2005/2006 volume i ∫ issue 2

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Kamaria Porter Monsignor John J. Egan and Catholic Action against Segregation in Chicago

Hillary Brass Japanese Women’s Speech: Changing Language, Changing Roles

Kevin Oles Norman Foster: Envisioning Design at the Edge of Reality university of notre dame college of arts and letters journal of undergraduate research

Acknowledgments

The JUR editorial staff extends its sincerest appreciation for the assistance and dedication of Vicki Toumayan, Assistant Dean in the College of Arts and Letters. The expertise and insight of Roque Strew, general consultant and designer, brought to the Journal a dis- tinctive measure of professionalism. We thank him profusely. Like- wise our gratitude rests with all other individuals in the College who so happily and generously contributed to the publication.

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Editorial Board 2005-2006 Gary Barnabo ‘08 Political Science Joseph Boyle ‘06 Philosophy Brian Carlisle ‘07 Economics Adrian Chiu ‘07 Psychology Kathryn Coniglio ‘06 ALPP, Psychology Kelly Czaja ‘07 English Benjamin Dougherty ‘06 Program of Liberal Studies Megan Eckerle ‘06 Program of Liberal Studies Morgan Ertel ‘06 English, Gender Studies Kerrie Glass ‘06 Psychology Christina Javier-Torres ‘08 Political Science, Italian Ben Kemmy ‘07 Program of Liberal Studies Justin Kohley ‘06 Political Science Ashley Lucchese ‘06 Political Science, Spanish Theodore Martin ‘07 Political Science Candace Meade ‘08 Anthropology, Psychology Robert Melly ‘08 Philosophy, Mechanical Engineering Laura Miller ‘08 Psychology, English Joseph Minta ‘06 Philosophy, Mathematics Jessica Morton ‘08 English Rachel Mulligan ‘08 ALPP, Program of Liberal Studies Regina Grace Muscarello ‘07 English, Philosophy, Spanish Eileen Nutting ‘06 Math, Philosophy Elizabeth Pappano ‘06 ALPP, Program of Liberal Studies Diana Rdzanek ‘06 Program of Liberal Studies, FTT Ray Schleck ‘07 Philosophy, Political Science Paul Spadafora ‘08 Anthropology, Psychology Kathleen Sullivan ‘08 English, Political Science Noelle Teske ‘06 Philosophy, Psychology Mark Thomas ‘06 Philosophy and Theology, Music Meg Towle ‘07 Anthropology, Peace Studies Corinne Viglietta ‘06 English, French

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Contents

social sciences

Japanese Women’s Speech: 1 Changing Language, Changing Roles Hillary Brass

∫ humanities

Monsignor John J. Egan and Catholic 31 Action against Segregation in Chicago Kamaria Porter

∫ arts

Norman Foster: Envisioning 64 Design at the Edge of Reality Kevin Oles

iv journal of undergraduate research

Note from the Editor Benjamin J. Dougherty

All that exists, as contemplated by the human mind, forms one large system or complex fact, and this of course resolves itself into an indefinite number of particular facts, which, as being portions of a whole, have countless relations of every kind, one towards an- other. Knowledge is the apprehension of these facts, whether in themselves, or in their mutual positions and bearings. And, as all taken together from one integral subject for contemplation, so there are no natural or real limits between part and part; one is ever running into another. ­—John Henry Cardinal Newman

With these words, John Henry Cardinal Newman defended a vision of knowledge pursued by the true and Catholic university. Each separate faculty is responsible for contributing in a greater effort to- ward truth.

Welcome to the Journal of Undergraduate Research. The aim of this publication is to collect, vet, and circulate outstanding academic work of students in the College of Arts and Letters. In the endeavor of gaining truth, no department in the College stands alone. The editorial staff of the JUR has selected one work of student research from each of the three main divisions within the College: the Social Sciences, the Humanities, and the Arts. The coincidental publica- tion of these essays reflects the spirit of our collective inquiry into knowledge. As the quality of students’ work usually remains un- noticed, hidden in the classroom, the JUR hopes to reveal, and thus further encourage, achievement in the vein of research writing.

 journal of undergraduate research

Authors

Kamaria B. Porter, a South Side Chicago native, stumbled upon Msgr. John Egan’s name during her stint as an intern for the Industrial Areas Foundation in Chicago. Wanting to investigate his life, Catholic Church responses to racial and economic injustice, and community organizing in Chicago, she wrote this paper for her history seminar. This paper is dedicated to Ms. Margaret (Peggy) Roach who shows us all the power of laywomen.

Hillary Brass, an anthropology major with a Japanese supple- mentary major, is particularly fascinated by linguistic anthropology, and plans to go to graduate school to further develop this interest. In combining concentrations on Japanese culture, language, and issues of gender, a paper focused on Japanese Women’s Language (JWL) was the natural outgrowth.

Kevin Oles, graduated from Notre Dame in 2005. He visited Norman Foster’s redesigned Reichstag in Berlin and was inspired to pen this retrospective on Foster’s works and style. After graduation, he accepted a position at the law firm Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease, and currently he is applying to dual degree programs for a JD and a Ph.D. in Philosophy.

vi Japanese Women’s Speech: Changing Language, Changing Roles

Japanese Women’s Speech: Changing Language, Changing Roles

Hillary Brass

he purposes of language in everyday use go far beyond Tthe simple conveyance of practical information. Certain speech styles index an individual’s position in the social hierarchy, regional affiliation, and gender, leaving listeners with more than the infor- mation contained by the content of the utterance. A great deal of this communication has to do with how someone says something, rather than what they say. Different people employ different lin- guistic forms for a variety of reasons, and do so consciously or sub- consciously. These choices depend on circumstances such as the audience, other participants, or setting. Men and women alike ma- nipulate their speech styles according to the type of image they wish to project. Such linguistic alterations connected to gender, by defi- nition, are intertwined with notions of what is proper womanhood or manhood, according the norms of the society in question. The social construction of gender identity through language has effects that reach beyond the confines of private conversation. If women present through their speech an image of themselves as deferent, passive, and uncertain, “people accept the idea [and] it begins to have consequences in the world.”1 This phenomenon can be exam- ined in numerous societies throughout the world, as female subordi- nation is, apparently, universal.2 However, in this paper, I will focus on the linguistic habits of Japanese women because there seems to exist a pervasive distinction—at least on the surface—between the

 journal of undergraduate research languages of the two genders in Japan. Japanese Women’s Language (JWL) is thought to be a clearly defined subset of the Japanese language as a whole. Women’s language (joseego) is held up as the ideal form of female communication, as men’s language (danseego) is for males. Traditionally, these are the proper ways for members of the respective genders to speak, and they are set as opposites to one another, as mutually-exclusive binary distinctions.3 However, it is my intent to show that, while these language ideologies may exist at a theoretical level, they are not reflected in practice, especially by the younger generations of Japanese women. I aim to exemplify the way in which these speakers are conscious of the effects of their speech style and utilize the appropriate forms, as consistent with the goals they wish to accomplish and the corresponding identities they wish to create. In English, too, women are said to express themselves linguistically different from men in a way that allows for subordination. According to Lakoff,4 women supposedly use tag questions, hedges, empty adjectives, hypercorrect grammatical forms,5 intensifiers,6 and other speech forms, creating an image of uncertainty, irrationality, and insecurity, which makes possible the continued subordination of women. However, in Japanese, the differences between joseego and danseego are more tangible and definable, and thus one requires background knowledge to fully understand what JWL is and why it exists. To the end of establishing that background, the first section focuses on the origination of JWL and women’s roles in the Japanese societies of the past, as the two are connected closely. The next section centers on specific components of the Language. Because verbal communication is intertwined with attractiveness in Japanese culture, particularly with that of the woman, the following portion discusses the notions of ideal womanhood and how language helps construct this identity. Since language is tied to notions of beauty, some believe that JWL should be preserved to maintain this traditional conception of the ideal Japanese woman. Therefore, the next section examines motivations for preserving JWL, while the following one centers on JWL’s perpetuation by its proponents.

 Japanese Women’s Speech: Changing Language, Changing Roles

Though some support it, JWL appears to be lessening in popularity, especially with younger Japanese women, and so the next section takes up the question of who actually does use it and why they might do so. Women in positions of authority must (rather explicitly and consciously) make the decision of how to manipulate their speech in order to be respected and taken seriously by subordinates. JWL seems to be inherently at odds with such a goal, and the issue of what linguistic choices a woman in this position possesses is addressed in the following portion. The phenomenon of code-switching is investigated next, in an attempt to discover when and why women switch from JWL to wakai mono no kotoba (young people’s speech), for example, or other forms of speech and to learn about the deeper motivations of speech styles and why JWL may be fading out of use. Lastly, a discussion of the underlying meanings of keigo (polite language) and danseego (men’s language) is taken up to understand what speakers intend when employing these linguistic forms.

Methodology

I inquired into the speech of real Japanese women from a variety of angles. Primarily, I read extensively from the available literature on the subject, both to gain a background in which to position my questions and to learn others’ conclusions in similar studies. Examining others’ work allowed me to determine the consistency of my findings with larger-scale studies. I also watched Japanese drama television shows to gain perspective on the portrayal of women’s speech in that popular culture medium. My Japanese professors served as key resources over the course of the project. They provided me with literature on JWL and put me into contact with local Japanese women and men with whom to conduct my research. I interviewed four Japanese women and two Japanese men. Three of the women are housewives and college graduates in their mid-thirties; they live in the US because of their husbands’ work. The other woman is a college professor of Japanese, also in her mid-thirties. Both men are professionals; one

 journal of undergraduate research is a doctor in his late-thirties and the other is a prosecutor in his mid-thirties. They are living in the US because of their employment. In one interview I spoke with three women simultaneously, while I interviewed the fourth woman one-on-one. I conducted both interviews with the men individually. All followed a similar structure with general questions regarding personal information at the beginning, both to become more acquainted with the respondents and to hear their speech. Then, I asked them questions specifically about how they speak, modifying the questions according to the gender of the interviewee. I tape- recorded and transcribed all of the interviews and analyzed them in terms of the content and form of the respondents’ speech. I then supplemented my findings with those of others from my research.

The Origination of JWL & Women’s Roles of the Past

Concerning the evolution of Japanese Women’s Language (JWL), there is no single account. This style of speech is connected with tradition and culture and is seen as “uniquely Japanese,”7 indicative of the beauty and femininity of the Japanese woman. It is such a part of this ideal that researchers often point to times long ago for the original source of this speech. Some say that it developed from a register employed by court ladies in the fourteenth century,8 while others focus on the influence of Confucian philosophy during the Edo Period (1603-1868), which emphasized women’s discipline, virtues, conduct, and proper linguistic forms.9 In the late Meiji Period (1880-1910), Japan became intent upon forging an identity as a nation-state, and social organization went through a revision. Women came to be seen as a distinct “social category,”10 and much thought was put into how this ‘new’ entity could be more feminine, i.e. through forms of speech. Thus, it may be seen that, while earlier speech patterns of fourteenth century court ladies of the Edo Period may have had some effect on JWL, the primary catalyst for its development lies in the goal of modernizing Japan in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Central to this objective

 Japanese Women’s Speech: Changing Language, Changing Roles of ‘feminizing’ women was the ideology of the ‘good wife and wise mother’ (ryoosai kembo shugi),11 which supposedly reinforced the traditional conception of the ideal woman. However, these ideas were neither inherently connected to femininity nor were they distinctively Japanese. They were a combination of Confucianism (imported from China, first in the sixth century) of the ex-samurai classes and Western ideals of domesticity. In 1903, the National Language Research Council (Kokugo choosa iinkai) was created with the purpose of language planning, exemplifying the key role the government played in the standardization of language. During and after World War II, this linguistic gender dichotomy continued to grow and solidify. The promotion of women’s speech was to “serve as a tool in integrating women into the national culture, and thus making them more likely to submit to the ultra-nationalistic program in wartime.”12 Therefore, the formulation of JWL did not occur naturally or even as an indication of ideal womanhood, The promotion of but simply as a means of governmental women’s speech was manipulation. The goal here was “to to “serve as a tool in reinforce hierarchical social relations and integrating women into 13 gender roles by regulating language” the national culture, in order to unify the people during the and thus making war. By conforming to the standards of linguistic etiquette, women would them more likely to acknowledge their subordinate position submit to the ultra- and act dutifully towards their masters, nationalistic program that is, their sons, their husbands, and in wartime.” ultimately their government. During this time period, though, JWL was not disseminated to women of the middle and lower classes. It was taught at schools of the elite,14 and only after World War II did these linguistic forms become increasingly known and employed. JWL became associated with higher class women, and so women chose to speak it to be identified as part of that group. Over the years, using ‘proper’ JWL has been constructed by the media as a way to improve one’s social status and

 journal of undergraduate research as an index of femininity, which is one of the reasons for its longevity. However, in the late twentieth century, Japanese women have been reexamining and reevaluating gender roles,15 often incorporating their use of certain linguistic forms to counter or reflect (depending on the circumstances) the standard notions of Japanese womanhood. While it is not the only (or perhaps the most effective) way to initiate or facilitate a greater social change, the importance of the strategic use of JWL lies in that it is an individualistic approach offering a starting point in effecting a greater reformation of gender roles and relations. One of my female interviewees in her thirties asserted, “Maybe in a traditional time, uh, the usage of [gendered language] was more strict, but it has been changing.” All of the other respondents expressed similar sentiments, which are also supported by the recent literature on the subject of JWL. In addition to their speech, the roles of Japanese women in society have been going through a transformation, especially since the Japanese Constitution of 1946, which “guaranteed women’s equal rights in the workplace.”16 One researcher observes that “as women have advanced into various spheres of social, professional, political, and educational life, the linguistic forms they use have inevitably changed.”17 This shift in linguistic practice may at least in part be correlated with women assuming roles that had previously been occupied by men, particularly in the workplace. Gender has not always been the decisive factor in determining roles within and outside of the household. A strict division of labor according to gender began to become prevalent during the project of the large-scale modernization of Japan,18 just as JWL was gaining popularity as the proper way for women to speak.19 Thus from the very beginning, the two were connected closely. Women stayed at home and men went to work, and through this separation, linguistic differences became more apparent. Because it sprang from a Confucian context in which hierarchy and loyalty are heavily emphasized,20 women’s language served in part to signify the inferiority of its speakers, giving voice to the stratification between

 Japanese Women’s Speech: Changing Language, Changing Roles the genders.

Components of JWL

According to Cindi Sturtz Sreetharan, “it has frequently been noted that Japanese speakers have a notion of what it means to ‘talk like’ a woman or a man.”21 The prominence of these notions grow out of the textbook distinctions between the two forms of communication as clear and direct. This section will focus on the commonly-cited components of JWL. Politeness in Japanese is of particular importance. Through the use of honorifics, varying forms of subject- and self-address, and sentence final particles (SFPs), social hierarchies are created and maintained. Often one must confront the issue of social status and, thus, politeness when conversing in order to understand how to relate to the other person. Women are typically thought to speak more politely and indirectly than men22 and to use more standard forms and prescriptively correct grammar.23 This politeness is expressed in a high-pitched voice, sometimes referred to as the “service voice,”24 but studies have shown that when Japanese women speak in English, they lower their pitch. This may be a result of the absence of the expectation of a high pitch for women in English like that in Japanese. The system of honorifics in Japanese is complex. It serves to determine social ranking, even if it does so indirectly. One cannot form many sentences in Japanese without first considering the relationship between the speaker and addressee. There are two categories of honorifics: taisha keigo or ‘addressee honorifics’ (AHs) and sozai keigo or ‘referent honorifics’ (RHs).25 AHs function to elevate the addressee him/herself because he/she occupies a higher status, while RHs do this for their belongings and/or actions.26 RHs can also make the speaker’s actions or belongings more humble. Honorifics are used non-reciprocally between men and women,27 and this is relevant because when one speaker employs them but the other does not in response, an indirect statement is made concerning the

 journal of undergraduate research unequal status of the individuals. RHs do not refer only to respectful and humble speech but also to beautification words. Women utilize these simply to ‘sound prettier’ when speaking, as in the prefixes ‘go’ or ‘o’ when attached to shujin (goshujin; husband, though goshujin is also the word used to refer to someone else’s husband) or kane (okane; money). This standard form of women’s speech is undeniable, as indicated in the title of this book published in 1994: Onna no miryoku wa hanashi-katashidai (Women’s Attractiveness Depends on How They Speak).28 However, according to Dunn29 and Okamoto,30 older women use more honorifics than younger, perhaps indicating a decline in social hierarchy definition. The use of pronouns is another way in which speakers express varying levels of respect to their listeners or addressees. In terms of first-person singular pronouns, a spectrum of politeness exists which also correlates with femininity (the most feminine being equivalent with the most polite and the most masculine, the most impolite). The most feminine/polite is ‘atashi’; ‘ore’ is the most masculine/ impolite. ‘Watashi’ and ‘boku’ complete the spectrum between the extremes31 and are the most commonly used self-referential pronouns. Women typically use ‘atashi’ and/or ‘watashi’ and men ‘boku’ or ‘ore’, though these distinctions are becoming less hard and fast. ‘Atashi’ has a self-deprecating connotation while ‘ore’ is thought of as other-deprecating and more aggressive. The use of the second person pronoun ‘anata’ is also rife with underlying meanings. The use of ‘anata’ is indicative of a hierarchical relationship and, thus, men use it more often than women because they typically occupy a higher position.32 Both categories of pronouns require women to carefully navigate between social status and societal expectations if they wish not to offend. Sentence final particles (SFPs) are an additional avenue by which gender differences are expressed. Their equivalent is harder to convey in English than the pronouns, but certain SFPs are approximately equal to tag questions, exclamation points, or expressions of degrees of certainty. Just as in English, women are typically thought to employ tag questions more than men because

 Japanese Women’s Speech: Changing Language, Changing Roles they do not wish to be perceived as incorrect, opinionated, or pushy; the SFPs that women use most often are ‘wa,’ ‘na no,’ ‘yo ne’, and ‘no ne’ which require a response,33 even if it is just agreement or confirmation. Men, on the other hand, utilize ‘ze,’ ‘yo,’ ‘da yo’, ‘da’, and ‘da ne’, which are perceived as more confident and final. However, the use of one set of these particles does not inherently exclude the other. Nakamura says that one can easily determine whether a piece of writing in the media is directed toward men or women depending on the use of SFPs because they are so readily identifiable as belonging to one gender or the other’s vocal repertoire. Despite these separations between masculine and feminine speech styles, a ‘behavioral paradox’ exists for women who wish to portray the correct balance of modesty and femininity without sounding too modest and feminine, as if it is contrived.34 This excessiveness is called ‘burikko’, which comes from the verb ‘buru’ (to pretend) and ‘ko’ (child). It is a derogatory term used to describe women who “feign naïveté.”35 The components of burikko speech stem from expressions of JWL and body language that are seen as immature and girlish. Burikko is signaled by a falsetto, nasal voice, baby talk, the avoidance of Chinese loans, use of the ‘o’ prefix, head tilt, onomatopoeic words, and the like.36 Thus, while most of these are also components of JWL in general, employing them too excessively is perceived negatively by both contemporary men and women.37 Women are sent conflicting messages, and they must learn how appropriately to express themselves verbally so that they are seen as neither overly masculine nor excessively feminine.

