880 1 casabella 880 1996–2016 indici nuova edizione indices 632–869 new edition

DICEMBRE 2017 in consultazione esclusiva su: available for reference only at: casabellaweb.eu

3—11 39 68 Nicholas Adams Un edificio dove l’insieme muta Luisa Penha Gordon Bunshaft la natura delle parti a cura di Chiara Baglione In cinque puntate le opere Recupero della residenza Rua Massimiliano Savorra del progettista che ha portato Bela, Porto, 2016 44 a SOM il Pritzker Prize Marco Mulazzani L’efficienza della progettazione a cura di Chiara Baglione 70 strutturale 5 Matthew Melrose e Anthony Saby Luisa Penha Gordon Bunshaft Recupero della residenza Duas 4/5 Portas, Porto, 2017 9 West 57th Street, New York 48—83 Marco Mulazzani (1971–1974): il grattacielo Outros Arquitectos 74 “a zampa d’elefante” SerÔdio, Furtado Nicholas Adams no Porto a cura di Elisa Pegorin & Associados 50 Arquitectos 12—47 Porto: uma maneira de ser Riqualificazione e ampliamento Arte, ricerca, Portugal di una scuola, Ponte de Lima, Elisa Pegorin 2017 tecnologia 54 Marco Mulazzani 13 Nuno Melo Sousa Carme Pinós Escola Massana, Centro d’arte + Hugo Ferreira 84—89 e disegno, Barcellona, spagna OH! Porto Apartments, Vila Nova de Gaia, 2015 BIBLIOTECA 14 84 Nel centro mutevole della città Elisa Pegorin recensioni Juan José Lahuerta 58 86 28 Barbosa & Guimarães Frank Lloyd Wright, Knoche Architekten Arquitectos “barocco” Laboratori dell’istituto Nuovo edificio Águas do Porto, Francesco Dal Co di tecnologia ambientale, Porto, 2016 Esslingen, Germania Elisa Pegorin 29 61 90—93 funzione e ambiente João Paulo Loureiro ENGLISH TEXTS Augusta Man Recupero di Casa DragÃo, 90 38 Porto, 2016 English texts Diller Scofidio Elisa Pegorin + Renfro 65 Roy and Diana Vagelos Education Nuno Brandão Costa Center, Columbia University, Recupero e ampliamento di una New York, stati uniti casa nel Minho, Melgaço, 2016 Elisa Pegorin

rker a M/Bo P ourtesy SO Photo c

SOMMARIO casabella 880 3 2 1 —9 West 57th Street, dettaglio del fronte su 58th Street Gordon Bunshaft con la trave al livello inferiore —9 West 57th Street, 58th Street side showing the lower level beam 2 4 5 —9 West 57th Street, il grattacielo nello skyline di Midtown Manhattan, sullo sfondo Central Park —9 West 57th Street, the skyscraper at in the Midtown Manhattan skyline, with th Central Park in the 9 West 57 Street, New York (1971–1974): il grattacielo “a zampa d’elefante” background Nicholas Adams 3 —lo skyline di Midtown Manhattan visto da nord con th Conosciuto anche come Solow Building, l’edificio che sorge Midtown. La struttura di quasi 162.000 metri quadrati il grattacielo 9 West 57 Street th —the Midtown Manhattan al 9 di West 57 Street è uno dei più controversi tra quelli avrebbe scavalcato la West Side Highway fino al fiume skyline seen from the north, progettati da Gordon Bunshaft nella sua lunga carriera. I Hudson. Bunshaft era comprensibilmente eccitato. Era with the skyscraper at 9 West newyorkesi lo chiamano the ski-slope building (la pista da stanco di progettare torri di uffici: «In fondo sono solo spazi 57th Street sci) o the building with the bell-bottom pants (l’edificio con i impersonali da affittare», osservò, dimenticando, a quanto pantaloni a zampa d’elefante) e lo riconoscono dall’impo- pare, che parlava del suo stesso lavoro. «Mi piace l’architet- nente numero 9 in acciaio rosso realizzato da Ivan Cherma- tura che può essere guardata senza piegarsi all’indietro». yeff, orientato a est verso Fifth Avenue. A volte viene asso- Pur non di meno, usò termini positivi per la nuova torre che 3 ciato con il suo fratello minore, il W.R. Grace Building (1114 stava progettando al 9 di West 57th Street e per descrivere di Avenue of the Americas) che sorge su 42nd Street di il suo cliente Sheldon H. Solow. «Un uomo molto intelli- fronte a Bryant Park (1971–74). Le due facciate ideate da gente», disse, «difficile… ma ci tiene molto a realizzare un Bunshaft nello stesso periodo sono le uniche davvero ri- bell’edificio, uno di cui possa essere orgoglioso». Per curve di tutta la città. Benché unanimemente riconosciuto quanto alla fine dell’articolo il giornalista preannunciasse come il migliore dei due, il 9 di West 57th Street è anche l’e- l’arrivo di una nuova corrente guidata da Robert Venturi che dificio che incrinò la buona reputazione di Bunshaft1. avrebbe presto detronizzato il modernismo di Bunshaft, dal Nell’estate del 1972 Gordon Bunshaft fu oggetto di un punto di vista delle relazioni pubbliche l’intervista rappre- lusinghiero articolo pubblicato dal «New York Times Maga- sentava un momento molto alto della fama di Bunshaft a zine». Intitolato The Establishment’s architect-plus, era un New York 2. brillante resoconto della vita e della carriera dell’architetto Meno di un anno dopo, Ada Louise Huxtable, stimata e del suo lungo rapporto professionale con SOM. Malgrado critica d’architettura del «New York Times», usò toni meno i riferimenti allo spirito di squadra e i ripetuti elogi, da parte adulatori. Nella sua recensione del 9 di West 57th Street –il di Bunshaft, dei soci e dei collaboratori dello studio nel «bell’edificio» di Bunshaft e Solow– intitolata Anti-Street, corso dell’intervista, il giornalista concludeva comunque af- Anti-People, rimproverò Bunshaft e tutto lo studio SOM: fermando che la vera star dello studio era Bunshaft: in pra- «Ma allora cosa è andato storto? Perché qualcosa non ha tica SOM era inimmaginabile senza di lui. L’articolo sottoli- funzionato con SOM, anche se dire una cosa del genere è neava inoltre come nei vent’anni precedenti lo studio un po’ come attaccare il Papa. Tuttavia, ciò che sostengono avesse «realizzato a New York molti più edifici eccellenti di i professionisti in privato e ciò che si dovrebbe affermare in qualsiasi altro architetto o studio professionale» e come pubblico è che c’è stata un’evoluzione dei bisogni e della fi- l’autore di quei progetti fosse Gordon Bunshaft. All’epoca losofia della progettazione che in qualche modo è stata della pubblicazione dell’articolo era stato da poco annun- ignorata da questo studio. Inoltre, gli edifici di SOM, co- ciato l’incarico che sembrava segnare l’apice di quella stra- stantemente attenti alla qualità, sono sempre più all’origine ordinaria carriera: SOM e Bunshaft avrebbero progettato di una persistente e monumentale forma di abuso ambien- l’imponente Convention Center a ovest della 11th Avenue a tale che ingenera crescenti preoccupazioni critiche».

4 Gordon Bunshaft 4/5 casabella 880 5 4 5 6 7 —9 West 57th Street, the northern 8 9 10 4 5 6 facade of the skyscraper, with th —C.F. Murphy con Perkins+Will, —9 West 57 Street, la versione the Plaza Hotel in the foreground First National Bank, Chicago, rifiutata con i supporti verticali che 1964–69, modello e veduta aerea incontrano il terreno, le divisioni 9 —C.F. Murphy with Perkins+Will, dei piani visibili in facciata e il —Alan Dunn, Sì, una grandinata. First National Bank, Chicago, fianco con elementi orizzontali Ha nuove idee, signor architetto?, 1964–69, model and aerial view sporgenti «Architectural Record», 151, giugno —9 West 57th Street, rejected 1972, p. 10 elevation with vertical supports —Alan Dunn, Yes, A Hailstorm. meeting the ground, sharp floor Got Any New Ideas, Mr. Architect?, divisions and louvered flank «Architectural Record», 151, June 1972, p. 10 7 —9 West 57th Street, modello 10 Photo courtesy SOM/Anthony Cross PHOTO courtesy of Perkins+Will ESTO th —9 West 57th Street, model —9 West 57 Street, l’angolo est della facciata su 58th Street 8 —9 West 57th Street, the east th —9 West 57 Street, il fronte nord, corner of the facade on 58th in primo piano l’Hotel Plaza Street

