Liberating Urban Architecture (The Merging of the Virtual and the Real)

ctbuh.org/papers

Title: Liberating Urban Architecture (The Merging of the Virtual and the Real)

Author: Peter Paul Hoogendoorn, Peter Pran + H Architects LLC

Subject: Urban Design

Keywords: Technology Urbanization

Publication Date: 2001

Original Publication: CTBUH 2001 6th World Congress, Melbourne

Paper Type: 1. Book chapter/Part chapter 2. Journal paper 3. Conference proceeding 4. Unpublished conference paper 5. Magazine article 6. Unpublished

Visionary creativity and innovative thinking in architecture and engineering are liberating us and allowing us to develop outstanding new solutions for buildings and urban design. Our close architect-engineer-developer collaboration and trust makes everything possible. Our work and design visions are on the edge, celebrating complexity, layered meanings and instability ushered in by the 21st century. Today, the real and virtual worlds are rapidly crossing paths, exploding our perceptions of where and how we live and work. Boundaries of all kinds are breaking down, providing opportunities for change in a tectonic realization of existentialist architecture. The job of predicting and charting a course for the future while striving to re-invent reality is destined to become a global struggle. Our goal should be to move aside whatever stands in the way of innovative thought, to articulate liberated buildings and spaces that make lives richer and more meaningful, and to define a vision for everyone as individuals. Based on progressive social, cultural and political ideals, we are in a position to take advantage of interaction across all media, and to express the full complexity and equality of all people. This kind of creative collaboration, viewed on a universal scale, reflects the marvelous potential we have available to us through the integration of our professions. As the mind is liberated by the computer’s borderless realm of possibilities, all things tangible will also begin to reflect an increasingly open world of opportunity. Architecture will soon outgrow its dependency on the rules and regulations that historically have driven the creation of form and space, and will be able to address a demand for more sensual and multi-faceted environments. During the 21st century, the greatest freedom and the greatest dilemma of human existence are likely to unfold. How will society evolve to accommodate global electronic connectivity while maintaining a physical sense of place and belonging? What kind of environment will incorporate transient communication nodes, marking only moments in space and time, into settings of geological and cultural permanence? Architecture will begin to reflect the influence of these forces, along with digital technology, to introduce a new spectrum of places for living and working beyond the current boundaries of design. 426 Plannning and Architecture

LIBERATED DESIGNS REINVENT CITIES

The last two decades have benefited from progressive urban developments initi- ated by political leaders in notable cities. Specifically, such as in the work of Mayor Pasqual Maragall in Barcelona, and President Francois Mitterand in Paris. At the same time, the support of many private institutions and clients has helped to sanction and spread modern architecture – establishing progressive architectural and democratic socio-political thought as integral parts of the same trend into the future. The effect has been to start to awaken people to a new perspective, providing opportunities to live better lives through innovative and compassionate design. A society’s worth must be measured by how it treats those that are worse off. Our society needs more such public figures and leaders in private business that stand up for architecture and advanced urban living, recognizing and promoting the potential of architecture to revitalize our cities. Contemporary modern designers have decisively won the 20-year battle of modern architecture versus repeated traditionalism. This is important to our society, as we continue to reinvent ourselves and provide an authentic architecture for now and for the future. One exploration of what a specific new urban habitat can be and what life it can achieve is the Seoul Dome in Seoul, Korea by NBBJ and SWMB (Fig. 1). This project shows how a mixed-use sport/entertainment/cultural program transformed a collection of separate functions into a coherent interlocking, pulsating whole. A new entity was created that allows for dialogue between its uses, emerging as a profound new urban statement that reaches out and proclaims a change to the city forever. In this way, the Seoul Dome provides a focal point for people from all walks of the city to come together and infuse their community with new energy and purpose. It is intriguing to compare the spirit of this building with one from three decades ago – the National Gallery in Berlin, Germany, (Fig. 2) – which this author worked on as the project designer for and with Mies van der Rohe. As if looking to the future, or perhaps recognizing a constant universal theme, the floating, minimalist, endless planes of the roof and the podium extend out and give an architectural and cultural coherency to an otherwise idiosyncratic, partly broken and traditional city plan. This project and the Seoul Dome explore movement and stillness; equally needed human/urban values that rarely have the chance to co-exist. But architecture makes it possible. The new center and expansion for the City of Lille, France (Fig. 3) in its thoroughly modern concept, is another successful major urban design. This project recalls the modern authenticity of the Weissenhofsiedlung Building Exhibit that was held seventy years ago. Moving away from stagnant, rule-rigid urban development, it acknowledges the many overlapping aspects of human existence and demonstrates the power of 100 percent modern design to endure as successful architecture. Pran – Liberating Urban Architecture 427