The Ideal Japanese Woman

Speech patterns are strongly connected to attractiveness, especially for women in Japanese culture. If one wishes to be considered a ‘kotobabijin’ (language beauty), she must understand how to properly manipulate the language she employs. This entails striking the correct balance in utilizing the components of JWL discussed above to sound feminine, but not too feminine, as there is

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the “linkage of a particular speech style with desirable femininity”.38 Kindaichi Kyosuke (1882-1971), one of the founders of Japanese linguistics, draws out this connection between speech and desirability even further in his statement about Japanese womanhood as “beautiful and excellent beyond compare as is their language.”39 Youthfulness is strongly emphasized as a desirable trait for women in Japanese culture, as it is in many. Through different speech styles, women may appear younger than they are and, thus, more attractive. For example, by altering the phoneme ‘shi’ to ‘si’ to sound as if she has a lisp (like a child), a woman linguistically reduces her age and thus affects others’ perceptions of By taking the position her. Youthfulness can also be expressed as lower ranking through the use of honorifics, as older individuals through people are generally seen as occupying a the use of honorifics, higher status, so using them implies an age separation. By taking the position as women additionally lower ranking individuals through the portray themselves as use of honorifics, women additionally passive, deferent, and portray themselves as passive, deferent, submissive. and submissive, also qualities of the ideal Japanese woman.40 ‘Onnarashisa’ (Japanese womanliness), however, is not only marked by youthful naïveté and passivity. According to Lebra,41 traditional socialization to fit the role of the ‘good wife and wise mother’ supposedly indoctrinated by Confucianism entails that women be modest, elegant, refined, and tidy as well. As Shimoda Jiro (1872-1938), who played a large part in women’s education, explained, “Women should display femininity in speech and demeanor. They should be gentle and modest…these constitute the qualities of ‘fugen’ (feminine speech) and ‘fugyoo,’ two of the ‘shigyoo’ four ways.”42 The shigyoo are the four doctrines of Confucianism, which furthers the notion of the ideal Japanese woman as being connected to what was commonly referred to as Confucianism.

10 Japanese Women’s Speech: Changing Language, Changing Roles

Why Preserve JWL?

Because language does so much more than simply convey information, proposing and/or allowing for change within it to occur causes controversy. Particularly with JWL, a linguistic form which is connected to deep-seated gender and national ideals, transformation may seem threatening to certain people and/or segments of society. This section focuses on why some wish to preserve JWL and what their reasons are for this hope. JWL is inextricably tangled with a nostalgic idealization of Japanese history and the specific notions of onnarashisa (Japanese womanliness). Older men, particularly, feel that the neutralization of Japanese and/or the use of masculine speech forms by women is dangerous because it challenges the traditional concept of the Japanese woman.43 In 1992, in a letter to the editor of the Asahi Shinbun newspaper, a fifty-nine-year-old man writes, “In Japan, there is an attractive and adorable women’s language”44 and says that he questions the education and upbringing of women who do not use appropriate feminine speech. He clearly views this phenomenon as threatening the ideal of the Japanese woman to which he is accustomed. Some older men prefer burikko (exaggerated femininity), even if they realize it is feigned, because they like what it represents.45 It is linked to another time period when women were more socially-inferior, restricted to the domestic roles of wife, mother, and subordinate to their husbands/masters (goshujin). In turn, this idea of womanhood is connected to the Confucian ideology of ‘dan- son, jo-hi’ (men superior, women inferior)46 and of the good wife and wise mother (ryoosai kembo).47 As this ‘Confucian’ ideology became prominent during the late Meiji Period when Japan was working toward becoming a modern nation-state, JWL is ultimately seen as a distinctive, indicative, and definitive component of Japanese-ness. Allowing it to change or to fade out of use means a loss of this history and an acceptance of elements from the ‘outside,’ which may indirectly serve as a concession and recognition of this component of the ‘other’ as superior and/or more correct.

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Thus, because JWL is connected to these notions of national character and womanliness, some women hesitate to change the way they speak by incorporating neutral or male language. Their desire to maintain harmony and not to disrupt the status quo is so great—and so expected—that it is “almost suicidal”48 to challenge these notions. Whether or not a woman chooses to alter her speech certainly depends upon her socioeconomic position, as expectations for individuals frequently vary according to this classification. The audience is another factor contributing to the speaker’s specific choice in a particular situation. The women I interviewed explained that they use JWL in situations when they do not know the person to whom they are speaking and/or if they wish to distance him/ her linguistically because they do not feel comfortable with him/her personally. Thus, although some women may not truly believe in the importance of preserving JWL because of its links to tradition, both national and social, their continued use of it in certain circumstances allows for its perpetuation and preservation.

Perpetuation of JWL in Media

The longevity of JWL can be partly attributed to its presence in the media. Certain media adopt elements of stereotypical feminine speech when the target audience is female. Women then use these linguistic forms because it is what the media expose them to; the selection of certain types of speech by the media and the subsequent usage of them by women becomes a self-perpetuating and self- sustaining cycle. The media indirectly tell women how they should and are expected to speak, and women indirectly tell the media how to define women’s language. The presence of JWL is observable in magazines, romance novels, television, and anime. These are the media categories on which this section will focus. One may recognize the presence of JWL in magazines by examining not only the linguistic forms employed but also the topics selected based on assumed audience interest. In an investigation of women’s magazines, Yukawa and Saito49 noticed that a higher

12 Japanese Women’s Speech: Changing Language, Changing Roles degree of exclamatory and incomplete sentences are used, giving the impression that women are more emotional and illogical than men, or at least that they communicate in this way. Additionally, there is a smaller percentage of proper nouns in women’s magazines, as compared to men’s, leading one to assume that women are less worldly or informed about matters existing outside of home and domesticity.50 In magazine advertisements, women often are directly referred to as ‘anata’, a second person pronoun indicative of a hierarchical relationship, which is not present in ads directed toward men. Ultimately, a magazine is identifiable as intended for women or men based upon the subject matter. Women’s magazines focus on topics such as fashion, cooking, and celebrities’ lives. Thus, women are told what are appropriate subjects for them to be concerned with and, conversely, those that belong to the more serious ‘male realm.’ This, in turn, affects the way women speak and what they speak about, as they find one set of models for their behavior among the imagined members of the intended audience of these magazines. Another media source from which Japanese women may construct notions of proper feminine speech is that of romance novels. Though these are fictional accounts of idealized love, they may be employed to gain a deeper understanding of what Japanese culture holds up as appropriate speech and personality traits of desirable young men and women. In contrast to Western, Harlequin-style romances, “[i]n the Japanese category romance, beauty is in the ears, not the eyes, of the about-to-be significant other,”51 thus emphasizing the importance of being a kotobabijin (language beauty) above all else. As one might expect, the language of the men and women in these romances falls within the stereotypical, binary divisions of danseego (male speech) and joseego (female speech). As a first person pronoun, women use ‘watashi’ and men use ‘boku’. Women abstain from employing the hierarchical second person pronoun ‘anata’, while men may use it, and there is a high occurrence of stereotypical sentence final particles (SFPs) for both genders. The components of gendered speech are utilized much more in romantic novels than in real life to create clearly complementary gender identities. However,

13 journal of undergraduate research this traditional speech is much more a part of femininity than masculinity.52 Thus, while a Japanese woman reading these romances may recognize the extremely polarized binary distinctions between the language of female and male characters, it will be difficult for her to deny the fact that the successful feminization of the female character is closely tied to her language use. Therefore, the reader may, consciously or subconsciously, use her own language to index her own femininity as well. Gender divisions in speech and interests can also be seen in television shows and anime. In how-to television programs (i.e., cooking, carpentry, etc.), the use of directives varies according to the gender of the expert. Male experts tend to make more “bald-on- record”53 directives while women often employ requests, using keigo (honorifics).54 Even though these women are in charge in that they are the teachers in these television shows, they continue to employ this polite speech. Women viewers are, thus, sent a message of inherent inferiority, even when their skills may surpass others.’ In cartoons there is a “particularly clear field for playing out of traditional cultural visions of men’s and women’s natures, and the language appropriate to these natures.”55 Anime shows are clearly divided between those intended for boys and those intended for girls, based on both the subjects involved and the speech patterns utilized. Boys’ anime have samurai as characters and/or focus on detective-type stories, science fiction, or sports.56 The overarching theme for girls’ anime is love. Just as in the romances, the language use of the genders conforms to the stereotypical conceptions of each. Thus, it may be seen that women and men are conditioned by the media from a young age to—if not follow the linguistic expectations—know and be able to recognize what is particularly female speech and what is not. When asked when girls begin to use JWL, one of my interviewees (a doctor in his late-thirties) explained that he believed girls knew by the age of ten the distinctions between female and male speech, even if they did not speak according to them at that age. It is undeniable that the media help to create this conception to some degree.

14 Japanese Women’s Speech: Changing Language, Changing Roles

Who Uses JWL?

Because linguistic practice often strays from linguistic ideology, it is useful to examine who in reality does employ JWL and who does not, or utilizes it in a manner inconsistent with prescribed usage. As Okamoto and Shibamoto Smith explain, “‘deviant’ uses [of linguistic forms] are meaningful choices rather than mere exceptions or anomalies.”57 Therefore, insight may be gained by focusing on the social groups who employ JWL differently. Specifically, I will be considering the speech of women who live in Ibaraki, schoolgirls, proponents of women’s liberation, and homosexual men. For women of the Ibaraki region in Japan, JWL is not so much an index of femininity as it is an index of urbanization.58 This area is primarily rural and the local economy is based on agriculture. The dialect spoken is significantly different from that of Standard Japanese (SJ), which is based on Tokyo vernacular. It is viewed negatively as backward and countrified by speakers of SJ. However, there is a near absence of gendered language in Ibaraki-ben (Ibaraki dialect) and particularly of honorifics.59 As nooka no yome (farmers’ wives), women of Ibaraki participate extensively in farm chores and tasks alongside men. By avoiding honorifics, group solidarity on the farm is strengthened, something that is necessary for a successful harvest. Though women and men are still women and men in Ibaraki, the gender differences are not as salient as in urban areas, for example, and they are, thus, not as clearly reflected in speech. As such, it may be said of JWL that it is a regional phenomenon, rather than one that occurs naturally from gender differences.60 An additional sector of Japanese society that does not employ the prescribed features of JWL is that of schoolgirls. This is a rather recent development as commentators in the 1990s increasingly began to notice. The decision to use JWL depends upon the image that the schoolgirl wishes to project. The variation of jogakusei-kotoba (speech of schoolgirls) depends on whether or not the speaker wishes to be viewed as a conformer or a rebel. Therefore, the “studious, pro-school girls use the ‘feminine’ pronoun atashi, whereas girls who

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are more non-conformist use ‘masculine’ pronouns ore and boku.”61 Unlike the women of Ibaraki, these school girls are making an active choice to use JWL differently (or ‘incorrectly’), which serves as a statement about their attitudes toward a confining and restrictive linguistic register. Proponents of women’s liberation also strike out against prescribed JWL because they reject the feminine image that is inextricably connected to it. It may be seen that not only ‘feminists’ but also modern women in general view JWL Some Japanese as an outdated form of communication, and teachers hesitate to they think they sound ‘too feminine’ if they use it. According to one of my interviewees, teach the proper if she used JWL it would not fit with her gendered forms of character because she is not ‘feminine,’ and she language because perceives JWL as excessively feminine. Some they do not believe Japanese teachers hesitate to teach the proper it is an accurate gendered forms of language because they do representation of not believe it is an accurate representation of real speech among Japanese people. real speech among One of the groups which actually Japanese people. does employ a form of JWL is not comprised of women but of men. This style of speaking is called onee kotoba (older sister speech) and it is used by certain members of the homosexual male community. Not all gay men use it, and often those who do are scorned by those who do not.62 Onee kotoba is similar to JWL, but the differences between the two lie in the crudeness of the words employed and the subjects discussed.63 Rather than a true mimicking of JWL, onee kotoba parodies it. In using it, gay men construct a liminal identity, somewhere along the spectrum of homo- and heterosexuality, where they feel most comfortable.

Code/Register Switching

Japanese women understand how to use the proper form

16 Japanese Women’s Speech: Changing Language, Changing Roles of language in the proper circumstances. They understand which is appropriate in which situations and apply this knowledge accordingly. At times, gender seems to be the primary factor in determining a code switch, but it is certainly not the only motivation in a Japanese woman’s decision to employ JWL. This section will first focus on those situations in which language is governed largely by gender and then examine those in which other factors are more relevant. It has been noted that Japanese high school girls alter their speech when at school with boys and then change it again when they return home. Girls say that they, “cannot compete with boys in classes, in games, or in fights with watashi”64 so they use the traditionally male self-referential pronoun, boku. Here, it appears that gender—or gender conflict—is the primary motivation for speech alterations. Girls realize that the pronoun they are expected to use because they are female is not effective in a mixed-gender setting. However, outside of school, they do not employ boku because they know it is not generally acceptable in the larger society.65 The girls have such an effective grasp on language that they can strategize with it and make it ‘work’ for them. They are “bilinguals who have two distinct codes, boku language and watashi language. They select a code depending on a situation.”66 At times, adult women also alter their speech register primarily as a result of the limiting tendencies of the expected form of JWL. Often, these women occupy positions of authority and, like the high school girls, have come to the conclusion that they cannot be effective leaders if they restrict themselves to traditional JWL. However, instead of reaching out to borrow patterns of speech from typically ‘male’ language, these women choose to utilize speech styles from within their own linguistic repertoire. Janet S. Smith calls these options the “motherese strategy” and the “passive power strategy.”67 Motherese is used between a woman of a position of authority and a subordinate who is considerably younger than her. It is modeled after the way in which a mother would direct her child to do chores or other tasks. When this age gap does not exist, they employ a passive power strategy, which makes use of the power of suggestion

17 journal of undergraduate research

(a directive without a verb) or a verb plus the positive form of itadaku or morau (verbs which mean ‘to receive’).68 Thus, here it can be seen that while gender is a primary factor in causing the women to change their speech patterns, they do not automatically need to resort to using men’s language, as this may not be as acceptable for adult women to do as it is for high school girls (though they do not practice it in the larger society). Women, particularly younger ones, may also register switch because of their gender, but not in order to increase their effectiveness or power in a situation, at least not outright. This code, called burikko (feigned naïveté or innocence; it means to ‘play child’), “downplays or masks the adult sexuality of the woman doing it.”69 According to my interviews, women may choose to switch to burikko around men in order to be more attractive, as youthfulness and innocence are highly valued. One of my interviewees, who is a Japanese professor in her mid-thirties, remarked that she sees burikko as ‘unnatural’ for most women and that she teases friends who switch to that register in front of men and then back again when they are no longer present. Other interviewees of the same age group expressed the same sentiments toward burikko and explained that they had made similar observances about its occurrence. While burikko is thought to convey innocence and naïveté, some believe that the women who employ it are “crafty flatterers”70 or schemers, who strategically use it to exert control over others. However, “gender cannot be isolated as an independent variable for determining language use, and… [other] variables need to be considered as simultaneously relevant.”71 For example, young women, who use what traditionally are considered parts of men’s language, are unconscious that they are doing so.72 There is a notion that this register is simply the way in which young people express themselves; it is called wakai mono no kotoba (literally, ‘young people’s speech’). It creates a “youthful and playful” image of its users73; it is not an assertion of equality between the sexes or an attempt to augment the power that the stereotypical language of one gender lacks. Gender plays an insignificant role in this type

18 Japanese Women’s Speech: Changing Language, Changing Roles of code switching, particularly because what once were thought of as masculine or feminine speech patterns are interpreted differently today.74 Many of my interviewees expressed accord with this notion. Particularly, both men I interviewed thought that men and women speak similarly. One, a prosecutor in his mid-thirties, explained, “Onna mo otoko mo onaji kotoba o tsukau” (Both men and women use the same words), and the other, a doctor in his late-thirties, said, “Joseego shika tsukawanai kedo, danseego wa ima wa warikoo- wakai nihonjin mo deru” ([Women] don’t only use JWL, but now [regardless of gender] young Japanese also use men’s language). Sunaoshi makes the case that JWL is differentiated not only along the lines of gender but also of class.75 Thus, women of rural Ibaraki do not speak JWL because it is a regional phenomenon that corresponds with urbanization. If a woman from this area moves to a large city like Tokyo where JWL is more common, she might code switch to quicken her assimilation into the new society, though this would be considerably difficult if she did not grow up hearing JWL. A woman moving to a rural area may attempt the opposite task so that she will fit in better. It is clear that the alteration of registers is not solely dependent upon gender but also location, as, obviously, the gender of these women has certainly not changed. It is only the environment that changes, and their speech according to it. The social construction of the proper behavior and language of the Japanese woman varies, depending on where she makes her home, bringing into question the ‘inherent’ femininity of JWL. Additionally, a woman may choose to employ JWL in situations where she feels she must be polite, as keigo is a large component of it. My interviewees explained that they use JWL when they do not know someone well but then switch back to casual speech when they are among friends. One woman explained:

I: If-even if ah I first met the person, if I feel comfortable uh regardless of their gender, I may use the casual speech or I use-I intentionally use ah

19 journal of undergraduate research

nandeiuno keigo or ah polite language to keep the distance-

H: Uh huh-

I: So I-I don’t think it’s a gender but I think it’s a chemistry that I feel.

Here, code switching is a very personal thing that occurs based on the individual’s feelings, independent of gender. Using the keigo of JWL can also be persuasive and confers a degree of power upon the speaker,76 which may be another reason why women choose to utilize it in certain situations. Thus, while JWL is intricately tied to gender and ideals of proper womanhood, many women today certainly—if not also in the past—switch registers between it and other types of speech, depending on the context and not solely according to the gender of the participants.

Keigo and Danseego

The value of examining the speech of Japanese women from a diachronic perspective cannot be denied. Holding JWL up as the ideal regardless of time period and context can only result in incomplete understandings of what it means to use JWL and why a woman might choose not to do so. Particularly concerning the politeness of JWL and the use of linguistic features traditionally thought of as components of danseego, one must take a second glance to comprehend what is actually being communicated. Honorifics often are assumed, without much discussion, to be polite. If a speaker humbles herself and elevates the listener through the employment of certain words, she is automatically labeled as polite. However, it is dangerous to assume that polite language (a significant component of JWL) is inherently polite,77 without taking context into consideration. Keigo holds different meanings for different people and so people—particularly women,

20 Japanese Women’s Speech: Changing Language, Changing Roles since they are said to use it more than men do78—choose when to use it depending on their varying views of it. To a young woman, keigo may primarily convey femininity, rather than politeness, and so she may opt not to use it in a situation where she feels she must portray herself as assertive and authoritative. Contrarily, an older women may view keigo as mainly expressing the respect she has for a person and so she employs it when speaking with her superior at work. These norms and standards To a young vary across gender, region, and generation woman, keigo may (among other factors), which highlights primarily convey the importance of taking such factors into femininity, rather consideration. A younger woman may not speak onnarashii (like a ‘typical’ woman) than politeness, because she views it differently than her and so she may counterpart of twenty years ago. She may use opt not to use it in keigo not to convey respect but to strategically a situation where afford herself a kind of social power, as keigo 79 she feels she must can also be persuasive. Keigo may also be portray herself utilized to improve the listeners’ view of the speaker, as a command of polite language is as assertive and often seen as an indicator of good upbringing authoritative. and education. Thus, the use of keigo must be examined in conjunction with the context of the situation and from a diachronic perspective. Though polite language (and, therefore, being polite) is often viewed as signifying a lower social rank, one may understand from this discussion that polite language may not have anything to do with being polite. Just as keigo is not inherently polite, linguistic forms traditionally considered parts of danseego are not inherently masculine. Young Japanese—both women and men—speak what they call wakai mono no kotoba (young people’s speech), which makes use of moderately masculine SFPs (‘da,’ ‘ne,’ ‘da yo,’), discourages the use of explicitly feminine words such as the self-referential pronoun ‘atashi,’ the expression of uncertainty ‘kashira,’ and emphasizes a quick tempo, as a slower one is connected to an older generation.

