Cite Spring-Summer 1984 7 GREAT FAR / 4r
FROM -••Mr.' FROM GREAT AFAR in"' lilt J •HI mi mo '/MI ri.Ai'M skyline will regain that particular visual excitement lost Helmut Jahn's when the split of Pennzoil Place <1976, Johnson, Burgee Architects and S.I. Morris Associates, architectsi was obscured by new construction. The proliferation of Southwest Center mostly flat-topped, generally abstract, and often anony- mous towers that now dominate the city will have a new locus. Downtown Houston (Johnson'Burgee's 56-story, John kuliski in 'in 777-foot-high RcpublicBank Center notwithstanding) in Mil will no longer look like downtown Dallas. In the spring of I^S2 Southwest Baneshares. Inc. and Traditionally, buildings in downtown Houston have Century Development provided three architectural III '/Jtiti III- / y l l respected (he grid of streets laid out in 1836 by the Allen firms. Kohn Pederaon Fox Associates of New York, brothers. To the founders of Houston the grid repre- Murphy/Jahn of Chicago, and Skidmore, OwingS and I'I'VJIII sented an expedient, efficient system of dividing land Merrill of I louston, with a straightforward agenda for a for sale and resale. In recent tunes, as Houston's build- skyscraper competition: i r
Southwest (.'enter. The Houston Competition of the introductory chapters is inane, a son of public-relations blurb-exc that is the more disconcerting lor its elegant graphic context, In the essays «ith which each of the three designers, Edited by Peter Amell andTedBkkford, essays by Willkm William Pedersen, Richard Keating, and Helmut lahn. pref- Peterson, Kit fund Keating, and Helmut John, review by Paul aced the illustrations of Ins firm's project, this tendency sur- Coldberger. New York: Riuoli International Publications, faces in a more subtle and involuntary form, in a divergence I9HS. I19pp.,230illui ,$14.95 beween expressed intentions and architectural results For in- stance, the notions of contextual tit and urbanistk responsibil- ity arc reiterated, but none of the designs grow s out ol an Reviewed by Stephen Fox analysis of the site and its surroundings, and none acknowl- edges architecturally the presence of the existing Bank of the To document the three schemes submitted in 1982 by Kohn Southwest Building. (Ironically, this rather dumpy '50s sky- Pederscn Fox Associates, Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, and scraper incorporates all the responsible urbanistk attributes for Murphy/Jahn for the Southwest Center office lower (see which the three architects profess such reverence. I A concern "Great From Afar, Far From Great", p. .). two enterprising for the discipline of typology is another recurring theme. But young New York graphic designers. Peter Arnell and Ted as the exemplar of the urbane skyscrapers ot the 1920s, the BJckford, have issued the second in iheir projected series of Chrysler Building is consistently cited, a building that was dis- monographs on recent architectural competitions. Southwest missed as gauche, frivolous, and vulgar when completed in Center. The Houston Competition is a slight but elegant book. 1930. Neither in obeisance to the oft-invoked genius loci nor Arnell and Bickford have appropriated Massimo Vignclli's in a discriminating awareness of architectural history (as op- Oppositions look, reduced the format slightly, and added color posed to the popular mythology of the present i do (he archi- in produce a sumptuous "little" document that exudes pre- tects' texts persuade when compared to their designs. ciousness and luxe.