Figure 1 Seoul Dome, Seoul, Korea.

Figure 2 National Gallery, Berlin, Germany by Mies van der Rohe. 428 Plannning and Architecture

COURAGEOUS BUILDING STATEMENTS PRESERVE A PIONEERING SPIRIT IN CITIES

In New York City over 40 years ago, three authentic modern architectural mas- terworks were created: the UN Headquarters along the East River by Le Corbusier and Oscar Niemeyer; the Guggenheim Museum by Frank Lloyd Wright; and the Seagram Building by Mies (Fig. 4). Ironically, New York City’s two largest recent urban developments, the Battery Park Residential Area, and the large Westside Development (Fig. 5), show a regression back to a traditional design formula from the 1930s. Obviously the city and we cannot rest on the laurels of past great achievements. Always we must renew our thinking and strive to move forward, ﬁnding ways to address the restrictions that recent developments have had to confront, such as strict zoning laws, input from conservative community groups, and the city’s prohibitive involvement – while keeping a commitment to a renewed modern architecture. Even before design had begun on the Westside Development, every shaped massing step had been pre-determined in a traditional style. At this rate, the only freedom left to the architects was to select the color of the glass and the stone for the façades.

Figure 3 Lille, France. Pran – Liberating Urban Architecture 429

This year, Ada Louise Huxtable, brilliant long time architectural critic for the New York Times, pointed out that restrictive new zoning laws proposed this year 2000 present a clear further danger to the creation of spirited high-rise addi- tions in New York. This is very much in contrast to the earlier and middle parts of the last century when New York was recognized as a birthplace for visionary high-rise design concepts. Similar restrictions can be seen in new, higher buildings in downtown San Francisco and other major cities where zoning laws and regulations dictate the overall design. Contextual often becomes a catch phrase for copying the buildings next door, leading to a serious misconception about the value of new contemporary design for enhancing and enlivening the environment.

Figure 4 Guggenheim Museum by F. L. Wright; UN Headquarters by Le Corbusier and Niemeyer; Seagram Building by Mies van der Rohe. 430 Plannning and Architecture

With a longer perspective, Berlin serves as an example of what could happen in New York. Ten years ago, the building director and the building com- mittees for a new city plan laid down rules to make new construction look ‘like the old Berlin,’ and set the city back substantially in its overall urban approach. Despite this severe hurdle, though, a few leading architects have succeeded in breaking away and have introduced important architecture; the work of Jean Nouvel, Daniel Libeskind and Frank Gehry, along with certain architectural work of the new Potzdammer Platz, have provided superb buildings that help to lead the way to new concepts. They are a reminder to us of the need to promote visionary thinking.

SOARING TOWERS ARE THE MODERN CITIES’ WAY OF PROCLAIMING HOPE FOR THE FUTURE

Towers have the distinction of allowing people to experience cities from above. In a majority of the largest European cities, however, this is not an option because high-rises are unfortunately considered inappropriate in most areas. Similarly, many major cities in the US have in recent times put into law certain height limita- tions of 30, 40, or 50-stories. These regulations are not reasonable for the most part and need to be changed or partly eliminated. But it is possible to look to Asia for inspiration where one notices relaxed rules with new buildings. In Hong Kong and Singapore (Fig. 6), for example, the cities and the clients are very open to new innovative architecture in high-rises, with very few height restrictions. The con- stantly emerging skylines that can be seen are vigorous and fresh.