Qualcuno definiva SOM “arrogante”, proseguiva Huxta- una zona di hotel e appartamenti, gallerie d’arte e negozi di simili), sia la pressione delle ambiziose nuove leve dello stu- nalista Walter McQuade osservò che costretto nella «gab- ble. Per lei, tuttavia, si trattava «di un semplice caso di ar- alta moda, nell’avamposto settentrionale del quartiere de- dio SOM di Chicago (Bruce Graham e Walter Netsch), i gio- bia delle norme di zonizzazione» Bunshaft stava cambiando teriosclerosi delle idee architettoniche». Malgrado ciò, le gli affari di Midtown. Solow fu tra i primi a riconoscere le vani che aveva comandato a bacchetta quando facevano il proprio «stile spigoloso per dare ai suoi edifici una forma sue conclusioni erano spietate: «Oggi, il perfezionismo potenzialità della nuova area4. Servendosi di società fittizie pratica con i progetti della Air Force Academy di Colorado più voluttuosa […] La sua attuale propensione è quella di della serie “fagli mangiare travertino” di Gordon Bunshaft, per non svelare i propri piani, il costruttore mise gradual- Springs (Netsch, 1954–62) e dell’Inland Steel di Chicago curvare verso l’esterno la parte inferiore delle facciate sem- il grande divo di SOM, rasenta spesso una sorta di agguer- mente insieme i pezzi: quattordici lotti separati dovevano (Graham e Netsch, 1955–58). Graham aveva realizzato pre nel rispetto delle regole di arretramento». McQuade ci- rita antiumanità». Il 9 di West 57th Street e il suo gemello di essere acquistati con quattordici trattative diverse, cor- l’Hancock Center di Chicago (1965–70), il suo grattacielo tava poi la tipica osservazione tranchant di Bunshaft ri- 42nd Street sono «sberle in faccia alla città. Esprimono uno rendo ogni volta il rischio che il suo obiettivo venisse sco- iconico, un obelisco tronco con le vetrate nere e la struttura guardo al problema: «Non sono neppure sicuro che gli edi- sdegnato rifiuto nei confronti della strada e sono tremen- perto (Solow tentò persino di comprare un isolato con di- a vista che aveva conquistato l’attenzione della critica e del fici di uffici siano architettura. In realtà si tratta solo di cal- damente impacciati nei rapporti con i loro vicini, distur- ciassette edifici lungo Fifth Avenue tra 57th Street e 58th pubblico. Anche la Sears Tower (1971–73) era in via di co- coli matematici, investimenti in tre dimensioni… Secondo bando (nel caso del 9 di West 57th Street) in modo aggres- Street occupato dal celebre negozio di abbigliamento struzione. Per ottenere un risultato simile, Bunshaft aveva me le leggi di zonizzazione di questa città hanno fatto più sivo lo skyline visto da Central Park South»3. Si trattava di Bergdorf Goodman, e quando non ci riuscì cercò di com- bisogno di un costruttore-imprenditore audace come Jerry danni di qualsiasi dannato architetto»7. Come nel caso della commenti pungenti espressi da una critica che in passato prare gli air rights). Dopo cinque anni e una spesa di 12 mi- Wolman, che aveva promosso il progetto dell’Hancock Lever House (1952), la sua soluzione radicale per il 9 di aveva sostenuto Gordon Bunshaft e SOM. Cosa aveva pro- lioni di dollari disponeva di un sito di quasi 6.000 metri qua- Center. Solow poteva essere l’uomo giusto, il tipo di cliente West 57th Street infrangeva le convenzioni di New York. vocato l’inatteso rimprovero? drati che si estendeva tra 57th Street e 58th Street a ovest di pragmatico ed esigente per il quale Bunshaft riusciva a La torre ricurva non vantava una lunga storia ma aveva Sheldon H. Solow è una leggenda del settore immobi- Fifth Avenue. A quel punto aveva bisogno di un edificio che dare il meglio di sé. A proposito del rapporto con Solow, già un significativo precedente recente8. A Chicago, l’edifi- liare di New York. Nato nel 1929, è figlio di Isaac, un mano- potesse competere con quello di Stone per diventare la l’architetto osservava: «Io contrattacco. Mi piace essere un cio di sessanta piani “a zampa di elefante” della First Natio- vale e poi costruttore di successo attivo a Brooklyn. Ridotti nuova ancora dello sviluppo di 57th Street, un’architettura in bastardo». nal Bank (1964–69), firmato da C.F. Murphy con Perkins & sul lastrico dalla Grande Depressione, padre e figlio entra- grado di distinguersi5. Scelse SOM e i soci dello studio die- Bunshaft propose quello che definì un grattacielo “a Will, era diventato al suo completamento il più alto della rono insieme in affari nel 1952 realizzando, con un prestito dero l’incarico a Bunshaft, ma l’edificio che Solow voleva zampa d’elefante” –un particolare d’abbigliamento diven- città. Si trattava di una torre libera che occupava un solo di 592.000 dollari, un complesso di appartamenti a Brook- non doveva somigliare per nulla ai recenti grattacieli di tato di moda proprio in quegli anni– vale a dire un paralle- isolato. Come spiegava l’architetto C. William Brubaker lyn chiamato Sheldon Gardens. Manhattan6. lepipedo ricurvo e svasato. L’edificio rispettava i complessi (1926–2002): «Volevamo progettare qualcosa che non Successivamente il giovane Solow costruì case, edifici Bunshaft accolse con piacere la sfida posta da Solow. regolamenti newyorchesi sulla zonizzazione relativi alle fosse né una copia di un edificio di Mies né un’imitazione di di appartamenti e un centro commerciale a Long Island. Nel Gli ultimi anni erano stati difficili per lui. Era stato obbligato quantità adeguate di aria e luce che dovevano arrivare in ciò che andava per la maggiore in Europa o negli Stati 1962 si trasferì a Manhattan dove costruì un edificio di ap- a reinventarsi per l’ennesima volta. Il vetro e l’acciaio, la strada evitando sia l’antiquata soluzione “a torta nuziale” Uniti». Il progetto di Brubaker rispondeva alla necessità partamenti (al 501 di East 87th Street), il primo con i cami- pelle e le ossa degli anni Cinquanta e dell’inizio degli anni (una scelta mai presa in considerazione) sia la convenzio- della banca di poter disporre di un vastissimo piano libero netti dai tempi della guerra. L’impresa successiva fu il 9 di Sessanta avevano caratterizzato il primo periodo di nale torre modernista. Il progetto inoltre faceva il massimo destinato agli uffici per il trattamento degli assegni. «Ciò West 57th Street, dove la sfida era rappresentata dal Gene- Bunshaft (dalla Lever House alla sede della Pepsi Cola); le uso degli spazi interni in un contesto in cui ogni metro qua- che abbiamo tentato di fare è stato analizzare un nuovo ge- ral Motors Building di cinquanta piani, progettato da scatole di calcestruzzo degli anni Sessanta realizzate in drato corrispondeva a dollari d’affitto: il 9 di West 57th nere di problema per trovare una nuova soluzione. Penso Edward Durell Stone e completato nel 1968, sito all’angolo collaborazione con l’ingegnere Paul Weidlinger (dalla Bei- Street disponeva di quasi 140.000 metri quadrati di spazio che ci siamo riusciti»9. La soluzione di Bunshaft prendeva tra Fifth Avenue e 58th Street. La torre monumentale di necke Library alla Banque Lambert) identificavano il se- per uffici. in prestito il profilo del grattacielo di Chicago ma non aveva Stone, con il suo quotidiano esercito di pendolari, aveva tra- condo periodo. Adesso Bunshaft avvertiva sia il fiato sul La costruzione dell’edificio attirò anche l’attenzione alcuna giustificazione funzionalista: il 9 di West 57th Street sformato il margine sudorientale di Central Park, da tempo collo di una nuova generazione storicista (i Venturi e i loro della stampa. In un articolo su «Fortune Magazine» il gior- si limitava a massimizzare lo spazio da dare in locazione,

6 Gordon Bunshaft 4/5 casabella 880 7 11 12 13 14 15 16 11 14 16 —9 West 57th Street, sezione —9 West 57th Street, profilo della —9 West 57th Street, l’elemento trasversale trave al livello inferiore su 58th vetrato riflettente tra il —9 West 57th Street, cross Street. Sullo sfondo il grattacielo grattacielo 9 West 57th Street section della General Motors e l’edificio adiacente su 58th —9 West 57th Street, profile of Street 12 th th th lower level beam on 58 Street. —9 West 57 Street, reflective —9 West 57 Street, pianta th del piano terra In the background the General margin between 9 West 57 —9 West 57th Street, ground floor Motors Building Street and neighboring building th plan 15 to the east on 58 Street Nicholas Adams Courtesy SOM 13 —9 West 57th Street, veduta verso Nicholas Adams est del portico su 58th Street —il John Hancock Center di SOM th th (Bruce Graham) nello skyline di —9 West 57 Street, 58 Street Chicago, 1965–70 underneath portico looking east —the John Hancock Center by SOM (Bruce Graham) in the Chicago skyline, 1965–70 Nicholas Adams l ey H urs othy Tim Courtesy SOM Courtesy