21 journal of undergraduate research

When asked if they are speaking danseego, women deny this assertion and explain that they are simply speaking the way that young people do. It is not uncommon for high school-aged girls to use the traditionally masculine self-referential pronoun ‘boku,’80 though they do not feel as if they are identifying themselves as masculine or male. There has been a broad neutralization of Japanese, both men’s and women’s language, so much so that what was thought of as feminine or masculine in the past is no longer interpreted the same way.81 This highlights, once again, the importance of investigating language diachronically and not assuming the existence of two set, distinct, bounded, and timeless entities. Time affects language and, therefore, language is in constant flux.

Conclusion

Significant changes have been occurring in Japanese society in the past fifty years, particularly due to equal education opportunities. Before World War II, education for women focused on preparing them to be ryoosai kembo (a good wife and wise mother).82 Since then, education has undergone reform so that now boys and girls are learning generally the same things and women have the opportunity for higher education, which was denied them before. Women began to enter the workplace in significant numbers in the 1960s and 1970s. By 1982, half of all married women were working outside the home.83 The Equal Employment Opportunity Law (EEOL) of 1985 and its revision of 1997 have largely affected the demographic of the workplace in terms of gender. Just as “when women are expected to be both a breadwinner and a caretaker at home, they acquire both masculine and feminine qualities, because both qualities are essential to do the tasks required of women,”84 women’s speech habits also began changing, for similar reasons. A great deal of linguistic change may be attributed to the presence of women in the workplace. With that said, true equality between women and men in the workforce has yet to be attained. As in many other industrialized

22 Japanese Women’s Speech: Changing Language, Changing Roles countries, Japan’s women are not paid as well as men; however, the discrepancy between pay is much greater in Japan than in the US, for example, with women in Japan being paid as little as half of what men receive for performing the same job. Several factors contribute to this compensatory inequality, and they cannot all be listed here. Particularly, women in the workplace were historically expected to quit upon marriage and/or childbirth, as their primary role was that of wife and mother. This career trajectory still exists in the mindset of some employers, even though more and more women are now continuing to work after marriage and childbirth. These “employers view women as secondary … workers in the workplace … and pay them low wages.”85 Indeed, as Kawashima explains, “age functions as one of the determinants of women’s work status: permanent regular workers are mostly young; contract workers … are young to middle- aged women; part-timers are mostly middle-aged; and pieceworkers are older women.”86 The young women are most likely to be unmarried so they have less responsibility, which allows them to devote more time to working outside the home. In the minds of employers, as women age, marry, and have children, the converse becomes true, and they differentially employ women and men accordingly. The changing speech of women may also be correlated with the work and age breakdown above, demonstrating the connection between the changing roles of women in society and their linguistic choices. Young women are less likely to use traditional JWL when speaking and more likely to pursue a career outside the home, while the opposite is true for middle-aged and older women. As a result of this persistent inequality in the workplace and division of labor by gender in the home, Japanese women are electing to postpone marriage in the interest of their professional goals. Though marriage was traditionally seen as the symbol of the achievement of adulthood (specifically for women), this view is slowly changing.87 This trend is more pronounced among more highly-educated women, most likely because they wish to put that education to work. Although the old saying deems women unfit for marriage after their twenty-fifth year, just as a Christmas cake is

23 journal of undergraduate research thought to be no longer fresh after the twenty-fifth day of December, today women’s mean age of marriage is twenty-six.88 Even if women do marry, they are delaying childbirth and not having as many children as in years past;today the average Japanese woman has only slightly more than one child.89 Traditional marriage and the traditional roles of a wife and her husband are becoming less and less attractive to young Japanese women. The present state of marriage and the demographic of today’s workplace support this assertion, as do the trends in the shifts of linguistic behavior of the younger generations of Japanese women. Throughout my interviews, when asked about their conceptions of JWL, none of my interviewees could give a direct answer. One man (a doctor in his late-thirties) said, “A no kiite ireba, wakarimasu” (If I hear it, I know [joseego]). A female respondent (a college graduate housewife in her mid-thirties) explained that while it depends on the woman who is speaking, “Amari…variation wa sona ni nai to omoudesukedo” (I don’t think there is very much variation [between women’s and men’s speech]). Another asserted that she understands joseego because she is a Japanese professor and must teach it to her students, though she feels reservations about doing so because she does not believe that the language—at least in practice—is so decisively split into these mutually-exclusive oppositions. When asked to give examples of JWL, each interviewee could list specific features of typical joseego, such as SFPs and kashira as opposed to kana, usually without much difficulty, but they maintained that women do not truly speak this way, especially today. Undeniably, joseego is closely connected to femininity, but it seems it is more than just femininity with which it is intertwined. If it were simply femininity that this register represented, certain women would not be so averse or reluctant to speaking according to the rules of joseego. It is a specific conception of traditional femininity and ideal Japanese womanhood against which these women are rebelling through their rejection of JWL, reflecting their changing roles in society. This rebellion may not even be conscious—though for at least one of my interviewees it is—or it may have been for women

24 Japanese Women’s Speech: Changing Language, Changing Roles of the past but has become mainstream today, as evidenced by the existence of wakai mono no kotoba (young people’s language). Now, it is simply the way young people, regardless While components of gender, speak. While components of highly feminine and highly masculine of highly feminine speech are still identifiable, most people and highly masculine choose to use words from the neutral speech are still language that lies between the extremes in identifiable, most the middle of the spectrum. The speech of people choose to my interviewees reflects this phenomenon. use words from the At the beginning of each interview, when I asked questions simply to hear how they neutral language spoke and then later as well when we were that lies between actually discussing JWL itself, the women the extremes in never utilized any highly feminine forms. the middle of the All respondents used the most neutral spectrum. pronoun ‘watashi’ (including the men) except for one instance when a man (a doctor in his late-thirties) used ‘boku,’ the least masculine male self-referential pronoun. The Japanese dramas that I watched also confirmed the assertion that people in general are now speaking ‘neutral’ Japanese, rather than using those forms associated with one or another gender, although to a lesser degree. Some female characters did use stereotypically feminine SFPs, for example. However, the women did not play roles reflective of notions of traditionally Japanese womanhood (that is, those of wife and mother). Both women worked outside the home, were not married, and actually were being pursued by men who had taken a liking to them, though the women themselves were uninterested in those romances. Perhaps when these women have acquired a status outside the home, they have the freedom to utilize feminine speech patterns without fear of stereotyping because they have already proven themselves, in a sense. However, it is worth noting that one woman just had been demoted and was not given respect in the workplace, while the other was infatuated with her boss. If anything, one must acknowledge that the

25 journal of undergraduate research gender roles portrayed by the media are complex and unpredictable, which, in the very least, allows women to understand that it is acceptable for them to occupy the traditionally incompatible roles of mother and businessperson, for example. I have aimed to show that JWL, while perhaps upheld as the ideal speech of Japanese women, does not define the speech habits of women in practice, and that women strategize linguistically, not only according to their gender and that of conversational participants. From an examination of the components of JWL, to its connections with ideal Japanese beauty, to who uses it today, and why some wish to preserve it, an extensive investigation of this linguistic phenomenon has been conducted. The neutralization of the Japanese language and the new and varied conceptions of Japanese womanhood emerge as logical conclusions. ∫

26 Japanese Women’s Speech: Changing Language, Changing Roles

Endnotes

1 Ian Hacking, “Are you a Social Constructionist?” Lingua Franca, May/ June, 1999: 20-25, 70. 2 Sherry Ortner, “Is Female to Male as Nature is to Culture?” in Anthropological Theory: An Introductory History, ed. R. Jon McGee and Richard L. Warms, 3rd ed. (Boston: McGraw Hill, 2004), 371. 3 Shigeko Okamoto and Janet S. Shibamoto Smith, “Introduction,” in Japanese Language, Gender, and Ideology: Cultural Models and Real People, ed. Shigeko Okamoto and Janet S. Shibamoto Smith (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004), 5. 4 Robin Tolmach Lakoff, Language and Women’s Place (New York: Oxford University Press, 1975). 5 J. Coates, Women, Men, and Language: A Sociolinguistic Account of Sex Differences in Language (London: Longman, 1986). 6 Janet Holmes, An Introduction to Sociolinguistics, 2nd ed. (London: Longman, 2001). 7 Miyako Inoue, “Gender, Language, and Modernity – Toward an Effective History of ‘Japanese Women’s Language,’” in Japanese Language, Gender, and Ideology: Cultural Models and Real People, ed. Shigeko Okamoto and Janet S. Shibamoto Smith (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004), 57. 8 Sumiyuki Yukawa and Masami Saito, “Cultural Ideologies in Japanese Language and Gender Studies,” in Japanese Language, Gender, and Ideology: Cultural Models and Real People, ed. Shigeko Okamoto and Janet S. Shibamoto Smith (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004), 24. 9 Shigeko Okamoto, “Ideology in Linguistic Practice and Analysis,” in Japanese Language, Gender, and Ideology: Cultural Models and Real People, ed. Shigeko Okamoto and Janet S. Shibamoto Smith (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004), 43. 10 Inoue, 60. 11 Rumi Washi, “Japanese Female Speech,” in Japanese Language, Gender, and Ideology: Cultural Models and Real People, ed. Shigeko Okamoto and Janet S. Shibamoto Smith (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004), 76. 12 Ibid., 84. 13 Ibid., 79. 14 Ibid., 89. 15 Okamoto and Smith, 11. 16 Yoshi-Fumi Nakata and Ryoji Takehiro, “Employment and Wages of Female Japanese Workers: Past, Present, and Future,” Industrial Relations, 41: 52. 17 Orie Endo, “Aspects of Sexism in Language,” in Japanese Women: New Feminist Perspectives on the Past, Present, and Future, ed. Kumiko Fujimura-Fanselow

27 journal of undergraduate research and Atsuko Kameda (New York: The Feminist Press at the City University of New York: 1995), 40. 18 Yoko Sugihara and Emiko Katsurada, “Gender Role Development In Japanese Culture: Diminishing Gender Role Difference in a Contemporary Society,” Sex Roles 47: 444. 19 Washi, 76. 20 Sugihara and Katsurada, 444. 21 Cindi Sturtz Sreetharan, “Japanese Men’s Linguistic Stereotypes and Realities: Conversations from the Kansai and Kanto Regions,” in Japanese Language, Gender, and Ideology: Cultural Models and Real People, ed. Shigeko Okamoto and Janet S. Shibamoto Smith (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004), 276. 22 Okamoto and Smith, 5. 23 Shigeko Okamoto, “Ideology and Social Meanings: Rethinking the Relationship between Language, Politeness, and Gender,” in Gendered Practices in Language, ed. Sarah Benor, Mary Rose, Devyani Sharma, Julie Sweetland and Qing Zhang (Stanford: CSLI Publications, 2002), 93. 24 Laura Miller, “You are doing Burikko! Censoring/Scrutinizing Artificers of Cute Femininity in Japanese,” in Japanese Language, Gender, and Ideology: Cultural Models and Real People, ed. Shigeko Okamoto and Janet S. Shibamoto Smith (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004), 151. 25 Okamoto, “Ideology in Linguistic,” 39. 26 Ibid. 27 Ibid., 43. 28 Ibid., 45. 29 Ibid. 30 Ibid. 31 Wim Lunsing and Claire Maree, “Shifting Speakers: Negotiating Reference in Relation to Sexuality and Gender,” in Japanese Language, Gender, and Ideology: Cultural Models and Real People, ed. Shigeko Okamoto and Janet S. Shibamoto Smith (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004), 97. 32 Janet S. Shibamoto Smith, “Language and Gender in the (Hetero)Romance: ‘Reading’ the Ideal Hero/ine through Lovers’ Dialogue,” in Japanese Language, Gender, and Ideology: Cultural Models and Real People, ed. Shigeko Okamoto and Janet S. Shibamoto Smith (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004), 124. 33 Momoko Nakamura, “Let’s Dress a Little Girlishly! or Conquer Short Pants!,” in Japanese Language, Gender, and Ideology: Cultural Models and Real People, ed. Shigeko Okamoto and Janet S. Shibamoto Smith (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004), 142. 34 Miller, 161. 35 Ibid., 148.

28 Japanese Women’s Speech: Changing Language, Changing Roles

36 Ibid., 153. 37 Ibid., 157. 38 Yukawa and Saito, 24. 39 Inoue, 58. 40 Okamoto, Japanese Language, 16. 41 Yoshiko Matsumoto, “Alternative Femininity: Personae of Middle- Aged Mothers,” in Japanese Language, Gender, and Ideology: Cultural Models and Real People, ed. Shigeko Okamoto and Janet S. Shibamoto Smith (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004), 240. 42 Washi, 86. 43 Shigeko Okamoto, “Tasteless Japanese: Less ‘Feminine’ Speech Among Young Japanese Women,” in Gender Articulated Language and the Socially Constructed Self, ed. Kira Hall and Mary Buckholtz (New York: Routledge, 1995), 298. 44 Ibid., 297. 45 Miller, 158. 46 Kurosio, Shuppan, “Female Speakers of Japanese in Transition,” in Proceedings of the First Berkeley Women and Language Conference, ed. Sue Bremner, Noelle Caskey, and Birch Moonwomon (Berkeley: UC Berkeley: 1985), 129. 47 Matsumoto, 241. 48 Shuppan, 137. 49 Yukawa and Saito,142. 50 Ibid., 143. 51 Smith, “Romance,” 127. 52 Ibid. 53 Penelope Brown and Stephen Levinson, Politeness: Some Universals in Language Usage (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987), 60. 54 Janet S. Smith, “Women in Charge: Politeness and Directives in the Speech of Japanese Women,” Language and Society 21: 69. 55 Ibid., 77. 56 Ibid., 68. 57 Okamoto and Smith, 6. 58 Yukako Sunaoshi, “Farm Women’s Professional Discourse in Ibaraki,” in Japanese Language, Gender, and Ideology: Cultural Models and Real People, ed. Shigeko Okamoto and Janet S. Shibamoto Smith (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004), 188. 59 Ibid., 193. 60 Ibid., 200. 61 Okamoto and Smith, 6. 62 Lunsing and Maree, 96. 63 Ibid. 64 Shuppan, 140.

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65 Ibid. 66 Ibid. 67 Smith, “Charge,” 78. 68 Ibid. 69 Miller, 148. 70 Ibid.,157. 71 Okamoto, “Ideology,” 102. 72 Okamoto, “Tasteless,” 315. 73 Ibid., 313. 74 Ibid., 318. 75 Sunaoshi ,190. 76 Joy Hendry, Wrapping Culture: Politeness, Presentation, and Power in Japanese and Other Societies (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993), 161. 77 Okamoto, “Ideology,” 103. 78 Hendry, 160. 79 Ibid., 161. 80 Okamoto, “Tasteless,” 314. 81 Ibid., 318. 82 Kazuko Tanaka, “Work, Education, and the Family,” in Japanese Women: New Feminist Perspectives on the Past, Present, and Future, ed. Kumiko Fujimura-Fanselow and Atsuko Kameda (New York: The Feminist Press at the City University of New York, 1995), 305. 83 Nakata & Takehiro, 521. 84 Sugihara & Katsurada, 450. 85 Yoko Kawashima, “Female Workers: An Overview of Past and Current Trends,” in Japanese Women: New Feminist Perspectives on the Past, Present, and Future, ed. Kumiko Fujimura-Fanselow and Atsuko Kameda (New York: The Feminist Press at the City University of New York, 1995), 289. 86 Ibid., 282. 87 Tanaka, 299. 88 Jane Condon, A Half-Step Behind: Japanese Women Today (Rutland, Vermont & Tokyo: Charles E. Tuttle Company: 1985), 303. 89 Ibid.

30 Monsignor John J. Egan and Catholic Action against Segregation in Chicago

Monsignor John J. Egan and Catholic Action against Segregation in Chicago

Kamaria Porter

“You have to fight injustice wherever you find it!”

ou had no business there because you are a priest. This is not your role, the role of the priest, to question the university. Y 1 You are just plain wrong,” Monsignor Reynold Hillenbrand cen- sured young Father John (Jack) Egan. Among a group of Catholic Action-trained colleagues- lay and clergy, Egan received this harsh reprimand from his mentor for taking a public stand September 23, 1958 against the City Council and the University of Chicago in its plan to remove poor blacks from the Hyde-Park Kenwood neigh- borhood. That year the City of Chicago received one of the first federal grants for ‘urban renewal.’ The city allotted fifty million dol- lars ostensibly to revitalize the Hyde Park-Kenwood area and clear land for the university community. Under these motives was a hid- den campaign to remove blacks from the southeast neighborhood. As more blacks moved to Chicago from the rural south in the late 1950s and early 1960s looking for jobs, housing, and fleeing Jim Crow, they found segregation in cities like Chicago and vicious re- actions from whites out to maintain separation. From the top, city officials enabled racial divisions through programs for ‘urban renew- al’ that would clear affordable housing for the poor and replace it with expensive units. From the bottom, residents, real estate dealers, speculators, and terrorists took local action to keep blacks out of neighborhoods or fled to suburbs. In taking a position against urban renewal, Msgr. Jack Egan put himself and the Church in the midst

31 journal of undergraduate research of Chicago’s most divisive issue through the ‘50s and ‘60s. The Catholic Church, dominant in Chicago’s power structure and neighborhoods, played a vital role in fighting segregation and white flight in the 1950s and ‘60s. Out of parish interests and ideals of justice, forward thinking priests like Msgr. Jack Egan took action on the city and parish levels in order to combat segregation. The urban renewal experience of 1958 taught Msgr. Jack Egan that the Catholic Church should not only stand against the segregationist agenda of the city, but clergy also had to support the people as a teacher and counselor to affect peaceful and lasting integration. These people, so far fearful of combining with blacks had to be organized through their most trusted institutions: their parishes. By examining Chicago’s growth—with respect to race—in terms of Msgr. Jack J. Egan’s experience, we observe how the Catholic Church in Chicago faced the racial problem both on the parish and archdiocesan levels, how vibrant community organizations funded by the Catholic Church stopped racial violence, and how one priest taught a city and the Church how to respect the dignity of all Chicagoans, especially the marginalized African American and poor communities. Chicago and its churches developed through the 20th century following strict ideas of ethnic boundaries. Chicago neighborhoods resembled tribes as immigrants tended to settle in similar areas and to create institutions reminiscent of their homelands, especially their parishes. Historian John T. McGreevy writes in Parish Boundaries, “Fifty-five percent of Catholics in Chicago worshiped at national parishes in 1936 … over 80 percent of the clergy received assignments in parishes matching their own national background.”2 Tribalism of neighborhoods and parishes made with the experience of African Americans in Chicago over the 20th century strained, separated, and violent. Researchers Douglas Massey and Zoltan Hajnal trace segregation over the twentieth century finding that blacks moved from the rural south thereby integrating the northern cities; segregation took hold within the city in racially isolated neighborhoods. They write, “the regional integration of African Americans was accompanied by the creation of urban ghettos that

32 Monsignor John J. Egan and Catholic Action against Segregation in Chicago yielded higher segregation at the neighborhood level.”3 In Chicago between 1900 and 1930 the isolation index, which measures the number of single-race communities, went from .1 in 1900 to .7 in 1930.4 Further, it rose to .84 in 1960 and .86 in 1970.5 These numbers reflect white flight and ‘keep ‘em out’ tactics in Chicago. Community organizer Edward T. Chambers describes the times of the late 1950s and early 1960s: “Block by block street by street, a black would move in and literally the next day, six for sale signs would be up.”6 Between fearful whites fleeing the city, restrictive convents, and reactionary terror groups intimidating black migrants Chicago became the most segregated city of its size in the late 1950s. Government action escalated separation through urban renewal projects in the 1950s and 1960s that were in many ways designed to retake black neighborhoods by exploiting general public distaste for public housing. Programs professed the goal of clearing ‘slums’ that housed many blacks, Latin American immigrants, and poor people of all kinds; while their intention was to change the area so that none of these displaced people could re-enter. Only middle- and upper- income buyers could purchase the new housing. The Catholic Church mirrored the typical city responses to black migration: flight or fight. McGreevy comments that as blacks moved in, “their encounters with the ‘white’ world were filtered through a distinctly Catholic focus on parish and place.”7 As neighborhoods changed over, creating black ghettos and isolated spaces, parishes went from all white and full to all black and dwindling in size. Catholic clergy spoke against politicians, advocating the interests of the Church and the people. McGreevy credits the training of liberal- and justice-minded priests to the Catholic Action movement—an outgrowth of European Catholic groups drawing inspiration from Pope Pius XI’s Quadragesimo Anno and a fervent focus on the laity. Priests were inspired in the 1930s by a “renewed interest in the Pauline notion of the Mystical Body of Christ … All Catholics, therefore, were united through both this Mystical Body and Christ’s literal body and blood as present in the Eucharist.”8 These ideals turned some Catholic heads to building the