Figure 5 West Side development, New York. Pran – Liberating Urban Architecture 431

Figure 6 Hong Kong and Singapore. 432 Plannning and Architecture

Of course there are many places and areas where high-rises are not meaningful to construct but, in the larger cities, they make sense by achieving a denser, more energetic city core with shorter travelling distances, more efﬁcient energy use, and more dramatic urban settings that attract social and cultural centers. The resistance that Norman Foster’s 80-story Millennium Tower in London (Fig. 7) faced is another instance of a lost opportunity to strengthen and enrich the identity of a city. The explanation supplied by city bureaucrats and a large percentage of the city’s population was that the tower would overpower the neighboring cathedrals and other large public buildings. Of course everybody wants to protect our heritage of outstanding historic buildings, and to respect their relationship to planned new buildings. But, in general, it is not right for one or two hundred year old buildings of limited height to continue to domi- nate a modern city’s skyline for the foreseeable future. Mies brought compassion and dedication to the development of the most innovative high-rise concepts, including their poetic urban articulation, as seen in his Chicago Federal Center (Fig. 8) and his Toronto Dominion Centre (Fig. 9). Both were at the vanguard of design with powerful and minimalist pure, ﬂuid urban statements. This author had the great fortune to work on both of these masterful buildings, as well as on SOM’s Sears Tower (Fig. 10). The Sears Tower involved the work of the renowned structural engineer Fazlur Khan, Structural Partner, and Bruce Graham, Design Partner, in the schematic phase.

Figure 7 Millennium Tower, London, England by Norman Foster. Pran – Liberating Urban Architecture 433

Two Union in Seattle (Fig. 11), a 56-story ofﬁce building by NBBJ, repre- sents one of the most outstanding high-rises internationally in terms of architectural achievements. The advanced structural engineering that SWMB provided brought substantial savings of US$8 million to the construction cost, and showed that well-designed and constructed high-rises are a viable development option.

Figure 8 Chicago Federal Center. Figure 9 Toronto Dominion Centre.

Figure 10 Sears Tower. Figure 11 Two Union Square. 434 Plannning and Architecture

In our many exploratory, creative, innovative high-rise urban developments, our designs grow from site-specific information that gives a vision of a new architecture and a new city. A number of Ellerbe Becket projects that our design team created have this effect, as seen with the Samarec Headquarters in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia (Fig. 12), and the Portofino Apartment Tower in Miami, Florida (Fig. 13), both which have a daring sail-shape that becomes the entire building. In the Jeddah project, there are also tie-backs through the tall atrium to an adjoining rectangular building wing, which makes the structural system viable. The Karet Office Tower in Jakarta, Indonesia (Fig. 14), with its tight budget, achieves one move with an exuberant curved shape at the top that ingeniously includes the mechanical systems, as well as a floating restaurant.

Figure 12 Samarec Headquarters, Jeddah. Pran – Liberating Urban Architecture 435

Figure 13 Portoﬁno Tower, Miami. Figure 14 Karet Ofﬁce Tower, Jakarta.