creando un’immagine singolare, capace di attirare l’atten- su uno spazio aperto con una pavimentazione di travertino poi fermato. Il travertino e la superficie scura della facciata procinto di subire la stessa sorte, come proclamato dai car- zione10. che arriva fino al cordolo del marciapiede. sottolineano la potenza della struttura così che l’edificio, telli sulle facciate («si affitta per attività commerciale»). Solow respinse il primo progetto di Bunshaft, in cui i pi- I pareri sull’edificio furono discordanti, ma a prevalere per ricordare le parole di Louis Sullivan a proposito del Considerati i facili collegamenti con il Queensboro Bridge lastri, nascosti dietro la facciata, arrivavano al suolo come furono quelli negativi. Jaquelin T. Robertson, stimato diret- Marshall Field’s Warehouse di H.H. Richardson (1885), si (a est), «il suo sviluppo commerciale», osservava il giornali- piedritti verticali e la superficie piegata appariva rigida. La tore dell’Office of Midtown Planning, si rammaricò per il propone come «l’orazione di chi sa bene come scegliere le sta, «è destinato a essere rapido»16. Aziende di abbiglia- sgraziata inclinazione iniziava a due terzi della facciata; i mancato rispetto della linea della strada con la conse- proprie parole, ha qualcosa da dire e lo dice; è l’esterna- mento, antiquari, gallerie d’arte (Pace, Valentine, André Se- pannelli laterali della torre sembravano più che altro feritoie guente esposizione dei brutti muri laterali degli edifici adia- zione di una mente ricca, diretta, grande e semplice». L’edi- ligmann), e negozi di pianoforte (Steinway, Chickering) ben per la ventilazione e le divisioni fra i piani erano segnate da centi. In futuro, disse, avrebbe fatto quanto in suo potere ficio è anche emozionante, perché è una sorpresa nascosta presto si trasferirono in quella strada. Nuovi edifici residen- fasce. Questo primo progetto non aveva l’espressività per scoraggiare la costruzione di edifici con facciate incli- e guardando la facciata dalla strada si avverte una sorta di ziali di proprietà di cooperative (preferiti da artisti, scrittori strutturale della banca di Chicago e sembrava non risolvere nate nei lotti centrali di un isolato. Questo aspetto fu sotto- euforia vertiginosa. Al confronto l’Hancock Center di Bruce e musicisti) furono realizzati più a ovest, vicino alla Carne- il tema della facciata inclinata (uno schema molto simile a lineato anche da altre critiche (espresse da Ada Louise Graham sembra quasi grossolano: la struttura nasconde la gie Hall, e trasformarono l’area in una sorta di Greenwich questo servì come base per il W.R. Grace Building di 42nd Huxtable e Paul Goldberger). Nel 1974, nel corso di una vista ai residenti e per giunta arriva fino alla strada in modo Village dell’Uptown (i Rolling Stones facevano le prove ne- Street)11. Solow, a un certo punto, mostrò preoccupazione cena per la consegna di un premio, la Fifth Avenue Associa- non risolto. gli studi di 57th Street.) Malgrado ciò e a dispetto dei timori per la mancanza di uffici d’angolo, spazi che considerava tion fece qualcosa di insolito citando il 9 di West 57th Street Il tempo ha moderato i giudizi. La predilezione per il di chi vedeva l’invasione degli immobili di uffici come una fondamentali per le prospettive di locazione e, benché per la sua “maleducazione urbana”13. Arthur Drexler, cura- travertino, tanto deprecata da Huxtable, oggi viene consi- minaccia e un pericolo, 57th Street rimase, come scrisse la fosse disposto a cedere su questo punto, insistette sulla tore del dipartimento d’architettura del Museum of Modern derata un pezzo raro di grazia: un tappeto bianco steso da- critica d’arte Grace Glueck nel 1983, «la strada più impor- necessità di migliorare comunque il progetto12. Art, osservò invece che a dispetto di tante critiche erudite, vanti all’edificio. In realtà, il 9 di West 57th Street risalta per tante della città per l’arte»17. Ruolo questo che fu confer- Il disegno che fu infine approvato presenta due fac- l’edificio «fa quasi letteralmente fermare la gente per chiarezza di linee nella diffusa banalità dell’architettura mato quando SoHo diventò una trappola per turisti18. Per ciate ricurve equivalenti rivolte una a nord e l’altra a sud. Ve- strada; l’immensa vetrata ricurva è uno spettacolo emozio- della strada. L’accusa di “maleducazione” degli anni Set- parte sua, il 9 di West 57th Street non distrusse il carattere trate grigie prive di evidenti divisioni orizzontali sono inse- nante, non in quanto architettura ma come teatro urbano, tanta era un sintomo del conflitto nascente che opponeva eterogeneo della strada. Da molti anni, infatti, la collezione rite in una cornice ricurva di travertino: la superficie liscia affascinante come un’antica fontana»14. Ciò che Bunshaft un architetto potente e il suo ricco e ostinato cliente a un d’arte di proprietà di Solow (con opere di Kline, Baltus e Ba- della facciata sembra precipitarsi in direzione della strada. era riuscito a fare nel reticolo urbano di New York era esat- gruppo in ascesa che pensava che la città fosse al meglio con, tra gli altri) è in mostra in una galleria al piano terra, an- Al confronto, la lobby di ingresso da 57th Street non è parti- tamente quello a cui mirava Mies van der Rohe quando pro- quando somigliava a un patchwork di piccoli pezzi vivaci. Il che se non è aperta al pubblico19. colarmente spettacolare e nel seminterrato era prevista gettò il Seagram Building: realizzare un edificio che fosse, 9 di West 57th Street non era il primo colpevole né il peg- Il 9 di West 57th Street appartiene a un’epoca in cui si un’area per attività commerciali che non fu mai realizzata letteralmente, una sorpresa “barocca”, per riprendere l’a- giore; da tempo la strada era un indicatore della voglia di progettava in modo raffinato e con risultati di alta quali- (oggi quello spazio è occupato dal ristorante Brasserie 8½ nalogia usata da Phyllis Lambert che aveva seguito la co- cambiamento. tà. Si propone come una dichiarazione convincente sulla progettato in modo un po’ incongruo da Hugh Hardy nel struzione del grattacielo per conto del padre15. Il 9 di West Già nel 1912 il «New York Times» protestava contro gli struttura e ha ambizioni estetiche tradizionali20. Più avanti 2000). All’altezza del primo piano, sopra l’ingresso, la mas- 57th Street rimane una sorpresa, un’anomalia in una città di edifici di una certa altezza che avevano cominciato a inva- nella stessa strada si erge l’edificio a triangoli denominato siccia cornice di travertino sostiene l’estremità inferiore angoli retti. dere la via un tempo residenziale ed elegante: una struttura Hearst Tower, completato da Norman Foster nel 2006 (300 della vetrata e devia l’acqua piovana. Le traverse d’acciaio Tra tante critiche mancava una giusta valutazione del di otto piani al 12 di East 57th Street e una di nove al 10 e al di West 57th Street), ancora stranamente in conflitto con la disposte in diagonale formano delle X sui fianchi dell’edifi- lavoro di Bunshaft. L’edificio è audace, sembra quasi che 12 di West 57th Street. Inoltre, stando a quanto riferiva il base di sei piani progettata da Joseph Urban (1926–28). cio e servono a rafforzare la struttura. Dal lato di 57th Street l’architetto abbia usato due grandi segni della sua penna quotidiano, tra Fifth Avenue e Sixth Avenue, «otto case Questa zona di Manhattan, adesso chiamata Midtown l’edificio è arretrato rispetto alla linea della strada e sorge per creare la struttura (tenuta insieme dalle travi a X) e si sia sono già state consegnate al commercio» e altre erano in West, è di recente diventata il centro della nuova mania per

