..A c1ass1c and probabl y a worl< ot gem us " - JANE JACOBS , author of Th e Deat h an d U (e of Great A m erican Ci ties

1 H OW BUILDINGS LEARN

What happens after they're built CHAPTER 1 Flow

YEAR AFTER YEAR, the cultural elite of San Francisco is treated to for is compromise with the fait accompli of the building. The the sight of its pre-eminent lac!ies, resplenc!ently gowned, lined up who le idea of architecture is permanence. University donors in ptJblic waiting to pe e. The occas ion is intermission at the invest in "bricks and morrar " rather than professorial cha irs annual ga la ope ning of the ope ra. The grounc!-floor ladies ' room because of the lure of a lasting monument. In wider use, the term at the Opera Hous e is too sma ll (the men 's isn't). This has been "architecture" always means "unchanging deep structure. " the case since the place was built in 1932. As the women are lined It is an illusion . New usages persistently retire or reshape up right next to the lobby bar , their plight has become a buildings. The old church is torn clown, lovely as it is, because traditional topic of discussion. The complaints and jokes never the parishioners have gone and no other use can be found for it. change. Neither does the laclies' room. The old factory, the plainest of buildings , keeps being revived: Betw ee n the world and our iclea of the worlcl is a fascinating kink. first for a collection of light industries , then for artists ' studios, then Architecture, we imagine , is permanent. And so our builclings for offices (with boutiques anda restaurant on the ground floor), thwart us. Because they discount time, they misuse time. and someth ing else is bound to follow. From the first drawings to the final demolition, buildings are shaped and reshap ed by Almost no buildings adapt well. They 're designed not to adapt; changing cultural currents , changing real-estate value , and also budget ed and financed not to, constructed not to, changing usage. adm inistered not to, maint ained not to, regulated and taxed not to, even remodeled not to . But all buildings (except monuments) The word "building" contains the double reality. It means both adapt anyway , how eve r poo rly, because the usages in and around "the action of the verb BUILD" and "that which is built "- both verb them are changing co nstantly. and noun, both the action and the result. Whereas "architecture " may strive to be permanent , a "building" is always building and The problem is world -scale-th e building industry is the second ­ rebuilding . The idea is crystalline , the fact fluid. Could the idea large st in the wo rld (after agricultur e). Builclings con tain our lives be revised to match the fact? and all civilization . The probl em is also intensely personal. If you look up from this book , what you almost certainly see is the inside That's the intent of this book. My approach is to examine of a builcling. Glance out a window and the rnain thing you buildin gs as a who le- not just whole in space, but whole in time . notice is the outsid e of other buildings. They look so static. Some bu ildings are designed and managed as a spatial whole, none as a temporal whole. In the absence of theor y or standard Buildings loom over us and persi st beyond us . They have the practice in the matter , we can begin by investigating : What perfect memory of materialit y. When we deal with buildings we happens anyway in buildings over time 1 dea l with decisions taken long ago for remote reasons. We argue with anonymous prede cesso rs and lose . The best we can hope Two quotes are most often cited as emblems of the way to FLOW 3 were rented out. Cars came, grew in size and num be r, then shrank in size , and garage s and car parks tried to kee p pace. "Family rooms" expanded aroun d the television . In the 1960s, women joined the work force, transformin g bot h the wo rkpla ce and the home. With shifting economic opp ortuniti es and stresses, families fragmented so much that the conventional nucl ea r family has become a rarity, and the design of housing is still catching up with that. Office buildings are now the larges t cap ita! asse t of deve loped nations and emplo y over half of their workforces . At the office , 1981 - THE TRUE NATURE OF BUILDINGS-that they can't hold still-is betrayed by a brick mansion management theories come and go , eac h with a different physical on the move in Raleigh, North Carolina . The Capehart-Crocker house (1898) was moved to make room for a state government comp lex. The house is now used for offices . layout. Unremitting revolutions in communi cation techn ology require rewiring of wh ole buildin gs eve 1y seve n years on ave rage. After the 1973 oil crisis, the energy budget of a buildin g sudd enly und erstand how buildings and their use interact. The first, became a major issue, and windows , insulation, and heat ing and echoin g the whole length of the 20th century , is "Form ever followsfu nction ." Written in 1896 by Louis Sullivan , the Chicago highrise des igner, it was the founding idea of Modernist 1 1 Louis Sullivan, ''The Tall Build ing Anistically Consiclere:,cl.'' Lippincott '.,( March 1896J, pp. architecture. The very opposite conc ept is Winston Churchill' s 403-409. This muc h-antho logized , bea utifully bombastic e.-;say climaxe, with: ..Il is the "We shap e our huild ings, and aftenuards our huildings shape pe rvading law of all things orga nic, and ino rganic. of all thing s physical and metap hysic:.li, of all things hum an and all things sup erhuman, of all true rnanifesrations of rhe heacl, of the 2 us." These were clairvoyant insights , pointing in the right he art, of the soul, that the life is reco gn izab le in ils exp ressio ns, that form ever follows direction, but they stopp ed short. fun ction ." But when Sullivan app lies rhe law to builclings, he adels a proviso that has bee n little no ticed and never qu oted: "Is il really then ... so near a thin g to us that we ca nnOl perceive that the shape , form , oucward expr ess ion , des ign or wha teve r we may choose, of Sullivan's form-follows -fun ction misled a century of architects into the tall office buildin g shoulcl in the very mt ure of things follow the fun ctions of the believing that they could really anticipate function. Churchill's buildi ng, and that where the funct io n cloes not chang e, the form is not to chang e?" Mark that. "Where function does not cha nge, form cloes not d un ge .·· What abo ut wh en ringin g and-then-they-shap e-us trunc ated the fuller cycle of fun ction changes? realiW First we shape our buildings , then they shape us , then we 2 Churchill liked the statement so much he usecl it rw ice , first in 1924 lO an aw:1rcls ce remo ny for the Architectu ral Assoc iation , then befo re a nationa l audience in 1943 o n 1he shape them aga in-ad infinitum . Function reform s form , occasion of requ esting that the bornb-clamagecl Parliamem be reh uilt exactly ;is it was perpetually. befor e. To the architects he said , ..Th ere is no doubl what eve r abou 1 the influence of architec ture and structure up o n hu man character and action. We make our buildings an d "Flow , continu al flow , continu al change , cont inu al transformation " afterwards they make us. They reg ulate the co urse of our lives." In Parliamem, he restared it, "We shape our buildin gs, and afte1wa rds our builclings sha pe us." Both rimes his is how a Pueb lo Indian architectural histori an named Rina exa mpl e was the cramped , oblo ng Chamber o f the House of Cornmo ns. It was w the Swentzel describes her cultur e and her home village .3 That goo d , he insisted, that the Chamber was too smal l lo sea t all the members (so grea t occas ions we re standing-room occasions), and tha t its shape forcecl rnembers to sil on desc ribes everyo ne's cultur e and village . either one side or the other, unambiguously of one party or the other. 'T he pa rty system, incleecl, clepencls on the shape of the Ho use of Comm ons," he co nclude d in 1924. [I am In this century the houses of America and Europ e have bee n inclebted to Marvin Nicely and Richa rd Langwo rth of the fnternational Chur chill Socie ry for track ing clown the quotes .] altered utterly. When servants disapp eared from them, kitchens 3 Quoted by Jane Brown Gilette, '·O n I-ler Own Terms," Historie ?reservation ( ov . 1992). sudde nly grew , and servant's roo ms beca me sup erfluous and p. 84. 4

