.40 Croxton Collaborative
Architecture Designers,
National Audubon Society
headquarters, New
York, 1992.

An older building, dating
from 1891, which might well
have been designated for
destruction, was rescued
through a renovation that
focused on environmental
concerns. The office space
shown retains the old, arched
windows as sources of light
and ventilation. Paint colors
were selected for maximum
reflectivity to conserve light,
and the lighting system
was designed for
maximum efficiency.

than consumption. Green buildings are those LOOKING FORWARD 21.41 Eve Jiricna, house
that make minimal demands on their environ- extension, Highgate,
ment and take maximum advantage of natural In centuries past, the design of architecture London, 1994.
ways to provide desired functions. Often, and interiors was restricted by the need to put
older buildings offer the possibility of greater on paper the images that direct what is to be Glass and steel are used in
use of daylight and natural ventilation, using constructed in reality. Since this can only pro- the modernist tradition to
solar heat and solar energy. Although build- duce flat images drawn on a horizontal plane, bring a 1957 modern house
ings are designed by architects and engineers, the result has been, with few exceptions, into the end of the twentieth
their nature is largely determined by the straight-lined and right-angled design. The century. The delicate metal roof
interiors, placing greater responsibility for resulting box-like forms that characterize most structure relieves the austerity
interior designers in meeting these objectives. buildings and the similar enclosures for interi- of the basic forms.
With intelligent use of materials and minimal ors have prevailed since ancient times. When
dependence on energy-hungry mechanical curves are desired, designers have been gener-
systems, buildings can be both environmen- ally limited to the forms that can be drawn with
tally and economically sound.

In New York, the National Audubon
Society elected to demonstrate its commitment
to environmental issues in its national head-
quarters (21.40). Croxton Collaborative, the
designers, transformed a neglected 1891 eight-
story loft building for a fraction of the cost of
new space. The renovation preserved windows
that can be opened, and used window and
skylight illumination to reduce power require-
ments. Windows incorporate a heatshield film
that reduces heat buildup from summer sun
and helps to retain winter heat. Materials were
chosen to conserve scarce resources and elim-
inate toxic fumes. The completed project is
aesthetically satisfying, economically advan-
tageous, and a demonstration of design that
reflects concern for environmental values.

After the International Style: The Late Twentieth Century 441

21.42 Foster and Partners, a compass, and round rooms, arched open- recently has been essentially a movement con-
Reichstag reconstruction, ings, vaults, and similar curved constructions strained by a primary vocabulary of straight
Berlin, 1999. have been most often used for spaces viewed lines and flat planes. As the century drew to
Within the preexisting as “special”—elements of palaces or churches, a close, increased use of the computer and
(1894) old Reichstag structure, for example. Complex curves such as ellip- sophisticated rendering programs brought
a new domed parliament ses and parabolas are notoriously difficult to revolutionary change, freeing architects and
chamber was inserted. construct, as are three-dimensional ones, and designers from the tyranny of the T-square and
“free curves” not developed with systematic compass and enabling them to work with com-
21.43 Foster and Partners, geometry have been viewed as almost impossi- plex relationships of forms. Three-dimensional
interior of dome, Reichstag ble. This is not the case in sculpture and crafts, modeling in clay, plaster, wire-mesh, and
reconstruction, Berlin, 1999. where the artist or craftsperson works directly paper (often used by designers in the past) is
Within the dome are curving on the material of the finished product, with- being replaced by techniques that can produce
ramps and terraces that out the limitations faced by the architect or forms on the scale of buildings and their interi-
surround the legislative interior designer, using freer forms and pro- ors. The vast possibilities of this new freedom
chamber below, and serve ducing elements that are used as accessories became apparent in works of forward-look-
as observation platforms for to interior design. Various efforts to introduce ing architecture that foretold the innovative
the public. curved forms can be seen in Gothic vault- designs to follow. It is possible to look back
ing, in Baroque and Rococo design, and in the to the house designed and built in Highgate,
work of Art Nouveau designers, particularly London, in 1957 by the noted structural engi-
Antoni Gaudí. In contrast, modernism until neer, Ove Arup, for his own use, and note the
reconstruction of 1994 by Eva Jiricna (21.41)
with its sense of late modernist and high-
tech orientation, both of which move in these
new directions.