The 50-story Graha Kuningan in Jakarta, Indonesia (Fig. 15) is further an important case of architectural and structural solutions being in full harmony. Still under construction, it is the work of our design team in Ellerbe Becket in SC and DD, and of the leading designers continuing in NBBJ in CD. With a double-decker elevator system and a sky-lobby on the 34th and 35th floors, this elegant, soaring, slim tower allows for a small core and over 85% floor effi- ciency. The low-rise building wings connect with the surrounding neighbor- hoods and the fabric of the city. LERA developed the most advanced structural system for this building, and saved the client US$6 million. The structure uses mixed composite steel and concrete, with composite columns. On the 34th and 35th floors, it has steel outrigger trusses from the core, and belt trusses around the building. Along the perimeter of the building floors, widely spaced thin columns allow for maximum panoramic views and emphasize a clear advantage of the high-rise perspective. Here are further examples of exuberant design schemes by our design teams in Asia, showing the possibilities of a soaring curved edge, and the ability to be completed within a tight budget. This is the 80-story Mixed-use Tower in Jakarta, Indonesia (Fig. 16) by NBBJ; the TNB Headquarters in Kuala Lumur, Malaysia (Fig. 17) by Ellerbe Becket and Focus Architects; the El Presidente in Manila, Philippines (Fig. 18) by NBBJ; and the 50-story Nihon TV Headquarters in Tokyo, Japan (Fig. 19) by NBBJ and Ishimoto. The TNB has varied atriums “walking up” the entire height of the building along the curved edge, while the tight site for the El Presidente calls for one metal/concrete 436 Plannning and Architecture façade and another consisting of an open, twisting all-glass curtain wall. In other words, these projects demonstrate highly creative means for defining and con- tributing to their demanding contexts.

Figure 15 Graha Kuningan, Jakarta. Pran – Liberating Urban Architecture 437

Figure 16 80-story Jakarta. Figure 17 TNB Headquarters, Kuala Lumpur. Mixed-Use, Jakarta

Figure 18 El Presidente, Manila. Figure 19 Nihon TV Headquarters, Tokyo. 438 Plannning and Architecture

Continuing in the same vein, the Stulang Development (Fig. 20) in Johor, Malaysia by NBBJ and Focus Architects, shows an evocative stepping, moving urban complex with apartment towers, performing arts center, and a hotel whose waterfront orientation faces Singapore. In this case, a single but complex architectural expression combines a variety of distinct functions and brings them to life as a unique new urban entity. Reaching into the 21st century, the Kwun Tong Town Centre in Hong Kong (Fig. 21) by NBBJ shows a dynamic and poetic urban complex. It consists admirably of an 88-story office tower (with a homage to Brancusi), five 50-story apartment towers, a horizontal, curved hotel, a retail center, an arrival hall from the adjacent metro station, parking and the bus terminal below. The lower floors connect with the existing urban setting. In summary, what these projects illustrate are the many successful urban high-rise projects that we have developed over the last ten years. They are recognized as standing in the forefront of the most innovative and creative towers internationally; and are distinguished for having a poetic quality that makes them memorable anywhere. Towers essentially are vertical cities. Not only does innovative engineering make them possible, but also gives us the chance to explore and expand this concept, and to devise new never-thought-of resolutions. Downtown residential high-rises introduce activities around the clock, and make many previously empty downtown urban areas come alive again. We all recognize the incredible energy that a dense vertical city like New York has – energy with the power to attract the necessary concentration of public institutions that allow a world cultural center to blossom. Parallel with the advancement of modern design, it is important to follow the development of ideas in structural engineering. The attached graph by Skilling Ward Magnusson Barkshire, showing Structural Steel Weight versus Number of Stories in High-rises (Fig. 22), illustrates the most successful high- rises in terms of structure in recent years. It is interesting to note that what we considered cutting-edge in 1970 is now less in the forefront, and can be embell- ished in many ways. In architect-engineering collaborations that encourage more daring accomplishments, structural engineers’ constant search for improvements lead to better results in design. Parallel to this study and information, however, we also need to review the varied construction costs in different countries.

VERY RESTRICTIVE ZONING AND RULES OFTEN UNDERMINE INNOVATIVE ARCHITECTURE

Returning to the subject of restrictive urban zoning, it is clear that the Guggenheim Museum in New York could only have been built by breaking all the existing rules in New York City. So thanks to Mr. Moses’ insistence on breaking the zoning rules, it got built. It is meaningful to have some zoning laws ensuring that sun and daylight reach the streets, but the resulting FAR rules and “Sky Exposure Plane” in New York City (Fig. 23), as well as a number of other cities, negatively lead to Pran – Liberating Urban Architecture 439 mostly undesirable “wedding cake” building masses that often undermine many great architectural visions and concepts. Buildings that go vertically straight up from the street – and are likely the best architectural solutions – are not allowed or accepted based on unreasonably narrow criteria.

