SOM in Houston

34 W i n t E i 19 9 / I..I Buildings by Skidmore, Owirtgs t Merrill dominole Houslon's 1980s wesl-laiing skyline. From It'll to tighl ore One Shell Ptoio, Allied Bonk Ploio, Tenncro Building (behind Allied ond First International!, and Firs! International Plaio. S 0 M I N HOUSTON K e Alter fter 40 years of practice in Houston, the firm is most notably identified. Many desire than by geography, Houston, as the early \l)M)s. I oine Welch, elected the architectural firm of Skidmore, of the most beautiful and provocative a quintessential 20th-century American mayor in I % 4 (and reelected lor tour AOwings & Merrill has left an indeli- modern office towers in the United States city, was bom of the ambitions ol consecutive terms), directed city govern- ble mark on the corporate identity of the were designed in one of SOM's major entrepreneurs. Historically, Houston ment m a iv.it that facilitated real estate city. SOM's high standards o) efficiency offices, including the Inland Steel build- has placed enormous value on highly development. During the 1970s the and design frame the lineage ol mid ing in Chicago and lever I louse in New capitalized infrastructure. The successive southwestern United States saw a spec- 2llih cenmn American modernism. Aftet York City.' SOM is responsible for many development of water, rail, highway, tacular spurt in urban growth and con- the critical frenzy of the postmodern gen- of Houston's must significant buildings, and air transportation networks is a struction, and, by I "MO, Houston's sky- eration, it now appears tenable to consid- which, in sequence, trace the develop- measure of both individual vision and line was overshadowed only by those ol er modernist accomplishments with a ment ol modernism's faith in the rational n immunity commitment. Chicago and New York. view toward refreshing imr own contem- .is the v elude ol design, The post-World War II period de- In this context of confident economic porary agenda. Since its founding in Houston's urban development, unreg- fined I lousron's reputation for untein- expansion, SOM arrived as the purvetoi Chicago m IV.16, SUM has produced a ulated by zoning, might be understood as pered fervent growth. Houston's image ot high modern design. Although Hous- variety ol building types, interior pro- an act of collective will, and the relation- of itself as the'Vity of the future" began ton's SOM buildings were the products of jects, and urban designs. Among these, it ship of the city to its natural resources when it was chosen as the site for v.i r u n is d e s i g n e r s a s s o c i a t e d w i t h d liter is the highrisc office rower with which has always been oblique. Shaped more by NASA's Manned Spacecraft Center in cut offices, and variety definitely perme- CITE Viiiii 19 9/ 1999 35 Tenrwco Building, 1010 Milom, Slidmore, Owings I Mtnill, arihitnls. 1963. !n it Fir % I Gty Halionol Bank Building, 1001 Main Street, Skidmorc, Owingi & M-c-r rill, orthi- O m Shell Plain, 910 Louisiana, Skidmore, Owingi I Merrill, crrhiicdi with Wil- tecls with Wilton, Minis, Croin t, Anderson, (insulting nrdiitKti, 1960. son, Morris, (rain l Anderson, associate cnhiirriv 1971. .1U-. the work. Certain salient charaetens- ty ol architecture. SOM's buildings are consultants to the I louston architects the office tower. tics .ire generally present. The buildings clear, forthright, and bold. They extend Golemon it Rolfe, SOM designed this While not comparable to SOM's prin- consistent!) display an extreme degree <tt the discourse ol the modern masters, IS story building as a version ol the ciple Southern buildings of the 1950s (the rationalization often derived hum engi- orchestrating the tree organization of I i vcr I loiisi formula adapted to 1 louston I'au American Insurance building in New neering. Consequently, architectural iden- space within a rational framework that and its automobile culture. An office slab Orleans and the Reynolds Metals Com- tity was linked lo structural and service is materially refined, precisely detailed, rises from a lower block — a floating pany headquarters in Richmond), the systems. SOM designed buildings with and abstractly rendered, base tilled by a parking garage — in con- Medical lowers building yields insight controlled environ men ts in which every- Consistent with national corporate trast to the social space thai occupies the into whai might be described .is essential thing fit together in a systematic, integral trends toward subiirbani/ing the work- base of New York's Lever I louse. The characteristics ot the firm's work. Grid- manner, and the work was promoted via place, the Texas Medical Center estab base, covering the site, creates a street ded surfaces, exact profiles, crisp detail- us