Within the pompous exterior of the 1894
German Reichstag building in Berlin, Norman
Foster and Partners were responsible for the
1999 internal construction of a new legisla-
tive chamber topped by a glass and metal dome
that rises from the old building as a modern
landmark (21.42). Inside the dome, ramps and
walkways enable visitors to circulate above the
legislative chamber. The public spaces (21.43)
emphasize the straight lines of later modern-
ism, while the curving forms of the parliament
chamber and dome express the freer forms of
the new century.

Early concerns that the use of computer-
related technology would diminish the stature
of designers as creators of original work have
proved ill-founded. Frank Gehry, for exam-
ple, designs initially with the traditional
techniques of sketches and three-dimensional
cardboard models, only then using technology
to enable the realization of concepts that would
otherwise be too difficult, time-consuming, and
costly to consider for most projects. Computer
programs have become essential in transferring
conceptual forms into the materials of con-
struction, thereby translating the impractical
or impossible into the achievable.



C H AP T E R T W E N T Y- T WO

Design on a New Playing Field

22.1 (left) Morphosis, Federal In the twenty-first century, designers are prac- new role, and one to which designers have
Building, San Francisco, ticing under dramatically altered conditions, responded in diverse and often exceptional
California, 2007. shaped by elements that emerged in the waning ways.
years of the twentieth. These elements, and
In a slender tower, broad the ensuing circumstances, have transformed THE KEY ELEMENTS
stairways lead to inviting the way humans experience and interact with
open lobbies, fostering social the built environment. They are redefining the Sustainability
interaction and cardiovascular parameters of design, propelling it along new
health (elevators stop only and varied paths. For architects and design- Sustainability is the term most often used to
at every third floor). Exposed ers, it is a time of unprecedented opportunity designate efforts to protect the environment
columns of warm-toned and limitless potential when, for the first time by managing resources. More than a buzz
concrete, shear walls, and high in history, they are viewed—and view them- word, it has emerged as the dominant issue
ceilings frame the space, while selves—as more than mere makers of objects, of the century, driven by greater public con-
glass façades offer city vistas but as socially responsible practitioners who cern, increased government legislation, and
and natural light. can help to improve the world and the lives of the growing environmentalist movement,
its inhabitants. This is a vital and meaningful

INSIGHTS

Green Design as solar and water power, and selecting recyclable or
reclaimed materials; the objective is carbon-neutral
The term that emerged toward the end of the last cen- design. Green building is also making its mark on
tury has become a mantra for design and architectural the domestic environment, where government-led
planning, implementing the ideal of sustainability. It incentives may encourage the residential builder to
refers to buildings that consider environmental issues incorporate green design; this area often produces
in everything from choice of materials to applications the most experimental and innovative ideas. A case in
of technology and energy efficiency, and to products point is the Solar Tube house (2004) in a suburb of Vi-
designed with these considerations in mind. Green enna, Austria, designed by Georg Driendl (b. 1956). On
design challenges the thoughtless use of natural a heavily wooded site, the entire structure is designed
resources, the trend toward planned obsolescence, as a heat and light collector. A central atrium acts like
and the failure to consider environmental impact as an a chimney to funnel excess heat out of the building
essential component of the design process. Its objec- in summer, and in cold weather the layers of glazing
tive is a symbiotic relation between humankind and that form most of the wall surfaces maximize the heat
nature. The LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environ- from the sun, reducing the need for artificial heating.
mental Design) program, which began in 2000, awards
Silver, Gold, and Platinum certifications to environmen- Newly focused attention on nature and outdoor
tally responsible buildings and interiors, and is a goal space has encouraged the development of more parks
sought by major new projects (22.2). Buildings are and outdoor facilities, including notable ones that re-
heated, ventilated, and cooled to reduce carbon emis- claim locations such as New York’s much-praised High
sions, as architects subdue their egos to the more im- Line (2009), a widely celebrated park created from a
portant objective of minimizing environmental impact disused elevated railway line. This has also led to the
during the construction phase as well as the life of the development of parkland on abandoned lots, piers,
building. Their efforts begin with careful siting, and and undeveloped waterfront areas in many cities.
may include maximization of natural light, reducing the Landscape design specialists like Peter Walker, Laurie
use of fossil fuels with alternative energy sources such Olin, and Thomas Woltz have played increasingly
important roles in public and private projects.

