Continuing Modernism

Charles Gwathmey -> Steel Residences, Bridgehampton, NY

Peter Eisenman, still saw himself in direct dialog with modernism,


 * Frank House (House VII) - Cornwall, CT
 * Played with modernist formal elements -> box like
 * Tried to make the house LOOK like it did not function, but did
 * Wanted to accomodate people, not challenge their ideas of space/comfort/familiarity

The Modern Skyscraper
Hancock Tower, Chicago


 * Built be Ownings Merrill
 * Important structural paradigm shift:
 * Instead of locating the support inside of the building, the support structures run on the skin of the building -> exoskeleton
 * Open interior -> no interior supporting columns
 * Diagonal braces allow for temperature changes -> resist torque but allow shrinking/expanding

The World Trade Center, NY


 * Also used an exoskeleton to support the load of the building

Sears Tower, Chicago


 * Tallest build in the world for some time.
 * Used 9 "tubes" built around a square floor plan to strengthen the building, and give it a few different heights/spaces

Hancock Tower, Boston


 * Trapizoidal floorplan, challenges/changes the view of the approaching observer
 * Plays with ephemereality
 * Based on older/original ideas of designing skyscraper -> support placed in the interior of the structure
 * I.M. Pei -> Chinese-born, American architecture
 * "it is nothing more than a plane...everything is reduced, reduced, reduced."
 * Challenge of making the
 * $13 Million in just accident costs
 * The glass windows dropped from the facade
 * In 1974, the Swiss engineer who was in charge of maintaining the strength of the building realized he had not adequately reinforced the structure -> added a counterweight to the top floor.
 * by 1975, everything was made right
 * Dialoged with Mies van der Rohe's idea for the Berlin Skyscraper
 * Has become a classic in skyscraper building.

Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
 * Louis Kahn
 * Played with small entry to big space in how one enters a small doorway and is then welcomed into a massive lobby space
 * Flooded the space with natural light
 * Materials created a balance between the natural and the man-made, the modern and the classic
 * Cedar wood, Maple floors, Concrete, Steel
 * Light was one of his most important element of architecture
 * In the first gallery -> rounded staircase put a formal element into the space of the gallery rather than hiding it/pulling it out.

Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth


 * Used a series of barrel vaulted halls, rounded ceiling with light provided from above
 * Avoided direct light -> bad for artwork

National Gallery of Art, East Building


 * I.M. Pei
 * 1978
 * Tried to fit the space into the idea of Washington (set at angles of 66.2 degrees)
 * And dialog the building with the John Pope original east structure
 * Oriented along the axis of the original building by also twisted to reflex the orientations of Washington itself.
 * Critized as a too public, too loud -> like a Shopping Mall