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community of God based on human dignity, no matter their race or status. The Catholic response to racism grows from the principle of the Mystical Body. McGreevy explains, “For those interested in race relations, the cumulative meaning of those philosophical and theological developments was obvious. Racist ideologies destroyed hopes for a genuinely corporate community, one united through faith.”9 Therefore, Catholic Church leaders, infused with the idea of Mystical Body, responded to racial transformation on the parish and city levels, speaking up against tactics that promoted segregation and facilitating ways to peacefully integrate neighborhoods. For advocating justice, Church leaders met with hostility from the laity, Catholic politicians, and power brokers. The tension between the Church and the city of Chicago underscores the story of Msgr. John J. Egan and his battle with the University of Chicago over urban renewal. Yet, Egan emerged from that incident reflecting that the work of many Church leaders, even his own, may have been shortsighted in relation to the Mystical Egan’s model Body principle. The lessons he took from of both taking the urban renewal clash and exposure to assertive action democratic people’s organizations associated and supporting with the Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF) community led Egan to see that the war against racial organization shows segregation needed more than a Roman collar at the City Council or a peaceful march. He a truer reflection realized that as a priest he had also to incite of a priest’s role action by the laity themselves to integrate in fostering the communities and support those efforts Mystical Body of as a teacher and counselor. This reaction Christ. characterizes Egan’s approach to social issues and parish ministry after his City Council battle. Egan’s model of both taking assertive action and supporting community organization shows a truer reflection of a priest’s role in fostering the Mystical Body of Christ; Catholics, most importantly the lay people, had to fight racism to make the city and its parishes

34 Monsignor John J. Egan and Catholic Action against Segregation in Chicago closer to the Kingdom of God. John Joseph Egan was born on October 9, 1916 in New York City, but grew up in the highly diverse Chicago neighborhood of Ravenswood. Through his paper route and Our Lady of Lourdes parish interactions, Jack Egan developed an appreciation and respect for different peoples. Post-Great War Ravenswood included people of Japanese, Swedish, German, Polish, Italian, and Irish heritages. As a ‘North Side Irish’ Egan escaped the tribalism of the west and south side neighborhoods where the Irish stuck together in packs. Egan biographer Margery Frisbie writes that Egan, “credits the mix for his ability to empathize with a wide variety of human beings. He got into the homes of the people on his route … Jack learned the world is made up of people other than Irish.”10 Jack Egan received a distinct education on Chicago’s streets not only on the diversity of peoples, but also on injustice, particularly racial injustice. A twelve-year- old Egan, while riding a streetcar, witnessed the conductor throw a black man from the train over a transfer dispute. Seeing that man’s dignity ripped away agitated Egan and established the attentiveness to racial issues he maintained throughout his life.11 Egan went to DePaul Academy and later DePaul University. In 1935, he decided the priesthood was his calling and entered the seminary tract against his father’s wishes. After ordination in 1943, Fr. Jack Egan rose through the Chicago Archdiocese Chancery office. He headed Pre-Cana and Cana programs starting in 1947, moved on to the Cardinal’s Conservation Council in 1957, and founded the Office of Urban Affairs in 1958. Through his approach to ministry that stressed the importance of lay people and Catholic Action, Egan built a reputation associated with social issues. When in parish life, he was mostly in the Southside— ground zero for racial neighborhood change in Chicago. Egan’s relationships in the archdiocese leadership structure and on the city’s south side made him the ‘go-to’ priest in many of these struggles. From two mentors, Msgr. Jack Egan learned the role of the priest in the community: Monsignor Reynold Hillenbrand and Saul D. Alinsky. The former trained Egan in the seminary, and the

35 journal of undergraduate research latter did so on the streets of Chicago. During many of the seminal moments of Catholic social justice action in the 1930s and 1940s, Msgr. Hillenbrand observed and took in a new teaching. When, in 1931, Pope Pius XI released Quadragesimo Anno, the ‘handbook for socially active priests,’ he was in Rome updating his education on his area of interest: worker’s rights. Pope Pius XI declared, “If the members of the body social are, as was said, reconstituted, and if the directing principle of economic-social life is restored, it will be possible to say in a certain sense even of this body what the Apostle says of the mystical body of Christ: ‘The whole body … derives its increase to the building up of itself in love.’”12 Creating this holy body was the task of Catholics. Hillenbrand also met Catholics putting this teaching into practice through the Young Christian Workers groups— communities of Catholics who worked in the world for wages, but also with each other to bring the teachings of Christ to society’s institutions. Their model—from Belgian founder Canon Joseph Cardijin—was to observe social conditions, judge them along side Scriptural teachings, and act for change. Hillenbrand founded more Catholic Action groups in the US upon his return and trained priests in the ‘Observe-Judge-Act’ style in seminaries, such as Mundelein where Jack Egan attended. Catholic Action aimed to create cells of Catholics in different areas of society—labor, health, business, and the like—to come together for reflection and action. Rev. Charles Dahm O.P. adds that Catholic Action was a group of “Catholics entering the world … Every group was to have its own cell … of people who would reflect on their world and then make a change in that world.”13 The hierarchical model of Pope, bishop, pastor, and church member was backwards if the Church wanted to do actual work in the world that could mean something to people. Instead of leading, priests had to find lay people to take up their own causes for justice. Pope Pius XI wrote of clerics, “It is chiefly your duty … to search diligently for these lay apostles …to select them with prudence, and to train and instruct them properly.”14 According to Egan, priests had to “find the people where they are in their life

36 Monsignor John J. Egan and Catholic Action against Segregation in Chicago to help them understand the dignity of their human life and the importance of their humanity … the role of the priest is to listen.”15 These teachings molded Egan into a different kind of priest, one who wanted to have power with the laity, not over them, to work for the Kingdom of God. Fr. Jack Egan met Saul Alinsky in 1954 seeking advice on how to put the principles of Hillenbrand into practice. Alinsky grew up in a Jewish ghetto of Chicago’s west side, studied criminology and sociology at the University of Chicago, and spent time observing and interviewing troubled young people in the Back of the Yards neighborhood. He was instructed to survey the west-side neighborhood to “search out the local leaders, and, with them, to organize a community program to combat juvenile delinquency.”16 Alinsky became fed up with seeing people living in undignified conditions that contributed to and fed social problems. An admirer of John L. Lewis and the Congress of Industrial Organizations, Alinsky came to see community organization for power, not another ‘program,’ as the ticket to transform conditions in the Back of the Yards. He worked with leaders from community groups, fraternal organizations, churches, and unions to form the Back of the Yards Neighborhood Council (BYNC) in 1939. Most impressively, Alinsky built relationships between the Catholic Church and the labor movement. Alinsky went on to start the Industrial Areas Foundation in 1940 to fund community organizing nationwide. He recognized that democracy is the “best means of achieving the values proposed by the Judeo-Christian and the democratic political traditions—equality, justice, freedom, peace, and the preciousness of human life with its basic rights” and wrote these reflections in books Reveille for Radicals and Rules for Radicals.17 Egan and Alinsky began a mentoring and public relationship that gave Alinsky the vital access to Catholic power in the Chancery office and Egan the training he wanted for community organization. Organizing apprentice of Alinksy and Industrial Areas Foundation Executive Director Edward T. Chambers comments that Egan’s relationship with Alinsky was “The strongest political relationship

37 journal of undergraduate research that Jack had. He introduced Saul to the Chancery office.”18 Alinsky biographer Sanford Horwitt describes Alinsky and Egan’s partnership: “Alinsky stumbled upon a young man who had the potential to become what Alinsky had found to be so elusive: a crack organizer with whom he could work as a brother, or perhaps as a father, sharing and rejoicing in the adventure, the jousting, the fun, the power, and the nobility of fighting for a just cause.”19 Hillenbrand taught Egan about the primacy of the laity, but to do the kind of work he wanted—to go beyond people’s everyday needs to changing conditions that created those needs—organizing filled that post. Rev. Theodore Hesburgh, friend and colleague of Egan, added that Alinsky taught young Egan a great deal about social justice and that Jewish Alinsky “didn’t have a better Catholic friend than Jack Egan. They were very close. And Jack admired him a great deal.”20 Chambers reflects further: “Saul taught young Jack Egan about politics, about power. That’s where he got his education.”21 Yet Jack Egan had something neither mentor could have taught—a genuine care for people. Fr. Egan’s first concern was what he could do for the person in front of him. Alinsky, who loved the excitement of public action and conflict missed the cura personalis that was natural to young Egan. Edward Chambers, remembering the first time he met Egan, was working as an organizer in Lackawanna, NY. Alinsky came to town with Egan and Msgr. John O’Grady, the creator of Catholic Charities, for a large action and convention of the organization. After the meeting, Egan introduced himself to Chambers saying, “Good job kid, you did a great job.”22 While Alinsky and O’Grady were at the hotel having cocktails Egan, Chambers recalled, ”was at the right place, observing the work of the citizens organization of Lackawanna that I was building. Jack was more of a people’s person than Alinsky was. [Meeting Egan] was the first time anyone told me that I was ok and I was doing a good job. It built my security in public life.”23 Egan’s care for people extended to their social condition. One of his mottoes was “You have to fight injustice wherever you find it for as long as you find it.”24 As a counselor for Young Christian Students,

38 Monsignor John J. Egan and Catholic Action against Segregation in Chicago he worked with young people concerned with their Puerto Rican immigrant neighbors who had no access to heat, food, or education. Egan gained a reputation early on as a social justice-minded priest. Rev. Dahm, a pastor in Chicago, remembered that Egan “was very focused on getting the Church involved in making changes in the world. He had a very incarnational theology. Meaning that we are to bring about the Kingdom of God here on earth and that we do this by working for the values for the kingdom such as peace and justice and reconciliation. He also had a very strong compassion for the underdog.”25 His care for the person and her or his social situation prepared him for a taking public life role that was meaningful to combating racial injustice on the city and neighborhood levels. Egan’s debut experience in political life came in 1956 when he testified at the Metropolitan Housing and Planning Council for new housing regulations. Egan had an idea of what living in Chicago was like for the poor, but he knew he needed to make a thorough social analysis before representing himself and his church in a presentation. Through relationships with police, firemen, and realtors, Fr. Jack Egan continued his street education. Egan followed public servants through sub-standard housing units, shadowed cops on drug and prostitution raids, and walked through apartments that were firetraps for residents. After testifying, the code proposals were passed but to no avail for the people of Chicago. Housing for the poor of Chicago remained dilapidated for residents had no power to hold officials accountable to regulations. When Chicago received a fifty-million dollar urban renewal grant in 1958, Egan, then director for the Archdiocese Conservation Council, observed how the federal grant for the entire city was being disproportionately spent to rehab the University of Chicago-Hyde Park Kenwood area. The chief interest considered in this plan was the University of Chicago and its elite students and faculty. The University was out to create a “‘compatible neighborhood’ in which it could thrive”26 by clearing slums and low-income housing. The New York Times reported the renewal project to be the largest of its kind “involving about 900 acres and costing more than 135,000,000 in

39 journal of undergraduate research city, Federal, university, and private funds over a five year period.”27 Planner Julian Levi, who compared the University’s need to rebuild to those of Harvard and MIT, deemed the blight surrounding the school a ‘national concern.’ Msgr. Jack Egan responded in a series of articles pointing to the inequalities in the Hyde Park-Kenwood plan. First, the University was selfishly using the fifty million dollar grant that could improve the entire city. Egan warned planners, “if the process of urban renewal is not extended to other areas, then Hyde Park will be nothing but a gaudy showcase amidst a decaying city.”28 The plan marked twenty percent of Hyde Park’s buildings for demolition. In the archdiocese newspaper The New World dated May 16, 1958, Egan addressed the plan’s intents to tear down units and exacerbate the housing shortage and racial isolation in an article entitled “More Housing…Less Segregation.” In the piece, Egan wrote, “The major moral problem of our generation, the segregation of the Negro population into nightmarish shanty towns, will also continue to disgrace us unless we house all our population in a manner consistent with their dignity as human beings.”29 Further he uncovered the root of the racial problem in Chicago causing segregation, “There is no open housing market for Negroes … If a white person has the money to buy a house, he can buy it. If a non-white wants to buy a house and he has the money, he can buy it, provided it has been determined by certain real estate men, mortgage financiers, and other groups that such and such a neighborhood is or is not going to be ‘colored.’”30 The liberty to live in dignity and peace was not available to blacks in Chicago through the intentional actions of housing professionals and neighborhood leaders. Egan felt urban renewal could be an opportunity to actually improve the city with the right motivations. He wrote that a more nuanced approach should be adopted, arguing that renewal should be about “doing everything that has to be done so people may lead the happy and healthy lives they are entitled to” by clearing slums, building schools, churches and libraries, and opening neighborhoods to all people to buy homes.31 The Hyde Park plan

40 Monsignor John J. Egan and Catholic Action against Segregation in Chicago only focused on removing blight, not rebuilding the necessary houses and apartments. Egan saw the remedy as a two-part process: “the houses we need must be built, and our urban renewal program must keep pace with “The present our housing supply.”32 In urging public and situation must private entities to take responsibility Egan not be allowed to declared, “The present situation must not continue. Are we to be allowed to continue. Are we to endure endure the cycle of the cycle of deadly slum fires in the winter and murderous racial disturbances in the deadly slum fires summer?”33 Without more housing, indeed in the winter and racial problems would increase. Appealing murderous racial to both ideas of American democracy and disturbances in the Christian community, Egan ended, “We summer?” believe that a country as rich and great as the United States of America can and must house all her people … with faith in our cherished democratic way of life and in our Christian belief, we say that our bountiful country can and must house all her people.”34 Egan spoke out against the plan representing the position of the Catholic Church trying to build and maintain the body of Christ in Chicago. A month later Msgr. Jack Egan restated many of the Church’s concerns over the Hyde Park-Kenwood plan and reasonable suggestions for adjustment in the Chicago Sun- Times. Egan proposed four corrections to the plan from the archdiocese to make it more fair and just for Chicago:

(1) Land should be cleared only when new use is assured in a reasonable length of time. (2) Specific means by which small income and moderate income families could be assured of having some new housing built to meet their pocketbooks. (3) Homeowners and landlords be given the security of clear “rehabilitation” requirements which, if met, would protect them from the fear of future clearance. (4) A close review by the community conservation board of the 297 sound

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buildings to be removed, to be sure there are overriding reasons for clearance.35

Furthermore, the suggestions come out of a concern that the 36,000 families estimated to be displaced by the urban renewal plan should have sufficient time to find new housing and that new and affordable housing would be built concurrently. Egan pointed out that many of the units to be built in the area would cost Chicagoans forty- five to fifty-five dollars per room after clearance—a cost low-income residents of Hyde Park could not afford. The removal of housing would fuel the already pressing housing shortage. Egan entreated, “are 200 units of public housing too much to ask in a community of 24,000 families? They need not be in a monster project. This low cost shelter should be and can be dispersed throughout the community. Its design should fit into Hyde Park’s architectural landscape.”36 Egan’s counterproposal for a mixed-income neighborhood in Hyde Park would show “urban renewal is for all the people.”37 He dispelled the myths that a good neighborhood could not accommodate affordable housing and that low cost shelter had to look cheap. Unlike the University of Chicago, the archdiocese stood for the interests of the entire city. With the adjustments, Egan stated urban renewal could “be a program that shall benefit all the citizens of Chicago.”38 Samuel Cardinal Stritch, Egan’s superior, gave him sharp instructions that the archdiocese would officially fight the Hyde Park plan. Stritch told Egan the plan was “designed only to preserve one institution. There are other social considerations to consider, so oppose it.”39 Egan delivered the statement to the City Council Committee on Housing and Planning September 23, 1958. Egan’s goal was threefold: to legitimize the voice of the Church to speak on the matter, to propose amendments to broaden the benefit of the plan for low-income people, and to challenge the university and City Council on its racist agenda by removing housing occupied by many African Americans. In his statement, Egan offered a strong statement concerning the role of priests in the public sphere:

42 Monsignor John J. Egan and Catholic Action against Segregation in Chicago

People prefer a priest say nothing unless he speaks beneficent words. Priests would rather say nothing if they cannot impart blessings. I would rather say nothing if I cannot say anything kind. Sadly enough, a priest’s job entails other duties besides benedictions. A priest is also a pastor and a teacher. Occasions may come when he is forced to say things that will be regarded as unkind…stern words and honest ones are frequently spoken in love and charity too.40

Egan set out to contrast the Archdiocese of Chicago with the university to show how the Hyde Park plan was shortsighted. He said, “The vested interest of the Archdiocese of Chicago is human beings. Everything we do is pointless without them…I have been sent here to protect it and for it.”41 The plan needed to include the interests of more than the university’s students and faculty. People in Hyde Park-Kenwood needed adequate housing. Egan and the archdiocese thought urban renewal could have greater meaning for Chicago’s neighborhoods if only the city shared the Church’s concern for the people’s needs. Egan presented the amendments to his June editorial to the City Council in hopes that the city would want to change the plan and serve its people. He said that even if low-income residents could not afford the standards proposed by the Council they “do want some standards, healthy standards, safe standards. They must be assured time and assistance to obtain such housing. Then the enrichment of Hyde Park may not have been purchased by the impoverishment of who knows how many other people and neighborhoods.“42 Egan suggested that the plan contributed to segregation, “the major moral problem”43 facing the city. Without the provision of new housing in the plan, the archdiocese could not endorse it. The September statement garnered a variety of reactions in the Chicago press. The African American newspaper the Chicago Defender supported Egan and his advocacy for housing and integration in a September editorial. Editors praised Egan’s courage: “Though he spoke as an official representative of the Catholic Archdiocese of

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Chicago, he nevertheless voiced the sentiment, emotional feeling, and the interest of the Southsiders, especially Negroes, who stand to suffer most from the ruthless operation of the Hyde Park-Kenwood demolition scheme.”44 The lack of plans “to make for the housing deficit” citywide was a problem only Egan addressed at the city council.45 To the Defender readers, Msgr. Egan had made the most important points on behalf of the city, and the paper declared “the common people have a stout defender in Father Egan. More power to him; and long may he live.”46 Unfortunately, little such praise followed his statements. Hyde Park residents and leaders came out in favor of urban renewal, denouncing Msgr. Egan and the archdiocese for opposing the plan. A Hyde Park local wrote to the neighborhood paper calling Egan’s word reminiscent of “a genuine old socialist party warhorse.”47 James Cunningham, the Executive Director of the Hyde Park Community Conference, disagreed ‘emphatically’ that Egan and the Church represented Hyde Park residents and business owners. Egan’s statement not only rejected urban renewal, but also according to Cunningham, “maligned all of the people of our community who support the plan.”48 Cunningham also jabbed at Egan’s impassioned plea for the people of the city: “Cunningham refuted the premise that the Archdiocese speaks for human beings, while the rest of us only for planning politics and property.”49 The Catholic Church had power in the city, but judging from the Egan City Council incident, not united power. Egan’s act caused controversy within the city’s Catholic community. Jerome Kervin, a Catholic and University of Chicago political science professor, told the Chicago Daily News, “the charge that the Hyde Park program is careless of the needs of the poor and depressed is wholly unjustified … we [the University of Chicago] have always cared for them and always will. The charge that we will flood the city with them indicated we have more than our share.”50 Besides speaking against Egan in the papers, Kerwin called friends in the Church to complain about Egan. Word reached Egan’s mentor Msgr. Reynold Hillenbrand, with whom Kerwin and his peers

44 Monsignor John J. Egan and Catholic Action against Segregation in Chicago met weekly. In response Monsignor Hillenbrand called Father Bill Quinn and asked him to get a group together, “to kick the hell out of Jack Egan.”51 At a meeting called the ‘Egan Heresy Trial,’ his Sunday discussion group, a collection of priests and lay people, met after Egan’s testimony not to, Catholic response as they usually did, talk about their common to housing and beliefs in the principles of Catholic Action and racial injustice lay power, but to chastise Msgr. Jack Egan. varied within the Hillenbrand publicly lectured Egan community, yet on his role as a priest and speaking on matters with which he had no experience: “You are Jack Egan clearly just plain wrong, you who had the privilege stood on the side of the best possible training on the role of of poor Hyde laity … and not only that what do you know Parkers. about urban renewal … you should be in favor of that plan just because the University of Chicago is there.”52 The criticism from his mentor in front of peers jarred Egan. He had done the social analysis in preparation for his 1956 Housing testimony and had a right to be at the hearing. In addition, he was obeying direct orders from Cardinal Stritch, who died before Egan’s testimony. Egan’s stand did not intentionally subvert the laity, in his mind. He reflected years later to his biographer, “I do think there are occasions when the injustice is such that lives of a large number of people are affected and there does not seem to be a strong enough voice on the part of the lay people and I think its only then a priest can come in and use what ever influence he can.”53 Catholic response to housing and racial injustice varied within the community, yet Jack Egan clearly stood on the side of poor Hyde Parkers. Commenting on Egan’s uniqueness, Rev. Theodore Hesburgh recalled, “Jack was always on the side of the weak and the oppressed. And there were plenty of Catholics who were not on that side, who were interested in other things.”54 Kerwin, Hillenbrand, and other Catholics who failed to stand behind Egan’s leadership were more interested in removing blighted areas without dealing with the root causes of slums: the housing shortage and segregation.