443

444 Design on a New Playing Field

which is now worldwide. Although the role of For the design of interiors, technology has 22.2 Lake Flato Architects,
humans in contributing to global warming may added a new challenge: in addition to plan- Livestrong Foundation offices,
remain a contentious issue, the need to reduce ning spaces to accommodate conventional Austin, Texas, 2009.
carbon emissions and seek alternative energy furniture and furnishings, designers must now Green design principles
sources are primary concerns of architects and plan rooms, in homes as well as in every type drove the transformation of
designers, whose design process includes eval- of commercial or institutional space, to accom- a concrete-walled warehouse
uating the impact of each project on ecological modate the equipment that has become an into an LEED-certified, airy, and
systems and human well-being, from site integral part of modern life. Technology has functional space, overcom-
selection to choice of materials, to energy also brought advances in lighting—the LED ing a block floor plate and site
conservation. Clients, anxious to posi- (light-emitting diode) and its successor OLED configuration that precluded
tion themselves as socially conscious, are (organic light-emitting diode) are not only window openings and
supporting these efforts. The most prominent more efficient and more environmentally sen- exterior views.
contemporary missionaries of the movement sitive, but their small size and flexibility make
are William McDonough, who developed possible unique and variable effects. 22.3 Herzog & de Meuron,
the Hannover Principles (2000), called a “Bill Bird’s Nest Stadium, Shanghai,
of Rights for the Planet,” and, with Michael China, 2008.
Braungart, wrote Cradle-to-Cradle: Remaking A latticework of bent steel
the Way We Make Things (2002), dictating the columns and cantilevered
need for life-cycle analysis. trusses form the shell of
the vast, elliptical structure.
Technology Irregular beams crisscross the
space to create an interior
The world’s fastest-growing industry has given landscape of intersecting
birth to the universal language of computer- planes and changing light
speak, with a new vocabulary, new tools, and patterns. The Chinese artist
ever-proliferating applications. Its impact on Ai Weiwei was artistic
design cannot be overstated. Not only do sophis- consultant on the project.
ticated programs enable the design of buildings
and interior configurations that would be impos-
sible to render by hand, but their construction
is facilitated by translating computer-generated
models into accurate three-dimensional ones
via rapid prototyping (also called ALF, Additive
Layered Fabrication). Exceptionally tall, unu-
sually curved, or unconventionally angular
structures are now rendered and stress-tested on
computers. Another tool, Building Information
Modeling (BIM), provides a virtual-reality walk-
through of a project that enables designers and
clients to make adjustments before construction
begins.

Such advances have made possible extraor-
dinary structures such as Beijing’s National
Stadium (the “Bird’s Nest”; 22.3; 2008),
designed by Swiss architects Herzog & de
Meuron, a firm that has a reputation for cut-
ting-edge design and innovative use of
materials. The intricate design of interlocked
metal members creates a striking biomorphic
exterior and equally arresting interior spaces.
Zurich-born Jacques Herzog (b. 1950) and
Pierre de Meuron (b. 1950) formed their part-
nership in 1978, and received a Pritzker Prize
in 2001.