Figure 20 Stulang Development, Johor. Figure 21 Kwun Tong Town Centre, Hong Kong.

Figure 22 Chart: Structural steel weight vs. number of stories. 440 Plannning and Architecture

Unfortunately, applying for zoning change can take years which leads most developers to avoid the hassle. Valer Mocak, Ph.D. Architecture, San Francisco, wrote an excellent article titled “A Quest for Sanity in Skyscraper Design” for the 1997 Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat’s International Conference in Sao Paulo, Brazil. In the article, he calls for a much more free and open interpretation of zoning laws in order to allow for a substantially more creative and bold architecture. Very pointedly he asks, “Why are so many pre-zoning cities like Venice, Prague, Vienna, Budapest so beautiful?” To consider the role of tall buildings realistically, and to reconsider revising the interpretation of the zoning laws, one can as examples suggest a greater length of waterfront as an alternative to one or two smaller sites on the waterfront, or consider how a tower might serve a large segment of the city rather than a speciﬁc small site. If you follow the FAR and “Sky Exposure Plane,” you do not automatically get attractive buildings. Instead, it is often quite the opposite. It becomes clear that with very strict zoning rules, building shapes are often prede- termined and leave little artistic freedom for the architects and engineers. A few buildings, such as Raymond Abraham’s Austrian Culture House on 52nd Street (Fig. 24) and Christian de Portzamparc’s LVMH Building (Fig. 25) on 57th Street, are exceptions to the rule, achieving high quality architecture despite the zoning laws. The wealthy owner of the LVMH made this freedom possible by allowing for a reduction in usable ﬂoor area to achieve all the attractive setbacks, and by accepting a higher cost. Unfortunately for the value of design, the majority of developers would turn the other way and require the maximum use of the allowable building envelope, building every possible square foot and reducing artistic freedom to a minimum.

Figure 23 “Sky Exposure Plane” zoning for New York City. Pran – Liberating Urban Architecture 441

It is the hope that the few new innovative, successful buildings in New York will ultimately set a standard that other developers cannot ignore, and will make them feel an obligation to rise to the occasion. It is essential for architects to team up with progressive clients that are open to and look for innovative design. And collaborations with great clients are real highlights in our profes- sional careers. As another example of what can be achieved against the odds, the New York Psychiatric Institute (Fig. 26), by our design team at Ellerbe Becket, transformed a major Manhattan site into a liberated and ﬂuid building that presents different faces to meet the speciﬁcity of different site directions. Its movement expresses a metaphor for the movement of Hudson River and the cars on the Westside Highway, while also giving the entry along Riverside Drive a welcom- ing gesture.

Figure 24 Austrian Culture House, New York City. 442 Plannning and Architecture

Figure 25 LVMH Building, New York.

Figure 26 New York State Psychiatric Institute, Manhattan. Pran – Liberating Urban Architecture 443

ENERGY CODES CAN WORK AGAINST ARCHITECTURE

Everybody agrees in general with the importance of saving energy, but energy codes generally kill floor-to-ceiling glass exterior walls in new construction cases. Mies’ floor-to-ceiling glass apartment and office buildings that provide magnificent panoramic views and a feeling of suspension can rarely be built any longer. This is a very big loss. The 860–880 Lake Shore Drive Apartments in Chicago provide an important reference. Clearly their message is that saving some energy is always more important than creating great architectural spaces with floor-to-ceiling glass and wonderful panoramic views. It is as if the wonderful transparency of glass is sacrificed at the altar of energy saving (tinted, energy saving glass often looses it transparency). What we really need, however, is a balance of all these concerns. The final architectural result should always be given the highest priority.