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1941 · RICH TO POOR? It looks at first glance like the prospects of this Coxsackie, New York, farm 1972 - POOR TO RICH? No, stranger than that. Alter young Stephen W. Dorsey was elected US have gone downhill from lett to right. I suspect that's why my old photography teacher, John Collier, took Senator from Arkansas in 1874, he made a pile of money with land and cattle speculation. In the remote the photo for the Farm Security Administration-as an illustration of the harsh effects of the Depression. northeast New Mexico prairie he constructed a mansion to suit his fortune and fame. It began in 1878 But building historian Dell Upton bets that the middle part was built first, in the 1820s. Then the fancy with frontier-romantic logs (left) and then shifted to Gothic-romantic sandstone (right) in 1881-complete part was added on the left in the 1830s, and the kitchen moved into its own addition to the right in the with stone portraits on the upper tower of Dorsey and his wife and brother, plus two gargoyles in the 1850s. likeness of his political enemy, Senator James Blaine . Dorsey got government contracts for mail delivery which later were investigated for fraud-$2 million had been stolen. The trial ruined Dorsey, and the mansion was foreclosed in 1893. Subsequent ranch families lett the place as it was. It is now a house BUILDINGS TELL STOlUES, if they't·e allowed­ museum , a monument to frontier chicanery. if the:iJ:past is flauntecl rather than concealed.

1990 · BLUE TO WHITE COLLAR. It was built as a valve factory in the 1930s in Emeryville, California. 1992 - LIKE A MOUSE IN A COW SKULL, one specialty makes a home in another specialty's husk. Now it houses 28 professional offices and live/work spaces-software designers, architec ts , photogra­ Gas stations such as this one between the airport and the freeway in Albuquerque, New Mexico. are phers. anda magazine, The Monthly. When the factory at 1301 59th Streetwas gutted in 1985, a second basically disposable buildings , left standing while the landlord waits for a big real estate score. floor was added throughout , providing 65.000 square feet total. Freight trains still rumble through several Meanwhile, why not get some rent from the local karate club? It looks not bad as a dojo-lots of parking, times a day, but the area has made the switch from dying-industrial to blooming-professional. and no neighbors to complain about the shouting. FLOW 5 cooling systems had to be completely revamped toward energy form of rehabilitati on, and a qua rter of architects' revenues came efficiency. from rehab. Asbestos went from being ve1y good for you to ve1y bad for you. Buildings keep being pushed around by three irresistible forces­ Fire codes and building codes discovered new things to worry technology , money , and fashion. Technology offers , say, new about, and old buildings were forced to meet the new standards. double-pane insulat ed windows with a sun-reflective Access for the disabled transformed toilets, stairs, curbs, elevators . membrane - expe nsive, bur they will save enormou sly on energy costs for the building, and you get political poi nts for installing Deterioration is constant, in new buildings as much as old. The them. By the time their defect s become intolerable, eve n newer roof leaks. The furnace is dying. The walls have cracks. The windows will beckon. The march of tech nology is inexo rab le, windows are a disgrace. People are getting sick from something and accelerating. in the air conditioning. The whole place is going to have to be redone' Form follows fundin g. If pe ople have money ro spare, the y will mess with their building, at minimum to solve the current set of And you can't fix or remodel an old place in the old way. frustrations with the place, at maximum to show off their wealth , Techniques and materials keep changing . Facto1y-hung windows on the reason ab le theory that mon ey attracts mon ey. A buildin g is and doors are better than the old site-built ones, but they have not primarily a building; it is prima rily property, and as such, different shapes. Sheetrock replaces plaster; steel studs replace subject to the whims of the mark er. Comm erce drives all before it, wood. You have to have vapor barriers , plastic plumbing , plastic especially in cities. Wher eve r land value is measurecl in squar e electrical fixtures , a dozen new forms of insu lation, track lighting, feer, buildings are as fungibl e as c1sh. Cities clevour bu ilclings. task lighting, uplighting, and carpet by the acre. The extent of change can be documented in Architectural Graphic Standards , As for fashion, it is change for its ow n sake- a constant the American builder's bible for design and construction details. It unbalancing of the status quo, cruelest perh aps ro build ings, was first published in 1932. Selling in the hundreds of thousands, which would prefer ro remain just as they are, heavy and it was up to its eighth completely revised edition in 1988-with obdurate, a holdout against the times. Buildings are treated by only part of one of its 864 pages still the same after 56 years. More fashion as big, difficult clothing , always Jagging embarrassing ly than half of the 1988 edition was new or revised since the 1981 behind the mode of the day. This issue has nothing to clo with edition- seven rou tine years. function: fashion is describecl precisely as ·'non -functional stylistic dynamism " in Man 's Rage for Chaos by Morse Peckham. 5 And More is being spent on changing buildings than on building new fashion is culture-wide and inesc apabl e. ones. At the end of the 1980s, one of the new preservation professionals , Sally Oldham, could report formidable statistics. Home renova tion in America had more than doubled

Trinity Church

Astor House

New York Hospital

St. Thomas Stuyvesant Institute La Farge House Hotel Church

ad,,,1 ,,i:--r __..

St. Denis Hotet Union Square

CITIES DEVOUR BUILDINGS. In 1865 the west side of lower Broadway in New Yo1·k had 261 buildings, shown he1.·e. By 1990 o.nly 33 wei-e still the1·e-011e in eight. The smvivo1·s are shown shaded, with thickened undedine. FLOW 7 the three different kind s of buildin gs, which he thought changed in quite separate way s- commercial, do mest ic, and institutional. Commercial building s have to adap t qui ckly, often radically, because of intense comp etitive press ure to perform, and they are subject to the rapid advances that occ ur in any indu st1y. Most businesses either grow or fail. If they grow, they move; if they fail, they're gone . Turnov er isa constant. Comrnercial buildin gs are forever metamorphi c. )_ Domestic buildings-h omes- are the steadiest change rs, 1880 - BROADWAY, west side, looking south from Park Place- the view matches the lett halt of the third row in the illustration to the lett. On the corner of Broadway and Park Place is the responding directly to the family's ideas and ann oya nces , grow th Berkshire Lite lnsurance Building (1852). The wide white building beyond is the Astor House hotel (1836), and peeking out behind it is the portico of St. Paul's Chapel (1766). and prospects. The hou se and its occup ants mold to each other twenty-four hours a day, and the buil ding acc urnulates the reco rd of that intimacy. That is far less the case w ith renters, who must ask permission from landlord s and have no hope of financial gain from improvements , but two-third s of Americans (and Britons) own their homes . Institutional building s act as if they we re des igned spec ifically to prevent cl1ange for the organi zation inside and to convey timeless reliability to eve1yon e outsid e. When forced to change anyway , as they always are, they do so with expensive reluctance and all possible delay. Instituti onal buildin gs are mortified by cl1ange . The three kinds of building s cliverge from eac h other deliberately. The crass seething of comm erce is som ethin g that institutional buildings seek to rise abov e and that hornes see k to esca pe. But