Design on a New Playing Field 445

22.4 Shigeru Ban, Social Welfare has built more than half a million residences on
container shelter, five continents.
Onagawa, Japan, 2011. In a diverse, multicultural, and longer-living
society, designers must confront the needs Branding
Repurposed as temporary of particular segments of the population,
housing for disaster victims, with the goal of contributing to the improve- The proliferation of well-publicized public
shipping containers form spare ment of health, welfare, and well-being. Using projects such as museums, cultural centers,
but functional living spaces research data that shows how people actually and multi-use developments by prominent
that can sit on uneven or behave in their environments, evidence-based architects and interior designers has made
narrow sites, may be stacked design enables designers to plan their spaces design a matter of public discourse. A dou-
up to three stories high, for the most desirable outcomes—in hospitals, ble-edged sword, this has created the culture
and are planned to be schools, even offices. of the “starchitect,” a designation coined in
earthquake resistant. the late twentieth century (its original source
Multi-generational design deals with situa- remains anonymous) to describe one whose
tions where two or three generations of a family name alone brings prestige to any project.
are living in one home, calling for space config- Notwithstanding its drawbacks, this celeb-
urations to provide privacy for each generation rity culture generates media coverage that
as well as areas where they can interact. Design raises awareness of, and appreciation for, good
for the disabled has evolved into “universal design. The result is a greater demand for well-
design,” accessible to many ages and abilities. designed spaces, both public and private.
Life-extending medical advances have given
rise to a new movement for “aging in place” as Design has thus assumed the role of essen-
an alternative to age-restricted communities. tial marketing tool. In the 1940s, Dorothy Draper
Finally, since physical fitness has been man- told prospective clients that good design would
dated as essential to good health, gyms are now make their hotels more profitable, but only in
essential components of hotels, offices, apart- recent years has the idea been generally accepted
ment buildings, and many private homes. by savvy corporations, ambitious institutions,
and competitive retailers—as high-fashion as
These and other concerns are creating Chanel or as mass-market as IKEA—that employ
greater social consciousness and humanitarian designers to create brand identities with dis-
efforts among architects and interior design- tinctive imagery that communicates with the
ers; one example is the provision of housing for consumer on an emotional level. The message
survivors of natural disasters, such as Shigeru may promise friendship, comfort, reliability,
Ban’s shipping-container structures (22.4; or other desirable traits; in many cases, it also
2011). Such efforts are encouraged by organ- promises entertainment. To attract consumers
izations like Habitat for Humanity, which accustomed to the stimulation of computerized
creates opportunities for designers to con- experience, brick-and-mortar surroundings
tribute to communities in crisis by building are taking lessons from theaters or theme parks.
affordable housing—to date, the organization Rem Koolhaas and OMA sought to “reinvent
the retail experience” in Prada’s New York
flagship (2001), where a half-pipe curve of lami-
nated wood adjoins stadium-seating steps with
multiple levels on the main floor, with most
merchandise relegated to the basement below
(22.5). Koolhaas’s iconoclastic approach has
also produced brand-creating, unconventional
buildings like the headquarters of China Central
Television in Beijing, a much-published icon
long before its long-delayed completion in 2012.
Described as a tower “reinvented as a loop,” the
building has two vertical cantilevered sections
joined by a horizontal extension suspended over
an open plaza. The structure sits at an angle,
creating an interior landscape of tilting walls,
bridges, and steel beams.

446 Design on a New Playing Field

universities, hospitals, and massive mixed-use 22.5 Rem Koolhaas/OMA,
developments. Emerging nations have increas- Prada flagship store, New
ingly reached out to Western architects to York City, 2001.
design these projects, which have become even
more appealing as opportunities for large-scale A curving “wave” flowing from
development in their own countries are less street level to basement is the
available. Such projects offer unprecedented focal point of the space, with
opportunities and the challenge of finding steps for display or seating,
utopian solutions to such problems as urban and a stagelike area for
density, transportation, and energy conser- fashion shows. A translucent
vation. The bad is in the tendency to accede polycarbonate wall sets off
to political pressure, ego, or expediency to movable ceiling-hung display
produce designs that are more façade than cages, but most clothing
functional. displays are relegated to
the basement.