8 Gordon Bunshaft 4/5 casabella 880 9 17 18 —9 West 57th Street, street 19 17 entrance in original form with th —9 West 57 Street, la scultura escalators leading to the lower a forma di numero 9 di Ivan level; 57th Street can be seen Chermayeff, sul lato sud del through the lobby grattacielo —9 West 57th Street, Ivan 19 th Chermayeff’s Number 9 on the —9 West 57 Street, veduta da south side of the building nord-est che mostra la facciata curva a nord 18 —9 West 57th Street, view from th —9 West 57 Street, l’ingresso da the north east showing the th 58 Street nella forma originale, sloping northern facade con le scale mobili che portano al livello inferiore; si può vedere 57th

Nicholas Adams Street attraverso la lobby

Photo courtesy SOM/Anthony Cross

Note 9 Brubaker citato in Oral History of C. William svanì di lì a breve quando, non molto tempo i grattacieli residenziali altissimi simili ad aghi: edifici così Ringraziamenti: sono grato a Sheldon H. Solow Brubaker, intervista di Betty J. Blum, Department prima che il Seagram fosse completato, l’edificio per le discussioni e a David Childs, Carter of Architecture, the Art Institute of Chicago, residenziale a nord fu demolito. Al contrario del sottili da non avere bisogno di setbacks e così alti da go- Horsley, Alexander Luckmann, Matthew Postal e Chicago 2000, p. 76. Brubaker menziona come Seagram, il 9 di West 57th Street ha una facciata th Ryan Quinlan per i consigli. possibile fonte anche la facciata ricurva anteriore e una posteriore. dere di panorami straordinari come il 9 W. 57 Street. Solo disegnata da I.M. Pei per la New York Stock 16 Towering Lofts in Fifty-Seventh Street th 1 Sul 9 di West 57th Street, vedi Carol Herselle Exchange e mai costruita. Emery Roth realizzò un Indicate Rapidity of Business Invasion, in «The in 57 Street ce ne sono quattro, alcuni completati, altri in Krinsky, Gordon Bunshaft of Skidmore, Owings & ampliamento di quindici piani con la facciata New York Times», 25 agosto 1912. th Merrill, Architectural History Foundation, New ricurva per il 55 di Water Street (1969-1972). 17 Grace Glueck, Expressionism Meets via di costruzione: il 432 di Park Avenue su 57 Street (Ra- York 1988; Robert A.M. Stern, Thomas Mellins, «Architectural Record» descrisse il nuovo edificio Minimalism, in «The New York Times», 18 fael Viñoly); il 111 di West 57th Street (SHoP); il 157 di West David Fishman, New York 1960: Architecture and in termini assolutamente positivi, paragonandolo febbraio 1983. Urbanism between the Second World War and the a «un’immensa vela a costoloni gonfiata dal vento 18 Robert Lipsyte, Why My Art Dealer Moved to 57th Street (Christian de Portzamparc) e il 215 di West 57th Bicentennial, Monacelli Press, New York 1995; di Chicago». Vedi The First National Bank of 57th Street, in «The New York Times», 21 aprile Carter B. Horsley, 9 West 57th Street, in «The City Chicago, in «Architectural Record», 148, marzo 1996. Alcune gallerie si trasferirono più a nord, Street (Adrian Smith). La loro presenza cambierà lo skyline Review», sito web: http://www.thecityreview. 1970, pp. 137-140; citazione p. 139. vedi anche Amei Wallach, Overrun: SoHo’s Art com/. 10 La descrizione di Solow fatta da Bunshaft è World Shifts Ground, in «The New York Times», di Central Park South più radicalmente di quanto non fece 2 David Jacobs, The Establishment’s architect- indicativa: «Era difficile perché era un 12 maggio 1996. plus, in «The New York Times Magazine», 23 luglio finanziatore. Non stava costruendo un edificio 19 Le opere sono visibili dalle vetrate al piano il Solow Building negli anni Settanta. 1972. per se stesso. Ma a differenza dei soliti terra. Di recente alcune sono state messe sul 3 Ada Louise Huxtable, Anti-Street, Anti-People, finanziatori voleva un bell’edificio».Oral History mercato. Per esempio, The Pointing Man di Nel 1952 Gordon Bunshaft e SOM completarono la Le- in «The New York Times», 10 giugno 1973. of Gordon Bunshaft,, cit., p. 256. Giacometti è stata venduta all’asta nel 2015 per ver House, il grattacielo che trasformò New York nel dopo- 4 Lo Squibb Building al 40 di West 57th (architetto 11 Si racconta che Bunshaft vendette il primo 140 milioni di dollari. Il comportamento talvolta Jack Brown), completato nel 1972, fu la prima progetto a Swig, Weiler, Arnow che lo usarono eccentrico di Solow è ben noto. Qualcuno lo ha guerra. La torre fu accolta con grande entusiasmo. Come torre di uffici della via. Già dalla Seconda guerra per il 1114 di Avenue of the Americas (su 42nd descritto come «l’uomo più litigioso mondiale i grattacieli residenziali hanno Street), in origine noto come W.R. Grace dell’industria immobiliare e forse di tutta scrisse un corrispondente a Louis Skidmore: «Adesso gli cominciato a spostarsi verso ovest rispetto Building: un affare in cui Bunshaft appariva un l’America». Daniel Geiger, The Upheaval of all’East River. venditore spietato e Solow come un raffinato Sheldon Solow, in «Commercial Observer», 8 edifici circostanti appaiono così squallidi da farmi persino 5 I piani furono annunciati sul «New York Times», esperto di architettura (il 9 di West 57th è agosto 2012. 30 gennaio 1970, p. 77. Per un resoconto l’edificio migliore). Per accertare che un simile 20 Bunshaft andava particolarmente fiero della pensare che il tanto ammirato Racquet Club stia meglio a sull’aggregazione dei lotti si veda Franklin scambio sia avvenuto realmente è ancora reazione di Jean Dubuffet: «Andava pazzo per il Firenze o in un’altra città medievale»21. La Lever House di- Whitehouse, A “Loner” Is Building on 57th Street, in necessaria una conferma indipendente. Solow Building e gliene regalai un piccolo «New York Times», 29 marzo 1970. Tra gli edifici 12 A quanto pare la pazienza di Bunshaft fu plastico». Vedi Oral History of Gordon Bunshaft, ventò il simbolo dell’ottimismo del dopoguerra e fu de- demoliti c’era l’ufficio di Paul Rudolph al 26 di messa alla prova. Riguardo al problema degli cit., p. 210. West 58th Street. Vedi Timothy M. Rohan, The uffici d’angolo e a quella che considerava la 21 Lettera di R.C. Wilson a Louis Skidmore, 7 scritta da Lewis Mumford come «un tacito emblema della Architecture of Paul Rudolph, Yale University lentezza di Solow, Bunshaft esplose: «Non lo aprile 1952. La lettera si trova tra i documenti di 22 Press, New Haven 2014, p. 180. trattai con gentilezza, anzi fui molto sgarbato con Louis Skidmore Jr. conservati a Houston, Texas. speranza in un mondo pacifico» . Venticinque anni dopo i 6 Secondo Bunshaft furono i suoi soci a lui». Oral History of Gordon Bunshaft, cit., p. 258. 22 Lewis Mumford, House of Glass, in «The New th sceglierlo per lavorare con Solow. Si veda Oral Vedi anche Krinsky, Gordon Bunshaft, cit., p. 249. Yorker» 28, 9 agosto 1952, p. 54. valori erano cambiati. Le linee audaci del 9 di West 57 History of Gordon Bunshaft, intervista di Betty J. 13 Paul Goldberger, Award-Givers Honor a Few Blum, Art Institute, Chicago 1990, edizione and Slap a Wrist, in «The New York Times», 2 Street rappresentavano l’apparente indifferenza del capi- riveduta, 2000, p. 257. giugno 1974. Robertson faceva parte della tale nei confronti della gente comune e degli edifici adia- 7 Walter McQuade, A Daring New Generation of giuria. Per le opinioni di Robertson, Wallace Skyscrapers: office buildings with vivid shapes are Harrison e Minoru Yamasaki, vedi Carter R. centi. A distanza di altri quarant’anni il suo decoro non è più adding zest and grandeur to city skylines, in Horsley, Sloping Office Buildings Make «Fortune», 87, febbraio 1973, pp. 78-82; 150-152 Provocative Midtown Debut, in «The New York oggetto di discussione, visto che la città tutt’intorno è cam- (vedi p. 81). Times», 26 marzo 1972. 8 A New York c’erano due precedenti: il 404 di 14 Arthur Drexler, Introduction, in The biata. I muri laterali non appaiono più tanto grezzi, la chia- Tenth Avenue (in origine Midtown Mart), una strana Architecture of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, struttura di loft di 15 piani e il National Maritime 1963–1973, Gerd Hatje, Stuttgart 1974, p. 22. rezza tagliente delle sue linee è gradita, gli effetti da capo- Union Building in 17th Street. Quest’ultimo, 15 Phyllis Lambert, che lavorò come direttrice progettato da Joseph Ledner e completato nel della progettazione per Joseph E. Seagram, giro della sua altezza sono accettati e la relativa originalità 1966, era coperto di “oblò” e i lati ricurvi dovevano descrisse l’effetto che il Seagram Building della sua forma appare addirittura convenzionale rispetto a evocare una nave. Nessuno dei due può aver suscitava nel 1954: «Questa soluzione per influito in modo rilevante sulle idee di Bunshaft. l’edificio promette cose straordinarie: è così molti dei nuovi edifici. I loro architetti, anzi, possono ripen- Una proposta di Henry Cobb and I.M. Pei per la arretrato che quasi non lo si vede percorrendo la New York Stock Exchange non fu realizzata. strada, ma quando si arriva lì che impressione, sare con gratitudine a Gordon Bunshaft, perché la Lever Un’altra facciata ricurva scelta per ragioni quasi barocco, non sai cosa ti aspetta e poi lo funzionaliste è quella della sede della College Life vedi […]». Phyllis Lambert, How a Building Gets House e il 9 di West 57th Street aprirono «la gabbia delle Insurance a Indianapolis, nell’Indiana, progettata Built, in «Vassar Alumnae Magazine», 44, 3, norme di zonizzazione». da Roche-Dinkeloo and Associates nel 1970. febbraio 1959, pp. 13-19. L’effetto in questione oyt H /Wo lfgang