1974 - Same view as above . The entire block between Park Place and Barclay has become most institutional buildings are just offices after all, and offices are the world-famous neo-Gothic Woolworth Building (1913) . Astor House was replaced by the Transportation Building (1927) and six-story Franklin Building (1914). Only St. Paul's Chapel infamously high -chan ge environm ents, and so they are se lf­ remains from the previous photo. The United States Steel Building (1972) towers in the violating . Domestic building s are a success ful sanctuary only background. when property valu es are constan t, w hich is se lclom. Each kind of building also has clifferent interna] clynamics. To say that change in buildings is nearly universal does not help Buildings whose bu siness it is to make money signal w hen they much in und erstanding how the process works, nor in conjuring are failing- annual cost exce ecls income-an d then usage and how it might go bett er. Could different kinds of cl1ange be structure keep being adjusted until there's a fit (usually contr asted? Early in the research for this book, Sim Van Der Ryn, temporary) . Institution al builclings house bureaucracies , which former Stare Architect of California, suggested I pay attention to are not allowed to fail and so cann ot help outgrow ing their space . 8 /

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1938 A typical brick multi-use commercia l building in Lawrence, Kansas, houses a movie theater, 1979 - Forty years later, only the basic structure of the building and the theater's name are the same. coffee shop, bus depot. and what might be offices upstairs on the far lett. The style is 1930s Hollywood. The theater part appears to have been remodeled in the 1950s (probably made larger inside, since the previous windows and doors at the far lett have disappeared). Lawrence, a college town, had its downtown upgraded in the 1970s. One result is the former bus depot being converted to suave professional offices.

COMMERCIAL AND DOMESTIC BUIIDINGS CHANGE D1FFERENTLY­ con11ne1·cial 11101·e kaleidoscopically (above), domestic mo1·e steadily (below).

ca. 1900 - BUILDINGS ALWAYS GROW. Even confined on a corner lot in San Francisco ca. 1939 - Since 1900 the house has pushed out onto its upstairs deck. A garage has appeared on the (at Hyde and Lombard). the Mrs. Robert Louis Stevenson-Lloyd Osbourne house contrived lett, and bay windows on the right. The tall brick chimneys no doubt were shaken down in the 1906 ways to grow. earthquake. i. 9 u_ *=I ~ .C "! ~ ...,i!l "() "'co I "g

ca. 1870 - A mint was established in San Francisco to handle the millions of dollars of gold and silver flowing from the mines of the 49ers. This architect's drawing shows what was constructed in 1874 of Sierra granite and Columbia bluestone , with cast iron pillars and wrought iron girders. Despite the fact of having outgrown a previous mint building (1854), the officia ls and the architect made no provision in this building for later growth.

INSTITUTIONAL BUILDINGS DEFY CHANGE. The old US Mint in San Francisco has not changed since 187 4 , nor will it. It igno1·ecl an earthquake

and sh.rugged off losing its function. 1906 - The 1906 earthquake and lire devastated the city around it, but iron security shutters and heroic efforts of statt protected the building and the $308 million in gold inside. The money was used to back banks that restored commerce and rebuilt San Francisco .

ca. 1941 - In 1940 the whole house surged upward one and two stories. Windows multiplied. The garage became three garages. Each cha nge was an extension or increase of what was there before, rather than a transformation.

1992 - In 1937 the minting activity outgrew the building and moved into a new and larger structure (even more monumenta l) a mile away . The Old US Mint building, physically unchanged, still part of the government, lives on as mostly a museum of itself ("See $1 million in gold")-ha lf the ground floor and basement. The Department of the Treasury has offices there to handle orders for commemo rative coins and medals . And the massive chimneys still work fora living-the furnaces that once melted gold now heat many nearby building s. 10

1990 - A classic single house outside stair); accumulating stuff needs more storage (or public is the Thomas Legare house (circa 1759) at 90 Church storage frees up some home space); a hom e office or studio Street in Charleston. 01 the 5,000 18th-century and 19th­ becomes essential. Meanwhile , desires accumulate for a new century dwellings still stand­ deck, a hot tub, a modernized kitchen, a luxurious bathroom, a ing in the city. some3,000are single houses. The charac­ walk-in doser , a hobby refuge in the garage, a kid refuge in the teristic piazza (double porch) was a\ways built on the south basement or attic, a whole new master bedroom. or west side of the house- lo give protection from the sum­ There is a universal rule-never acknow ledged because its actio n mer sun. access to the winter sun, and a place to enjoy is embarrassing or illegal. All buildings grow. Mast grow even Char\eston's treasured sea when they 're not allowed to. Urban height limits and the party breeze. The piazzas serve as outside hallways for the nar­ walls of row houses, for instance , are no barrier. The building row buildings. will grow into the back yard and down into the ground-ha lfway under the street in parts of Paris . A question I asked everyone while working on this book was "What makes a bu ilding come to be loved?" A thirtee n-year-old boy in Maine had the most succinct answer . "Age," he said. Apparently the older a building gets, the more we have respe ct and affection for its evident maturity , for the accumulat ed human A FIX BECOMES A FEATURE. Ackl-ons often become a investment it shows, for the attractive patina it wears-muted distinctive pa1·t of a genedc building type . In early bricks, worn stairs, colorfully stained roof, lush vines. Chadestown, South Ca1·oli11a, a double-sto1-y "piazza" (po1·ch) was added on. to the Bdtish-style town.houses Age is so valued that in America it is far more often fake than real. to make them livable i11 the hot , hum.id cllinate. It In a pub-style bar and restaurant you find British ant ique oak wall soon. beca111e a fä1ned ve1·11acular- the Charleston paneling-perfectly replicated in high-den sity polyureth ane . On "single house." Sim.i.lady, cast -kon. bakonies added 011 the roof are fiber-cement shing les molded and colored to look to New 0.rlean.s builclings (often to replace rotting like worn natura! siare. But Europe has its own versions of fake1y, woocl bakonies) became part of that city's cha1·acter . now them selves respectable with age- the picturesque ersatz ruins Even flying buttresses on cathedrals were a fix that of 18th-century landscape gardening , 19th-centu1y buildings pre­ becaine a feature . tending to be medieval, neoclassical columns always bone-white instead of wearing the original Greek or Roman bright colo rs.