Adaptive Reuse

Collaboration The destruction of historic buildings, and
the increasing attention given to endan-
The romantic image of the designer as a solo gered ones by organizations such as the
artist at the drawing board is out of date— World Monuments Fund and the National
design today is a collaborative effort by a Trust for Historic Preservation, has encour-
team of specialists. The concept of a new aged the formation of local preservationist
building or interior may be the vision of one groups as well as, in many countries, govern-
individual, but its implementation is the work ment support. Not only historic landmarks but
of many: major projects now employ the ser- abandoned mansions, architecturally interest-
vices of, at minimum, architect, engineer, ing housing in deteriorated neighborhoods or
construction manager, landscape designer, inner-city locations, obsolete factories, and
lighting designer, interior designer, and outdated school buildings have been saved
graphic designer. In an era of globalism, from demolition and given new life by creative
architects and designers not only work interna- restoration or retrofitting for new purposes.
tionally, but partner with parallel professionals A new respect for history, as well as practical
in other countries, eroding the national charac- considerations, drives these efforts.
teristics that once made it possible for designs
to reflect the country of their designers. Adopting the premise that it requires less
energy to repurpose a building than to destroy it
Globalism and build anew, designers are finding ingenious

The explosive growth of countries and cities 22.6 Jean Nouvel,
in the Far East and Middle East and other less Fabrica Moritz, Barcelona,
developed parts of the world and the ensu- Spain, 2011.
ing populations of affluent consumers have
created opportunities both good and bad for This conversion of a former
architecture and interior design. The good lies beer factory into a public venue
in commissions for innovative buildings and retains elements of its industrial
building projects, both government-sponsored roots in the exposed brickwork,
and privately funded, from grand muse- vaulted ceiling, and mosaic
ums, opera houses, and cultural centers to floors. The new complex
incorporates a wine bar and
microbrewery, restaurant,
museum, gastronomical hall,
and exhibition spaces.

Design on a New Playing Field 447

22.7 Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer, way to transform aging or obsolete structures (b. 1945) turned the nineteenth-century Moritz
Central Synagogue, New York into attractive and functional new ones. In Brewery into a restaurant and cultural center
City, 2001. addition to being less costly than new construc- and exhibition space (2011), merging cuisine
tion—and often more original in design—such and culture in a lively venue that retains the
After a 1998 fire, a meticulous projects are environmentally sensitive, conserv- building’s vaulted ceilings and mosaic floors,
restoration of the 1872 ing energy and natural resources in line with and intersperses the brickwork with reflective
structure removed elements the dictates of sustainability. Old warehouses columns, mirrors, and modern fittings (22.6).
of a previous modernization, become markets, factories become luxury res-
adding features to conform to idences, transit centers are repurposed for Historic Preservation
modern building codes. With recreation, shipping containers (see 22.4) are
archival research and skilled redesigned for a variety of other uses, perma- In historically significant structures, it is usu-
craftsmen, the architects nent or temporary. For the Nomadic Museum ally considered more important to preserve
returned the interior to its (2005), Shigeru Ban (b. 1967) transformed ship- the original features than to make changes
original Moorish revival design. ping containers into an elegant traveling venue that disturb the façade or the defining ele-
for photography and film exhibits, which ments of the interior. This is either done by
can be easily taken apart and shipped to other meticulously restoring or rebuilding the exist-
locations, and installed on waterside piers. In ing structure, as Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer did
Barcelona, Spain, French architect Jean Nouvel with New York’s Central Synagogue after a
fire seriously damaged the nineteenth-century
landmark (22.7; 2001), or by combining the
restoration with the addition of a new wing
with modern amenities to update the function
of the building. Daniel Libeskind’s addition
to the neoclassical architecture of the Military
History Museum in Dresden, Germany (2011),
is a wedgelike form that visually intersects
the original structure without disturbing it,
adding modern exhibition space and provid-
ing a metaphor for the disconnect between
German’s dictatorship history and its modern
democracy.