The disturbing element in this suave production is the preten- Paul Goldbcrger. in the book's concluding essay, obliquely tiousness that emanates from its multiple texts. The prose style acknowledges these problems in his critique of (he two
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:• . I I !< t * Perspective vicwot bast- {Drawing by]. Smith, Murphy! ] \ Southwest Center, 1982, MtuphyUahn and Lloyd Jones Brewer and Associates, architects, model (Murphy/JahnI To question the use of imagery in a building which Beneath the aluminum, granite, and glass skin of the through size alone makes an impact on its environmeni Southwest Center lies a Structural system that departs is perhaps meaningless in an era where fickle fashion from the technique of framed-tube construction em- rules, Nevertheless, (he lack of semantic rigor as evi- ployed in high-rise buildings here and elsew here in the denced by the skin of the Southwest Center raises seri- United States during the last 15 years.' The first sky- ous issues with regard to urban place-making winch scrapers built in this country relied on a jungle-gym of i! cannot be begged off. While one cannot deny the impor- steel for support. With refinements this technique con- tance of the Chrysler Building in the mythology of the tinued to be used until the 1960s when engineers found American skyscraper, what is its symbolic relevance, that by moving more of the structure to the outside edge Project: Southwest Center. 1982. Skidmore. Owings and beyond personal design whim, to an oil-patch bank- of the building they could achieve significant savings in Merrill, architects, model (Skidmore. Owings and Merrill) scraper of the 1980s? material while increasing the building's ability to resist wind forces. This stiffened tube, analogous to the card- The Chrysler Building was a corporate set piece that board tube ol a paper towel roll, became the almost- addressed through a rigorous ornamental program exclusive means of supporting very tall buildings in (he Walter P. Chrysler's marketing needs. This Art Deco 1970s. Recently, engineers have begun to carve away skyscraper projected a jazzy image, complete with this lube to make, in effect, giant vertical trusses. hood-ornament gargoyles and hub-cap entablatures The structure of the Southwest Center utilizes this new made of molded brick. The racy styling was a metaphor method with a system of both steel and reinforced for the romance and imagery of the automobiles that concrete. It is akin to a giant trussed bridge turned The Runners-Up Chrysler hoped to sell to the American public. While on its end. this ornamental program has inevitably become histori- Century Development and Southwest Bancshares inter- At each comer of the Southwest Center are a pair of cal in terms of promotional relevance, its insistent sug- viewed over 30 architects before inviting three firms — reinforced-concrete "super columns" thai diminish in gestion in every detail made the Chrysler Building a rich Murphy/Jahn, Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, and Kohn section from 10 feet by 15 feet at the bottom of the document that still can move the imagination of those Pederson Fox Associates — to submit proposals in com- building to 5 feet by 5 feet at the top. These columns, who experience it, much the way a figuratively- petition/or the design of Southwest Bancshare's sky- which carry nearly all of the loads associated with each ornamented church, library, or train station does. One scraper headquarters in March 1982. Murphy/Jahn won floor and the wind, are stabilized with repeating nine- must ask whether the consumption and reduction of this the competition, but the sponsors made the other two en- story diagonals tying the paired super columns together. particular architectural image (or any of the others men- tries public at the same time that they announced the The placement of these super columns is notated on tioned) for a skyscraper in Houston does not impoverish Southwest Center in October 1982. the latter"s content, rendering it fashionable, yet unintel- the skin of the building by the stone edges of the ver- ligible. tical glass zone. Besides this one gesture there is no other manifestation of engineering on the exterior of Skidmore. OwingS and Merrill proposed a square- the building. planned. 80-story, 2.35 million square-foot shaft to rise The Southwest Center will be bigger than the sum of its 1.370feet. The imageability for which the clients called parts. Yet a critical analysis of these parts raises ques- The engineering techniques incorporated in the design was derived from SOM partners Richard Keating and tions about the efficacy of an imagery detached from the of the Southwest Center allow for column-free leasable Faztur Khan's use of Khan's version of the "super- institutional and historical context that it ostensibly is office space. The offices inside will additionally benefit column." This logically developed the implications of serving. Ultimately, the tower's obelisk shape, its orien- from the 45° rotation of the building. Offices that di- Bruce Graham and Fazlur Khan's design for One Shell tation, and its size overwhelm these questions: monu- rectly face their high-rise neighbors typically suffer from Plaza, concentrating structure at the four corners of the mentality is achieved in spite of the irresolute nature of limited views extending only across the street to the next building. By locating four separate elevator cores within the building's skin. curtain-wall. Turning the Southwest Center on its block these reinforced corners, it became possible to create a will guarantee good views at lower levels past the sur- monumental, 