practical appeal and modern magic. lislicd a significant challenge to Houston's wall next to generous sidewalks umsis ing, a high degree ol apparent order, and Rather than reacting to the vicissitudes downtown in the ll>siK. t ontriburing to tent with those of the neighboring blocks slight inflections in plan create an image of circumstance, SOM's Houston work this vision of multistory buildings amid on I'annm and Main streets. I lie fust of superior rationale, and a place that is is dedicated to carefulh reasoned spatial green space was SOM's first I louston Moor ol the Medical lowers contains dramatical!) modern. By the mid l<"S<k, organization and construction and to ele- building — the Medical lowers building street-front shops anil an elevator core modernism was becoming synonymous gant aesthetics as the cultural responsibili- ol lfS.3-.ST7 at Drvdcn and lannin. As that services both the parking levels anil with the height ol corporate style in the CITE 3 6 N i n 1 11 1 9 9 i 19 9 5 49 W'ri'Htigv IJ teat ion - N* Urn* i— O.*™ clad in white Vermont marble, carries the design expression is relegated to elements ing rectangular tube. The increased depth gray-glass aluminum-Irame window wall, that involve the steel structural frame, of the columns at eight points around the which is set back five feet tor sun-shading which is clad in anodi/ed aluminum. building provides supplementary wind and window cleaning. The elegant mar- Touching the ground with monumental stiffening, while giving the impression ot ble-clad tower is rclcntlesslv express-ed, piers extending from the frame, the undulated walls and an unconventional rising directly from the ground unlettered Tenneco building is eminently rational, system of statics. This outer tube is fur- f'„ M..I....J V •.. by the banking hall, which is connected abstract, and pure, overtly designed as a ther stiffened by the sheer walls of the via two glass enclosed passages, The top logical diagram of its engineering ami interior elevator core. As a consequence, three floors of mechanical space are construction. An insulated glass curtain I lines was able to build the 50-story One Meditol Tower) Building, 1709 Diyden Street, Skidmoit, Owings incorporated in the continuous frame, wall is sei back from the projected frame Shell Plaza — at the time the tallest rein- I Merrill, toniulling qnhllscll to Golcmon & Rolf*, orchilecli, yielding a tower of remarkably bold to articulate its distinction and aid in sun- forced concrete building in the world — us;. composition and an image of rational shading. Unlike Tirst City, the Tenneco for the cost of a conventional steel structure wrought with some degree of building asserts its position as a monu- framed 35-story tower. United States. The Medical Towers Build- regional sensitivity to orientation. The ment at both its base and top, and pre- Tike Tirst (. itv and Tenneco. One ing represented an enthusiastic foray into clear-spanned, open banking hall is fitted sents an image of awesome scale, Shell Plaza is situated in the middle ol a this exciting elite world. Like the other with an aluminum curtain wall of huge Tirst City and Tenneco represent block, surrounded by an open plaza. SUM buildings that followed, this mod- glass panels and a continuous, luminous SOM at its peak: Buushaft's and Bassett's I lowever, the careful reassessment ol the em building was imminently compatible ceiling containing lixtures ingeniously crystallization and moiHimcnt.ili/arioii of interrelationship between the cost and with Houston, Imagine how liberating it arranged to cast light both downward modernist technique. The casual rational- speed ot construction, the value ot must have seemed In middle-class I Ions and up towards the ceiling. The vastness ity of the Medical Towers Building is here rentable space (beyond concerns ot home tomans in I 957 to stroll from the side- ol ilu- room, its openness and continuity transformed into the high solemnity of and corporate identity), and the construc- walk into an air conditioned lobby, or to with the out-of-doors, and the precise modern engineering — timeless, transcen- tion system employed here led to a build- step off the elevator to arrive in an office detailing of hundreds ol building compo- dent, ceremonial. ing of a markedly different character. The nents, including furnishings, make it ot expansive views made possible by the In the 1970s SOM's work in Houston rationale which in Buushaft and Basset an exceptional space. Even today, in large panels of glass and the building's displayed a different emphasis. The 50- gave rise to an elegant, monumental cor- its unoccupied state, this room has position in the middle of the block.

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