cover cover next page > title : author : publisher : isbn10 | asin : print isbn13 : ebook isbn13 : language : subject publication date : lcc : ddc : subject : cover next page > file:///E|/-=%20%CD%E0%F8%E8%20%EF%F3%E1%EB%E 20Architectural/_42062______/files/cover.html [11.01.2009 22:00:36] page_iii < previous page page_iii next page > Page iii Behind the Postmodern Facade Architectural Change in Late Twentieth-Century America Magali Sarfatti Larson < previous page page_iii next page > file:///E|/-=%20%CD%E0%F8%E8%20%EF%F3%E1%EB%E8 Architectural/_42062______/files/page_iii.html [11.01.2009 22:00:37] page_iv < previous page page_iv next page > Page iv University of California Press Berkeley and Los Angeles, California University of California Press, Ltd. London, England © 1993 by The Regents of the University of California First Paperback Printing 1995 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Larson, Magali Sarfatti. Behind the postmodern facade : architectural change in late twentieth-century America / Magali Sarfatti Larson. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-520-20161-2 1. Architectural practiceUnited States. 2. Architectural services marketing United States. 3. ArchitectureUnited StatesTechnological innovations. 4. ArchitectsUnited StatesPsychology. I. Title. NA1996.L37 1993 720'.68dc20 92-25694 CIP Printed in the United States of America 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.481984. < previous page page_iv next page > file:///E|/-=%20%CD%E0%F8%E8%20%EF%F3%E1%EB%E Architectural/_42062______/files/page_iv.html [11.01.2009 22:00:37] page_v < previous page page_v next page > Page v For Charlie, who has read it and Tony, who someday might < previous page page_v next page > file:///E|/-=%20%CD%E0%F8%E8%20%EF%F3%E1%EB%E 0Architectural/_42062______/files/page_v.html [11.01.2009 22:00:37] page_vii < previous page page_vii next page > Page vii CONTENTS List of Illustrations ix Foreword by Joe Esherick xi Acknowledgments xv Part One: The Background of Architectural Change 1. Architecture as Art and Profession 3 2. Architectural Change in the Twentieth Century 21 Part Two: The Postindustrial Matrix of American Architecture 3. Architecture in the Political Economy of Cities 67 4. The Perception of Structure: Firms, Clients, and Career Settings in the Design Elite 98 Part Three: The Revision of The Modern 5. Architects and Creative Work 143 < previous page page_vii next page > file:///E|/-=%20%CD%E0%F8%E8%20%EF%F3%E1%EB%E8 Architectural/_42062______/files/page_vii.html [11.01.2009 22:00:38] page_viii < previous page page_viii next page > Page viii 6. Design and Discourse in a Period of Change: The Protagonist's View 160 7. Mapping a Paradigm's Demise: The View from a Symbolic Reward System 182 8. The Autonomous Transformation: Paper Architecture, 196685 218 9. Conclusion 243 Appendix: The Progressive Architecture Awards, 195487 255 Notes 259 Index 309 < previous page page_viii next page > file:///E|/-=%20%CD%E0%F8%E8%20%EF%F3%E1%EB%E8 rchitectural/_42062______/files/page_viii.html [11.01.2009 22:00:39] page_ix < previous page page_ix next page > Page ix ILLUSTRATIONS 1. Le Corbusier, Plan Voisin for the rebuilding of Paris (model, 1925). 203 2. Maya Lin, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Washington, D.C. (1982). 203 3. Walter Gropius, apartments at Siemenstadt, Berlin (192931). 204 4. Bruno Taut, Hufheiser Siedlung, Britz, Berlin (192531). 204 5. Ludwig Mies van der Rohe with Philip Johnson, Seagram building, New York (195658). 205 6. Philip Johnson John Burgee, AT&T World Headquarters, New York (1984). 206 7. Venturi and Rauch, Vanna Venturi's house, Philadelphia (1962). 207 8. Joseph Esherick and Associates, Sea Ranch, Calif. (1965). 207 9. Stanley Tigerman, Daisy House, Porter, Ind. (197678). 208 10. Robert A. M. Stern, residence at Chilmark, Martha's Vineyard, Mass. (1983). 208 11. Esherick Homsey Dodge Davis, an early example of urban reuse: shops at the Cannery, San Francisco (1966). 209 < previous page page_ix next page > file:///E|/-=%20%CD%E0%F8%E8%20%EF%F3%E1%EB%E Architectural/_42062______/files/page_ix.html [11.01.2009 22:00:39] page_x < previous page page_x next page > Page x 12. Cesar Pelli, Pacific Design Center, Los Angeles (197175). 210 13. Michael Graves, Municipal Services Building, Portland, Oreg. (1980). 210 14. Kohn Pedersen Fox with Perkins Will, Procter & Gamble Headquarters, Cincinnati (1985). 211 15. Cesar Pelli and Associates, World Financial Center, New York (198187). 211 16. Venturi Rauch Scott Brown, Gordon Wu Hall, Princeton University (1980). 212 17. Kohn Pedersen Fox, 333 Wacker Drive, Chicago (197983). 212 18. Adrian Smith/SOM, Rowes Wharf, Boston (198788). 213 19. Diane Legge/SOM, race track, Arlington, Ill. (1989). 213 20. Gwathmey Siegel, Taft residence, Cincinnati (1977). 214 21. Michael Graves with Alan Lapidus, Disney World Dolphin Hotel, Lake Buena Vista, Fla. (1990). 