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Egan took center stage in the Hyde Park battle, which isolated him within the Church. Frisbie comments that Jack Egan had “stepped outside the clerical culture. He’d left a safe, familiar, and edifying place for a forum that was fairly much untried, unedifying, and unsafe—for a priest.”55 Egan wrote friend Msgr. George Higgins after the ‘Heresy Trial’: “There have been lonely moments and also a few disappointments, but the dust is beginning to clear and I think that I am beginning to see things quite a bit more clearly now.”56 From the experience, Egan gained a “far deeper understanding of what it means to the Church to engage itself in some of the problems of the temporal order.”57 Despite criticisms, he maintained that he took “the reasonable stand on principle and that the questions which we have raised are extremely important for the future of urban renewal, not only here in Chicago, but throughout the country.”58 It was important for the Church to speak on the matter; its ‘vested interest’ in human beings gave the archdiocese and Egan a perspective on urban renewal no other entity could convey—the housing deficit and racial segregation hurt the human community and were barriers to people living in dignity. Msgr. Jack Egan emerged from the Hyde Park-Kenwood fight with the knowledge and experience that propelled him to recognize that, on issues of justice, the Catholic Church could not act alone if it wanted to make an impact. Egan had hoped his eleventh hour stand against the Hyde Park plan would incite the laity to act; however, there were no groups of lay people organized around justice or race issues to follow him. Only moneyed and business interests behind the University of Chicago could be mobilized in the fight. Largely due to the influence of Alinsky, Egan came to see the racial and economic injustice battles needed more than a Roman collar at the city council; strong community organizations could challenge the city with more success.59 Also, Msgr. Egan realized that the Catholic Church could not be the sole religious voice behind these organizations; other religious and denominational groups had to be included. He vigorously advocated for community organization and Catholic Church collaboration after the 1958 urban renewal

46 Monsignor John J. Egan and Catholic Action against Segregation in Chicago incident. In his November 1958 report to Albert Cardinal Meyer, Egan reflected that the city and, more importantly, the Church had to change its tactics in response to increasing black migration and white flight. The ‘rigid community life’ and ‘ancient ways’ of the parishes and the neighborhoods would not work in combating racism.60 Additionally the behavior of the Church in the urban renewal fight needed to be examined. Instead of acting alone, expecting the city to soften, Egan wrote, “isolation from other groups and forces, neutralism toward secular problems that immediately affect the church’s work, and intuitive judgments based on personal points of view instead of adequate and systematic collaboration of accurate information are procedures that will not serve us as they once did.”61 Egan pointed out as more people from the Protestant south came to Chicago, both black and white, the concentration of Catholic power dissipated. Therefore, Egan saw the prospect of working with non- Catholic groups on issues that affect the churches and the city as “no longer academic.”62 Segregation drained Chicago’s Catholic Church spiritually and financially, according to Egan. Without a ‘substantial reduction’ in the segregationist problems of the city, ghettos would continue to grow while white Catholics fled for the suburbs, depleting the parish of needed funds. Egan and Church leaders would welcome black parishioners, yet racism kept them from well-paying jobs to contribute financially to their communities. Spiritually, loss of parish members and the Catholic participation in racist practices marred the Mystical Body of Christ. Egan wrote, “a change will not come easily. Sad as it is for us to report the fact, the truth is that many of our own people are energetic in their support of racial segregation. Chicago’s worst race disturbances have taken place in the city’s Catholic neighborhoods.”63 Catholics were not only suffering from the problem, but central to creating it. Egan recommended organizations in both black and white neighborhoods to break down the ‘intolerable situation’ over the years. On further reflection, Egan developed a theology of organizing

47 journal of undergraduate research that fit people’s need to be recognized as human beings and to work for the Kingdom of God. In speeches to Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish clergy and lay people, Egan agitated and excited people over the prospect of invigorating religious life and collaborating for social justice. Egan challenged his peers to rethink their conceptions of the Church community. The Church was ‘intimately’ connected to the struggles of its members.64 Therefore, communities of faith had to be involved in efforts of justice and actively building people around moral teachings. For Jack Egan, communities were not flippant classifications; a community was a ‘moral entity’ for formation and action.65 Community organizations of religious groups not only flowed from the democratic foundational texts, but also the Judeo-Christian tradition. Egan highlighted, “There is deep within the Judeo-Christian tradition a recognition of the public character of our faith. Classic Judaism was, above all, a community response … the obligations which it imposed were more communal than personal.”66 Also, in Catholic theology, the idea of the Mystical Body made it a Christian mandate “to work simultaneously on one’s own personal sanctification and upon reordering the whole social fabric of society.”67 To be true to the Mystical Body, believers had to be active in restoring all things to Christ’s teachings. Even though lay people had to be the leaders, clergy had to serve them as counselors, teachers, and spiritual guides. Clergy had to challenge and guide lay people recognize their call to action, conveying to followers that “the obligation they have as members of both the city of God and the city of man to bring the two into alignment.”68 Lessons from Msgr. Hillenbrand, Saul Alinsky, and his unsuccessful venture against the University of Chicago, had settled Egan on the importance of training and leading the laity to take their own power in the public realm. Priests had to be the catalysts for social action and prophets in their congregations and cities. Egan explained, “as prophets, we clergymen must build for our laymen a vision of the future, based on God and a God-oriented true community: a vision which will inspire them to turn their zeal toward building the new city.”69 Clergy and lay members of the

48 Monsignor John J. Egan and Catholic Action against Segregation in Chicago

Mystical Body had a responsibility to take action together, and yet the thrust and energy had to come from the lay people acting for themselves. Egan wanted to inspire both religious leaders of Christian and Jewish congregations to join in this joyful work. In an address to a Christian and Jewish clergy delegation Egan called leaders of both faith traditions to turn their vocations to action on common concerns of justice. He stated, “It is not sufficient to lament the fact that in these “It is not sufficient circumstances human and religious values to lament the are too frequently ignored or dismissed. fact that in these We must rather strive to recognize and circumstances human comprehend critical modern problems, and religious values and seek out, choose, and dedicate ourselves to effective solutions, solutions are too frequently which make the voice of religion heard ignored or dismissed. without contravening or compromising We must rather strive the democratic principles that make to recognize and 70 America.” Clergy were ‘custodians’ of comprehend critical the cities and human community. They modern problems, are called to speak on social issues out of a vocation that holds people’s dignity as and seek out, a central focus. The people of Chicago choose, and dedicate live in realities plagued by social evils ourselves to effective of disgraceful housing, segregation, solutions.” and poverty. Egan challenged his peers saying, “We cannot call ourselves men of cloth and be indifferent or helplessly wring our hands without attempting to come to grips with them. These evils weigh so heavily on the lives of the people we must serve, that our people cannot hope for a rich spiritual development, if we are indifferent.”71 In order to be good spiritual leaders, clergy had to address the situation of their flock—Christian or Jewish. Finally, clergy had to counsel the laity by evaluating their experience with them and suggesting the ‘moral and spiritual implications’ for deeper reflection.72

49 journal of undergraduate research

Egan’s next fight regarding segregation emerged from a project, funded by the archdiocese starting in 1957, in which he and organizers of the Industrial Areas Foundation studied racial population shifts in Chicago. Under Cardinal Stritch, the Church commissioned Alinsky’s organization with a three-year grant of $118,800 to study how and why Chicago neighborhoods, and incidentally, parishes were transforming. Egan had been working with Saul Alinsky, Nick von Hoffman and Lester Hunt through the Conservation Council on the report. Egan, von Hoffman, and Hunt did the majority of the research and focused their attention on Chicago’s South Side neighborhoods. The borders of the African American ghettos were expanding and eventually taking over white areas. The IAF report concluded that, due to migration and suburban growth, Protestant populations were replacing Catholic communities of the South Side. McGreevy illuminates the matter: “Typically, the sudden rush to sell homes occurred after a racial incident or when an invisible ‘tipping point’ was reached in the area’s population.”73 Realtors exploited racial fears by encouraging people to sell for prices under their property value. Neighborhood transition from Catholic to non-Catholic was not the only result of migration that concerned Egan and the IAF organizers. Whites, unwilling to move, reacted violently to African American newcomers. IAF organizer Edward Chambers recalls that as blacks began to purchase better homes in the southwest community, white Christians, Catholic and Protestant, hatched terror plots to bomb porches of newly purchased black homes. The lay Christians “were in cahoots with the police and the fire dept, they knew what they were doing.”74 After setting a fire, intimidators would “Call the fire department to report the fires … [firefighters] would go in and chop up the house looking for a fire, but of course there was no fire.”75 Whites bombed black homes in hopes of chasing people away. Chambers adds, “It was a total embarrassment to the Christians. [The southwest side] was a very Christian, Irish Catholic neighborhood.”76 Violence and empty pews worried Egan and the organizers. The problem could not be solved in City Hall.

50 Monsignor John J. Egan and Catholic Action against Segregation in Chicago

Egan envisioned three organizations to facilitate integration: one in a changing neighborhood, one in an all black area, and one in a white ethnic community.77 The Civil Rights Commission hearings, in which Egan and Alinsky testified, brought to the fore the racial question facing Chicago. Egan addressed the Civil Rights Commission on May 6, 1959 to deliver Cardinal Meyer’s position on race relations. He explained how white fears of blacks taking over neighborhoods came true as a result of the lack of sufficient action to prepare and ease integration. Whites, not blacks, made their own forebodings come to pass. Egan argued, “Had there been cooperation between individuals, between churches, between business institutions; had there been planning, had there been constructive programming of different kinds… a free market would have permitted the entrance into white middle class communities of a proportion of Negro families who could only be considered an asset in any neighborhood.”78 Responsible parties concerned with segregation had to lead people, especially whites, to accept blacks as their neighbors. For true integration and racial harmony, Egan proposed the creation of more housing and community organization to the Civil Rights Commission. He stated community organization would “ensure that Negroes do gain access to our communities” not by increasing the size of ghettos, but by calming people’s fears and welcoming black families.79 However, collaboration and organization even among churches was rare. Egan warned, “The older practices of unilateral action are not suited for this complex era. No single person, interest, church or group can be the sole custodian of our communities.”80 Groups had to learn to pool interests and talents to ‘meet the future together.’ Alinsky proposed to the commission that neighborhoods should admit a fixed number of black families or a quota while organizing the people to stave off racial violence and ease integration. He explained the goal was to convince whites that a few black families would not lead to the neighborhood going all black. Chicago Daily News reported on Alinsky’s idea, “the Quota proposal further

51 journal of undergraduate research attempts to secure a non-threatened, non-hostile situation where negroes and white families would have the opportunity of getting to know each other as human beings rather than as faceless racial symbols … integration would become more than a word.”81 Stories of the Church’s position and Alinsky ran together, making the race question, ‘the Great Question,’ proclaimed by Chicago Daily News. Egan and Alinsky resolved that in order for integration to occur, an organized community that could pacify white fears and protect against violence had to embrace it. Egan and Alinsky looked to the Back of the Yards community to test the endeavor. The Back of the Yards Neighborhood Council made significant strides in improving housing and city services in the area. The thrust behind the effort came from Catholic clergy and lay people. McGreevy writes, “local Catholic clergy had assumed a variety of leadership roles with in the organization… ‘[OSC was] acting on the Catholic belief that all human beings alike reflect the face of God’ wrote one avid [BYNC] supporter.”82 McGreevy also cites an article that called the effort of the Back of the Yards Neighborhood Council “a heartening demonstration of Catholic social action.”83 Alinsky and Egan hoped that Back of the Yards, both Catholic and organized, could be a test case for organized integration. They visited Alinsky’s co-patriot in building Back of the Yards Neighborhood Council, Joe Meegan along with his wife and pastor. Alinsky thought that, since the neighborhood was already organized and people trusted Meegan’s judgment and leadership, if Meegan encouraged selling homes to black families of similar social standing the integration process would go smoothly. Joe Meegan and BYNC could control the number of families coming in. Egan recalled the scene for Alinsky biographer saying:

I remember Saul saying that the black families would be on the same economic and cultural level as the people in the Back of the Yards, so that they would really become friends… I backed Saul up, I said “and what a wonderful thing this would be for the city, and how the Back of the Yards, which

52 Monsignor John J. Egan and Catholic Action against Segregation in Chicago

has had a racist reputation, would be looked upon by the rest of the community’’ for its enlightened leadership.84

Unfortunately, the Meegans reacted angrily to the proposal, accusing Alinsky for asking too much of them and pushing an unrealistic vision. The Meegans’ pastor did not reiterate Egan’s pastoral comments. If organized integration were to happen in Chicago, IAF and the Catholic Church would have to build it elsewhere. Catholics in the southwest community showed more interest than the Meegans. Egan knew that testifying before the commission was not enough to stop the violence and integrate Chicago’s neighborhoods. Egan was approached by Msgr. John McMahon, the pastor of St. Sabina, one of the large Catholic parishes on the southwest side. McMahon opposed white ‘keep ‘em out’ tactics, but also did not want to see his parish transform, losing its strong Irish Catholic base.85 McMahon was ready to take action and needed Jack Egan’s relationships with the IAF and Chancery office to do it. Initially, Msgrs. Egan and McMahon convinced Cardinal Stritch to support the idea of building some organization in the southwest side to combat racial problems. After Stritch’s death, McMahon and Egan won the support of Cardinal Meyer for the proposal in fall of 1958, which included permission given previously by Stritch to use local parish funds to build “a strong, responsible community organization.”86 Egan made the working relationship between IAF and the Catholic Church out of his, and others, recognition of a common mission. McGreevy expounds, “Alinsky’s ideas have maintained their popularity in Catholic circles because of the congruence between the Catholic concern for neighborhood and Alinsky’s vision of small scale, non-partisan community organizations.”87 The Catholic idea of Mystical Body reached fruition in IAF organizing due to its focus on encouraging people to act for themselves and bringing people together through strong institutions. The southwest side was a heavily Catholic area; therefore, the organizing could not be successful without the churches and the archdiocese. Jack Egan was ‘instrumental’ in forming the

53 journal of undergraduate research

Organization for the Southwest Community (OSC), according to Edward Chambers. As one of the organizers for OSC, Chambers remembers how Egan played both levels of the Church to make things happen. Egan was ‘a priest-worker, priest organizer’ by taking assignments to talk to the Catholic pastors about the effort.88 Also, Egan formed the vital bridge from the IAF to the Archdiocese. In the days leading up to the founding convention for the OSC in October 1959, organizers realized that without an African American congregation, the group would be The Organization perceived as another racist ‘keep ‘em for the Southwest out’ group. Chambers found a Black Community included Methodist congregation near the Catholic, Protestant and boundary of the OSC’s organizing Jewish congregations, scope, but he needed one of the leaders to make the motion to admit along with fraternal the congregation. Msgr. Patrick J. organizations, inter- Molloy of St. Leo’s parish pastored the racial groups, labor largest congregation in the nation and unions, and the prized was a known bigot. From the pulpit, black congregation. Chambers recalled, Molloy used racial slurs and was unwelcoming of blacks. Yet, organizers targeted Molloy to make the motion. Molloy valued the work of OSC because it would keep his white parishioners from leaving St. Leo. Alinsky’s relationship with Msgr. Egan gave the IAF a direct line to the Cardinal. At Chambers’ request, Alinsky convinced Meyer a black congregation had to be included to realize the vision of the organization. Meyer gave Molloy marching orders, and in the meeting before the convention, he made the motion to admit the congregation. The convention on October 24, 1959 was a success; the Organization for the Southwest Community included Catholic, Protestant and Jewish congregations, along with fraternal organizations, inter-racial groups, labor unions, and the prized black congregation. Egan described the event as one of the great thrills of his life because “he felt great pride that his friendship with Alinsky had helped to make it possible” by connecting and organizing the

54 Monsignor John J. Egan and Catholic Action against Segregation in Chicago

Catholic Church.89 The Organization for the Southwest Community set out to renew their own community, dealing with issues of sub-standard housing, segregation, and racial violence internally through relationships and institutions. At their inaugural event, the one thousand delegates from 104 institutions resolved that “the cultural, economic, and religious life of the community should be revitalized, and the physical community made a more attractive place in which to live and rear families.”90 The OSC would promote the common good of all residents “without regard to race, religion, or national origin.”91 While race was the central issue, the stated purpose of the group was bettering the community for everyone—white and black. McGreevy states of Catholic approaches to racial tensions, “The focus shifted from ‘integration’ to ‘community.’ While careful to stress that Catholic parishes must welcome all newcomers, activists emphasized the importance of local groups as a means of creating a more equitable society.”92 Everyone had a vested interest in the southwest side. Thus, everyone could have a place in the OSC, even those not directly connected to race issues. While the OSC took a broad platform, much of their activities were related to race issues. They embarked on a campaign of ‘permanent private renewal’ of the southwest side. In the area of real estate, the OSC drafted a Code of Ethics to combat blockbusting: the underhanded acts of race baiting real estate agents to promote segregation. The Code’s intent was to denounce racism in all its forms. Citizens agreed not to engage in real estate practices that created racial conflict or denied the rights of minority groups. Further, it banned property speculating that incited white flight and race panic. To stop neighborhood violence, OSC took several different approaches. They targeted hate groups, organized moderate whites with blacks against disruption, and forced police to act in protection of black families. In the first couple of years, OSC organizers and staff knew which residents engaged in anti-black violence. Anti- black gangs used Molotov cocktails in black families’ homes, fence