10 Gordon Bunshaft 4/5 casabella 880 ESTO creasing source of a persistent, monumen- Walter Netsch), the young men whom he façade. (A design very similar to this be- The view of Central Park from 9 West 57th other medieval city»�. Lever House became Life Insurance, Indianapolis, Indiana, 1970. the market. For example, Giacometti’s The neoclassical inspiration remained. The page 5 tal form of environmental abuse that is a had bossed around when they were finding comes the basis for the W.R. Grace Build- Street is singular. the symbol for the age of post-war opti- 9 Brubaker quoted in Oral History of C. Wil- Pointing Man sold at auction for $140 mil- same space continued to host the growing cause of critical concern». their feet at the Air Force Academy in Colo- ing on 42nd Street)11. Solow, at one point, Time has moderated judgments. What mism described by Lewis Mumford as «an liam Brubaker, interviewed by Betty J. Blum lion in 2015. Solow’s sometime eccentric market, which had never strayed away 9 West 57th Street, New York (1971–74): Some called SOM “arrogant,” she said. rado Springs (Netsch, 1954–62) and Inland was concerned that the design did not offer Huxtable lamented in Bunshaft’s taste for implicit symbol of hope for a peaceful (Chicago: Department of Architecture, the behavior is well known. He has been de- from the area: the transitional arrange- The Bell-Bottom Skyscraper For her, however, it was merely «a simple Steel, Chicago (Graham and Netsch, 1955– corner offices, something he thought es- travertine is, today, a rare piece of grace: a world»22. A quarter of a century later, values Art Institute of Chicago, 2000), p. 76. Bru- scribed as «the real estate industry’s –and ment became permanent thanks to a Nicholas Adams case of hardening of the arteries of archi- 58). Graham had built Hancock Center in sential for rental prospects and, while he white carpet laid out before the building. had shifted. The audacious lines of 9 West baker also cites an unbuilt sloping façade perhaps America’s– most litigious man». structure composed of cast iron pillars 9 West 57th Street, also known as the Solow tectural ideas». Even so, her conclusion Chicago (1965–70), his own iconic tower, a conceded on that point, he was insistent Indeed, the clarity of the lines of 9 West 57th Street were symbols for the seeming design by I.M. Pei for the New York Stock Daniel Geiger, “The Upheaval of Sheldon and metal roofs, replacing the tradition- Building, is one of the most controversial was merciless: «[T]he let-them-eat-traver- black-glassed truncated obelisk with its that the design needed improvement12. 57th stand out against the common banali- indifference of capital to the ordinary man Exchange as his possible source. Emery Solow,” Commercial Observer, 8 August al stalls with their impermanent buildings in the long career of Gordon Bun- tine perfectionism of SOM superstar Gor- exposed structural frame that had captured The design ultimately approved has two ty of most architecture along 57th Street. on the street and to the adjacent buildings. Roth built a sloping facade fifteen-story ad- 2012. awnings. At the start of the 1900s a gate shaft. New Yorkers refer to it as «the ski- don Bunshaft is seldom less than belliger- critical and public attention. The Sears equivalent sloping façades facing north The “bad manners” attack of the 1970s was Forty years on the decorum of 9 West 57th dition to 55 Water Street (1969–1972). Ar- 20 Bunshaft took special pride in the re- was opened on the Rambla with modern slope building», and «the building with the ently antihuman these days». 9 West 57th Tower (1971–73) was underway, too. For a and south. Gray tinted glass without obvi- a sign of the developing conflict between a Street is no longer a subject of discussion chitectural Record was wholly positive in sponse of Jean Dubuffet.«He was just crazy glazing, but the space behind the market bell-bottom pants», or identify it by Ivan and its twin on 42nd Street were «slaps in comparable result, Bunshaft needed a bold ous horizontal division is set into a curving powerful architect and his wealthy and will- as the city has changed around it. The party their description of the new building de- about the Solow Building, and I gave him a –facing Plaça de la Gardunya– continued Chermayeff’s massive steel plate red num- the city’s face. They are disdainfully anti- entrepreneur-developer like Jerry Wolman travertine frame: the smooth surface of the ful client, and a rising group who thought walls are no longer so raw, the sharp edged scribing it as «like a huge ribbed sail caught little model of it». See Oral History of Gor- to be neglected for a long time: it formed ber 9 facing east towards Fifth Avenue. street, excruciatingly awkward in their con- who had initiated the Hancock Center pro- façade rushes down towards the street. the city at its best when it resembled a quilt clarity of its lines are welcome, the dizzying in the Chicago wind». See, “The First Na- don Bunshaft, p. 210. the courtyard of one of the city’s jails – Sometimes it is paired with its lesser frater- nections to their neighbors and [in the case ject. Solow could be that man, the kind of The entry lobby from 57th Street is compar- of small vibrant pieces. 9 West 57th Street effects of its height accepted, and the com- tional Bank of Chicago,” Architectural Re- 21 Letter from R.C. Wilson to Louis Skid- “gardunya” is a name coined by crimi- nal twin, the W.R. Grace Building (1114 Av- of 9 West 57th Street] belligerently disrup- tough-minded client that he thought atively undramatic – and a shopping zone was hardly the first offender or the worst; parative originality of its shape almost con- cord 148 (March 1970), pp. 137–40; quota- more, 7 April 1952. Letter is in the files of nals – and temporary produce markets; enue of the Americas) on 42nd Street facing tive of the skyline seen from Central Park brought out his best. On Solow, Bunshaft (that never materialized) was planned for the street had long been a bellwether for ventional by comparison with many of the tion p. 139. Louis Skidmore Jr., Houston, Texas. later, it gradually became a parking area, Bryant Park (1971–74): Bunshaft’s two South»3. It was stinging criticism from a noted: «I fight back. I like being a bastard». the basement. (Today a restaurant called change. new buildings. Their architects, indeed, 10 Bunshaft’s description of Solow is re- 22 Lewis Mumford, “House of Glass,” The a logistical space for loading and contemporaneous sloping facades, the critic who had, in the past, been supportive Bunshaft proposed what he called a Brasserie 8 ½ incongruously designed by In 1912, The New York Times com- may look back to Bunshaft, for Lever House vealing: «He was difficult because he was a New Yorker 28 (9 August 1952), p. 54. unloading of trucks, a noisy, chaotic only true sloping facades in New York. 9 of Gordon Bunshaft and SOM. What pro- “bell-bottom” skyscraper––at a time when Hugh Hardy in 2000 occupies the space). plained that tall buildings had begun to in- and for 9 West 57th when Gordon Bunshaft promoter. He wasn’t building something for space without precise boundaries, West 57th Street, though universally agreed voked this unanticipated rebuke? the fashion in clothes had just been intro- At the second story, over the entrance, the filtrate the once-upper class residential cut through «the corset of zoning regula- his own use. But he was unusual in these marked by constant movement, scat- to be the better of the two, is also the build- Sheldon H. Solow is a New York real es- duced––a sloping, tapered block. It met massive travertine frame holds the lower street: an eight-story structure at 12 East tions». promoter types in that he wanted a fine page 14 tered, without facades... But what about 1 th ing that broke Bunshaft’s reputation . tate legend. Born in 1929, his father, Isaac the city’s complex zoning regulations for edge and diverts rainwater. Steel diagonal 57 Street and a nine-story structure at 10 building». Oral History of Gordon Bunshaft,, In the mutable core of the city the Escola Massana? The institute th In the summer of 1972 Gordon Bun- was a bricklayer and successful builder, “sky exposure” that ensured the proper cross-beams form X’s on the flanks and and 12 West 57 Street. Moreover, as the Notes p. 256. Juan José Lahuerta founded in 1929 “temporarily” – for shaft was the subject of a flattering story in operating in Brooklyn. Wiped out by the De- amounts of light and air reached the street, serve to brace the structure. On 57th Street newspaper reported, between Fifth and Acknowledgements: I am grateful for dis- 11 It is reported that Bunshaft sold that ini- almost 90 years! – occupied the spaces of The New York Times Magazine. Entitled pression, father and son went into business and it avoided the old-fashioned wedding the building is set back from the street line Sixth Avenues, «eight houses have already cussions with Sheldon O. Solow and for tial design to Swig, Weiler, Arnow who used The new Escola Massana is on Plaça de the Hospital de la Santa Creu, which “The Establishment’s architect-plus”, the together in 1952 completing an apartment cake solution (never a likely choice) as well and rests on a travertine apron that runs to been given over to trade», and others were counsel from David Childs, Carter Horsley, it for the development of 1114 Avenue of the la Gardunya, right behind the Boqueria over the centuries had changed its uses. article was a glowing account of the archi- complex, Sheldon Gardens, in Brooklyn as the conventional modernist shaft. It also the curb. expected to follow as the signs on their fa- Alexander Luckmann, Matthew Postal, and Americas (on 42nd Street), originally known market (officially known as the market Renovations and additions were made, tect’s life and work and of his long relation- with a $592,000 mortgage loan. Thereaf- maximized interior space in a situation Opinions ranged widely on 9 West 57th cades («To Let For Business») proclaimed. Ryan Quinlan. as the W.R. Grace Building: a deal in which of Sant Josep), whose main entrance –as without any order or logic, giving rise to ship with SOM. Whatever the talk about col- ter, the younger Solow developed houses, where each square foot equaled rental dol- – but the overwhelming opinion was nega- With its easy connections to the Queens- 1 On 9 West 57th Street, see Carol Herselle Bunshaft came off as a ruthless salesman millions of tourists know– faces the the legendary labyrinth that was lective spirit, and however many times apartment buildings, and a shopping center lars: 9 West 57th Street had 1.5 million tive. The respected head of the city’s Office boro Bridge (to the east), «commercial Krinsky, Gordon Bunshaft of Skidmore, Ow- and Solow as a refined judge of architec- Rambla, a few meters up from Pla de la undoubtedly a true attraction, but also Bunshaft gave credit to his fellow partners on Long Island. In 1962 he moved to Man- square feet of office space. The building of Midtown Planning, Jaquelin T. Robertson growth», the newspaper noted, «is bound ings & Merrill (New York: Architectural His- ture. (9 West 57th is the better building). Boqueria, which gives the site its one of the biggest problems of this and collaborators in the interview, the au- hattan where he built a distinctive apart- was newsworthy, too. The journalist Walter regretted the failure to hold the street line to be rapid»�. Dressmaking establishments, tory Foundation, 1988); Robert A.M. Stern, Whether such an exchange actually took unofficial name. Official and popular marvelous school of arts and crafts. thor still concluded that the real “star” of ment building (501 East 87th Street), the McQuade in Fortune Magazine noted that and the subsequent exposure of the unat- antique dealers, art galleries (Pace, Valen- Thomas Mellins, David Fishman, New York place still requires independent confirma- place names, squares and plazas, In short: the MARROW –the core and the firm was Bunshaft: SOM was simply un- first built since the war with fireplaces. The within «the corset of zoning regulations» tractive party walls of adjoining buildings. tine, André Seligmann), and piano show- 1960: Architecture and Urbanism between tion. accesses that change their position... we the brain– of Barcelona has been a imaginable without him. In the previous next hurdle was 9 West 57th Street where Bunshaft was changing his «angular style He would, he said, do everything in his pow- rooms (Steinway, Chickering) soon moved the Second World War and the Bicentennial 12 Bunshaft’s patience seems to have been are right at the center of Barcelona, in precarious place of passage for centu- twenty years in New York, the article point- Edward Durrell Stone’s fifty-story General and giving his buildings more voluptuous er to discourage further construction of in. New cooperative apartment buildings (New York: Monacelli Press, 1995); Carter stretched. Over the question of corner of- the beating heart of the city, the yolk of ries, in a constant state of construction english ed out, the firm had «designed a greater Motors Building, completed in 1968 at the shaping […]. His current penchant is for sloping buildings on midblock plots. Criti- (favored by artists, writers, and musicians) B. Horsley, “9 West 57th Street,” The City fices and what he perceived as Solow’s the egg or the inside of the bone (“Rovell and destruction, liminal, intermediate, number of the first-rate buildings than any corner of Fifth Avenue and 58th Street pro- curving the lower facades of his buildings cism (from the critics Ada Louise Huxtable opened further west, near Carnegie Hall Review, web site: http://www.thecityre- slow pace Bunshaft exploded. «I didn’t de l’ou” and “Pla de l’òs” are two other formless… the most crowded and hectic texts other architect or firm», and the person re- vided the challenge. Long a zone of hotels outward within the setback rules». He quot- and Paul Goldberger) underlined that as- and made the area an uptown Greenwich view.com/. treat him kindly. I was very rude to him». names by which the place is known). But no man’s land one could imagine in the sponsible for their design had been Gordon and apartments, of art galleries, and fash- ed Bunshaft’s characteristically brutal as- sessment. At an awards dinner in 1974, the Village. (The Rolling Stones practiced in 2 David Jacobs, “The Establishment’s ar- Oral History of Gordon Bunshaft, p. 258. over the centuries the same space has beating heart of a city. Bunshaft. Now, the apparent culmination of ionable shops, Stone’s GM Building with its sessment of the problem: «I’m not sure of- Fifth Avenue Association took the unusual studios on 57th Street). Even so, despite the chitect-plus,” The New York Times Maga- See also Krinsky, Gordon Bunshaft, p. 249. also been a barrier, a diaphragm, a gate, This is the PLACE –and “non-place” this extraordinary career had just been an- monumental tower and daily army of com- fice buildings are even architecture. They’re step of citing 9 West 57th Street for its «ur- fears of those who saw the invasion of of- zine, 23 July 1972. 