214 22. Frank Gehry, Edgemar Center, Santa Monica, Calif. (198488). 215 23. Peter Eisenman with Richard Trott, Wexner Center for the Arts, Ohio State University, Columbus (1989). 215 24. Joan Goody, renovation of Harbor Point, Boston (1989). 216 25. König Eizenberg, affordable housing, 5th Street, Santa Monica, Calif. (1988). 216 26. Rob Quigley, Baltic Inn, San Diego, Calif. (1987). 217 < previous page page_x next page > file:///E|/-=%20%CD%E0%F8%E8%20%EF%F3%E1%EB%E 0Architectural/_42062______/files/page_x.html [11.01.2009 22:00:40] page_xi < previous page page_xi next page > Page xi FOREWORD In the last decade or two, contradictions and conflicts have arisen between what we architects conceive as our goals and purposes and what we accept from project developers as their goals. These growing complexities in the production of architecture constitute a dramatic shift that many either failed to notice or became resigned to. The changes in the environment in which architects work (and worked for the better part of this century) have transformed both what architects do and how they do it, in everything from architecture as idea to architecture as built fact. That sea change in architecture as object and architecture as process is addressed with authority and insight in this book. No architect needs to be told that the process of producing architecture is complex. But architects rarely have time to study the nature or causes of that complexity. Fragmentary explanations exist, but they assume that each element in the complex task is an autonomous unit, separate and uncontaminated. In Behind the Postmodern Facade Magali Sarfatti Larson examines both the outer complexities and the inner struggles of architecture; nothing so complete or so penetrating has been undertaken before. No architect can realistically believe in anything approaching complete autonomy. Even such autonomy as does exist is being eroded by complexities and conflicts arriving from new quarters. Dealing with these largely external changes by traditional responses or with traditional perceptions and ideas can hardly work. To begin again, to move forward responsibly, < previous page page_xi next page > file:///E|/-=%20%CD%E0%F8%E8%20%EF%F3%E1%EB%E Architectural/_42062______/files/page_xi.html [11.01.2009 22:00:41] page_xii < previous page page_xii next page > Page xii will require a full understanding of the environment in which architects work as well as an understanding of our habits of discourse, of the ways architects perceive the world and deal with it. This study, revealing as it does the extraordinary changes in the inner and outer forces central to the production of architecture, should encourage genuine dialogue and debate about possible futures, of perhaps different "architectures." Such a debate cannot assume a tabula rasa. In this century we have seen post-World War I European "modern" architecture, an architecture of strong social purpose and commitment, transformed, on its arrival in this country, to an architecture of form and style and, after World War II, to a worldwide means of aggressive development. We need to revisit and to understand the history of these transformations of architecture. History, good history, informs us about what happened but also about why, in all its complexity. Architectural history, much of it growing from the traditions of German art history, has been preoccupied with the what of events andsince events in architecture are visiblewith what things look like, often with little regard to intentions, foreground, or background, temporal or physical. Similarly, current architectural criticism tends to be preoccupied with the what, ignoring settings, focusing on fragments and ornamentsshells of ideasand failing to explain in any useful way how things came to be as they are. Architectural history and much of the discourse about architecture have become a limiting diversion, a presetting of our perceptions and expectations. Architecture as it is practiced, taught, and talked about generally assumes an autonomy that is in conflict with the notion of architecture as a service profession, integral to the society and culture, embedded in everyday life. There are, indeed, responsibilities that are particularly architectural, but those responsibilities are deeply implanted in our society and culture. Architects are fortunate to be in a profession that is inherently not isolated, not pure or narcissistic, one that has to be integrated into the surrounding society and culture to exist. It is only in the polemics of current discourse that architecture becomes esoteric and isolated. Much of architectural discourse and criticism today resembles missiles fired randomly in all directions. This book lays the foundation for a new beginning, a new debate. Architectural books are, too often, the end of the affair. This one suggests movement and a progression of events; rather than driving for finality, it looks forward to a needed open-endedness. Debate would be welcome on what architects can control and what is beyond our control; that is, What are the particular and specific responsi- < previous page page_xii next page > file:///E|/-=%20%CD%E0%F8%E8%20%EF%F3%E1%EB%E8 Architectural/_42062______/files/page_xii.html [11.01.2009 22:00:41] [...]