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1979 Rise of hospitable architecture Bill M. Lacy

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Recommended Citation Tempo, Vol. 25, no. 1 (1979), p. 31-38

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Architecture by BILL M. LACY/F.A.I.A.

You don't have to be an architect to employees as well as the general notice that something peculiar has public. been happening to architecture. These crowd-pleasing build- Something that people find very ings are the product of what might agreeable. be called hospitable architecture. More and more buildings, And in the same way that a birthday especially in our major urban cen- party cannot be considered a cele- ters, are making a big play for the bration without guests, a building crowd. Instead of just standing does not qualify as hospitable archi- around with a blank look on their tecture unless a flock of people are facade, they are seeking to ingratiate swirling in, around, through, and themselves with prospective patrons possibly over it—by design. by flaunting design factors that ap- At first glance, hospitable ar- peal to their senses. Architecturally chitecture may not look all that speaking, they are making a specta- different from regular architecture. cle of themselves. Both types may take the same basic This trend is in marked con- forms: e.g., low-rise, high-rise, small- trast to the cold, sterile architecture scale, large-scale. Nor need a hospi- that has characterized much of our tably designed building be new; it urban design over the past two can be rehabbed Victorian pile, or a decades, a style that has contributed complex of converted factory build- to the exodus of people and tax ings. In fact, hospitable architecture dollars to suburban shopping malls, can be incorporated in a non- civic centers, and cultural/entertain- building. ment complexes. Now, corporations are turning to lively, innovative, often breathtaking new designs to bring the crowds back—to enliven the cities where they do business, and to make their buildings enjoyable for

31 The Rise of Hospitable Architecture

So how is the uninitiated to tell the difference between hospita- ble and regular architecture!' The best way is simply to look at how two examples of the same building type construe their responsibility, so to say, to the public. Everyone is familiar with the ubiquitous high-rise office building. An example of the regularly designed high-rise might be almost any stereotypical office tower in any major American city. On entering such a building, you are apt to be, as Red Smith might say, completely underwhelmed. You are struck by the absence of anything notable. The presence, however, of several stock features can be anticipated. They include a barren lobby, banks of elevators clad in glacial slabs of stone or masonry, canned music, and uniformed security guards. A news- stand might be tucked minimally in a corner niche, and, budget permit- ting, a metal sculpture or macrame hanging might adorn one cold wall. If there is anywhere to go besides upstairs in an elevator, it will surely be through a doorway to a branch of a major bank in the same building. Should you visit our stereotypical tower at any hour other than when the scurrying denizens are going to work, to lunch, or home, you would be conspicuously out of place. For those who enter a stereotypical office tower do so for a narrow purpose: delivery boys come to supply pastrami on rye to middle managers, account executives to pla- cate clients, technicians to fix photo- copiers. At all other times —indeed, most of the time when you total nights, weekends, and holidays—the entire building is devoid of human stirrings, save for the occasional workaholic sequestered in his

32 The Rise of Hospitable Architecture

executive suite. The unoccupied buildings, the IDS Center goes to office tower is not only useless; it is extraordinary lengths to solicit the ominous. public's interest. Its accessibility to One of America's best archi- anyone in the downtown area has tects, Harry Weese, whose firm been enhanced, not only by its received an American Institute of design but also by public policy Architects Cold Medal last year, decisions. The center is comprehen- expressed his professional exaspera- sively linked to—indeed, it has be- tion with the stereotypical glass box come the nucleus of—the city's fam- some time ago. Whereupon, he ous pedestrian skyway system, articulated a radical proposal. Why which enables a person to move not settle on a standard blueprint for about on foot via climate-controlled all such buildings? Weese reasoned glass passageways above street level that if all glass boxes could be from hotel to center to department cookie-cut from the same plan, then store to center, and so on. a redundant building type would People use the center's cease to be confused with what it is spacious, shop-ringed street level as not; namely, architecture. they would a public square. Senior Small wonder that a splendid citizens, Cub Scout troops, farmers example of a hospitably designed in striped bib overalls, smart-looking office tower is the work of another suburban matrons, teenagers in of our best architects, Philip Johnson, backpacks—everybody converges who received the profession's there: some to sit on low walls supreme award last year—the AIA bordering panted areas to people- Cold Medal for individual achieve- watch or eat a Baskin-Robbins cone, ment. Among Johnson's many nota- others to meet someone, to buy ble buildings, none better embodies flowers from a cart, cheese from a the basics of hospitable architecture shop, whatever. than the IDS Center in downtown The IDS Center warrants Minneapolis. elaboration not only because it em- Visually, the IDS Center is bodies many of the tangible features everything that the stereotypical of- of hospitably designed environ- fice building is not. Entering the IDS ments, but also because it typifies Center is rather like experiencing an what all such environments have, ethnic street fair on New York's philosophically, in common. And lower East Side, except that the that is an intuitive understanding that setting itself is infinitely more spec- tacular. The base of the building is dominated by an enormous, multi- story expanse of space that is both enclosed and defined by great inter- secting, prism-like planes of glass. Standing beneath this transparent geometric pyramid, you feel that you've somehow happened into the underside; of a gargantuan crystal chandelier. In contrast to the pointless- ness of public space in most office