It seems there is an ideal degree of aging which is adm ired. Turf battles become vicious; eve ntually some activities ove rflow Things should not be new, but neither should they be rotten with awkwarclly into nearby builclings. age (excep t in New Orleans , which fosters a cult of decay). Builclings shou ld be just ripe-worn but still fully functi onal. Homes are the clomain of slow ly shifting fantasies and rap idly Genuinely old buildings are constantly refreshed, but not too far, sh ifting needs . The widowed parent moves in; the teenager and new buildings are forced to ripen quickly. Hen ce the fashion moves out; finances require letting out a room (new door and in wood shing les, which weather handsom ely in the cou rse of a FLOW 11 single winter. They are expe nsive and a fire hazard and will need This book attempts to answer that , or at leas t ro frame the replacing all too soon , but nev er mind. qu estion in helpful detail . The argument goes as follows . Buildings are Jayered by clifferent races of chang e (Chapt er 2- The widespread fakery makes us resp ect honest aging all the Shearing Layers) . Adapt ation is eas iest in cheap bu ildings that no rnore. The one garment in the world with the greatest and longest one cares about (3- The Low Road) and most refinecl in long­ popularity-over a centur y now-is Levi's denim blue jean s. lasting sustained-purp ose buildin gs ( 4- The High Road) Along with their practical durability , they show age honestly and Adaptation , however , is anath ema to architects and to mos t of the elegantly, as success ive wash ings fade and shrink them to perfect building professions and trade s (5-M agaz ine Architect ure). And fit and rich texture . Ingenious techniques to simulate aging of the gyrations of real-estate mark ets sever co ntinui ty in bu ildings denim come and go, but the basic indigo 501s, copper -riveted , (6-Unreal Estate). The building prese rvation rnove ment arose in carry on for decades. This is highly evolved design . Are there rebellion, deliberately frustrating creative architects and the free blue-jeans buildin gs among us? How do es design honestly honor marker in order to resto re continui ty (7-A Quiet, Populist , time1 Conservative , Victoriou s Revo lution). Focus on preservat ion We aclmire the grand gestu re in arch itecture , but we respect brought a new focus on maint enan ce (8- The Romance of something else. In a cornp uter teleconference on design , Brian Maintenance), and respect for hum ble older bu ildings bro ught Eno, the British rock musician and avant-garde artist, wrote: investigation of their design wisdom by vernacular bu ilding historians (9-How Buildin gs Learn from Each Other) . The same We are convinc ed by things that show intern a! complexity , kind of investigation can be made of the pers istent cha nge, mostly that show the traces of an inter esting evo lution . Those signs amateur, that occurs in contemp ora1y houses and offices (10- tel! us that we might be rewa rded if we acco rd it our trnst. Function Melts Form). An important aspect of design is the degree to which the object involves yo u in its ow n completion. Some work With that perspective backward in mind , it is poss ible ro rethink in vites you into itself by not offering a finished , glossy , one ­ perspective forward (11- The Scenari o-Buffered Build ing) and to reading-only surface . Th is is what makes old buildings imagine de signing buildings that invite adap tation (12-Built for interesting ro me. I think that humans have a taste for things Change ). Do ing it right req uires an intellect ual discipl ine that that not only show that they have been through a process of doesn 't yet exist (App endix- The Study of Buildings in Time) . evolution, but w hich also show they are stilla part of one. The study is worth und ertak ing beca use, more than any other They are not dead yet. human artifact, building s exce l at impr ov ing with time, if they are given the chance. Between the dazz le of a new builcling and its eventual corpse , And they are wonderful to study. All dressecl up in layers of when it is either de molished or petrifi ed for po sterity as a dissimul ation , building s are so nakecl. museum , are the !ost yea rs-th e unappr ec iated, undocumented , awkward-s ee ming time whe n it was alive to evolution. If Eno is right, those are the best yea rs, the time when the buildin g can engage us at our own leve] of co mplex ity. How do those years work, actually 1 12

CHAPTER 2 INTERIORS ARE FLIGHTY, ficl

HERE'S A PUZZLE. On most American magaz ine racks you'll find a slick monthly called Architectura l Digest. Inside are furniture and decor ads and articles with titles like "Unstudied Spaces in

Malibu" and "Paris, New York (20th-Century French Pieces Boredom plus money plus fashion equals new Tra nsform an East Side Apartment). " Almost no architec ture . wallpaper every seven years. So it was in the Nathan Beers house of Fairfield , Connecticut. The rnagazine 's sub title reads : "The International Magazine of Thirteen consecutive layers of wallpaper were pasted over one another between the 1820s Fine Interior Design.' ' and 1910. This display is at the Cooper-Hewitt Museum in New York City. Architects and interior designers revile and battle each other. Interior des ign as a profession is not even taught in arch itecture depa rtments. At the enormous University of Californ ia, Berkeley, in buildings is Frank Duffy, cofo und er of a British design firm w ith its prestigio us Environmental Des ign depa rtments and called DEGW (he's the "D"), and president of the Royal Institute of programs, arch itec ture stud ents can fincl no course on interior British Architects for 1993 to 1995. "Our basic argument is that design anyw here. They co uld take a bus several miles to the there isn't such a thin g as a building, " says Duffy. "A buildin g California College of Arts and Crafts, which does teach interior prop erly conceived is several layers of longevity of built. design, but no one takes that bus . components ." He distinguishes four layers, which he calls Shell, How did Architectural Digest manage to jump the chas m? Services, Scenery , and Set. Shell is the structure, which lasts the Advertisers , the market , and a profound peculiar ity of buildings lifetime of the building (fifty yea rs in Britain, doser to thirty-five in clid it. Originally , back in 1920, it was an arch itecture magazine , North America). Services are the cab ling, plumbing , air though fora pub lic rather than a strictly profe ssional audi ence . conditi oning , and elevato rs ("lifts"), which have to be replaced Gradua lly the maga zine noticecl that its affluent readers rebuilt every fifteen years or so. Scene1y is the layout of partitions , interiors much rnore often than they built house s. After 1960, the dropped ceilings, etc ., which changes eve1y five to seven yea rs. advert isers , followed dutifully by the ed itors, migrated away from Set is the sh ifting of furniture by the occupants , often a matter of exterior vision toward interior revision - towa rd decorous months or weeks. remode ling- where the action and the money were. The Like the adve rtisers of Architectural Digest, Duffy and bis pecu liarity of bui ld ings that turned Architectural Digest into a architectura l partner s steered their finn tow ard the action and the contrad iction of itself is that different pa rts of buildings chan ge at diffe rent rates.