55 journal of undergraduate research burnings, and other violence. Troublemakers were a minority but needed to be dealt with, for their actions intimidated both whites and blacks. The OSC took a forceful position and organizers decided to work both internally and with law enforcement. To build community against the violence issue, OSC targeted moderate whites. Organizers wrote Msgr. Egan they needed to bring together whites and blacks “to form a solid front of opposition to all kinds of thuggery. In most cases even diehard segregationists find cooperation with Negro groups is preferable to rupture of the public peace.”93 The OSC used people’s self-interest and disgust for violence to organize for racial peace. Also, the OSC brought police to investigate disturbances and worked with authorities to set up block watches, combating porch- and house-bombings against black families. Edward Chambers looks back on OSC as “historic in that we did knock the violence out.”94 Further, the OSC brought people of faith together to combat the pressures tearing communities apart. The strength of the OSC greatly depended on the Catholic Church. OSC president Donald O’Toole described the area as, “outstandingly Catholic. Its morals, its politics, the operation of its business institutions, are all Catholic oriented. If the position of the Church is made positive and aggressive by the clear cut action of the pastors of all of our Catholic parishes, then we would have no trouble.”95 Egan maintained the contact between the archdiocese and the OSC by visiting pastors, encouraging action by peers, and working with the cardinal. In January of 1960, Albert Cardinal Meyer publicly endorsed the OSC. Previously, but from the background, the cardinal supported the organizing and contributed church money for it. Yet, in 1960, Meyer instructed the pastors to give total support to the OSC, encouraged their congregations to be more involved in its activities, and chaired a meeting with all southwest- side congregation leaders. Collaboration and communication between pastors was rare. The Southtown Economist hailed the event as “the first time all Catholic pastors have had an opportunity to meet and exchange ideas and opinions.”96 Meyer encouraged pastors to cooperate with OSC’s activities, emphasizing the US Catholic

56 Monsignor John J. Egan and Catholic Action against Segregation in Chicago

Bishops’ statement that “gradualism must not become a cloak for inaction.”97 Chambers recalls, “There was always a good relationship with the archdiocese about our work, the IAF’s work” and that relationship existed because of Msgr. Egan.98 The Organization for the Southwest Community had some successes, but still fell short of the goals held by Egan, McMahon, and Cardinal Meyer. On the positive side, the OSC was successful in stopping the racial violence in the area. Egan wrote in 1965, “In the OSC, area violence has been minimal. When it has occurred, the organization has taken the initiative to bring together local community leadership to calm the community and to assist the Police Department in searching out those responsible for the acts of violence.”99 The Organization was able to create a active public community response to violence—people talked things out, worked things out, and brought perpetrators to authorities. Flight to the suburbs was curbed by the OSC assuring neighborhood integrity and creating relationships around racial tensions for peaceful responses. One woman explained to reporters, “The OSC has taught us how to head off panic … we talk things over.”100 The goal of encouraging whites and blacks to know each other as people can be judged by the news interviews of white residents in support of the OSC. The Chicago Daily News quoted one OSC member saying, “‘Many Negroes improve their property, you know,’ one housewife said, ‘they’re just as good neighbors as anyone else.’”101 Also, on housing, Egan reported, “It can be documented today that Negro and white buyers or sellers of property in the OSC community in fact, do get a fair market value for their property.” The Code of Ethics and monitoring of real estate dealers successfully created a more equitable housing situation for blacks in the area. However, the OSC failed to reach its potential. The archdiocese virulently supported the OSC from beginning to end, but despite the official endorsement and strong encouragement of the cardinal to participate, many clergy and parishioners avoided the OSC. Many believers, McGreevy explains, “instinctively equated integration with communist sympathies.”102 Egan reflected

57 journal of undergraduate research that the OSC failed to attain ‘vocal support’ from many Catholic pastors. McMahon and Molloy were rarities as Catholic leaders in the OSC. Also, OSC failed to capture interest and action from people not directly affected by racial change. In the overwhelmingly- Catholic area, the parishes did not create enthusiasm and a sense of community around the OSC and racial justice. The successes of the OSC were vital for the survival of the community, until it collapsed. Egan suggests that the OSC teaches us “a good, healthy, integrated community is possible.”103 During the tenuous years of neighborhood transformation in Chicago—the 1950s and ‘60s—the Catholic Church took decisive action to protect their parishes and cultivate the Mystical Body of the Church through advocating racial integration and justice. Msgr. Jack J. Egan led this process by standing up against the University of Chicago and City Hall in the urban renewal fight, speaking for the Church on matters of racial justice through the Archdiocese Conservation Council, and connecting the Catholic Church and the Industrial Areas Foundation to create community organizations on the South Side which mirrored the Catholic community proclaimed in Quadragesimo Anno. Egan’s development from the Hyde Park urban renewal battle to the OSC shows deeper reflections and growth in his own belief in lay action, the role of priests, and a social justice imperative. He moved beyond what he could do alone, to what he could influence through the people of the city. During a time of excessive racial violence, Catholics took different approaches: making speeches, leading marches, and joining non-violent protests. Msgr. Egan did all these things, but contributed on another road less traveled by Catholic leaders. He stood behind the laity in a fight to integrate the southwest community, making the necessary connections from the cardinal’s office and serving as a counselor to fellow priests who he encouraged to support the work of the Organization for the Southwest Community. Egan told his biographer Frisbie, “Whoever speaks at my funeral will not say I was a priest’s priest. I was a lay person’s priest.”104 Indeed Msgr. Egan was the people’s priest of his time, taking strong stances for the racial

58 Monsignor John J. Egan and Catholic Action against Segregation in Chicago justice, but importantly, working with the lay people to fix social ills themselves. Egan’s response to racism in Chicago gives us a fuller and challenging model of a clerical reaction to this national problem and shows how Church teachings affected Chicago history through a faithful and energetic city priest. ∫

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Endnotes

1 Margery Frisbie, An Alley in Chicago: The Ministry of a City Priest (Kansas City: Sheed & Ward, 1991), 106. 2 John T. McGreevy, Parish Boundaries (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996), 13. 3 Douglas Massey and Zoltan Hajnal, “The Changing Geographic Structure of Black-White Segregation in the United States,” Social Science Quarterly 76 (3), (1995): 8. 4 Ibid. 5 Ibid., 10. 6 Edward T. Chambers, interview by author, October 18, 2005. 7 McGreevy, 17. 8 McGreevy, 43. 9 Ibid., 44. 10 Frisbie, 5. 11 Ibid., 7. 12 Pope Pius XI, “Quadragesimo Anno, On Reconstruction of the Social Order,” 1931, http://www.osjspm.org/cst/qa.htm. 13 Reverend Charles Dahm, interview by author, October 11, 2005. 14 Pope Pius XI. 15 “Msgr. John J. Egan Interviewed by Margery Frisbie,” 1989, “John J. Egan Collection,” Notre Dame Archives: AI855-874, audio cassette. 16 P. David Finks, The Radical Vision of Saul Alinsky, (New York: Paulist Press, 1984), 15. 17 Charles Curran, Directions in Catholic Social Ethics, (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1985), 161. 18 Edward T. Chambers. 19 Sanford D. Horwitt, Let Them Call Me Rebel, (New York: Vintage Books, 1989), 269. 20 Reverend Theodore Hesburgh, C.S.C., interview by author, October 24, 2005. 21 Edward T. Chambers. 22 Ibid. 23 Ibid. 24 “Msgr. John J. Egan Interviewed by Margery Frisbie.” 25 Rev. Charles Dahm. 26 “Chicago U Spurs Renewal Project,” The New York Times, October 31, 1958, John J. Egan Collection, Notre Dame Archives, CHEG 32. 27 Ibid. 28 “Catholic View on Hyde Park Plan,” Chicago Daily News, June 17, 1958.

60 Monsignor John J. Egan and Catholic Action against Segregation in Chicago

29 Msgr. John J. Egan, “More Housing… Less Segregation,” The New World, May 16, 1958, (secondary source material suggests articles was also written by Nick Von Hoffman). 30 Ibid. 31 Ibid. 32 Ibid. 33 Ibid. 34 Ibid. 35 Msgr. John J. Egan, “Egan Says Correct the Plan’s Inequities,” Chicago Sun Times, June 15, 1958. 36 Ibid. 37 Ibid. 38 Ibid. 39 Horwitt, 372. 40 Msgr. John J. Egan, Chicago City Council on Housing and Planning, Hyde Park Kenwood Urban Renewal Plan: Statement of the Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago, Sept 23, 1958. 41 Ibid. 42 Ibid. 43 Ibid. 44 “Father Egan and the Hyde Park Plan,” Chicago Defender, Sept. 1958. 45 Ibid. 46 Ibid. 47 “Letters to the Editor,” Hyde Park Herald, October 1, 1958. 48 “Hit Archdiocese Stand,” Hyde Park Herald, October 1, 1958. 49 Ibid. 50 “Hyde Park Plan Backers and Church Square Off: Catholic Layman Challenges Stand Taken by Archdiocese,” Chicago Daily News, September 24, 1958. 51 Frisbie, 106. 52 Ibid. 53 “Msgr. John J. Egan Interviewed by Margery Frisbie.” 54 Rev. Theodore Hesburgh. 55 Frisbie, 111. 56 John J. Egan, letter to George Higgins, 1958, box 32, “John J. Egan Collection,” Notre Dame Archives, Notre Dame. 57 Ibid. 58 Ibid. 59 Frisbie, 90. 60 Msgr. John J. Egan, “A Report to the Archbishop, General Picture of Chicago and the Present Situation,” box 51/1, “John J. Egan Collection,” Notre

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Dame Archives, Notre Dame. 61 Ibid. 62 Ibid. 63 Ibid. 64 John J. Egan, “Congregations and the Community,” December 12, 1960, box 10 “John J. Egan Collection,” Notre Dame Archives, Notre Dame. 65 Ibid. 66 Ibid. 67 Ibid. 68 Ibid. 69 Ibid. 70 John J. Egan, “The Relevance of the Church and Synagogue to the Renewal of Community,” December 9, 1959 “John J. Egan Collection,” Notre Dame Archives, Notre Dame. 71 Ibid. 72 Ibid. 73 McGreevy, 103. 74 Edward T. Chambers. 75 Ibid. 76 Ibid. 77 Frisbie 124. 78 Msgr. John J. Egan, The President’s Commission on Civil Rights, Statement of the Most Rev. Albert Gregory Meyer, Archbishop of Chicago, May 6, 1959, “John J. Egan Collection”, Notre Dame Archives, Notre Dame. 79 Ibid. 80 Ibid. 81 “Alinsky defends Race Quota proposal,” Chicago Daily News, May 29, 1959. 82 McGreevy, 111. 83 Ibid. 84 Horwitt, 319. 85 Frisbie, 124. 86 John J. Egan, “The Organization for the Southwest Community, An Evaluation-October 1965” box OSC, “John J. Egan Collection,” Notre Dame Archives, Notre Dame. 87 McGreevy, 262. 88 Edward T. Chambers. 89 Horwitt, 357. 90 “Constitution of the Organization for the Southwest Community,” box OSC, “John J. Egan Collection” Notre Dame Archives, Notre Dame. 91 Ibid. 92 McGreevy, 262.

62 Monsignor John J. Egan and Catholic Action against Segregation in Chicago

93 Memo to Msgr. Egan from Edward Chambers and Nick von Hoffman, box OSC, “John J. Egan Collection”, Notre Dame Archives, Notre Dame. 94 Edward T. Chambers. 95 Donald O’Toole, letter to Msgr. John J. Egan, October 3, 1960. box OSC, “John J. Egan Collection,” Notre Dame Archives, Notre Dame. 96 Harold Cross, “Cardinal Indorses Organization for Southwest Community,” Southtown Economist, January 17, 1960. 97 Ibid. 98 Edward T. Chambers. 99 John J Egan, “The Organization for the Southwest Community, An Evaluation-October 1965” box OSC, “John J. Egan Collection,” Notre Dame Archives, Notre Dame. 100 M. W. Newman, “What Happens When White Neighbors Refuse to Panic,” Chicago Daily News, September 3, 1960. Box OSC, “John J. Egan Collection”, Notre Dame Archives, Notre Dame. 101 Ibid. 102 McGreevy, 120. 103 John J Egan, “The Organization for the Southwest Community, An Evaluation-October 1965” box OSC, “John J. Egan Collection,” Notre Dame Archives, Notre Dame. 104 Frisbie, 62.

63 journal of undergraduate research

Norman Foster: Envisioning Design at the Edge of Reality

Kevin Oles

uiet and self-assured, Norman Foster glides Q into a room with a relaxed and casual air. To the chance observer, Foster appears like an airline pilot: someone who is re- quired to be confident in his every move. However, to the knowing observer, Foster is one of the most successful and significant archi- tects in Great Britain, if not the world. The innovative nature and radical ideas of his designs have influenced successive generations of architects. Despite his highly successful architectural practice and recognition for his innovative nature, Foster is a man nervous of lengthy introductions and elaborate gestures, which possibly stems from his fairly humble background.1 Foster’s architectural career spans more than thirty years. He has designed structures in Tokyo, Hong Kong, London, Barcelona, and even Omaha. Many of his designs have been heralded as ‘groundbreaking’ or ‘landmark,’ as Foster constantly strives to stay ahead of architectural trends. Foster’s design style, which he calls ‘high-tech,’ stems not only from his background and love of intricate machinery, but also emanates from the influence of his teachers, who taught him to think at the edge of the modern technological curve.

64 Norman Foster: Envisioning Design at the Edge of Reality

Early Years: Thinking and Discovering

Norman Foster was born in Manchester, England in 1939. Foster’s home life was stable, albeit humble. Norman’s father injured himself in World War I, causing him to be excused from service during the Second World War. The Foster house was very small—entered through the rear door which leads straight into the kitchen. The front door was used only for show and scrubbed regularly. However, within the framework of the house, values and family ambitions were straightforward. Although Norman Foster rarely saw his father—he slept days and worked nights at an aircraft factory—Norman still “felt loved by every particle of the family and the house.”2 Norman was neither an exceptional nor a challenged student, doing well but not passing all of his subjects in the general Certificate Examination. Foster believes that he did not think of himself as bright. He says, “I was the odd one out.”3 Foster did show, however, a great propensity for model construction sets and motors. This fascination with working machines and the details of assembling models continues to show itself in his current fascination with airplanes and gliders.4 With the prospect of a job that paid significantly and the chance to contribute to the family, Norman’s parents pressured him to continue his studies. During the last year of grammar school, Foster nurtured a growing interest in the public library. Here, Foster discovered the philosophy of Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky. In further browsing, Foster happened upon two influential books, Le Corbusier’s Towards a New Architecture and Henry Russell Hitchcock’s In the Nature of Materials. These books were highly powerful for Foster and started a never-ending love for architecture. Le Corbusier and Henry Russell Hitchcock as first exposures to architecture shaped the method by which Foster perceived materials and design. In his survey of the library, Norman awakened in himself a passion for architecture that seemed to burn within him. Although it was not until 1957 that Foster would begin any sort of training in architecture, he spent as much possible time studying the discipline. He felt that he was

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“consumed by a passion for architecture and designing.”5 Foster eventually made his way to Manchester University where he studied architecture as an undergraduate for four years. At the end of these studies, Foster received a Henry Fellowship to continue his architectural studies in the United States. Foster was received at Yale under the direction of Paul Rudolph. In graduate work, Foster would study under Rudolph and notables like Phillip Johnson and Vincent Sully. Foster would also have the pleasure of becoming close friends with another British student, Richard Rogers.

Moving into his Own: Reliance Factory

Norman’s friendships paid off as he traveled back to London to create a partnership called Team 4—one of the partners was Richard Rogers. In this group there was only one certified architect: Georgie Wolton. While Team 4 created a large body of work as an architectural practice, one building stands out in Foster’s memory: an electronics factory for Reliance Controls. This building, as Foster says, “Was the first and the last building that I was totally immersed in from the concept down to the smallest detail.” Foster describes the ideal behind his radical design of the factory:

Instead of the usual management box, with a workers’ shed tacked on, front and back, posh and scruffy; white collar/ blue collar demarcations—we proposed a single, democratic pavilion. Production and administration were separated only by a moveable glass wall. And there was just one, single, common entrance for all employees.6

Foster designed this building with Richard Rogers. Foster wanted to eliminate distinctions like ‘we and they’ and ‘clean and dirty.’7 Thus, he designed a simple building structured like a long, single-

66 Norman Foster: Envisioning Design at the Edge of Reality story shed designed to promote flexibility to the company as it grew. The single cross bracings emphasize its simple structure. Foster carried his notion of flexibility into the roof decking, as he set the overhead lighting into the metal such that not only serving as a structural component, the metal roof also served as a lighting reflector. In partitioning the interior of the building, Foster found it important to use moveable partitions that did not serve as structural components and furthered Foster’s design goals of democracy and flexibility. The Reliance factory could be described as one of Foster’s initial experiments in building flexibility into a building.

The Black Blob: Willis-Faber & Dumas Building

After the Reliance Controls factory, Foster started his own practice, Foster Associates. Eventually, he was commissioned to design the Willis-Faber & Dumas building. The building was to be a headquarters for Willis-Faber & Dumas’ business holding and insurance company. The officers asked Foster to design a building to facilitate such a business. The building that Foster created was highly radical. It is a building of dual natures. During the day an air of mystery surrounds the building as its dark-glassy figure reflects light and inquiring gazes. At night, the building becomes transparent because of bright interior lighting. Many local residents describe the building as ‘a visitor from another planet’ or the ‘black blob.’ The structure’s plot of land is shaped irregularly with a curving street fronting it. This abnormality would hinder some architects, but Foster turned it into an advantage. Foster took advantage of the curving nature of the road and mimicked it in the curve of the building. He also harnessed the unconventional road line to represent a break from normal languages employed in office buildings. I believe that Foster attempted a full-frontal attack on the design aesthetic of local residents and the individuals who work in the Willis-Faber building. A study of the building and its design aesthetic provides a direct link to Le Corbusier, who in his Five Points in New Architecture speaks of many details that Foster implemented

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it its construction.8 The roof garden, illustrates this point. Le Corbusier thought that gardens are an environmental consideration essential in aggressive urban environments. If one cannot enjoy light and air at ground level—Le Corbusier and Foster argue—then such pursuits must be transferred to the roof level. In viewing the building, there is also a strong democratic element in its design, for all—blue collar, white collar, management and maintenance— must enter the building from the same entrance and circulate the building on the same escalators. In viewing the building, Foster wanted to create a high-tech, there is also a strong spacious workspace where employees democratic element in could not only work but also relax. its design, for all must To this end, Foster installed a large swimming pool on the first floor of enter the building from the building. In such efforts, Foster the same entrance and made a statement about the value of circulate the building equality in work. on the same escalators. Inside, the open floor plan facilitates movement promoted by the escalators that link the three floors and create a spacious, well- lit atrium at the heart of the building. tone can move through the Willis-Faber & Dumas building unconstrained—unhindered by the supervisors and unrestrained by the architecture. Overall, Foster has created a kinetic experience at different levels. The building represents Willis-Faber & Dumas’ move from the city of London to the provinces, and on another level, the building reminds observers of the street level with its mimicry of the street line, repeating the kineticism of traffic and busy streets. I believe that the Willis-Faber & Dumas building reminds one of Frank Lloyd Wright’s architecture with its ‘temple-of-work’ quality. The aspect of openness and freedom of movement is another example of Foster’s growing obsession with flexibility. Moreover, his belief in the importance of light is reflected in his use of the atrium. Still, the Willis-Faber & Dumas building is highly focused on the geometry of Le Corbusier.