110-fool high, open-air space beneath the During the 1970s Murphy/Jahn became well-known for rounding buildings to the landscape beyond. Lessees of tower and to treat the top of the building as a "crystal- buildings that manneristically expressed their structural the upper stories of the building will, of course, have un- line dome held on four sides like a diamond solitaire." and mechanical components, a tendency recently de- impeded vistas from their windows. The 79|h floor of as SOM described the five-level, airborne restaurant fined as "romantic high-tech."' While the structural this tower has been designated as a public observation and observation deck structure. Practically, it made system of the Southwest Center (designed by LeMessu- level where, on clear days, one should be able to see the three separate entries possible, appealing to the corpo- rier Associates/SCI of Cambridge, Massachusetts with Gulf of Mexico. rate egos of three potential major tenants Dittcrcnliu- Walter P. Moore and Associates) is advanced, the exag- lions in the window pattern and the color of the geration of the pragmatic parts of the structure has been If the office environmeni and the views from within the granite-clott curtain-wall articulated the structural idea cast aside for a new emphasis on image-making. Southwest Center promise to be less claustrophobic than of the building. Beneath the monumental loggia lay a Cite Spring-Summer 1984 " runners-up. the Kohn Pedersen Fox and SOM schemes. He sociates and Klein ialick Partnership, architects i contains an praises Murpln Jain's «Inning design for its compositions] array of internal public circulation, exhibition, restaurant, and refinement and its neat integration of referential imagery vs. ich shop spaces ingeniously composed in section to provide a contemporary techniques and materials. Tactfully, Goldberger sense of variety and richness on a constricted site where open refrains from implying that any other architect might have plazas were not feasible. Without resorting to imager] excess, done a better joh. Works by Philip Johnson, Michael Graves, the architects of these two buildings used the factors of site, and Cesar Pclli are mentioned but not directly contrasted with surroundings, and certain notions about public space to make any of the three submissions for adroit use of Art Dico imag- tall buildings that architecturally contributed to the city rather ery, brilliant displays of spatially configurated planning, or the than exploiting it as a mere backdrop. development of an architectural code thai fluently articulates current ways and means of tall building fhe three Southwest (tenter entries fall slum ol the terms thai then architects scl tor themselves fcach has something to recommend it. Kohn Pedersen Fox's design is the most rigor- Although the mosi successful new tall buildings in downtown ously derived. Skidmorc. Owings and Merrill's features the Houston do not attempt as much as the architects of the South- most innovative programmatic Interpretation and the best pub- west Center sought to achieve in their designs, these buildings lic space. Murphv latin's emerges as the most ingratiating, do embody some important characteristics in which the South- simply because it appears to fulfill the criteria for achieving west Center schemes appear deficient For example, the t-irsi contemporary landmarks that Jahn adduces in his essay: build City Tower l l'JKl, Morris'Aubry Architects, architects) is ings that "act as a theatre for a futuristic world-ol-tomorrow shaped to define outdoor spaces that respond to the presence of ambience, |lhal| create excitement, surprise, and are intended surrounding tall buildings. Combined with an open, elevator to be people-pleasiiiii " Vet all three remain fixated objects lobby that, while only an elevator lobby, is nonetheless a rather than urban fragments. beautiful urban room, and a lyrically choreographed arrange mem ol outdoor sculpture, this gesture results in the creation Southwest Center, The Houston Competition does not dwell — of a special place that invites public occupation. Across the on this collective shortcoming. Arncll and Bick ford 'shook is M street, the 1010 Lamar Building 11981, Nasr, Penton and As- celebratory, not critical. As such it is a handsome artifact ¥ n « u S\W V ^ » W'UZM w \\Wlv i \\v| \ \ ili? • / §1 ! I fh !. : ^ Z=T 4 fl i > ! ! I • I faM W i - . • ir ? ; ; Detail, elevation of •mmmit tMurphy:Jahn) 1 V ^ s Perspective view of entrance lobby (Drawing by J. Smith. 1 MurphyUahn) 5 O<^r i ? r, - : -• : ;: / n! Conceptual sketches by Helmut Jahn (Murphy/Jakn) \ :: ? :'< 111 nit iii11 1 those in typical downtown office structures, the manner the Houston skyline. The offices within promise to have h h in which the building is integrated with the street and spectacular views. At the level of the pedestrian, how- Mm • Mil Ii tunnel system suggests that Houstonians will experience ever, nothing substantially new is offered. Given the ] merely an exaggerated version of what already exists. visual gesturing and the magnitude of the undertaking, ' J - " l Entrances to the Southwest Center will occur under the too many opportunities for positive urban place- •ar?1W«! giant 100-foot high porticoes, stationed prominently at making arc being missed. the street corners, signifying their importance for blocks in every direction. Given the size and inherent monu- In his oft-quoted essay on the Eiffel Tower. Roland Project: Southwest Center, I9H2. Kohn Pedersen Fox Associ- mentally of these porches, one is led to expect a signifi- Barthes evoked the emptiness of this monument as one ates, architects, model iKohn Pederson Fox Associates} cant