The lead ing theorist-practically the on ly theorist - of cl1ange rate I Francis Duffy, "Measurin g Building Performance, " Facilities (May 1990), p. 17. 13 Cum ul ative total ove r 50 years Over fifty years, the changes within a build­ \ ing cost three limes more than the original building. Frank Duffy explains this diagram: "Add up what happens when capital is invested over a fifty-year period: the Structure expendi­ Traditional ture is overwhelmed by view of the cumulative financial building costs consequences of three generations of Services Servic es and ten generations of Space plan changes. 1 CAPITAL Services That's the map of money COSTS 15 - 20 years in the lite of a building. It Slructure - SITE proves thatarchitecture 50 year s Srn1cture is actually of very little sig n ifica n ce -it ' s nugatory ."' (I have 1988 1998 2008 2018 2028 2038 translated Duffy's terms TIME~ SHEAIUNG IAYERS OF CHANGE_ Because ofthe into my terms.) different rates of change of its co11.1ponents, a building is always tearing itself apart. mon ey. DEGW help s rethink and reshap e work environments for so, to keep up with fashion or techn ology, or for wholesale corpor ate offices, these days with a global clientele. "We try to repair. Recent focus on ene rgy costs has led to re­ have long-te rm relationships with clients ," Duffy says. "The unit engineered Skins that are air-tight and better-insulated . of ana lysis for us isn't the building, it's the use of the building • SERVICES - These are the wo rking guts of a bu ilding: throu gh time. Time is the esse nce of the real design problem." communications wiring, elect rical wiring, plumb ing, I've taken the liberty of expa ndin g Duffy's "four S's"- wh ich are spr inkler system, HVAC (hearing, ventilating, and air oriented toward interior work in commercia l buildings -i nto a conditionin g), and moving pa rts like elevarors and escalators . slightly revised, gene ral-purpose "six S's": They wear out or obso lesce eve ry 7 to 15 years. Many buildin gs are dem olishecl early if their outclatecl systems are • SITE - This is the geog rap hical setting, the urban location , too cleeply emb eclclecl to rep lace easily and the lega lly defined lot, whose boundarie s and context outlast ge nerations of eph emeral bui ldings. "Site is eternal," • SPACE PLAN - The interior layout- w here walls, ceilings, Duffy agrees. floors, and cloors go. Turbu lent commercia l space can change every 3 years or so; excep tionally quiet homes might • STRUCTURE - The foundation and load-bearing elements wait 30 yea rs. are perilous and expensive to change, so peop le don't . These are the building. Structura l life ranges from 30 to 300 • STUFF - Chairs, clesks, phones, pictures; kitchen years (but few buildin gs make it past 60, for other reaso ns). app liances, larnps, hair brus hes; all the thin gs that twitch around da ily to monthly. Furnitu re is callecl mobilia in • SKIN - Exterior surfaces now change every 20 yea rs or Italian for goocl reaso n. 14

1878 In 1868 the original owne r tripled the Cliff House in size with two asymm etric wings and a long rooled balcon y. It was by now a successlu l gamb ling casino . San Francisc o silver-mining millionaire Adolp h Sutro , having built a home and public garden on the heights overlooking the Cliff House , didn't like its rowdy reputation , so he bought the place and converted it toa lam ily restaurant. On Christmas night in 1894 a kitche n lire burned the building down .

(NATURAL) SITE IS ETERNAL. At San F1·ancisco's famous Cli.ff Hous e, the house

ca. 1910 - Sutro's daughter , Dr. Emma Merritt, had the next Cliff House made ol fireprool concrete and ca. 1946 - Alter a serieso l owners anda numbe r of years being closed, the Cliff House was bought and steel, designed by brothers named Reid. President Taft dined at this one . relurbished by George and Leo Whitney in 1937. It leatured the largest curio shop in the world. 15

1895 - Adolph Sutro was an engineer accus tom ed lo ca . 1900 - Presidents McKinley and Roosevelt dined at Sutro's Cliff House. Eight stories high, it had 1907 On Septe mbe r 7, 1907 , the dream burned to huge projects. He hired architects C. J. Colle y and art galleries and ballro oms as well as dining rooms and bars. Sutro began build ing a railroad to bring rubble, with just a few chimn eys lett standing. Emile S. Lemme to design a chateau-style edifice to customers to his amuse ment palace. Solidly nailed to its cliff with i ron rods, the building suttered no match the grandeur of the site. damage at all from the great earthquake and fire of 1906.

1973 - The Cliff House closed comes and goes. The cliff stays. again in 1969 , then reopened in 1973 - dur ing San Fran­ cisco's "psychede lic" heyday­ with a heady mural of ocean waves and spray. Most of the photos and information on these two pages are from San Francisciana: Photographs af the Cliff House (San Francisc o: Blaisdell, 1985), by Marilyn Blaisdell. See Recommended Bibliograp hy.

1991 - In 1977 the Nationa l Park Service look over the Cliff House as part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area . It is appropriately staid and pub­ lic-spirited in demeanor. Ev­ ery so otten someone revives the fantasy of rebuilding Sutro's ca. 1954 In 1950 the Whitney brothers drastically remodeled the building with redwood siding and extravaganza. Strangerthings extended it lo the lett. The build ing never did get its dignity back. have happened. 16

1860 - Looking due east across what is now the financial district af Boston, this was the first aerial photo 1981 - Twelve decades later every single building but one-t he Old South Meeting House at of an American city-shot by J. W. Black from a balloon tethered at 1,200 feet. Keep your eye an the far left-is gone . What the great lire of 1872 did not take, real estate pressures did. But the steepled church at the far lett, the Old South Meeting House. This pair af photos is reprinted from the streets are entirely intact , and buildings like the parking lat bent in the middle foregroun d and the excellent rephotography book, Cityscapes of Boston, by Robert Campbell and Peter Vanderwarker Shawmut Bank building tall and trapezoidal in the middle top, must twist to fitthe streets and their (Boston: Houghton Mifflin , 1992. See Recommended Bibliography.) angular lots. Milk Street is the curving street on the left; Franklin curves on the right. Washington Street angles down in the foregro und from the Old South Meeting House.

ca. 1980 - The oval of an ancient Roman (POLITICAL) SITE IS ETERNAL- The amphitheater in Lucca, ltaly, was pre­ streets of Boston, tangled as they are, served by gradua lly turning inta private prope rty. When the empire died and the won't 1nove. Even the skysc1·ape1·s must entertainment stopped, people moved inta the obsolete structure and made their dance to their choreography . homes and shops there. Over the centu­ In Lucca, Italy, the outline of a Roman ries all of the original structure was re­ placed, but ils outline persisted in the amphitheater lives on in the modern city . property lines. The center af the oval eventually became crowded with build­ ings. The space was reopened inta a piazza in the 19th century, the better to attract tourists to the ghost amphitheater. SHEARING LAYERS 17