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More Blobs: Sainsbury Center for the Visual Arts

Foster’s next commission was the Sainsbury Center for the Visual Arts. This building is another example of Foster’s groundbreaking design approach. Sainsbury serves to characterize Foster’s solidifying architectural ideals. Malcom Quantrill describes the building as part of Foster’s “unidentified flying objects” building set.9 The site upon which Sainsbury is built was formerly an American airbase during the 1940s. In the building’s design, Foster claims, a visual reminder of that time period is important. and the design he chose, resembling an aircraft hanger, is exactly that sort of reminder. The Sainsbury Center is a rectangular prism that calls to mind elements of industrial design and industrial machinery. The building was assembled from a kit of parts machined in factories and resembles what many visitors describe as ‘an undecorated shed.’ In creating an art museum that resembles a shed, Foster references sheds and hangers as methods of storage and attempts to elevate the simple design of a shed to fine art. Malcolm Quantrill remarks that the Sainsbury Center’s resemblance to an aircraft hanger, reveals that Foster connects his design to Durtet’s 1889 design for the Galerie des Machines.10 Moreover, in linking Sainsbury this building back to Durtet, Foster establishes is making his design style as pre-Corbusier. However, in emphasizing geometry as a method of expressing design cannot be forgotten as a link to Le Corbusier. The building also follows a Corbusierian design idea in its positioning within position with nature; its stark geometrical structure, stands out against the natural surroundings; the For example, the horizontal aircraft hanger contrasts the verticality of the surrounding trees and shrubbery. In that contrast, Foster emphasizes geometry itself. With Sainsbury Center, Foster created a vehicle within a vehicle that bridges past, present, and future. The airplane was the original vehicle, and the visual arts have become the new vehicle. The hanger was the vehicle by which the airplane was stored and protected, while the Sainsbury Center for Visual Arts is the vehicle by which art is protected, stored, and exhibited.

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The interior of Sainsbury mimics the hanger ideal of its exterior . The building has no internal ornaments, leaving it completely open and flexible to the demands of exhibiting art. The interior seems to fade away when visitors enter it as the individual’s focus becomes the works of art and not their gallery. As noted, Foster started working with the idea of flexibility in Reliance Controls. Since the Reliance Controls Factory, flexibility has become apparent as a design ideal. Foster believes that a building is most effective when it is designed such that the building does not interfere with the actions of the individuals in it. Moreover, a flexible design is often simplistic and well-planned, unifying its message and purpose. Such a building works to facilitate its planning purpose—commerce, residential, etc. Another idea of Foster’s observable in the Willis-Faber building and Sainsbury is the controlled manipulation of light to a specific lighting goal. In the Willis-Faber building, Foster utilized darkly colored glass to imbue the building with two different exterior skins. In Foster’s Sainsbury Center, light is manipulated by skylights and window treatments. Light is controlled and introduced into the building as the individual deems it necessary. Foster refined his use of glass Willis-Faber & Dumas, for the Sainsbury panels are each full-height instead of requiring multiple panels. Understanding and controlling light has become part of Foster’s design agenda; he harnesses it as a material in architectural design. Foster forwards the notion of ‘pulling’ light into a building, blending nature and architecture, the animate and the inanimate. In doing so, Foster links the organic with geometric axiomality.

The New Paradigm for Skyscrapers: The Hongkong & Shanghai Bank

The officers of the Hongkong & Shanghai Bank realized in the late 1960s that their business was growing too large for its existing headquarters. Responding to this space problem, the officers organized a design competition for a new bank building. The architectural climate in Hong Kong was very restrictive and

70 Norman Foster: Envisioning Design at the Edge of Reality controlled. Zoning requirements were very strict and all blueprints and designs had to circulate through the Building Ordnance Office (B.O.O.); the office had final authority on a building’s design and construction. The B.O.O. exercised its veto power often. In response to these stringent requirements, architects in Hong Kong created buildings out of a ‘cookie-cutter model’ which called for an interior floor (available in six different configurations) standardized around a central core of elevators. The exterior façade was chosen by the client from among the six available standard types. Land was another strong factor, as buying land accounted for more than seventy percent of total construction costs. Therefore, the Hongkong & Shanghai Bank officers opted not to buy a new parcel of land, and rather they planned construction on the current building’s site, The new Hongkong & Shanghai Bank building, its officers determined, would challenge the growing trend of standardization thus establishing a new paradigm for commercial buildings in Hong Kong. The officers wanted the new bank building to hold a permanent position on the city’s skyline. The Bank’s directors published the following aims for the design competition:

1. To help the bank decide on an approach to solving the problem of whether to demolish the existing bank or to accommodate the structure in the design. 2. To select and appoint an architect.11

Privately, the directors established further directives for the project. The bank wanted its chosen architect to submit a plan that proposed an original design which also followed specific guidelines.

1. The architect must have superior local knowledge and experience. 2. The new bank building must be capable of the same powerful symbolism the old bank building had. Peter Williams, deputy chairman of the bank stated, “whatever it looks like, it must look like a bank—whatever that

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is.”12 3. While new bank building was being constructed, the architect had to consider that the bank wanted “suitable accommodation in Hong Kong while the redevelopment took place.”13

After a feasibility study, the bank refined this third requirement stating that the north tower of the current Hongkong & Shanghai Bank building would stand while the new bank building would be constructed on the site of the soon-to-be-demolished south tower. The bank, its officers decided, would stay on site, functioning daily and continuing business whilst the new building was under construction. Overall, the Bank simply wanted an architect who would have a clever concept for a banking building. However, the bank’s officers knew that the probability of a novel design passing the B.O.O. was less than one percent. On Tuesday September 18, 1979, Roy Munden, the assistant general manager of the Bank’s management services, visited Norman Foster in his office and discussed designs and design plans. Munden’s comment about the day was, “he [Foster] talks and talks and talks.”14 Munden also commented on Foster’s flexibility. Although some of the solutions Foster presented were highly impractical, Munden liked Foster’s ability to come up with flexible, alternative designs. Munden also visited the Willis-Faber & Dumas building and liked its extraordinary appearance and the method by which it stood in stark contrast to its surroundings. Munden realized that using Foster, if he was selected, as the architect of the Hongkong & Shanghai Bank would require someone to balance his brilliance against his inability to produce practical designs. On October 8th of that same year, the bank opened its competition, allowing architects to submit their designs. Of the myriad firms in the competition, the radical methods of three stood above the others: Yuncken Freeman, SOM, and Norman Foster. Differing from other approaches, Foster’s studio did not provide site plans or any drawings in the submission—only a written proposal.

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Munden and the board of directors, after a few brief meetings, decided that they must choose Foster, as his entry “just stuck out like a sore thumb.”15 Foster was soon contracted to put his writings into reality and design the new Hongkong & Shanghai Bank Building. The design of the building was difficult. Foster and his team of architects ran into many problems in the design process. One difficulty emerged with respect Foster would require to the Bank’s original structure. Foster opposed the Bank’s idea to demolish someone to balance his the Southern half of the existing brilliance against his structure and build in its place. He inability to produce claimed that halving the bank building practical designs. would interfere with its normal business routines. Instead, he proposed to build directly over the existing building; demolishing only after the bank moved into the new structure. Another problem Foster encountered was in the general design; he wanted to create a building that was not solely a bank, rather, a building in which the public would feel welcome. Foster wanted to move away from the current trend of building skyscrapers. He hated the idea of a central service core, so he pushed service areas to the edge of the building in his design. Without a central core, the floor plan would have to be rethought. Eventually, the studio decided to hang the floors from the supporting edges with trusses, much like a railroad bridge. Foster’s next move was to incorporate a diagonal lattice structure that closely resembled the Hancock Building in Chicago, Illinois. This idea, however, was discarded because of its unoriginality. The design Foster presented to the Bank officers was a downward chevron design. This design emphasized structural steel frames that supported the floors. The officers did not like the scheme and worried about the fung-shui element in the downward nature of the chevrons. Adding insult to injury, Edward Kennard, principal government surveyor of the BOO and supporter of Foster’s scheme, was arrested on charges of accepting bribes. After Kennard’s arrest, no one at the BOO was willing to even look at Foster’s chevron

73 journal of undergraduate research scheme. This turn of events ensured the scheme’s failure. Thus, Foster found himself back at the beginning with no design ideas. The entire studio was out of ideas until Foster himself hit upon a revolutionary ‘coat hanger’ scheme. In this idea, bracings resembling coat hangers were hung from the pillars that bracketed the building. The coat hangers had the dual effect of bracing the floors and distributing the overall weight of the building. The Bank’s chairman approved this new design. This scheme was the ‘big idea’ Foster was looking for, and he employed it in his final draft design presented to the board of directors on January 23rd of 1981. The bank ratified Foster’s design on the 27th and two weeks later, the plans were published. After an immense amount of conflict over the various structural components and their design, the building was finished on Monday November 18, 1985. Once the superstructure material arrived on the building site, it took a total of thirty-five months for the building to be completed. The whole building project, from initial planning stages to completion, took eight years. The Hongkong & Shanghai Bank building truly embodied the architectural paradigm that the board of directors sought. Its sleek perspective against the Hong Kong skyline is striking. The building spawned its own language, from bowties and butterfly nodes to the Burning Bush and Marilyn Monroe effects. The Hongkong & Shanghai Bank was also in fact the first building that employed research, engineering, and design on computers. Foster was granted much latitude in designing the building—from the general exterior to interior details like the banking terminals on the main floor. The building was masterfully designed, from the number of elevators to move which whisk people through the building, to a variety of floors to the efficient design of the structural coat hangers. The unique exterior skin of the building is accentuated by the exposed and distinctive coat hangers. The building stands in stark contrast to the rest of the Hongkong skyline as a radical structure among the conventional. It also offers multiple layers of transparency. The structural elements, such as the coat hangers are opaque, while the glass is transparent; this allows the observer

74 Norman Foster: Envisioning Design at the Edge of Reality multiple vistas. The dual nature of the Hongkong & Shanghai Bank building also lends to its general aesthetic. While it is a building designed around money and business efficiency, it is also a building that invites the individual—opacity lends itself to the confidentiality of banking while transparency offers the observer an idea of the internal workings of the bank. In composing the skyscraper with a coat hanger design and structural pillars bracketing the building, rather than a solitary, solid mass, Foster challenged the traditional notion of a commercial skyscraper. He also attacked the idea of mass by stacking the building in vertical layers, rather than one geometrical shape. It is this theme of layers that is repeated throughout the building. I believe this continuity and repetition of theme transforms the building from commercial office to masterpiece. ‘Layers’ are repeated at different levels and in different motifs. For example, the building itself is vertically layered, the coat hangers are layered on top of the glass, and the banking hall is layered on the public space. The interior is a composition in harmony. The escalators which transport the public into the banking hall and dominate the central atrium are positioned in concordance with the original fung-shui plan which Foster prepared during his initial visit to Hong Kong. The atrium pulls light into the heart of the building and pushes it through the building, penetrating all spaces. I believe that by including the atrium, Foster links the design of this commercial building to those of his other structures, distinguishing himself from the designs submitted by other architects. The ground level is an entirely public space, open to the over twenty-two thousand people who cross it everyday. Foster pushed the elevators and load bearing structures to the very edge of the building, thus opening interior space and allowing for more flexibility. Moreover, the view from inside the building over the Hong Kong skyline is framed by the glass and steel of the building’s structure such that the building decides how observers see Hong Kong.

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Synthesizing Old & New: Carree d’Art, Nimes

A celebrated Roman artifact sits in the middle of Nimes, France. The Maison Carree is a well preserved first century Roman temple. Across the street from the temple, a plot of land was designated for a museum and library. Norman Foster was charged with the task of designing the museum, chosen over notable architects Frank Gehry and Caesar Pelli. The project demanded that the architect be mindful of the area and consider the surrounding area, especially the Maison Carree. Foster commented on designing the new museum.

I was deeply impressed by the urban structure of Nimes, with its strong simple routes and good spaces—particularly that space which is the setting for the Roman temple, the Maison Carree. I felt that this space should not be change—it seemed familiar and it worked well. Interestingly, our design in response to the international competition for this project was the only entry that did not try to change the nature of that space. I was impressed, also, by the Roman Arena and the nineteenth-century Jardins de la Fontaine. The new building became an opportunity to promote links between theses two gems, with a main entrance on the corner adjoining the Boulevard Victor Hugo and a secondary entrance on its diagonal corner at the rue Gaston Bossier. This creates a diagonal route at the entrance level, which can become a public short cut, encouraging movement into the building and through it.16

Foster’s sensitivity to the surrounding area led him to design the Carre d’Art with a total height equal to the buildings around it. He decided to shape the museum like an iceberg, hiding a large portion of the building underground. Foster also linked the Carree d’Art to the Maison Carree by setting the museum onto a plinth of local

76 Norman Foster: Envisioning Design at the Edge of Reality stone, a device often used in Classical architecture. The plinth helped to ‘set’ the museum firmly in the street. Of course, the plinth also presents a practical benefit by protecting the Carree d’Art against flooding, common to Nimes. From this detail, it is clear that the vernacular architecture of the region influenced Foster; he tied the Carree d’Art into classical tradition by designing a courtyard for the center of the building, using steps and terraces to vary height and viewpoint, and appealing to the grid pattern formed by the Nimes’ central buildings. Foster also abstracted the colonnade to reference classical design, but not to mimic it. The colonnade supports a ‘giant umbrella’ that indicates the entrance to the museum. The umbrella also creates public space directly off the street, inviting people to linger around the building and enjoy its beauty. In this setting, Foster again created a work of art to contain other works of art. The building is clad in glass. Some of the glasswork was so high-tech that it was being patented at the same time it was. There are three different kinds of glass utilized in the Carree d’Art: clear, opaque, and ‘fritted’ glass (glass that is neither completely opaque nor completely clear). Again, Foster’s obsession with light is evident, for while the central courtyard unites the museum with surroundings, it also brings light into the center of the museum. Since the Carree d’Art is built primarily of glass, light penetrates through the building vertically and horizontally. Critics of the museum claim that this transparency makes the museum “easily seen through and lacking in any aesthetic beyond technology.”17 Foster responds to such criticism with the response that “it was intentional.”18 I believe that Foster is trying to make a statement by juxtaposing a thoroughly modern building against a first century Roman temple. Foster opposes classical, ancient styling with minimal detailing and precise modern materials. With this placement, Foster compares modern and classical design. I believe Foster is suggesting that the theories of design—classical and modern—should be considered equal; no longer should modern architectural design be thought the second cousin to classical design. Creating a building that is almost completely transparent, he is recalling buildings such

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as Phillip Johnson’s glass house in New Canaan and Mies van der Rohe’s Farnsworth and Tugendhat Houses. Foster also contrasts the transparency of glass against the opacity of the stone and blocks of the Maison Carree. With his design of a completely transparent museum, Foster disputes the normal interpretations of inside and outside. If individuals inside the building can be seen from the Foster opposes outside, what is the difference between classical, ancient the two positions? Foster also designed a styling with minimal balcony at the highest story of the Carree detailing and precise d’Art, creating a ‘courtyard in the sky.’ modern materials. Patrons can sit ‘inside’ the museum and feel as if they are ‘outside.’

Journey to Tokyo: Century Tower & Kawana House

The successful Hongkong & Shanghai Bank building became its own advertisement expressing to all viewers the remarkable design talent of Norman Foster. When Kazuo Akao, a Japanese developer, considered a new building for his Obunsha Publishing Company, Foster immediately came to his mind. Kazuo often visited Hong Kong on business and would stay in the Mandarin Hotel adjacent to the Hongkong & Shanghai Bank. He contracted Foster to design a skyscraper in Tokyo. The building has an irregular massing—with twenty-one stories at the south (front) tower and only nineteen stories at the north (rear) tower, which was regulated by the zoning regulations in the Tokyo district of Bunkyo-ku. The truss structure bracing the floors is reminiscent of the Hongkong & Shanghai Bank building’s original design. With technological innovations, Foster was able to return to a design which originally inspired him. Essential to this design are the double height floors, supported by the trusses. The building has four structural columns at the edges which support the trusses and carry the weight of the floors. Again, Foster dismissed the idea of a central core and pushed his structural elements and elevator shafts to the building’s

78 Norman Foster: Envisioning Design at the Edge of Reality corners. Spreading weight loads with trusses and decentralized frames gave the building basic shock resistance (necessary in Japan, which experiences frequent earthquakes) and column-free office space. The Century Tower building is essentially two towers connected by a bridging atrium. The atrium, which Foster calls ‘the slot,’ allows light to bounce between the two towers. Century Towers is the first building in Japan given clearance to construct a central atrium. Before Foster’s design, commercial buildings were mandated to have enclosed floors. Foster also designed transparent glass sections to the eastern and western axes of the building and thus, the structure is transparent. He again brought into play the ideas of duality and layer—very evident in the industrial design of opaque bracing and transparent glass. Foster also designed flexibility into the building, for each floor could be partitioned into two separate halves (one in each tower) or used as a unified whole. As Kazuo was a real estate developer, the building was designed to house his headquarters but also to have ample space to rent. Foster had to think about flexibility and dynamism in permanent and temporary form. At the ground level, Foster created another lobby which became a naturally lit public space. The other interior spaces are designed to be open and flexible, but also lavish and incorporating special features for Kazuo’s clients. The basement includes an exclusive health club and a museum for displaying Kazuo’s antiques and valuables. Foster designed the front entrance to resemble Japanese Torii gates (spiritual gates). The entrance recalls a formal, ritual language when one passes into the building. The language is a mix between the traditional Japan and the new Japan; one Japan embraces technology while the other respects ancestors, culture, and history. Foster symbolizes this blending by layering industrial design elements upon traditional Japanese elements. At the same time Foster designed the Century Tower, he also designed a house in Japan for a private client. The house is remarkable another characteristic example of Foster’s main design ideas. To create the house, Foster studied traditional Japanese house

79 journal of undergraduate research designs and synthesized a building that would combine traditional and high-tech elements. Foster installed a series of louvers into the ceiling, allowing the owner to control the amount of natural light filtering into the house. The louvers have the capability to track the sun’s movement and provide the house with natural, energy efficient heat and light throughout the day. David Nelson, a partner in Foster’s office, comments upon the ‘Japanese’ nature of the house: Those temples and gardens not only raise your spirits and catch the imagination, they also succeed in making indelible marks on you as a designer. Qualities of light, and more particularly shadow, the interdependent relationship of inside and outside space, the use of consistency of material—these are the touch stones of a humane and spiritual architecture that seems largely lost to us in the West today.19 This quality of light and shadow is found in the adjustable ceiling, allowing for wide variations in the appearance of the interior. The louvers can be opened full and the ceiling becomes a window, creating an overall soft glow. On the other hand, the louvers can be closed and artificial lighting opens up possibilities of emphasizing sculptures, paintings, or other areas of the home. The result is a house that mixes Japanese spirit with Western technology.

