USA: Modern Architectures in History (Reaktion Books - Modern Architectures in History)

322 Pages·2008·10.46 MB·English

by  Gwendolyn Wright

USA
Gwendolyn Wright
modern architectures in history

USA
modern architectures in history
This international series examines the forms and consequences of modern
architecture. Modernist visions and revisions are explored in their national context
against a backdrop of aesthetic currents, economic developments, political trends
and social movements. Written by experts in the architectures of the respective
countries, the series provides a fresh, critical reassessment of Modernism’s positive
and negative effects, as well as the place of architectural design in twentieth-
century history and culture.
Series editor: Vivian Constantinopoulos
Already published:
Britain
Alan Powers
Finland
Roger Connah
Forthcoming:
Brazil Japan
Richard Williams Botond Bognar
France Netherlands
Jean-Louis Cohen Nancy Stieber
Germany Spain
Iain Boyd Whyte David Cohn
Greece Switzerland
Alexander Tzonis and Alkistis Rodi Stanislaus von Moos
India Turkey
Peter Scriver Sibel Bozdogan
Italy
Diane Ghirardo
USA
modern architectures in history
Gwendolyn Wright
REAKTION BOOKS
For Tom,with joy
Published by Reaktion Books Ltd
33Great Sutton Street
London ec1v 0dx,uk
www.reaktionbooks.co.uk
First published 2008
Copyright © Gwendolyn Wright 2008
The publishers gratefully acknowledge support for the publication ofthis book by the
Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts.
All rights reserved
No part ofthis publication may be reproduced,stored in a retrieval system,
or transmitted,in any form or by any means,electronic,mechanical,photocopying,
recording or otherwise,without the prior permission ofthe publishers.
Printed and bound in Slovenia
by MKT Print d.d.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Wright,Gwendolyn
USA.– (Modern architectures in history)
1.Modern movement (Architecture) – United States
2.Architecture – United States – 20th century
I.Title
720.9'73'0904
isbn-13:978–1–86189–344–4
isbn-10:1–86189–344–2
Contents
7 Introduction
one
17 Modern Consolidation, 1865–1893
two
47 Progressive Architectures, 1894–1918
three
79 Electric Modernities, 1919–1932
four
113 Architecture, the Public and the State, 1933–1945
five
151 The Triumph of Modernism, 1946–1964
six
195 Challenging Orthodoxies, 1965–1984
seven
235 Disjunctures and Alternatives, 1985 to the Present
276 Epilogue
279 References
298 Select Bibliography
305 Acknowledgements
307 Photo Acknowledgements
310 Index

Introduction
American modern architecture is as lively and mutable as quicksilver.
Artists in every medium have delighted in the surprising play of forms
and types.Architects claim freedom and democracy as birthrights for
every citizen, sometimes presuming these are assurances rather than
aspirations.Popular culture has eagerly appropriated icons of modern
architecture and design without generating much respect for architects.
Praise has mixed freely with invective. The European avant-garde
lauded Midwestern factories and grain elevators as the magnificent evi-
dence ofa new age.Americans were considered liberated from the past,
or ignorant ofits lessons and beholden to commerce.New York remains
unfinished,impossible to pinion,simultaneously ‘a new Babel and a City
Divine’.1Countless observers have deplored the vulgar consumerism of
Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Miami – then enjoyed their pleasures.
Modern office buildings and housing came under widespread attack in
the late 1960s,condemned as cold and callous or gaudy and ‘plastic’.The
most contemptuous critics may be those who denounce all aspects of
American modern architecture as a debased bastardization of ‘true
Modernism’, revering the European Modern Movement as the sole
incarnation ofprogressive values.
Can there be any coherence among these wildly divergent opinions
and the works they seek to describe? No single definition can encompass
the phantasmagoria ofAmerican modern architecture,but that doesn’t
‘Architecture USA’ mean that everything qualifies.The designation is stitched together by
stamps, 1982 issue, ambitions, processes and effects more than any formal rules.
showing Frank Lloyd
Modernism confronts contemporary life rather than seeking to escape;
Wright’s Fallingwater
(1937), Walter Gropius it tries to redirect,improve or at least enliven present-day realities.The
House (1937), Mies van goals extend beyond noble intentions about artistic innovation and
der Rohe’s Crown Hall
social progress,for we can no longer exclude the modernity of specta-
at the Illinois Institute
of Technology, Chicago cles, self-promotion and profit incentives, even if they should not be
(1956), and Eero embraced wholeheartedly. The actors include world-renowned figures
Saarinen’s Dulles
but also relatively unknown clients and designers.Some are not archi-
International Airport
(1962). tects at all,since professionals account for only about 10per cent ofwhat
gets built in America.I am suggesting an inclusive,dynamic and contest-
ed perspective,not a harmonious consensus.
A century of canonical histories has defined modern architecture in
terms ofuniversal beliefs and forms,a worthy aspiration yet one dismis-
sive of the multifarious conditions in which all people operate,
including architects.We have recently become more aware ofecological
issues and the fact that ‘modern man’– the presumed beneficiary ofwell-
intended reforms – marginalized people who did not fit one model of
needs and desires. National and local cultures still seem problematic,
however,given legitimate apprehensions about xenophobic fervour and
provincialism.Yet nations remain salient factors even in today’s global
world.The materiality of building responds to formal regulations and
informal conventions. National imaginaries sustain shared notions
about the public sphere and private life, influencing even those who
want to challenge such norms.These configurations are never cohesive.
No formulas or essences,in other words,but definite patterns.
TheModern Architectures in History series considers such patterns
inside and across the boundaries ofmany nations.Each instance reveals
distinctive imageries and meanings that often reverberate elsewhere
once we know to look for them.The United States shared many qualities
with European Modernism:a commitment to social reform,confidence
in the sciences,a passion for new technologies and a pervasive fascina-
tion with ‘the new’.It appropriated from Africa,Asia and Latin America
as well in a flow of ideas, capital and people that was always multi-
directional.By the late nineteenth century,most ofthe world saw America
as the epitome ofmodernity,with architectural advances assuming a key
role in this mental construction:towering skyscrapers,rationalized fac-
tories, vibrant settings for popular culture, verdant parkways and
mass-produced,moderate-cost dwellings.2
Like all cultures,America’s is paradoxical.Traditions coexist with
innovations; utopian visions of the future with nostalgic fantasies
about the past – including earlier stages of Modernism. Americans
follow trends, yet they remain deeply suspicious of orthodoxies,
mindful ofcontingencies and unintended consequences.This inclina-
tion aligns with pragmatist tendencies,both the late nineteenth-century
philosophers William James and John Dewey, who asked what ideas
actually do in the world,and the less systematic predilections ofcount-
less others,including architects and designers,eager to tinker with (and
Joseph Stella, Battle sometimes to transform) established practices.Such an approach tends
of Lights, Coney inevitably towards ‘patchwork’,but it is not inherently anti-theoretical.
Island, Mardi Gras,
As James put it,‘Pragmatism unstiffens all our theories,limbers them up
1913–14, painting,
oil on canvas. and sets each one at work.’3
8