Duffy's time-layered persp ective is fundamental to understanding O'Neill's A Hierarchical Concept o/Ecosystenis. O'Neill and his how buildings actually behave . The 6-S sequence is precisely co-authors noted that ecosystems cou lcl be better und erstoo d by followed in both design and construct ion. As the architect observing the rates of cha nge of different comp onents . proceecls from clrawing to drawing-layer after layer of tracing Hummingbirds and flowers are quick , redwoocl tree s slow , and paper - "What stays fixecl in the drawings will stay fixed in the whole redwood forests even slower. Most intera ction is within the building over time ," says archi tect Peter Calthorpe. "The column same pace level-hummin gb irds and flowers pay attention to grid will be in the bottom layer." Likewise the construction each other , oblivious to reclwood s, who are ob livious to them. seq uence is strictly in order: Site preparation, then foundation and Meanwhile the forest is attent ive to climate chan ge but not to the framing the Structure, followed by Skin to keep out the weather , hasty fate of individu al trees. The insight is this: ··The dynamics uf installation of Services, and finally Space plan. Then the tenants the system will be dominat ed by the slow components , with the truck in their Stuff. rapid components simplyfollowing along. "2 Slow co nstrains quick; slow controls quick. Frank Duffy: "Think ing about buildings in this time-laclen way is very practical. As a des igner you avo icl such classic mistakes as The same goes with buildings: the lethargic slow parts are in sol ving a five-ITtinute problem with a fifty-year solution, or vice charge, not the daz zling rapid one s. Site clominates the Structure, versa. It Jeg itimizes the existence of different design skills­ which dominates the Skin, which domin ates the Services, wh ich architects, service eng ineers, space planners, interior designers ­ d_ominate the Space plan, which dorninat es the Stuff. 1:-Iowa room all with their different agendas defined by this time scale. It is heated depends on how it relates to the hearin g and coo ling means you invent building forms wh ich are ve1y adaptive. " Services, which dep encl on the energ y efficiency of the Skin, which depends on the constrai nts of rhe Structure. You co uld adel The layering also clefines how a builcling relates to people. a seven th "S"- human Souls at the very ene! of the hiera rchy, Organ izational levels of respo nsibility match the pace level s. The servants to our Stuff. building internets with individ uals at the leve! of Stuff; with the tenant organiza tion (o r family) at the Space plan level; with the Still, influence cloes percolate the other clirection. The slower landlord via the Services (and slower levels) which must be processes of a builcling graduall y integ rate trends of rapid chang e maintained ; with the pub lic via the Skin and entry; and with the within them . The speedy components propos e, and the slow whole commun ity through city or county decisions about the dispose. If an office keep s repla cing its elect roni c Stuff ofte n footprint and volume of the Structure and restrictions on the Site. enough, finally management will insist that the Space plan acquire The comm unity does not tel! you where to put your desk or your a raised floor to mak e the constant recab ling eas ier, and that's bed; you clo not tel1 the commu nity where the building will go on when the air conditioning and electrical Services will be revampecl the Site (un less you're way out in the country). to handle the higher loacl. Ecologist Buzz Ho lling points out that it is at the times of major changes in a system that the quick Buildin gs rule us via their time layer ing at least as much as we rule processes can most influence the slow. them, and in a surprising way. This idea comes from Robert V. The quick processes provide originality and challenge , the slow provide continuity and eon traint. Builclings steady us, wh ich we can probably use . Bur if we Jet our builclings come roa full stop , 2 R. V. O'Neill, D. L. DeAngelis, j.B Wacle, T. F. H. Allen, A Hierarchical Concept oj they stop us. It happen ed in command eco nom ies such as Eastern Ecosystems (Princeron: Princeton Universiry Press, 1986), p. 98. 18 SHEARING LAYERS

Europ e's in the period 1945-1990. Since all buildings were state­ is kept adaptable , congenial , and conservative ove r the decades ow ned , they we re neve r rnaintained or altered by the tena nts, by its modest lot sizes, according to urb an designer Ann e Vernez who bad no stake in them, and culture and the eco nom y wer e Moudon: paralyz ecl for clecad es . Small lots will support resilience be cause they allow many Slow is hea lthy. Much of the who leso me evo lution of cities can peopl e to attend directl y to their ne eds by designin g, be cx plain ecl by thc steaclfast persistenc e of Site. Property lines building, and maintaining their own env ironm ent. By and thoroughfar es in cities are inviolate even when hills are ensur ing that property remain s in many hands, small lots leve led and wate rfronts fillecl in. After the Grea t Fire of London in bring important results: many peopl e make many clifferent 1666, the city was reb uilt of brick, with widened streets but up on decisions, thereby ensuring variety in the resulting the o ld gro und plan , and with meticulously prese rved property environment. And many prop erty owner s slow clown the lines . A wise rnove, says urban scha lar Kevin Lynch: "Rebuildin g rate of change by makin g large-scale rea l estate transaction s was rapid and vigoro us beca use each man could start again on his difficult. 4 ow n familiar land.··, Exactly the same thin g happened two-and-a­ half ce ntu ries later in San Francisco, after its ear thquake and fire After Site comes Structure, at the base of wh ich is the all­ of1906 determining foundat ion . If it is out -of-squ are or out-of-level, it DifferenL~, ite arrange ments lea d to clifferent city evolutions . will plague the build ers clear to the roof line and bother Dow ntow n New York City, with its very narrow long blocks , is uniqu ely clense and uniqu ely flex ible. Quick-built San Francisco

1992 - The two arched windows are still there, and so is the core Structure, but not much else is visiblythe same. Between 1950 and 1953 the building had its dome decapitated, its classical portico demolished, a tower added (along with extensive new space), and STRUCTURE PERSISTS AND DOMINATES. In Santa Fe's old the whole thing tricked out with a particularly unconvincing adobe look and Territorial­ style detailing such as the brick wall-tops. In 1966 a new Capitol building was built State Capitol building, the original Stn1cture defö1ed the nearby, and this became the Bataan Memorial Building , still housing some state otfices. remodeling possibilites-even with radical changes of Skin, footprint, volume, and interior design.

, ____:___{· , \.,

ca. 1916 - Watch the two arched windows at the upper left of the facade. On this site the first New Mexico State Capitol building was built in 1886 and burned in 1892 (arson suspected.) This domed capitol went up in 1900 but soon proved embarrassing , because around 1920. Santa Fe decided to re­ model the wr,ole city to look histori­ cal-Spa nish Colonial and Territorial style (see Chapter 9 for the strange story). 19

ca. 1865 - The US Soldiers' Home (1857) was originallydesigned ca. 1872 - In 1868 the building camouflaged its expansion upward ca. 191 O - In 1884 and 1887 the rear of the building was expanded to look ltalianate by a second lieutenant in the US Army Corps of with a fashionable Second Empire mansard roof. The tower also in a Gothic Revival style, and in 1890 the front of the building caught Engineers. The material was New York marble. grew higher and acquired a water tank. up, growing still higher in the process . The building has housed veterans from every American war since the War of 1812.