13 Paul Goldberger, “Award-Givers Honor a an opening, an indefinite clearing, an at the same time– in which Carme Pinós nounced: SOM and Bunshaft would design muters turned the southern eastern edge really a mathematical calculation, just ban bad manners»�. Even so, Arthur Drex- fice space as a threat and a danger, 57th 3 Ada Louise Huxtable, “Anti-Street, Anti- Few and Slap a Wrist,” The New York Times, intersection, a zone of temporary has built the new Escola Massana. And New York’s massive Convention Center of Central Park into the northern outpost of three-dimensional investments […]. I think ler, curator at the Architecture Department Street remained, as the art critic Grace People,” The New York Times, 10 June 1973. 2 June 1974. Mr. Robertson was also on the settlement, an unstable perimeter, a not just the school: one of the four sides west of 11th Avenue in midtown. Forty acres the midtown business district. Solow was the zoning laws in this city have done more at the Museum of Modern Art, noted that Glueck wrote in 1983, «the city’s main drag 4 The Squibb Building at 40 West 57th (ar- jury. For the opinions of Robertson, Wallace mere boundary... of Plaça de la Gardunya –the one facing in size, this structure would vault over the one of the first to recognize the possibilities damage than any goddamn architect»7. As for all the learned criticism, 9 West 57th for art»�. The status of 57th Street was in- chitect: Jack Brown) completed in 1972 was Harrison, and Minoru Yamasaki, see Carter With extreme pith: the Boqueria was the market (to the west)– is occupied by West Side Highway out into the Hudson of the new area4. Using “dummy” corpora- at Lever House (1952), his radical solution Street «quite literally stops people in the deed confirmed as SoHo became a tourist the first office tower on the street. Tall R. Horsley, “Sloping Office Buildings Make one of the gates of the first medieval the magnificent medieval wall of the River. Bunshaft was understandably excit- tions to disguise his plans, he slowly as- for 9 West 57th Street broke with New York street; the immense curved glass wall is an trap18. On its own, 9 West 57th Street did not apartment buildings had been moving Provocative Midtown Debut,” The New York walled enclosure of Barcelona, which Hospital de la Santa Creu; on the other ed. After so many office towers, he had sembled the pieces – fourteen separate City conventions. exhilarating spectacle, not as architecture destroy the heterogeneous nature of the westwards from the East River since World Times, 26 March 1972. followed the line traced by the Rambla three sides there are three structures, tired of them: «they’re all sort of imperson- parcels had to be purchased meaning four- The sloping tower had no long history but as urban theater, as fascinating as a street. For many years, in fact, Solow’s own War II. 14 Arthur Drexler, “Introduction,” The Archi- today; two streets and several waterways designed by the same hand. In effect, al, rentable spaces», he commented – teen separate negotiations each carrying but there was one significant recent mod- fountain»14. What Bunshaft managed in the art collection (with works by Kline, Baltus, 5 The plans are announced in The New York tecture of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, converged here, and every day a market thanks to successive commissions –it is seemingly oblivious to the fact that he was the risk that his plan would be discovered. el8. In Chicago, the bell-bottomed 60-story gridscape of New York was just what Mies and Bacon among others) has been on view Times, 30 January 1970, p. 77. For an ac- 1963–1973 (Stuttgart: Gerd Hatje, 1974), p. was set up by farmers and shepherds, important to note that this was not a also speaking of his own work. «I like archi- (He even tried to buy the seventeen-build- First National Bank Building (1964–1969) van der Rohe intended when he first in a ground floor gallery – though it keeps count of the assembly of the pieces, see 22. who since they did not enter the city did single project– Carme Pinós has already tecture you don’t have to lie down on your ing block along 5th Avenue between 57th by C.F. Murphy with Perkins & Will, when planned the Seagram Building: to make a no public hours19. Franklin Whitehouse, “A ‘Loner’ Is Building 15 Phyllis Lambert, who served as director not have to pay taxes. In front of the gate designed the rear facade of the market back to see». Even so, he had kind words to and 58th Street occupied by Bergdorf completed, was the tallest building in Chi- building that was, literally, a surprise, “ba- 9 West 57th Street belongs to an era of on 57th Street,” New York Times, 29 March of planning for Joseph E. Seagram, de- stood (without fail) several of the city’s (to the east), the Escola Massana (to the say about 9 West 57th Street, a new west Goodman, the fashionable clothing store, cago. It was a free-standing tower occupy- roque”, to use the analogy employed by refined high design. It makes a convincing 1970. Among the buildings demolished was scribed the effect that the Seagram Build- gallows. When the second walled south), and several residential blocks side tower that was on the boards and and when that failed he tried to buy the air ing a single block. As its designer, C. Wil- Phyllis Lambert who oversaw the construc- statement about structure and has tradi- Paul Rudolph’s office 26 West 58th Street. ing was intended to have in 1954. «This so- enclosure was built, large monasteries that are about to be opened (to the about its client, Sheldon H. Solow. «Very rights). After five years and $12 million he liam Brubaker (1926–2002) reported: tion of the tower for her father15. 9 West 57th tional aesthetic ambitions20. Just down the See Timothy M. Rohan, The Architecture of lution for the building has promise for faced the Boqueria: one was named for north). An extraordinary opportunity bright guy», Bunshaft reported, «very diffi- had assembled a 61,800 square foot site «What we wanted to do was to design a remains a surprise, an anomaly in a city of street is Norman Foster’s triangulated Paul Rudolph (New Haven, Yale University terrific things –set back you hardly see it Sant Josep –hence the market’s official and responsibility: we might say that cult […]. But he really cares about making running between 57th and 58th Street, just building that was not a copy of a Mies build- right angles. Hearst Tower (300 West 57th Street) com- Press, 2014), p. 180. from the street coming up or down the Av- name– and right behind it, at the site of Carme Pinós has been very lucky; but that a good building, and he gets a lot of west of 5th Avenue. He needed a building to ing and not a copy of what was going on in Lost in the criticism was a proper ap- pleted in 2006 – still strangely at war with 6 According to Bunshaft his partners se- enue but now what an impression– when today’s Plaça de la Gardunya, stood the given the results, I would also like to pride out of it». Though the conclusion of rival Stone’s to become the new anchor for Europe or even around the rest of the Unit- preciation of Bunshaft’s achievement. It is Joseph Urban’s six story base (1926–28). lected him to work for Solow. Oral History you arrive there –almost Baroque, you don’t convent of Santa Maria de Jerusalem. emphasize the fact that Barcelona has the article foresaw the arrival of a new development along 57th Street – so he ed States». Brubaker’s design responded bold. It seems almost as if Bunshaft had Midtown West, as the area of Manhattan is of Gordon Bunshaft, interviewed by Betty J. know what is there then you come upon IT». Further on there was the imposing Goth- also been very lucky. movement led by Robert Venturi that would needed distinctive architecture5. SOM was to the bank’s need for a super-wide open taken two great swipes of his pen to make now called, has recently become the focus Blum (Chicago: Art Institute, 1990, revised Lambert, “How a Building Gets Built,” Vas- ic complex of the Hospital de la Santa Faced with a challenge of this scope, soon dethrone Bunshaft’s modernism, his choice and the SOM partners gave the floor for check processing. «What we were the frame (held together by the scissors of the new craze for supertall residential edition, 2000), p. 257. sar Alumnae Magazine 44:3, February 1959, Creu, which at the end of the 1400s the temptation might arise to ORDER from the point of view of public relations, commission to Bunshaft––but the building trying to do was analyze a new kind of a cross-beams) and stopped. The travertine needle towers: buildings so thin that they 7 Walter McQuade, “A Daring New Genera- pp. 13-19). That effect was quickly lost gathered together all the hospitals of this paradoxically central and liminal the article represents the high point for Solow wanted could look nothing like Man- problem and come up with a new kind of and the darkened plane of the facade un- require no setbacks; so tall that they gain tion of Skyscrapers: office buildings with when the apartment building to the north Barcelona. Moving forward a few urban nucleus once and for all, to try to Bunshaft’s reputation in New York2. hattan’s recent skyscrapers6. solution. I think we did do that»�. Bunshaft’s derline the power of its structure so that extraordinary views like 9 W. 57th Street. On vivid shapes are adding zest and grandeur was demolished as Seagram reached com- centuries, in 1835 there was an uprising make it definitively “central” through Less than a year later Ada Louise For Bunshaft, Solow’s challenge was solution, while borrowing the profile, lacked the building stands, to echo the words of 57th Street alone there are four, either com- to city skylines,” Fortune 87 (February pletion. By contrast with Seagram, 9 West in Barcelona, and several churches and architectural measures of rigor, clarity Huxtable, the highly respected architecture welcome. The early 1970s had been a diffi- Chicago’s functionalist justification: 9 West the architect Louis Sullivan about H.H. pleted or under construction: 432 Park Av- 1973), pp. 78-82; 150–152. (see p. 81) 57th has a front and a back! monasteries were destroyed by fire, and uniformity... as had been unsuc- critic for The New York Times, was far less cult period for him. Once again he had been 57th Street just maximized rental space and Richardson’s Marshall Field Warehouse enue on 57th Street (Rafael Viñoly); 111 W 8 There were two precedents in New York: 16 “Towering Lofts in Fifty-Seventh Street including Sant Josep; year later, in 1868, cessfully attempted halfway through the flattering. In her review of 9 West 57th constrained to reinvent himself. Glass and created a distinctive, attention-grabbing (1885), «as the oration of one who knows 57th Street (SHoP); 157 West 57th Street 404 Tenth Avenue (originally Midtown Indicate Rapidity of Business Invasion,” The in the midst of new revolutionary 1800s by the designers of the large, Street – Bunshaft and Solow’s “good build- steel, the skin and bones of the 1950s and design10. well how to choose his words, who has (Christian de Portzamparc); 215 West 57th Mart), an awkward 15-story loft structure New York Times, 25 August 1912. unrest, Santa Maria de Jerusalem was regular plaza with its slim Ionic col- ing” – entitled “Anti-Street, Anti-People”, early1960s had been the signature for the Solow rejected Bunshaft’s first design. something to say and says it –and says it as Street (Adrian Smith). Their scale will trans- and the National Maritime Union Building at 17 Grace Glueck, “Expressionism Meets also torched. When the monasteries had umns. In effect, if we examine the she took Bunshaft and the whole of SOM to first Bunshaft period (from Lever House to Bunshaft sunk the piers behind the façade the outpouring of a copious, direct, large form the skyline of Central Park South more 17th Street. The latter, designed by the ar- Minimalism,” The New York Times, 18 Feb- been demolished and their vast lots had projects submitted for the various task: «What, then, has gone awry? Because Pepsi Cola); the concrete boxes of the and in the sloping façade is stiff, the piers and simple mind». It is also an exciting radically than 9 West 57th did in the 1970s. chitect Joseph Ledner and completed in ruary 1983. been freed up for use, the municipal competitions held by the municipal something has gone wrong at SOM, and 1960s done with the engineer Paul Wei- meeting the ground as vertical trunks. The building – exciting because it is a hidden In 1952 Gordon Bunshaft and SOM 1966 is covered with “portholes” and the 18 Robert Lipsyte, “Why My Art Dealer administration decided to make a administration, we can immediately see saying so is a little like attacking the Pope. dlinger (from the Beinecke Library to awkward slope begins two-thirds of the discovery, exciting too because looking up completed Lever House, the key postwar sloping sides are meant to evoke a ship. Moved to 57th Street,” The New York Times, splendid plaza with porticos precisely in that this was precisely the main tempta- But what professionals are saying in pri- Banque Lambert) identified the second way up the façade; the lateral panels of the the façade from the street provokes a giddy tower that transformed New York. It was Neither could have factored significantly in 21 April 1996. A number of galleries moved the “Rovell de l’ou” with regular facades tion: to put an end to the “chaos” thanks vate, and what should be aired in public, is Bunshaft period. Now, Bunshaft could feel tower look like little more than ventilation elation. By contrast Bruce Graham’s Han- received rapturously. As a correspondent Bunshaft’s thinking. A proposal for the New north, see also Amei Wallach, “Overrun: and magnificent Ionic columns. This to imposing buildings, an architecture that there has been an evolution of design the hot breath of a new historicist genera- louvers and spandrels mark the floor divi- cock Center looks fussy; the structure wrote to Louis Skidmore: «[I]t has made the York Stock Exchange by Henry Cobb and SoHo’s Art World Shifts Ground,” The New square was never completed, and only with a vigorous physique and a severe needs and philosophy that has somehow tion (the Venturis and their like) and the sions. As a design this early project lacks shields residents from the view; and meets surrounding buildings look so squalid that I I.M. Pei was not built. Another sloping fa- York Times, 12 May 1996. certain sections of the porticos were visage (how can one otherwise embody passed the firm right by. SOM’s consistently pressure for status from the upstarts in the structural expressivity of the Chicago the street in a confusion that has been re- now even think that the once admired Rac- çade also adopted for functionalist reasons 19 The works are on view through the glass built: bordering the large space, only a the face of power?) that could bring quality-conscious buildings are also the in- SOM’s Chicago office (Bruce Graham and bank and seems ill-at-ease with the curving peatedly renovated but barely improved. quet Club belongs in Florence or some is Roche-Dinkeloo and Associates, College at street level. Recently some have come on few disconnected elements of vaguely discipline to the frenetic comings and