public space within the building. Instead, present of its most powerful attributes. For Barthes there was drawings suggest an anticiimactic and empty entrance only one use for the Eiffel Tower: it functioned as a sym- lobby at the street level occupied only by the elevator bol of Paris and France for the world. Precisely because core and escalators to the tunnel network below. The the Eiffel Tower is empty, yet always present, "it means lobby of this obelisk-shaped tower will thus be little dif- everything.'" The Houston skyline, though suffering ferent from the lesser lobbies of the speculative office from current economic conditions, is inhabited. Yet structures that make up most of downtown Houston. from the freeway, from the detached environment of the tunnel-level concourse, accessible directly from the car, its emptiness is virtual. The Southwest Center will street, and two levels of parking. The user of this building, the largest building in down- provide to this sensed emptiness a powerful center, a town Houston, visible for miles around, confronts in the monumental focus for masses in movement, a point of Kohn Pederson Fox Associates' William Pederson and lobby a series of light wells, regulated by the geometry reference for the confused. Houston's skyline, not its Sudhir Jambhekar. in association with LeMessurier of the building, thai open to the tunnel level below. If downtown, will continue to mature. Associates/SCI. proposed a 94-story. 2 million square- the intention underlying the design of these wells was to foot tower. Like SOM. Kohn Pederson Fox used the invite passersby to come in from the street and descend, Postscript tower's structural system to generate its complex form; their 25-foot distance from the sidewalk renders the Groundbreaking for the Southwest Center, originally the architecture literally rose out of the structure. A cru- shafts gratuitous. There is little looking-up to the street scheduled for the fall of 1983, has been postponed until ciform envelope of closely-spaced concrete piers, turned from below, and very little looking-down. The opportu- late 1984. As of this writing, the Federal Aviation Ad- on the diagonal and faced externally with granite, was nity to bring the tunnel activity up to the level of the ministration has refused to readjust its 1,049-foot height penetrated by thin, projecting slices of green glass. street and into the building is lost. The possibility of cel- ceiling on construction in downtown Houston. The Above the 73 rdfloor, these slices emerged to form a ebrating the arrival of visitors intent on a view from the Southwest Center would rise about 390 feet above that square-planned, glazed shaft crowned by an octagonal observatory is diminished by the corporate sobriety that level. Because this ceiling is not enforced by the City of superstructure of white-painted steel containing the res- informs the public space. A building as prominent as the Houston, Southwest Bancsharcs and Century Develop- taurant and observation deck. At the street level, monu- Southwest Bancsharcs tower could have at least a won- ment can disregard it. Working with Murphy/Jahn as as- mentally scaled, five-story loggias capped with steel and derful banking hall with a clear and direct relation to the sociated architects are Lloyd Jones Brewer and glass lanterns were stationed at the four corners of the street. Unfortunately, banking, shopping, eating, watch- Associates. block to provide access to the lobby and the central ele- ing — in short, the activities that bring life to the public vator core. Flanking each of the loggias and opening spaces of a city — are relegated to the basement in this both to the street and the lobby were spaces designated building. People should expect more than a quick eleva- for retail use. A covered passage was to surround the tor ride up to an observatory or an escalator ride down to Noto perimeter of-the building. Beneath grade lay a tunnel - an orderly and sanitized mole's nest. I. Peter Amell and Ted Bickford. eds., Southwest Center The Hommn level concourse (not open to the street as in the Murphy/ Competition, New York, Riuoli iuimiaiMm.il Publications. Inc.. Juhn and SOM proposals) and two levels of parking. Once one recognizes (hat the economic forces that 1983. 10. shaped this building are not dissimilar to the forces of 2 Amell and Bickford, eds . Southwest Center The HouMon Southwest Bancshare's impending merger with the corporate form-making that spawned its high-rise neigh- Competition. H2. Dallas-based Mercantile Texas Corporation brings yet bors, one is not surprised at the experiential similarity. 3. Margaret Gaskie, "Toward Romantic High-Tech." Progressive another tower into the picture. For Mercantile is plan- Any quality that this proposed tower has results simply Architecture, vol. 64. January I9X.1. 102-115. ning to move upfront the 33-ston1 Mercantile National from the amplification of these forces. Any fault that can 4 See Fazlur R. Khan. "Multi-Story Buildings: Recent Structural Bank Building of 1942 (W.W. Ah'lschlager. architect). be discerned reminds the viewer of the faults of many Systems in Slecl for High-Rise Buildings." Set lion 2, Paper I from BCSA Conference on Sleet in Architecture. Bethlehem Steel the tallest building in Texas from 1942 until 1963, to a other downtown buildings. The Southwest Center is Corporation. 1969. 60-story building, presently in design, by Johnson/ more of the same, only bigger and more stylistically cur- 5. Roland Barthes. "The Eiffel Tower," in The Eiffel Tower and Other Burgee Architects of New York. rent. The tower strengthens the picturesque quality of Mythologies. New York, Hill and Wang. 1979,4.