SKIN IS MUTABLE. Even instituiional buildings like The long evity of bu ildings is often cleterminecl by how well they the Soldiers' Home in Washington DC can't resist can absorb new Serv ices technology. Ot is Elevator contractors pet"ioclically shedcling old skin fot· a new. don 't bother to make money on their first installation. They know yo u'll be back soo n eno ugh for impro vecl elevators; their profits are in the inevitable renovatio ns. Energy Services such as remodelers for the life of the buildin g. If it is weak, it per manently electricity and gas are driven co nstantly toward greater fficiency limits the height of the building . If it Jets in water or offers by their sheer expens e- 30 percent of operating costs, equal over inadeq uate headroom for the basement, remedy is nearly a bu ilding 's life ro the entire original cost of co nstruction. imposs ible . Betwe en the Energy Crisis of 1973 and 1990, the rnoney spent on The mutability of Skin seem s to be accelerat ing. Demographer space hearing in new American buildings dropp ed by a dramat ic Joel Garrea u5 says that in "edge cities" (new office and commercial 50 per cent.6 deve lopme nts on the pe riphery of older cities) devel ope rs are Even the hom e is no refuge from turnover in Services . Houses accustomed ro fine-tune their build ings by changing rugs and were revo lutionized by the arrival of public water service around facades - a typical "facadec tomy " might go up scale from 1900, then by publ ic elec tricity in the 1920s and 1930s, later by preten tious marble venee r ro dignified gran ite veneer ro attract a cable television in the 1970s. The two most renovated roorns in richer tena nt. Develope rs expect their building Skins ro "ugly out" all houses are the kitchen and bathr oom. Building histo rian every fifteen years or so, and plan acco rdingly. Orlando Ridout says that in Marylancl, you can fine! more who le houses from the 1700s tha n pre -1920 toilets. Whether it's the arrival of colored ename l in the 1920s, the advent of Jacuzz i baths 3 Kevin Lynch, What Ttrne Is This Place?(Camb ridge: M!T Press, 1972), p. 8. See Recomrnended Bibli ography. in the 1970s, or guilt abo ut water-wasti ng toilets in the 1980s,

4 Anne Vernez Moudon, Bui ltf or Chcmge (Cambr idge: MIT Press, 1986) , p. 188. See peop le kee p making chan ges and expanding the sign ificance of Recomm enclecl Bi bliograph y. the bath roo m in their homes. Likewise the kitchen , w hich has 5 Garreau is che aurhor of Edge City(New York: Doubl eclay, 1991). See Recornmenclecl miarated from a back co rner ro the middl e of home life, while Gibliography. b

6 Rick Bevingt on and Arrhur H. Rosenfeld , "Energy for Builclings and Homes," Scienti/ic stoves, refrigera tors , and sinks are replaced as frequ ently as Arnerican (Sept. 1990), p. 77. 20 SHEARING LAYERS

automobil es . Service -co nn ected Stuff will not hold still. The Space plan and Stuff are what bu ilding use rs have to look at and deal w ith all clay, and they rapidly grow bored, frustrated , or emba rrassecl by what they see . Between co nstant tinkering and w holesa le renovation , few interiors stay the sa me for even ten yea rs.

A des ign imp erative emerges : An adapti ve build ing has to allow slippage between the d(Derent~y-paced systems oj Site, Structure , Skin, Services, Space plan , and Stujf. Othe rw ise the slow systems bloc k the flow of the quick ones, and the qu ick ones rear up the ::;low ones w ith thei r consta nt cliange. Embedd ing the systems toget her may look efficient at first, but ove r time it is the opposite , and clestructiv e as we ll.

Thus , pouring co ncrete o n the grouncl for an instant founclation ca. 1935 - A series of cafes have occupied this building en the corner of Don Gaspar and Water streets C--slab- on-gracle ··) is malaclaptive - pipes are foo lish ly bur ied, and in Santa Fe, New Mexico . lts corner location near the central plaza kept it busy, but cafes are ephemeral the re's no basernent space for sto rage, ex pansion , and mainten­ enterprises. ance and Services access . Tirnber-frame builclings, on the other hand, co nve nie ntly sepa rate Stru cture, Skin , and Services , while ba lloon-frame (sta nda rd stucl co nstruction) ove r-connects them.

All these shear ing Jayers of change adel up to a wbo le for the bu ilding , but how do they adel up toa w hole for the occupants? Hovv ca n they change toward the hurn ans in tbem rather than

1936 - SERVICES OBSOLESCE AND WEAR OUT. In the kitchen of the Captain Barnes house (1808) in Portsmouth , New Hampshire , Ser­ vices-connected appliances were layered en each other . Originally it had a largefireplace . About 1816a contrivance called the Rumford Roasterwas added on the lett (round plate). Then a stove was built into the fireplace (probably 1840s), and a later stove (probably around 1900) crowded in front of it. Also visible area water heater (cylinder behind the stove), rack for drying clothes on the right, and a bare electric ca. 1935 - A soda fountaio and booths dominated the Space plan of the K. C. Waffle house . It said, light. just as clearly as the sign outside , "Tourists , come in as you are." Southwestern style is evident in the tile and leather. SHEARING LAYERS 21

INTERIORS CHANGE RADICALLY while extedot·s maintain continuity. The Space plan is the stage of the human con1ecly. New scene, new set .

away, as so man y seem to do 1 Here the leacling theorist is Christoph er Alexa nd er. A long-t ime professor of architectur e at the University of California , Berkeley , Chris Alexander is the author of an influenti al series of books from Oxford Univers ity Press which explore in practical detail what it is that makes buildings and communities hum ane- or mor e precisely , what makes them become hum ane ove r time .7

A desig n professional of depth-hi s 1964 Notes on the Synthes is C?l Form is still in print- Alexander is inspired by how design occurs 1991 - The K. C. Waffle House became the Mayflower Cafe, then Golden Temple Conscious Cookery in the natura! world. "Things that are goocl have a certa in kind of (1974-1977) , then Pogo's Eatery (1977-1979), then Cafe Pasqual's (1978-?). structure," he told me. "You can't get that structur e except dynamically. Period. In nature you 've got cont inuous very-small­ feedback -loop adaptation go ing on, wh ich is why things getto be harmoniou s. That's why they have the qu alities that we value. If it wasn't for the time dimension, it wouldn't happe n. Yet here we are playing the major role in creat ing the wo rld, and we haven 't figured this out. That is a ve 1y se rious matte r. .,

Applying this approach to bui ldings, Alexand er frames the design question so: "What does it take to build something so that it's really easy to make comfortab le little mod ifications in a way that once you've made them, tbey feel integ ral with the nature and structure of wbat is already there? You want to be able ro mess around witb it and progre ssively change it to bring it into an

7 Alexander's "yellow books" from Oxford Universiry Press, e,td1 w ith :t v:triety of co­ author s, are: Ybe Timeless Way of Building Cl979); A Pttll em La11g11age( 1977 !; The Orego11 Exper imen t 0975); The Production of l-louses (1985); The Linz Ca.Je( 1981 ); ,1 New "fheo,y of Urban Design (1987). See Recommenclecl Bibliography . A reviewe r in , lrcbiteC111ml 1991 - The Space plan of Pasqual's feature s a raised seati ng area by the entrance and added rest rooms called "per haris the mos1 imponctnt hook on :trchi1ec1ur:il at the back. While the exterior shows a modest effort at deepening "authenticity," the interior motif is Design A Pattern Languag e clamorously Mexican . The cooking is Santa Fe chic. design pub lishecl in this century." 22