90 english texts casabella 880 91 goings of a city that has always set up view, always easy to decipher– “skillful- in this solid and at the same time wrongdoers and to protect property.» recalled by one of Wright’s most gifted col- which Wright had to constantly come to as an exception in Wright’s career, though these episodes there was also Robert Mo- two years before his death, and after iden- camp –literally– in this place as it ly” connected by our very footsteps. The mutable core of the city of Barcelona. In this atmosphere, and in a city de- laborators, Marion Mahony Griffin. This terms, starting in particular with his plan to that should not imply that the premises for ses, the omnipotent Park Commissioner of tifying the area for the construction of the pleased. The projects by Carme Pinós same idea is even more visible and at the signed with a grid of streets intersecting at conception represents the framework in involve the Swiss architect in the Hillside which the project represented one of the New York, and the “cousin” of Wright. But it opera house on an island in the Tigris, move in precisely the opposite direction. same time even more subtle, if that is right angles, Wright made his debut as an which Levine also examines the project for Home School of Allied Arts he built in 1902 conclusions should be seen as “anomalies.” was thanks to one of his most loyal clients, Wright was asked to prepare the plan for Starting with that of the rear “facade” of possible, in the facade of the school on page 86 independent architect. For him, Levine the famous house designed by Wright in at Spring Green, later incorporated in the In the sixth chapter the book delves into Edgar Kaufmann, that Wright received the the entire monumental center of the Iraqi the market, which stands out –precisely the plaza: two blocks with diverging writes, the grid was the «fundamental 1900 for the Ladies’ Home Journal, pre- Taliesin Fellowship, from the project for the the project developed by Wright starting in commission to design the Point Park Civic capital. To justify this ambition he present- Frank Lloyd Wright, “Baroque” the opposite of a facade– for its set of orientation that pivot on an imaginary framework of the metropolitan condition.» sented as part of a “prairie community.” St. Mark’s Towers (1927–29) and the elo- 1938 for the civic center of Madison, for Center of Pittsburgh. Therefore taking ed himself to public opinion and the Bagh- Francesco Dal Co sloping roofs that avoid imposing the hinge, another reference to the past of This “foundation of democracy” was the This episode of Wright’s career is covered quent review of the English edition in 1927 which the Monoma Terrace Community and stock, as Levine punctually does, of the fact dad authorities as the defender of the vast bulk of the iron structure and the the site, the historical “hinge” of the life After having set a milestone in the field of premise from which to identify the alterna- by an entire chapter of the book, describing of Vers une architecture, published in 1928 Convention Center built decades after the that this job was assigned to Wright during «characteristic beauties of the Middle view of its cross-section on the plaza, of the city. The elevations are formed by studies on the work and figure of Frank tive both to the «Baroque system» which all the projects commissioned to different in World Unity 2 and entitled Towards a architect’s death provides but a faded im- the course of a dinner held in May 1946 at East,» but also as a censor, Levine reminds instead linking back to what has always bars arranged in horizontal and vertical Lloyd Wright, with the publication of The the construction of the Columbian Exposi- architects and published in the magazine New Architecture. The subtitle of the chap- age or inexact recollection. In this project Fallingwater, the famous residence he de- us, of the «materialistic influences of the defined this space: stands, awnings, fields, as if to form an immense jalousie. Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright (see tion of 1893, where Daniel Burnham was with the aim of offering readers models of ter in which Levine focuses on the develop- Wright had to approach an urban planning signed for Kaufmann about ten years earli- West» which «I hope,» Wright remarked in stalls that shift forward or back, On one side, then, the facade is light- «Casabella» no. 661, November 1998), Neil the director of works, had made popular, affordable suburban homes. The chapter ment of the relationship between Wright problem that had remained open since the er, should not be seen as emphasis on a a conversation, «will never reach Iraq.» following the fluctuating and lively ened, taking on the image of a jalousie Levine has devoted 20 more years to his and to the new residential suburbs where fails to fully satisfy, because the excessive and Le Corbusier after the second half of time when a valid architect, John Nolen, at simple, curious coincidence. Apart from this nimble move, quite the op- rhythm of the Boqueria. In a way, or, even more aptly, of a shutter – the encyclopedic approach to his chosen curved streets transformed the subdivision detail of the description of the projects pre- the 1920s reads as follows: Broadacre the start of the 20th century, designed the In a short time span, Wright developed posite with respect to those he made when though on a different scale, the same aerial and mobile frame that has always theme, namely the work of the great archi- of lots into a «pleasing and gracious sented in Ladies’ Home Journal winds up City’s Ruralist Alternative to Le Corbusier’s plan of Madison, a city located a few miles two different projects for the Point Park addressing issues of existing features in solution has also been applied in the been used, together with awnings, to tect born in 1867 in Richland Center, Wis- whole,» in keeping with what was said making it hard to grasp the originality of the Urbanism. Readers have to be discerning to from Taliesin East, where Wright had built Civic Center. The first called for the com- his projects for Pittsburgh and Washington projects of the residential blocks and of protect the temporary stalls of the old consin, who died in Phoenix, Arizona in about the settlement of Riverside, de- one developed by Wright, which offers a grasp the meaning and above all the scope several houses. In this case as in others, pletion of the Golden Triangle with an im- DC, for example, Wright made another that the Escola Massana, which rely on the market. On the other, the plane is 1959. The results are seen in another book, signed by Frederick Law Olmsted and Cal- tangible demonstration of the distance at of the opposition –misleading, to some ex- Levine again seems too tenacious in his re- posing construction with a circular base was even more significant. As we look back dynamism of alignments, the balance of converted into structure thanks to the whose 446 demand unusual commitment vert Vaux in 1869. At Riverside Wright built the time between his ideas and current pro- tent– between the terms “ruralism” and construction of the events prior to the as- that would rise like the Tower of Babel, on it, we are inevitably reminded of the horizontal and vertical parts, the arrangement of the fields of aligned and patience on the part of readers, but al- two villas, one of which was destined to re- fessional practice. “urbanism.” To explain this face-off, the signment of the commission to Wright to while the second focused on a different hy- harsh positions he held against the archi- sequence of terraces and infinite parallel bars –first horizontal, then so reward them for their efforts with a har- main in the ranks of his masterpieces, the As they approach the fifth chapter of book makes wide use of references to design the new civic center of the city, and pothesis that also starting with the reserva- tects of “European origin who have immi- degrees of size. vertical– around large square openings. vest of information accompanied by fine il- Coonley House (1909). But precisely the the book, readers are faced with a turning Wright’s writings from the second half of he fails to address the perplexities raised tions expressed regarding the previous grated in the United States,” also defined Looking at the plan of Plaça de la This is clearly an interpretation of a lustrations. Given the disconcerting and rigidly orthogonal layout of the Coonley point. Levine no longer concentrates on the 1920s, and above all to Modern Archi- by the proposal itself. While it is not admis- version assigned a decisive role to the res- by him as «left-wing modernists,» whom he Gardunya, we can immediately see what well-known Japanese pattern –in engaging characteristics of Wright’s works, House demonstrates that he was not inter- projects for the suburbs, but on the city and tecture: Being the Kahn Lectures for 1930 sible on a historical plane to compare this olution of infrastructural issues. In the sec- listed among the most stubborn enemies Carme Pinós has decided to make in substance, the same one used by Gaudí the experimental tension lurking in the main ested in the «artificial naturalism of River- its growth in the age of mechanization and from 1931, for which Levine acted as editor project for a «stage set for public gather- ond case, in fact, Wright imagined building of his project for the Guggenheim Museum this emblematic segment of the city: she in the design of the shutters of Casa episodes of his very vast and variable out- side,» a factor Levine believes is «crucial to the spread of the automobile. In 1924 of a new edition in 2008. This opposition is ings,» Levine writes, with a work that can be a tower whose summit would reach a in New York, which was under construction has set out to mend, and I am not using Vicens– which like all the patterns of put, flanked by many writings that cannot understand how Wright came to terms with Wright announced that he wanted to move based on the antithetical interpretations defined in the same manner like the Midway height of about 300 meters, also function- in 1957, the year of his trip to Baghdad. In that term as a hackneyed metaphor, but this type links back to the weave of be reduced to a stringent or unified intel- the urban problem in this period.» The pag- to Chicago, to the heart of the city whose made by Le Corbusier and Wright regarding Gardens of 1914, for example, whose ing as a support pylon of the stays of the fact, in a letter cited by Levine, with the in a literal sense. According to the fabrics or wicker. lectual trajectory, the theme approached by es on these topics contain one of the future would be decided by the rational ex- the possibility that existing cities could be meaning also from the standpoint of urban bridges, bringing out the «prominent role usual accurate documentation, he takes dictionary, to mend means to sew a tear In the design of Carme Pinós the Levine has been the background of many book’s most interesting and demanding ploitation of the potential offered by the reformed to meet the needs of the “ma- planning implications cannot be over- played by traffic considerations,» Levine stock of the number of architects involved in a fabric “connected the edges with conscious suggestion of the act of studies and research projects, but without passages. Not by chance, in fact, what is spread of the use of cars and by the appli- chine age civilization.” It came from the looked, such a comparison is admissible writes, translated into the definition of an by the Iraqi government in the projects for orderly stitches and seams,” and in weaving, of mending tears through ever coming to the surface except in limit- introduced by the observations on River- cation of an unprecedented tool of regula- contrasting meanings and values the two only because it allows us to gauge the dis- infrastructural note shaped as «a monu- the capital, stating in the authoritative tone another sense “to skillfully connect one “orderly stitches and seams,” is there- ed, sporadic cases. The American scholar side is the coherent development of the tion of urban growth –zoning– adopted in architects assigned to the city: for Le Cor- tance that separates the works we have mental overpass.» In spite of the mediation he knew how to use to effect that he had thing to another.” Observing the roofs of fore not glimpsed only in the way the should be given credit for having granted considerations set forth by Levine in his ex- New York in 1916 and shortly thereafter in busier the city is always the repository of its encountered thus far in the book from what of Kaufmann, the Pittsburgh project also realized he had «arrived too late to save the the market sloping down to reach architecture adapts to a particularly center stage to the ways in which Wright amination of the houses built by Wright, in the city facing Lake Michigan. Also in 1924 past, as expressed in the words he spoke Wright imagined and represented in an em- remained on the drawing board, though it is country from the invasion of western pro- minimum size near the plaza, and the complex urban fabric, or in the way the approached the contemporary city in its this case on the lots defined by a grid layout –and this is not a negligible coincidence– and wrote to defend the «intangible values» phatic, rhetorical way for Madison. still a demonstration of how Wright set out fessional architects.» On 9 April 1959 residential buildings and Escola various blocks of the building are joined most general meanings, but also in its in another suburb of Chicago, Oak Park – Wright began to work on one of the pro- of the Casbah of Algiers, for example; for Levine tells a different and more en- to interpret “the need for a new monumen- Wright died, and the Greater Baghdad pro- Massana as they settle comfortably into by walkways: the facade itself is trans- minute aspects often seen as being of little reached by the railway only in 1872, we jects that best illustrate how he imagined Wright, on the other hand, also relying on gaging tale in the book’s eighth chapter. tality,” to take Levine’s suggestion to refer ject was left in the form of a series of draw- lots bristling with complications, formed into a large piece of fabric that importance, aspects which make every should recall, confirming the speed of the coming to terms with the urban implica- what we can read in the Kahn Lectures, in Here he explains how «the largest architec- to the title of a well-known essay published ings that reveal certain affinities with those irregular, crushed by the powerful void does not allude only to the awnings and work of architecture, to differing extents, transformation of the city in the second half tions of tall buildings, avoiding slavish ad- particular where he discusses the «tyranny tural job ever given to a single man,» a pro- by Sigfried Giedion in 1944. But unlike made for Pittsburgh. left by history, we can get a perfect sense shutters of the market –to what is also the product of the various ways the city of the 1800s. To grasp the potential of ur- aptation to the mechanical transcriptions of of the skyscraper,» and on what Levine has ject comparable to those prepared for what Giedion asserted by defining the new Levine concludes the pages on this last of what is meant by “orderly stitches and mobile and temporary– but also influences its life. ban development based on a uniform geo- the dictates of zoning in the modes of their written, the city is a record. For Wright the Rockefeller Center, as it was said at the urban centers that cities would have to major project