Having learned to deal with structures
dating back more than a century, preserva-
tionists are facing a new challenge—that of
saving mid-twentieth-century buildings, par-
ticularly residences, most of which lack the
recognition of grand public buildings and
were built with materials that lack the endur-
ing qualities of limestone and marble. Some,
like Philip Johnson’s celebrated Glass House
in Connecticut (see 19.1 and p. 388) and
Charles and Ray Eames’s Santa Monica home
(see 20.14), both built in 1949, are maintained
with the help of bequests from the estates, but
others are threatened until preservation groups
intercede. Mies van der Rohe’s Farnsworth
House (1951) in Plano, Illinois, was pur-
chased at auction by the National Trust, but
others, such as the Dodge House by Irving Gill
(1916; demolished 1970; see p. 381) and Paul
Rudolph’s visionary Riverview High School
in Sarasota, Florida (1957; demolished 2009),
have been destroyed; many others have been
lost to the bulldozer or damaged by insensitive

448 Design on a New Playing Field

remodeling. Rudolph’s steel and concrete
three-story penthouse in New York (built over
a nineteenth-century townhouse) was land-
marked in 2010, but only after renovations had
made changes in the dramatic minimalist interi-
ors (22.8).

Foster & Partners’ Hearst Tower (2006)
in New York is as significant for its preserva-
tion-conscious aspects as for its innovative
faceted exterior and its ten-story atrium. Rising
atop Josef Urban’s 1928 Art Deco building, it
was the first such project approved by the
Landmarks Commission, and the first sky-
scraper to receive LEED Gold rating (and LEED
Platinum for the restored urban structure). It
was also the first new skyscraper built in New
York after the 9/11 attacks.

STYLE DIRECTIONS projects, such as Yoshio Taniguchi’s Museum 22.8 Paul Rudolph, apartment,
of Modern Art (22.9) or renovations and res- New York City, c.1980,
The new century ushered in a wave of eclec- torations of public buildings. There will restored 2006.
ticism. Unfettered by the boundaries of a always be a market for antique furnishings
dominating design source or a prescribed and traditional interiors, period styles in new Mirrors, Mylar, clear acrylic,
aesthetic, designers enjoyed the freedom to architecture are most often chosen to make and white Formica sculpt the
explore new horizons. These risk-taking explo- a particular historic allusion, such as Robert convention-flouting four-level
rations produced results that ranged from A.M. Stern’s design for a new Museum of apartment built by Rudolph for
exceptional to ill-conceived, in no predominat- the American Revolution in Philadelphia, himself atop a Beekman Place
ing style but several identifiable directions. Pennsylvania, or the deliberate classical ref- townhouse. Spectacular though
erences of Bernard Tschumi’s New Acropolis impractical, it had stairways
The best of the new architecture is uniquely Museum (2008) in Athens, Greece. without railings and a two-story
of its time, though prophetic works by some of glass-walled bedroom suite.
the most celebrated of those mentioned below Some of the original features
appeared in the 1990s. These leaders push the have been altered.
boundaries of architectural expression, mostly
in high-budget, high-stakes projects sponsored 22.9 Yoshio Tanaguchi,
by governments or institutions that are often atrium, Museum of Modern
awarded after international competitions. Of Art, New York City, 2004.
those individuals in the vanguard, some are
notable for an easily identifiable look, others Exhibition galleries wrap around
for an approach marked more by attitude than the light-filled central space,
aesthetic. Several of the architects mentioned viewed through narrow win-
in previous chapters continue to create signifi- dows that punctuate the walls
cant works, while a new generation produces on several levels. The atrium
original new talents. accommodates large-scale
artworks, and also serves
as a performance space.

Mainstream Modernism

Despite the various labels applied to recent
design by architectural historians and crit-
ics, it is clear that modernism, in one form
or another, has become part of the vernacu-
lar in every social class and country, even in
cultures resistant to change. It remains the
default design aesthetic for major expansion