CHANGING CITIES THROUGH CULTURE

With one building in Bilbao, the Guggenheim Museum by Frank Gehry (Fig. 27), the entire city has been reinvented and given international prominence. The architectural vision attracts large numbers of visitors and has made the city renowned everywhere. It shows that there is no excuse for any city to be deﬁned by mediocre buildings, and be deprived of or deny the vision, collaborative strength and courage of outstanding architects and architecture. It also totally liberates architecture, showing the potential to achieve never before seen or even imagined designs.

Figure 27 Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, Spain. 444 Plannning and Architecture

Daniel Libeskind’s Museum in Berlin achieved an unforeseen penetrating thought process and discourse. Reflecting the force field of the city with its layered meanings, such as its personal history of the Jewish people, and the void spaces that symbolize the Holocaust victims, we are not allowed to escape awareness of the most excruciating evil while at the same time the building miraculously gives us a constructive dialogue and great hope for the future. Creations like Wolf Prix’ excellent Cinema complex and Itsuko Hasegawa’s almost ephemeral but powerful lyrical statements in her domes, further transform our cities to new levels of cultural integrity, social awareness and innovative architectural experiences. Ultimately, innovative and profound buildings such as these change our entire world and consciousness, and prevent us from ever returning to the “before time.” Looking to the future, it is likewise important for architects and artists to interact, provoke and merge ideas with each other, as with Jenny Holzer’s work and Richard Serra’s work (Fig. 28) in Gehry’s Bilbao Museum. Simultaneously, the virtual museum is already here and ready to add its influence; as we may now enter museums all over the world through cyberspace. Here is a range of our decisive responses to varied programs and varied urban settings toward a new urban habitat. As a new aspect of urban expressions, is the notion of the endless building; the “endless horizontal building” seen in our AA/NW Terminal at JFK International Airport, by our design team at Ellerbe Becket, and the “endless vertical building” in Jean Nouvel’s round Tower at LaDefense outside Paris. Both buildings have no beginning and no end.

Figure 28 Richard Serra artwork in Bilbao Museum. Pran – Liberating Urban Architecture 445

The Vulcan Building in Seattle (Fig. 29) by NBBJ Design interacts with its historic neighborhood as well as with the urban forces of the city; it shows architecture as an interactive art, that participate and transforms scale, masses, economy, land lots and cultural content. The Manggarai Train Station/ Transportation Centre, Jakarta, Indonesia (Fig. 30) reaches into the surrounding communities, while giving these a new invigorating identity and character. The GatewayϩMaintenance Building at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport, Dallas, Texas (Fig. 31) expresses the anticipation of flight before one flies, and define and celebrate the arrival and departure to/from the airport. The Staples Center arena (sports/conference, entertainment center) in Los Angeles, California transforms an important urban district downtown, and brings in life and excitement, and thereby changes the city itself (similarly to the concept of the Seoul Dome, described earlier).

Figure 29 Vulcan Headquarters, Seattle. 446 Plannning and Architecture

Figure 30 Manggari Trainstation, Jakarta.

Figure 31 Gateway-Maintenance Building, Dallas Fort Worth International Airport, Dallas. Pran – Liberating Urban Architecture 447

There is a move toward global architecture, that is simultaneously site and place speciﬁc, such as in the Reebok Headquarters near Boston in Massachusetts (Fig. 32), and the Telenor Headquarters, Oslo, Norway, both by NBBJ, where the work place is transformed and the progressive companies are given a new, never-seen-before identity.

APPROACH – PERCEPTIONS/INTERSECTIONS

The ﬁrst step is our approach: How can we change the program? The second move: How can the different program elements inform each other and create conditions and solutions possibly not thought about before, organized anew? From an inside thought process, it becomes a new architecture, complex and diverse. We often see a reduced vision and a general lack of will to confront urban design problems unfortunately; the pressure is often on to demand nor- malcy. We embrace and welcome experimentation, diversity and complexity, which gives depth and insight; an architecture that is indeterminate – and has both movement and stillness, multi-layered; an architecture that is democratic and has an open mind.

Figure 32 Reebok Headquarters, near Boston.