... twentiethcentury architectural history, which acquaints the nonspecialist with the substance and scope of architectural change and with the cast of characters it involved I pay special attention to architectural modernism in Weimar Germany as the tacit model (or the explicit foil) of the subsequent transformation In the second part, I examine the structural underpinnings of the recent phase of architectural change. .. glory that the Malatesta or the Medici wanted Yet architects, either in their dutiful deception of the client or in the elaboration of autonomous discourse for their own use, cannot fail to invoke and articulate the public properties of architecture Indeed, it is the public face of buildings that detaches them from the personal and private requirements of their owners' programs Significant buildings can... the latter depends on the problems they address and claim to resolve in the discursive field Since dependence on the client is inescapable, I will briefly outline how it works in relation to architectural change First, clients have the power to choose architectural innovators and thus help their reputations in the delimited field of architecture They also have the power to lift the barriers of specialized... even in the work of Le Corbusier, the apostle of modernism In public commissions, the end of the 1930s saw a return to monumental classicism, not only in the totalitarian states but even in Holland; it was prevalent in France, where the Modern Movement had never been widely accepted, as also in the United States.4 War engulfed the world at the beginning of the next decade But, even before the deluge, the. .. all the victimized artists deserved; and, two, the diaspora caused by Hitler's persecution of the Modern Movement was ultimately responsible for the belated triumph of the new aesthetics.3 In the 1930s, then, the Modern Movement was faltering under the blows of cultural policy in Nazi Germany Elsewhere, modern architecture was in retreat In the Soviet Union, the Russian constructivists, whose aesthetic... whim or trendiness, nor as indications of idealist reorientation, but as symptoms of changes in architects' conceptions of their professional role and in the conditions of their practice In postmodern discourse, the model of European modernism is related as much to practical conceptions of the architect's role and to changes in the way architects must make a living as to their formal imagination 6 Elites,... file:///E|/-=%20%CD%E0%F8%E8%20%EF%F3%E1%EB%E 0Architectural/ _42062 /files/page_5.html [11.01.2009 22:00:48] page_6 < previous page page_6 next page > Page 6 the histories of architecture locate the origins of change within the discursive field itself, in the theories and ideas of architects The first and most radical shift in the discourse of architecture culminated in the Modern Movement of the 1920s in Europe An adapted... Training in the skills and the discourse of architectural design increasingly became the hallmark of the architects for the elite and, later on, the central element of professionalization In capitalist societies, architecture emerged as a profession that possesses artistic, technical, and social dimensions The emphasis placed on each varied in different times and places However, the existence of engineering... yet my postulate about the fundamental heteronomy of architectural practice requires me to examine the connections between the elite and other sectors of the profession The importance of built exemplars in architectural discourse suggests a situation more complicated than the (increasingly blurred) dichotomy of "high" and "popular" forms in other art media 7 The expansion of a market for architectural. .. field: For, indeed, the awards are given for "paper architecture," a stage at which the client has provided only a program but no other restrictions In chapter 7, the analysis of these twenty years of debate takes one building type (the private house) as its point of departure The changes discovered by holding the type of building constant are followed in chapter 8 across the whole spectrum of the juries' . Training in the skills and the discourse of architectural design increasingly became the hallmark of the architects for the elite and, later on, the central. Magali Sarfatti. Behind the postmodern facade : architectural change in late twentieth-century America / Magali Sarfatti Larson. p. cm. Includes bibliographical