by supplying an intelligent re- seams,” gestures that in the end becomes a metaphor of the entire Based on this historical approach, Lev- metric layout of the lots, a constituent trait conception and configuration, as demon- sole alternative was to “take the city to the time, was assigned to Wright in 1940 by a equip to reflect the aspirations of a society sponse, though not unexpected at this represent the guarantee of a successful project in the context of the city, of the ine has retraced Wright’s career, laying the of the “American civilization,” working on strated by the magnificent Skyscraper country,” to re-establish it starting with an not fully reliable client. Though involving that now wanted to make use of «collective, point, to the question the last chapters of “connection between one thing and HEART of the city. There is no distinc- groundwork for an original interpretation of building typologies to challenge the dis- Regulation Project that came two years infrastructural system capable of respond- more modest quantities, this project for emotional events» as “stages” of an original his book, in particular, tend to raise. After another,” not imposed or forced by the tion between figure and background, his work. The book takes its cue from the tinctively repetitive character of this settle- later, whose importance is suitably empha- ing to the need for individual freedom gen- Washington DC called for the use of an area “civic monumentality,” Wright imagined the having examined the projects covered in architecture, but obtained “through form and structure in the striped moment in which Wright had to come to ment model from within, we might say, be- sized by Levine. The project from 1924 pre- erated by the “mechanization that has tak- of similar size to the one occupied by Rock- reordering of the apex of the Golden Trian- the volume, he wonders if their background skill.” When mending, it is essential that surfaces, because the structure is form terms with the sweeping changes in pro- came one of the goals of Wright’s efforts, pared in collaboration with Richard Neutra en command,” to use a famous expression efeller Center, with the construction of 24 gle of Pittsburgh not just as a place sym- might be identified in the “Baroque plan” of the effect remain concealed: the facades and figure. And, in this concrete case, gress in the American society, when he be- as Levine demonstrates by calling our at- and Werner Moser and extensively covered coined by one of his most assiduous coun- buildings with 12 or 14 stories and a taller bolic of the «city’s role in the life of the indi- Burnham and Bennett for Chicago, pre- with which Carme Pinós has reshaped also matter, given the fact that the gan to work in Chicago at a very young age. tention to the projects he prepared for a set by the book is the one for the National Life terparts in the discussion, Lewis Mumford. tower created to contain the world’s largest vidual and the collectivity,» Levine writes, sented in 1909, «with which Wright had Plaça de la Gardunya do not hide, yet ceramic elements of the bars determine In 1834 John Watkins, the first schoolmas- of lots purchased (1895) by one of his loyal Insurance Company, known to many thanks With the reorganization of the city based on hotel, all standing on a podium formed by a but also if not above all as a demonstration grown up.» Having absorbed Burnham’s they skillfully “disguise” all the tears, the consistency and color of the entire ter, had reached Chicago; in 1830 James clients, Charles Roberts, in the village of to a famous perspective published in 1928 new urban planning standards, building ty- shopping center, a theater and a vast park- of the fact that architecture is the sole mak- urging to «make no little plans,» Wright representing –in short– a way of mend- facade. The bars are not exactly form, Thompson did the allotment of the land fac- Ridgeland, again at Oak Park. The project by the Architectural Record. This was a pologies would also take on a different ing area. Conceived as a “city within a city,” er, in a pertinent, complete sense, of the made «big plans» that wound up represent- ing that refrains from self-assertion, color or material, but structure –in the ing Lake Michigan to be sold to finance the prepared for Roberts envisioned a solution building that exploited the overhang and meaning as expressions of alternative life- this project that took an unusual approach spectacles cities are capable of offering. ing, according to Levine, the last episode of carried out in perfect freedom, as has most radical sense of the term– struc- construction of the Illinois and Michigan Wright did not fail to develop during the set out to be “three times lighter and three styles to those aimed at mere fulfillment of to a city jealous of its traditions and its im- The tenth chapter concludes the book, the City Beautiful movement, whose roots always happened since the days when ture that incorporates everything. We Canal, contributing to make Chicago “the course of his career. In it he developed a times more luminous” than those being utilitarian purposes and interests. age was never built. Levine precisely de- and it does so by facing the reader with a went back to the White City that had hosted this site was just a clearing facing a gate have already mentioned the marvelous most right-angled city in the United States.” true typology that would be reworked in built at the time in the center of the city. This vision nurtured for years took form scribes the tribulations and discussions hypothesis of interpretation that is far from the Columbian Exposition in 1893 in Chi- in the walled enclosure, ready to shutters created by Gaudí for Casa About 40 years later, in 1871, a fire swept other situations, placing the constructions Though conceived for a client that wanted after 1934 and assumed an architectural leading to the decision to abandon the pro- obvious or banal. The topic addressed by cago, whose history was known to Wright in welcome all the strata of the simultane- Vicens; we might also make reference to away what remained of the city which the at the corners of each rectangular lot and to make it «one of the attractions of the configuration when the large model of ject, «halfway between traditional center Levine on these pages is the “Plan for every aspect. But for his mentor Louis Sul- ously smooth and jagged history of the “principle of cladding” formulated first mayor, William Ogden, had guided making the central portion, Levine writes, country,» as Levine explains, on this occa- Broadacre City, the most tangible demon- and suburb,» which identified a new per- Greater Baghdad” developed by Wright to- livan the Columbian Exposition did not Barcelona. by Adolf Loos on the basis of the through a phase of strong growth. This «the point of communal tangency.» Recog- sion Wright developed a strategy he would stration of how Wright’s ideas quickly ma- spective for the growth of Washington. In wards the end of his life. The information mark the dawn of a new era. In The Autobi- Finally, let’s examine the facility of theories of Semper. The first architectur- paved the way for the formation of a mod- nizing the seminal value of the first project later apply constantly when approaching tured, taking their distance from the pro- this way, Levine clarifies the terms of an ex- supplied at the start of the chapter is very ography of an Idea Sullivan spoke in no un- the Escola Massana. The plan and al discovery of mankind was that of ern metropolis, involving experimentation for Roberts, Levine has produced several the problem of the skyscraper, both on a posals outlined by Le Corbusier since emplary episode that helps us to under- useful, and could become the basis for certain terms about the assessment of volumes respond perfectly to these cladding; only later did man think about with a formidable set of innovations in the pages that deserve closer attention, dem- design plane and on a theoretical plane. 1922, starting from the plan for a city of stand how conflicts with urban and building new research that without excessive opti- what was represented by the White City. descriptions. In substance, there are the walls that give form to spaces, “the field of construction, in decades of extraor- onstrating that the «new idea of the sub- Though in radically different contexts, this three million inhabitants, was presented to regulations constantly marked Wright’s mism can be seen as having great promise «Thus Architecture died in the land of the three blocks of classrooms, arranged in covering is the earliest architectural dinary vivacity for architectural culture. Af- urb» that thus took form –unlike what is strategy was not conceptually different the public. Levine devotes several pages to career, no less than his idiosyncratic stance on a historical level. Halfway through the free and the home of the brave, in a land de- rows connected by corridors, which have feature,” Loos asserted. The covering ter having reached Chicago in 1887 and usually imagined– was not an alternative to from the one developed, as we have seen, the explanation of the meaning of Broada- on the clichés that nourished the dominant 1950s the Iraqi government decided to claring its fervid democracy, its inventive- been “adapted” to the complex form of and the curtain of which Semper spoke, having worked for Joseph L. Silsbee and the conception behind an equally outstand- to subvert the implications of the grid. As cre City, before concluding by observing mentalities (again, from this viewpoint, the build a series of new complexes in Bagh- ness, its resourcefulness, its unique daring, the lot, creating a place for themselves or the shutter Carme Pinós proposes Adler & Sullivan, Wright frequented circles ing project for the history of American ur- foreseen in the project for the National Life that the anti-urban conception that informs Skyscraper Regulation Project mentioned dad, to accelerate the process of moderni- enterprise and progress. […] The damage inside it: instead of being parallel, as here. But amongst the tools the architect in which one could sense or foresee, as the banism, namely the one developed from Insurance Company, the objective pursued the whole project made it a sort of substan- above is a symptomatic episode). zation of the capital, made plausible by the wrought by the World’s Fair will last for half would be dictated by the typological has used to make order –still temporari- economist Simon Patten wrote shortly 1906 to 1909 under the guidance of Daniel by Wright was once again to “empty from tially sterile programmatic statement, per- The ninth chapter is very extensive, fo- income from oil production and the pro- a century from its date, if not longer,» he model they interpret, two of them open ly– of the city that is impossible to put thereafter in The New Basis of Civilization, Burnham and Edward Bennett for the cent- the inside” the reasoning that already in the haps due to an excess of polemical intent. cusing on the work for a very particular ar- western political climate ushered in by the wrote, before concluding: «For architec- out like fans, while the third is perpen- into order, we seem to also glimpse the that the “age of scarcity” was over. Picking er of Chicago, which was the manifesto, so 1920s had induced many to consider “the The idea that Wright may have shared this ea, the tip of the Golden Triangle of Pitts- Baghdad Pact of 1955 ratified by King ture, be it known, is dead.» Throughout his dicular to the first two. The idea of comb, the rake, the plow. The result of up on this excessively optimistic diagnosis to speak, of the City Beautiful movement. skyscraper an intractable theme,” breaking view is suggested by Levine at the end of burgh, at the meeting point of the Allegheny Faisal. In this context the Iraqi authorities life Wright addressed Sullivan as Lieber mending/sewing is clearly suggested by the project is a structure/fabric that at the start of the 1900s, Benjamin Marsh, While the plan for Chicago presented in up established construction practice on the the sixth chapter, when he remarks that and Monongahela rivers, location of the turned to some of the most famous west- Meister; but, as this book demonstrates, the way the corridors are connected: by undoubtedly directs, arranges, but at a student of Patten and himself a pioneer in 1909, in the wake of what had been done one hand, while only apparently contradict- Wright «never gave much further intellec- city’s financial and business district. Again ern architects, also including Gropius-TAC, the lesson he absorbed was not only the means of walkways –ramps and staircas- the same time speaks without paradox the field of urban planning, using words for the Columbian Exposition in 1893, des- ing itself on the other, imagining the sky- tual or artistic thought to how Broadacre in this case, while supplying as on other oc- Le Corbusier, Dudok, Aalto and Ponti, for a one supplied by the master he had chosen, es– that span the void like “needlefuls” –considering the fact that the bars with which Wright could have agreed, stat- tined to become a model applied in various scraper as a typology suitable to promote a City could evolve,» then stating that this casions such a surplus of information as to series of emblematic projects, such as but also that of Daniel Burnham, in turn the of thread extending from one to the symbolically suggest limits (window ed: «the right of citizens to have leisure American cities, substantially defined what general process of “democratic” decen- project, «in retrospect, seems more an test the attention span of any reader, Levine those of the courthouse, the stadium and alter ego of Sullivan, though during the other, and between the various levels, bars, barriers…)– of the space that time, health, protection against illness, nor- would be the monumental core of the new tralization, based on the spread of grid- anomaly than representative of Wright’s ar- has reconstructed the events involving the university. For the opera house as- course of his career Wright was able to fuse marking a direction that suggests a contains movement, the to and fro, the mal employment, to live in conditions that metropolis, it was not in contradiction with based allotments. chitecture as a whole.» The pages to follow various institutions and organizations signed to him, Wright prepared «one of the them together, accomplishing what only a circular route (walkway/corridor, life that disrupts boundaries –as has do not threaten their wellbeing and effi- what Wright was exploring and imagining At this point, the pages of the book be- confirm that Levine has been correct, as he through which an attempt was made to give most elaborate, symbolically charged cultivator of paradox, a man who has no pa- walkway/corridor...) through the various happened many times across the ciency, is about to be recognized as the for the purpose of granting suburban set- gin to be filled by a cumbersome presence, reaches this rather original conclusion, in a definitive order to this privileged portion buildings» of his career, Levine observes. tience with the commonplace and no fear parts of the building –always in full centuries, and will continue to happen– equal of the right of the state to punish tlements the dignity of a true community, as that of Le Corbusier, and alter ego with his definition of the Broadacre City project of Pittsburgh. Among those involved in After having visited Baghdad in 1957, just of contradictions, can do.

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