Rethinking the Skyscraper, Again: The Commerzbank Building

In the latter half of the 1980s, the Commerzbank was sectioned into departments situated in over thirty buildings around Frankfurt am Main. The bank’s officers realized that because of developing technology and new financial products, they did not need more space, but rather a different kind of space. The Commerzbank structure needed to be centralized. In a consolidated space, communication between departments would be easier, encouraging creative teamwork. After a feasibility study, the bank’s officers decided to plan a new building. A centralized building was decided upon, to be built on the site of the current twenty-nine- story headquarters. In the early 1980s, however, the government

80 Norman Foster: Envisioning Design at the Edge of Reality had effectively outlawed high-rise buildings in response to negative public sentiment. By 1989, though the public’s opposition to tall buildings had relaxed to a point such that construction of a new skyscraper became possible.20 The bank opened an international competition to design its new headquarters. The competition was devised with four conditions:

1. As the skyscraper would be of international stature, international submissions would be allowed. 2. The new building would give back public space to the city. 3. A useable floor area around 70,000 meters2, parking for over 300 automobiles, and a height around 260 meters. 4. Most importantly, the building would have to address a wide range of ecological conditions before permission would be granted for the design.21

In Germany, energy efficiency is a real concern. It became a standardized practice in the 1980s to minimize the use of energy- wasting air conditioning in public buildings. The directors of the Commerzbank were happy to undertake the cause of energy efficiency, because, in the words of the competition brief, “through the creation of an ecologically sound building, we have the chance to portray ourselves as an innovative Bank which takes it social responsibility seriously.”22 In researching German building techniques to prepare for the design competition, Foster discovered an unspoken vernacular ideal that every workstation should be close to a window and should have a view outside. This idea limited the nature of the building and its structure. In thinking about various designs, Foster ruled out a New York style skyscraper because this would violate all of the design parameters. A shallow tower with a central structural core was also ruled out as too inefficient in wall-to-floor area. Another idea he considered was stylized after Le Coubusier’s Plan Vosin for Paris and it included a tower with crenellations for individual access

81 journal of undergraduate research to light and air. This idea was also too inefficient because it required a larger building footprint than available. Eventually, a triangular plan was settled upon because it was less confrontational with the aesthetic and the positioning of the surrounding buildings and would distinguish itself in the Frankfurt skyline. Foster added his distinctive touch and designed a central atrium to bring light to the center of the building. Foster thought that the atrium would provide multiple scenes to those working inside the skyscraper. In the testing phase, Foster discovered that a tube was structurally more ‘stiff’ than a solid object; moreover, if the structural members were placed at the corners of the building, offices could be spaciously situated at the bridges between them.23 Pushing the structural monocoques to the edges unlocked interior space and opened the inside to view the outside in any direction. In the atrium, light flooded through the skyscraper and created a “live, luminous, quasi-external shaft of space.”24 The Commerzbank competition brief spoke about the possibility of rooftop gardens, but Foster took this design idea a step further and designed gardens inside the building that spiraled up the tower in three floor intervals. When Foster pushed the structural monocoques to the edges of the skyscraper, the gardens were open and did not require columns for support. This design element destroyed normal notions of skyscrapers; now the individual had a beautiful view in any direction with a sightline into the atrium, a garden, or outside. Foster enhanced the gardens’ energy efficiency by designing windows that could be opened for fresh air and efficient cross-ventilation regardless of the wind direction. Needless to say, Foster’s team won the design competition with their elegant and yet technologically sophisticated design. As the design process continued, Foster’s plan encountered a problem: the elevators were housed in a structural component called ‘the fish- tail.’ This component was included in the design to house all of the elevators and connect an additional tower that the Commerzbank directors considered including. When the elevators were concentrated in the fish-tail, though, there were simply not enough elevators to

82 Norman Foster: Envisioning Design at the Edge of Reality efficiently service all floors. Additionally, the fish-tail was an expensive structural component, contributed significantly to the skyscraper’s heat loss, reduced energy efficiency, spoiled the aerodynamic shape of the tower, and was positioned too close to the existing buildings. The fish-tail was eliminated and the elevators were distributed to the structural monocoques, increasing the possible number of elevators and ridding the Commerzbank of the many problems associated with it. In Foster’s final design scheme, the buildings stationed at the foot of the Commerzbank tower are lower than the existing buildings which surround it. This creates the image that the Commerzbank tower thrusts out the line of buildings. The carport was moved from the planned basement to a seven story garage nearby. This reduced the basement depth and the overall construction cost. Foster also added an open public piazza to the north side of the building which leads to the main entrance of the tower. A visitor to the bank described the Commerzbank building as a “friendly looking skyscraper.”25 The building is formed as a triangular tube, perforated through the center. The four-story interior gardens give the building a natural, personal quality, removing the ‘soulless’ feeling of many commercial buildings. Foster wanted to emphasize the difference between the office levels and the garden levels, so the exterior walls surrounding the gardens have a different window cladding system. Foster believed that regimenting the Commerzbank building with a uniform curtain wall would deny the very nature of the design concept. Thus, the building has two exterior layers: the curtain wall of the office levels and the curtain wall of the gardens. The upward spiraling nature of the gardens creates a broken surface, such that the cladding is not circularly uniform around the building. Rather, the different layers of curtain wall spiral around the building. The windows can be opened, allowing air to circulate. However, the window is more than a clear panel with a view outside. Colin Davies describes the window. It is a piece of mechanical equipment that mediates between the external and the internal environment, optimizing the balance between comfort and

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energy consumption by controlling ventilation, heat loss, solar heat gain, and day lighting.26 The windows are a tool by which the building’s energy is conserved. With Venetian blinds, the windows act as a passive cooling device, saving on air-conditioning costs. The blinds provide an effective means of preventing excess heat from entering the building, working as an efficient barrier to heat gain from solar radiation. Moreover, due to their precise engineer and stacked arrangement, the windows help circulate cool air at the window sill into the building as the outside temperature rises. Oddly, the sun’s heat contributes to the cooling effects of the building. In keeping with the energy efficient competition brief, the skyscraper costs significantly more to staff the building with employees than to operate its mechanical systems. The Commerzbank building was computer engineered and operated in virtual environments to rule out all possible design and mechanical problems before construction. Additionally, engineers ran complex flow analysis programs to understand airflow through It is an artwork of the building. Using computerized fluid technical design; the dynamics programs, engineers were able to determine velocity, direction, and calculated airflow building temperature changes under all within and without possible conditions. Without the aid of the building is a sign sophisticated computer software to aid of this art. in the designing of the building, Foster would have been unable to maximize the energy efficiency of such a large building. Even with all of these technologies, there are times when the building is warmed enough such that air conditioning is required. In its technological innovation, the Commerzbank building shatters architectural paradigms. It is an artwork of technical design; the calculated airflow within and without the building is a sign of this art. Never before had the energy design of a building been planned so meticulously. A skyscraper is a commercial building designed to make money by exponentially increasing the number

84 Norman Foster: Envisioning Design at the Edge of Reality of people who could work on a single plot of land. The traditional method of skyscraper design was to create a building with the largest possible footprint and cram the largest possible amount of people on a floor, producing a building that generated profit through volume of work. The design ideal behind the Commerzbank building was to approach the profit ideal of the skyscraper by reducing costs. By frontloading efforts and making the skyscraper as inexpensive as possible through technological innovation, Foster created a building that is inexpensive to operate and aesthetically beautiful. Aesthetically, the building was defined by Spencer de Grey, another partner working at Foster and Partners.

The plan of the tower is triangular, with each side gently curved convexly to maximize space efficiency, giving the form of three ‘petals’ with a central ‘stem.’ All the lifts, staircases, and services are placed in the three corners, and the vertical circulation was designed to reinforce the village-like clusters of offices and gardens.27

The result of this planning is a healthy office climate which promotes air and staff circulation. The gardens serve the same role by creating an artificial world in which employees can relax while at work. The plants, being temperate, respond to the seasons just like the people that inhabit the building. In effect, the building lives and breathes like a person. The central atrium testifies to Foster’s obsession with light. It brings light directly to the interior offices and pulls light into the heart of the structure. Moreover, Foster designed the offices so that the light conditions, natural or artificial, can be controlled by individuals in response to available daylight. Like the Carre d’Art, this building is transparent in all directions—vertically, horizontally, and through every point of the compass. Foster’s other idea, layers, is also evident in the exterior of the Commerzbank building. The various layers are etched directly into the side of the building and

85 journal of undergraduate research they spiral upwards. The revolutionary ecological character of the Commerzbank building tends to overshadow its aesthetic appeal. In truth, however, it is as aesthetically revolutionary as it is ecologically. The Commerzbank building represents a rejection of the traditional method of designing commercial buildings and embarks upon a new path in design aesthetic. The assault that Foster originally launched with the Hongkong & Shanghai Bank building and continued in the Century Tower is fully realized in the Commerzbank building. In the first two skyscrapers Foster designed, he attacked the design of the traditional. He could not fully escape from that tradition, however, and his buildings still held the square nature usual in skyscrapers. The Commerzbank building represents a complete departure from the norm, albeit following Foster’s continuing design ideals.

Rebuilding & Remembering: The Reichstag

At the end of World War II, the global community debated Germany’s future. The superpowers—the Soviet Union and the United States—decided that it would be best to divide Germany into two separate countries. The western half of Germany was to be managed by the US and the eastern half by the Soviet Union. The western half of Germany, after extensive rebuilding under the Marshall Plan, was given autonomy and encouraged to seek free elections and a market economy. East Germany, under communist control, descended under what Churchill named “the iron curtain.” East Germany became a closed country from which citizens could not leave and visitors could not enter. Berlin, the former capital of unified Germany, became a divided city that mirrored the overall partitioning of the nation. Berlin was eventually divided by a massive wall that stretched across the entirety of the city. However, once communism in Russia fell and the Soviet Union collapsed, East Germany was allowed to find its own position in the world. In 1991, the Berlin Wall was torn down by citizens who became once again free to move about Germany.

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The German parliament decided that to celebrate the reunification of Germany, the capital city would be moved from Bonn, in the west, to Berlin. However, the old German parliament building, the Reichstag, was not fit to house the democratic body of the German people. Thus, a competition was created for architects to design the new parliament building to house the Bundestag, which would sit on the site of the old Reichstag. This competition was open all German architects and some fourteen international competitors pre-selected by the design committee. The first stage of the design competition which called for a usable space of more than thirty-four thousand square meters, Foster’s team designed an awning which stretched over the whole of the building, creating a ‘roof umbrella’ which unified the old and new.28 This roof, having the symbolic import of unification, it also served an ecological function by harvesting and conserving solar energy while aiding a system of natural ventilation which Foster designed for the building. Foster and his team were selected to enter the second stage of the competition. Included in this second stage were also architects Santiago Calatrava and de Brujin. However, in the second stage, the condition of the design competition were revamped; most important was that the design committee wanted a significantly smaller design space of only nine thousand square meters. Foster’s team tried to adapt their original idea to the new design parameters; however, they were unable to do so. Every effort tried and failed either through aesthetic ideal or technical problems. At the same time, a competition was set in motion for the Spreeborg Area Master Plan. This competition was the reason that the design committee reduced the size of the Reichstag design plan. The Spreeborg Area Master Plan discussed and addressed the projection, location, and planning of the supporting buildings which would house various government departments. These buildings would be filled as the German government gradually relocated back to Berlin. A German architect, Axel Schultes, produced a “powerful concept diagram that incorporated a strong east-west link” just north of the Reichstag building.29 David Nelson, Foster’s supporting partner on the

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Reichstag design, commented on the change in design aesthetics.

We just had no alternative but to abandon all our ideas from the first stage, and start again. It’s important to stress that you should never have too much emotion about a scheme until it actually becomes the final project. There’s always a danger of falling in love with some idea, and not being able to kiss it goodbye!30

Thus, Foster re-envisioned the plan of the Reichstag, trying to comprehend how best to construct a parliament building housing a new government for the whole of the German people. David Nelson narrates how they came upon their idea by trying to understand for whom the Reichstag building was being designed.

In the first stage it was the Building Ministry. But it was intended that a new company eventually be formed to take responsibility not only for the Reichstag, but also for all the other new government projects in Berlin … its members are MPs and civil servants and its purpose is to keep an eye on the developing design. During the second state we had to really learn just how the German parliament works. This knowledge was to become extremely useful.”31

Thus, Foster and his team re-envisioned the plan of the Reichstag, the German people. In understanding principle client was the German people (although the building had to be designed around the workings of the MPs), Foster decided to make the building as publicly accessible as possible. Foster also decided to remove all ornamentations that had been added to the Reichstag since World War II. He took away all possible traces of the past, including shell marks, charred timber, and the graffiti of the Russian occupation.32

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He wanted to strip the building down to its barest elements, reminding citizens of the war but also showing them that the ideal of democracy survived through this war. Foster also decided to create a distinctive terminal feature, a feature that would include natural lighting and combine the ideas of old Berlin and new Berlin. The importance placed on old and new can be understood He wanted to strip in the surrounding nature of Berlin. As the building down to the city was combining ideas of the East its barest elements, and West, and preparing to become the reminding citizens seat of the German people, there was a massive reorganizing process underway of the war but also in Berlin. Dramatically modern new showing them buildings were being erected adjacent to that the ideal of buildings that dated before World War II. democracy survived Foster also wanted to constantly provide through this war. a reminder to the German MPs that they should always serve the public interest. These ideas met with Foster’s obsession with light and the distinctive terminal feature became a dome, albeit a new envisioning of the idea of a dome. This was a glass structure which provided multiple functions. Nelson recalls:

The idea was to extend the [parliament] chamber through to the roof beyond. Natural light had always been an important part of our design concept so it was a logical development. This was to become an integral part of the energy concept as well as fulfilling a symbolic role-marking the transformation of the Reichstag to New Bundestag. At night the mirrors which funnel daylight into the chamber would work in reverse—acting as a signal on the skyline to show that Parliament was in session. There were obvious analogies with lighthouses and beacons. This solution also combined ramps to a high-level public viewing platform which worked well with

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the roof level.33

Foster’s design was dramatic. This dome would funnel light into the building during the daytime. It would serve a public purpose, allowing for elevated viewing. Moreover, as visitors traveled up the spiral walkway around the dome, they were circling above the German parliament, reminding citizens that their democracy was centered in the new Reichstag. There was also a symbolic feature for the MPs, for while they debated and worked in the building below (and especially in the Member’s Chamber), the public, the citizens of Germany stood above them; Foster makes the statement that in a democracy, government should work for the people. This glass dome served to give the Reichstag a total significant, emotional impact. The Reichstag again encounters Foster’s notion of light and transparency. Above a weighty and monumental building, Foster suspended a dome which seems to float weightlessly. It is no ordinary dome; it is completely transparent , hearkening back to Foster’s previous designs but also suggesting that democracy should be transparent and inviting. The dome, with its use of reflective glass, also serves as an eye-catching beacon to individuals observing the Berlin skyline. The original Reichstag building was squat and thick; however, the dome serves to remind those who view it that the new Reichstag is a very different building. The building also encompasses Foster’s idea of high- technology, as all of the elements in the building were computer tested and even the dome was subjected to computer wind simulations in order to maximize space and minimize excess. The building, and again especially the dome, is combined with air extracts and light collection methods. Its power station also burns special linseed fuel mixture based upon corn oil, not any sort of fossil fuels, thus minimizing its energy consumption. In fact, the building serves to power many of the governmental buildings surrounding it.

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The Edge of Reality: Foster’s Design Ideals

I believe that Foster’s design, technique while manifested differently at each site, can be summarized and concentrated in the form of basic principles.34

Flexibility: Foster believes that it is important to eliminate divisions in buildings. If architectural divisions are eliminated, Foster argues, then internal divisions will too be eliminated. Illustrating his ideas, The Commerzbank and Hongkong & Shanghai Bank building are built so as to eliminate internal structural components and free space. Foster believes that flexibility is essential to a building, as the myriad roles of life—commercial, residential, and political—will atrophy if bound by discreet walls. In the commercial world, walls separate employees and discourage communication; eliminating walls eliminates that separation. In residential buildings, flexibility allows the resident to choose his own living style, instead of having that style be dictated by the building. The political world requires flexibility in order to adapt to the continually changing political sphere. A building that is not flexible, Foster believes, is an obsolete building. In designing buildings for flexibility, Foster places them into a design tradition that reaches back to Albert Kahn. Kahn built factories which had no internal obstacles—he made a scientific process of architectural design. Kahn created buildings that serve machines to create machines. Foster took Kahn’s approach and applied it to different building types.

Light: Foster’s fixation on the element of light is obvious. Foster believes that through the harnessing and collection of light, individuals living in the modern world relate to nature. The design of each of Foster’s buildings takes into consideration light and its effects on the structure. Most of his commercial buildings have a central atrium that draws light to the core of the building. Foster believes, as demonstrated in the Gamble house in Pasadena, that light has a healing function, one that keeps individuals sane in a

91 journal of undergraduate research busy, modern world. In each building, Foster deals with light in a different and innovative method, trying to understand the ways in which light affects the building and the individual. For example, the louvers in the Kawana house manipulate light for the owner’s benefit. Alternatively, in the Reichstag, Foster uses light as a beacon to remind German citizens that the building serves as their democratic center. . In looking at his previous structures, Foster approaches the element of light in a different method on each building. The Willis-Faber & Dumas building has walls of glass which become transparent at night, allowing outsiders to see inside. The Hongkong & Shanghai Bank building and the Century Tower challenges ideas of inside and outside through their large, transparent glass curtain walls. The Kawana house in Tokyo is structured much like Johnson’s glass house with giant wall panels of glass, allowing insiders to see out as well as outsiders to view the interior. The Hongkong & Shanghai Bank has giant light scoops which reflect light into and down the building.

Layers: Foster seems to believe that a building must affect the observer by presenting different layers and vistas, sending a direct message. The Reichstag layers public viewing areas above political buildings to send the message that politics should work to support the citizen. In many of his commercial buildings, Foster layers curtain walls and structural members to juxtapose the ideas of opacity (privacy) and translucency (public)—for commercial enterprises must balance both public and private aspects. In layering an effect upon a building, Foster is able to put two, often differing ideas adjacent in order to synthesize a whole. The Reichstag also layers the idea of old and new, symbolizing the recombination of East and West Germany into a unified whole.

High-tech: Foster believes that in designing his buildings, the most technologically advanced solution must be considered. He believes that in using high-tech equipment and pushing the edge of structural engineering, he is able to push the edge of architectural designing. Using high-tech equipment allows Foster to break

92 Norman Foster: Envisioning Design at the Edge of Reality through usual paradigms of building and find solutions, such as pushing structural members to the edge of skyscrapers. Foster also believes that high-tech buildings are more flexible and radical, and thus more distinctive. A high-tech building, according to Foster, is also energy efficient. Foster believes that paying attention to the ecology of a building is highly important, for technology affords the architect methods by which to design a building more ecologically efficient.

Conclusion

Norman Foster is often described as ‘the most envied architect in the world.’ Foster lays a strong claim to this honor, given his long career and the acclaim that many of his buildings have received. He often ignores the usual trends and traditional methods of architecture and envisions new solutions to design challenges. I believe that Foster has cultivated this radical nature in his architectural upbringing, starting with his informal education of Le Corbusier and continuing through with his graduate education at Yale under Paul Rudolph and Phillip Johnson. In the latter half of the twentieth century, Norman Foster has designed buildings which are thoroughly modern and envisioned new paradigms for architectural design. With his innovative designs and radical ideas, Norman Foster indelibly has stamped his image onto the milieu of modern architecture. ∫

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Endnotes

1 M. Quantrill, The Norman Foster Studio: Consistency Through Diversity (London: E & FN Spon, 1999), 10. 2 Ibid., 14. 3 Ibid. 4 Ibid., 10 5 Ibid., 15. 6 Ibid., 20. 7 Stephanie Williams, Hongkong Bank : the Building of Norman Foster’s Masterpiece (Boston: Little, Brown, 1989), 60. 8 Quantrill, 79. 9 Ibid., 84. 10 Ibid. 11 Williams, 41. 12 Ibid., 36. 13 Ibid. 14 Ibid., 43. 15 Ibid., 49 16 Quantrill, 142. 17 Ibid., 146. 18 Ibid. 19 Ibid., 188. 20 C. Davies and I. Lambot, Commerzbank Frankfurt: Prototype of an Ecological High-Rise (Boston: Birkhäuser, 1997), 13. 21 Ibid. 22 Ibid. 23 Ibid., 18. 24 Ibid. 25 Ibid., 155. 26 Ibid., 158. 27 Quantrill, 164. 28 Stephen Dobney, ed., Norman Foster: Selected and Current Works of Foster and Partners (Hong Kong: The Images Publishing Group, 1997), 163. 29 Quantrill, 171. 30 Ibid., 172.

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31 Ibid. 32 Ibid., 164. 33 Ibid., 172. 34 Some of these ideas are inspired by Prof. Dennis Doordan’s course: “20th Century Architecture.”

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