STOFF JUST KEEPS MOVING. The Treaty Room of the White ca. 1911 - The White House was drastically remodeled by architect House has had the same Space plan since 1817--except for a Charles McKim in 1902, during Theodore Roosevelt's administra­ temporary partition inst alled for Abt·aham Lincoln in 1861. tion. President William Taft (1909- But the fu1·nitu1·e and fittings blinked in and out of the room 1913) continued Roosevelt's use of the Treaty Room as his office. The as administt·ations and fashions came and went, and the door trim was the same, but the fireplace, ceiling cornice, furniture , room's use varied fron1 bedroom to oute1· office, to Cabinet shelving, rug, and pictures all were roon-i, to inner office , to sitting room, to librat'y. different.

ca. 1891 - On the second floor of 1931 - President Herbert Hoover the White House. what is now called (1929-1933) had a wife , Lou , the Treaty Room is connected by whose ambition was to convert the an inner door to the Oval Office . It T reaty Room to the "Monroe Draw­ has always been an intimate part of ing Room." It had been used as an the President's family or work lite. inner sanctum office by President In President Benjamin Harrison's Woodrow Wilson, then as a sitting administration (1889-1893) it was room by Warren Harding and used as the Cabinet Room, domi­ Calvin Coolidge. Mrs. Hoover nated by President Grant's table for sought antique fumiture from the Cabinet meetings in the middle. period of President James Monroe Watch the chairs, the rug, the chan­ (1817-1825). Shefound achan­ delier. fireplace and its mirror. and delier that had been discardedfrom the pictures on the wall. the Green Room (the state room just below this one).

ca.1895 - PresidentGroverCleve­ 1961 - President John F. Kennedy ' - land ( 1893-1897) has a different (1961-1963) also had a wife , chair for himself at tlie head of the Jacqueline, who loved to supervise Cabinet table, and there's a new interior design. The room looked chandelier . A framed picture in the like this alter Roosevelt, Truman, corner has changed , and the book­ and Eisenhower. (Du ring Truman's shelves there are gone. (In 1993 administration, the entire building .~. the Cabinet table was still in this was gutted and rebuilt-this room ro om-as President William had the same trim, fireplace , and Clinton's desk.) chandelier, but the walls, ceiling, floor, and windows were new con­ struction. The Space plan had al­ tered not an inch.)

ca . 1899 Preside nt William 1963 - Jackie Kennedy helped McKinley (1897-1901 ) hasa new found the White House Historical chair. new rug, anda new fireplace Association, and she brought in screen, but the chandelier and the French interior designer Stefan frao-:ied picture and bookshelves in Boudin. Their version of the Treaty the corner from Harrison's era have Room restored over the fireplace a returned. McKinley was the first of massive ornate mirror of the kind several presidents to use the room that was there when McKinley signed as his private office. In this room he the peace protocols with Spain. On signed the declaration of war with the wall is an 1899 painting of the Spa in in 1898 and five months later very event. The table and chairs signed with the amba ssador of were kept, along with the chandelier France the protocols for the peace that Mrs. Hoover fancied. conference-hence, the Treaty Room. SI-IEARING LAYERS 23 adapted stare with yourself, your family, the climate , whatever. demolition. There are two forms of surcease . If there is a This kind of adaptat ion is a continuous process of gradually taking turnaround in local real estate, the success ion of ow n rs ancl care." You can recognize the result where that process is tenants might head back up sca le, eac h one aclcling value. Or the work ing, he writes . "Because the adaptat ion is detailed and pro ­ building may be blessecl with clur~1ble construction and res ilienr found, eac h place takes on a unique cha racter. Slowly, the variety design which can forgive insult and hare! sw-.:rves of usag e . A of plac es and building s begins to reflect the variety of human brick facto1y from the 1910s, with its intellige nt claylighting ancl situations in the town . Th is is what makes the town alive. "8 abundant space, can stand empty fora cleca cle and still gain value. While all buildings change with time, only some buildings Age plus adaptivity is what makes a building come to be loved . improv e. What makes the difference between a building that gets The building Jearns from its occupants, ~md rhey lcarn from it. stea dily better and one that gets steadi ly wo rse? Growth, There is precedent for thinking this way . In classical Greece and appa rently, is indepe nd ent of adaptat ion, and spasmodic Rome, domus meant "hou se" in an expa ncled sense : occ upant-turn ove r can defeat adaptation. Peop le and their dw ellings ·were inclistinguishabl e: clornus Grow th follows a simp le goa l of property owners: maximize what referred not only to the w,rlls bur also ro the people within you control. The pra ctice is anc ient. In old cities of Europe and them. Eviclence for this is found in inscriprions and texts, in the Mideast , upp er stories wou ld jetty out farther and farther to which the word refers now to one , now ro rhe other, bur increase the space on each floor, until neighbors could shake most often to both at once, to the house and its residents hands across the stree t from upper rooms. Now as then, more envisioned as an indivisible whol e. The architectural setting space in dom estic buildings is equated with freedom. In was not an inert vessel; the genius of rhe dornus, hon ored by comrnercial bui ldings, more space means profit. In institutional a cult, was the protecror of both the place and rhe people build ings, it means pow er . Everyo ne tries to get more than they're who lived in it. 9 allowed. City counc ils often see m to discuss little else. But only sometimes are additions an improvement. Adding more rooms around the periphe1y of a building , for instance , often Jeaves the That kind of bonding betwe en building and inhahirant s still middl e dark and deso late. occurs. The next two chapt ers exp lore seemingly opp osite examples of it- two kinds of buildings that easily heco rne love d . The oppos ite of adap tation in building s is graceless turnover. The One, grand and deep, I call the High RoJd - durable , indepe ndent usual patt ern is fora rapid succession of tenants, each scooping buildings that steadi ly accumular e expe rience and become in time out all trace of the former tenants and leaving nothing that wiser and more respected than their inhabitanr s. The orher, quick successors can use. Fina lly no tenant replaces the last one, and dirty , is the Low Road . Their specialry is sw ift responsiveness vandals do their quick work, and broken windows beg for to rheir occupants. They are unr espec rab le, rnercurial , srreet­ smart.

Among buildings as within thern, differcnces of pace arc 8 Chri stop her A lex:i ncler, 1/?e Ti111e/ess Way ofBui lchng (Ne w York: Oxford Unive rsiry everything . l'ress, 1979), p. 2'\ l .

'! Yvon Th eben , ··Private l.ife and Domesric Archirecrure in Roman Afr ica," A Histoiy oj Priuat e Li/e, 5 vols. (Cambr idge: I larvarcl Univ. Press, 1985, 1987) , vol. 1, p. 407.