35 The Rise of Hospitable Architecture

if people could verbalize their innate feelings about what type of setting would best gratify their material and sensory needs, they would specify exactly such places. Given such a magical prerogative, in fact, most people would doubtless have also encouraged the kind of design talent and tenacity that has transformed Boston's Faneuil Hall from a mournful 18th-century derelict to a magnet of socio-economic vitality. Or they would have gone head over heels for the idea of a recycled chocolate factory overlooking Alcatraz Island in 5an Francisco Bay—a place such as Ghirardelli Square, which has set a standard for the application of hos- pitable architecture to mini-neigh•• borhood commercial enterprises. Some say that it was an architectural maverick named John Portman who discovered the secret of successfully mixing commercial and people-pleasing values when he designed the Regency Hyatt Hotel in Atlanta. Jo the horror of orthodox developers and regular architects, Portman willfully "threw away" an awesome amount of revenue-pro- ducing space —and for what? Why; for the sake of an immense hole right in the middle of where a lot of deluxe rooms should be. Portman's 14-story atrium in the Regency Hyatt —its unwalled, light-twinkling elevators yielding more yipes than a roller coaster; its indoor sidewalk cafe, revolving top o' the restaurant, and elevated cocktail lounge all evoking giggles of delight — this hotel touched off a quiet revolution in the world of real property. Of course, there is nothing new in the architectural firmament. In Denver, nearly a hundred years before the Atlanta Regency Hyatt was built, the Brown Palace Hotel introduced the atrium as a canny

36 The Brown Palace Hotel, Denver Colo. Architect: Frank E. Edbrooke architectural ploy. It was, and ble architecture: namely, that quality remains, an outstanding exercise in architecture can function as a cata- the profligate use of space. But John lyst to accommodate an almost limit- Portman deserves full credit for less range of social and cultural precipitating what some have called values —and can do so profitably and the "Oh, my gosh!" look in contem- unconditionally. porary buildings. Other Portman The new Air and Space Mu- spectaculars have been fashioned in seum designed by Hellmuth Obata & numerous urban centers — Chicago, Kassabaum, for example, is now San Francisco and Detroit, to name sponging up the legions of visitors to three—and derivatives of the throw- Washington and doing an admirable away strategy are sprouting every- job of entertaining them, educating where. them, feeding them from an innova- In other places the "galleria" tive carousel dispenser, and sending has taken hold. Houston was the first them home exhilarated by the expe- in this country to combine such rience. The same signal success is anomalous facilities as public ice being logged a couple of blocks sweating and fast foods with chic away, where the crowds at I.M. Pei's shops, as a luxury hotel and a private East Wing of the National Gallery are health club with a rooftop jogging enjoying not only some of the track. Such an example effectively world's great art but also one of the states the basic premise for hospita- most beautiful examples of hospita- ble architecture ever created in America- And in Kansas City, a

Hyatt Regency Hotel, Atlanta, Ga. remarkable man, the late Joyce Hall, Architect: John Portman & Associates and his family must be recognized

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National Air and Space Museum, Washington, D.C. Architect: Hellmuth, Obata & Kassabaum for having stuck their necks out to democratic society argues to the prove that Hallmark cared enough to contrary. Not least of the reasons promote the very best urban why our center cities stand empty redevelopment project money and and menacing after sundown is the design talent could buy. The result is, fortress mentality, reflected in both of course, Crown Center, a self- our public and commercial build- contained community-within-a- ings. Why, indeed should anyone community, boasting apartments, choose to venture into the dark and stores, shops, restaurants, a con- unpeopled canyons of our major ference center, and a hotel with a urban centers? forty-foot waterfall cascading over a No, it is time for greater mini-mountain in the lobby. hospitality. It is time for our drawing The thought may occur that boards to reflect the need for public an architecture whose doors, and drawing rooms. sometimes walls, are open to all Let the buildings make spec- comers cannot be utilized for any tacles of themselves, and per/laps we but relatively frivolous purposes: can replace the pistol-packing sec- sports, dining, concerts, and such. urity guards with strolling musicians. But the empirical evidence in our

BILL LACY, an architect, is presently president of the American Academy in Rome. Prior to that, he was Director of the Architecture and Environment Arts Program Crown Center Hotel, Kansas City, Mo. at the National Endowment for the Arts. Architect: Harry Weese

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