Postmodern architecture is a style or movement which emerged in the 1960s as a reaction against the austerity, formality, and lack of variety of modern architecture , particularly in the international style advocated by Philip Johnson and Henry-Russell Hitchcock . The movement was formally introduced by the architect and urban planner Denise Scott Brown and architectural theorist Robert Venturi in their 1972 book Learning from Las Vegas . The style flourished from the 1980s through the 1990s, particularly in the work of Scott Brown & Venturi, Philip Johnson , Charles Moore and Michael Graves . In the late 1990s, it divided into a multitude of new tendencies, including high-tech architecture , neo-futurism , new classical architecture , and deconstructivism . However, some buildings built after this period are still considered postmodern.
210-554: 550 Madison Avenue (also 550 Madison ; formerly known as the Sony Tower , Sony Plaza , and AT&T Building ) is a postmodern –style skyscraper on Madison Avenue between 55th and 56th Streets in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City , New York, U.S. Designed by Philip Johnson and John Burgee with associate architect Simmons Architects, the building is a 647-foot-tall (197-meter), 37-story office tower with
420-484: A facade made of pink granite . It was completed in 1984 as the headquarters of AT&T Corp. and later became the American headquarters of Sony . A four-story granite annex to the west was demolished and replaced with a shorter annex in the early 2020s. A large entrance arch at the base of the building faces east toward Madison Avenue, flanked by arcades with smaller flat arches. A pedestrian atrium , running through
630-590: A frontage of 200 feet (61 m) on Madison Avenue and 189 feet (58 m) on both 55th and 56th Streets. The building is on the same city block as the Corning Glass Building to the west. Other nearby buildings include St. Regis New York and 689 Fifth Avenue to the southwest, the Minnie E. Young House to the south, the New York Friars Club and Park Avenue Tower to the east, 432 Park Avenue to
840-473: A mansard roof form as an obviously flat, false front. Another alternative to the flat roofs of modernism would exaggerate a traditional roof to call even more attention to it, as when Kallmann McKinnell & Wood 's American Academy of Arts and Sciences in Cambridge, Massachusetts, layers three tiers of low hipped roof forms one above another for an emphatic statement of shelter. A new trend became evident in
1050-563: A sky lobby above the base. There is a broken pediment with a circular opening atop the building. Opinion of 550 Madison Avenue has been mixed ever since its design was first announced in March 1978. The AT&T Building at 550 Madison Avenue was intended to replace 195 Broadway , the company's previous headquarters in Lower Manhattan . Following the breakup of the Bell System in 1982, near
1260-579: A stutter and was diagnosed with cyclothymia . He attended the Hackley School in Tarrytown, New York , then studied as an undergraduate at Harvard University where he focused on learning Greek, philology , history and philosophy , particularly the work of the Pre-Socratic philosophers. Upon completing his studies in 1930, he made a series of trips to Europe, particularly Germany, where his family had
1470-436: A 24-foot-tall (7.3 m) winged male figure on top of a globe, wrapped by cables, clutching bolts of electricity in his left hand. The statue was repainted in gold leaf when it was moved to 550 Madison Avenue. The statue was placed on a pedestal inside the lobby, with the circular window atop the main entrance arch seeming to form a halo above the statue. It was moved to AT&T's Basking Ridge, New Jersey , facility in 1992. From
1680-435: A February 2010 blizzard , breaking the atrium's glass ceiling and injuring several inside. Postmodern architecture Postmodern architecture emerged in the late 1960s as a reaction against the perceived shortcomings of modern architecture , particularly its rigid doctrines, its uniformity, its lack of ornament, and its habit of ignoring the history and culture of the cities where it appeared. In 1966, Venturi formalized
1890-760: A Mayan temple or a piece of clanking art deco machinery'. The Belgian architectural firm Atelier d'architecture de Genval is renowned for its pioneering work in postmodern architecture in Belgium, particularly in Brussels with major realizations such as the Espace Leopold complex which includes the European Parliament , and other like the Euroclear Building, recalling for most of them the American postmodernist style. The Italian architect Aldo Rossi (1931–1997)
2100-460: A building that appeared about to collapse) that it was good. In 1964, American critic Susan Sontag defined camp as a style which put its accent on the texture, the surface, and style to the detriment of the content, which adored exaggeration, and things which were not what they seemed. Postmodern architecture sometimes used the same sense of theatricality, sense of the absurd and exaggeration of forms. The aims of postmodernism, which include solving
2310-416: A circular opening that extends the width of the roof. The opening measures 34 feet (10 m) across. Within the opening are ribbed slats, which contain vents for the building's HVAC system; according to Johnson, the vents were supposed to create steam puffs when there was a certain amount of moisture in the air. The remainder of the gable is trimmed with a stone coping . The granite slabs are suspended from
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#17328517850502520-501: A gross floor area of 685,125 square feet (63,650.2 m). The superstructure is composed of steel tubes, except at the base, where shear walls connect the sky lobby and foundation . The steel beams were constructed by Bethlehem Steel . The colonnade at the base was insufficient to protect against wind shearing . As a result, the core of the tower contains two concrete and steel "shear tubes", each measuring 25 by 31 feet (7.6 by 9.4 m). In addition to its 37 above-ground stories,
2730-512: A grove of oak trees. The third fountain is the Active Pool, which challenges fit visitors to walk down 38 feet (12 meters) to the pool at the bottom, with water cascading all around them. In 1977, Johnson completed a much quieter garden in Dallas, Thanks-Giving Square . It features a non-denominational chapel in a spiral form, a meditation garden and cascading fountains, tucked between buildings in
2940-577: A half acres. The centerpiece is the 40-story tower, One PPG Place, which has a crown of spires at the corners which suggest the neogothic tower of the Houses of Parliament in London. During the 1980s, Johnson and Burgee completed a series of other notable postmodern landmarks. The TC Energy Center (formerly Republic Bank Center, later, Bank of America Center), in Houston (1983), was the first postmodern skyscraper in
3150-679: A huge scale. Philip Johnson Philip Cortelyou Johnson (July 8, 1906 – January 25, 2005) was an American architect who designed modern and postmodern architecture . Among his best-known designs are his modernist Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut ; the postmodern 550 Madison Avenue in New York City , designed for AT&T; 190 South La Salle Street in Chicago ; the Sculpture Garden of New York City's Museum of Modern Art ; and
3360-480: A large welcome message from its own offices nearby. New York magazine reported in February 1984 that the executive offices were not occupied and that full completion was not expected until that May. The building was completed sometime in 1984 but was overlooked by the media, which instead publicized the divestiture. It ultimately cost $ 200 million, a rate of about $ 200 per square foot ($ 2,200/m), although New York placed
3570-441: A material which until then was used mainly in building aircraft, which changed color depending upon the light. Gehry was often described as a proponent of deconstructivism , but he refused to accept that or any other label for his work. César Pelli (October 12, 1926 – July 19, 2019) was an Argentine architect who designed some of the world's tallest buildings and other major urban landmarks. Two of his most notable projects are
3780-507: A movement until the late 1970s and continues to influence present-day architecture. Postmodernity in architecture is said to be heralded by the return of "wit, ornament and reference" to architecture in response to the formalism of the International Style of modernism. As with many cultural movements, some of postmodernism's most pronounced and visible ideas can be seen in architecture. The functional and formalized shapes and spaces of
3990-462: A new facility in Basking Ridge, New Jersey, in 1970, although the company denied that it was fleeing to the suburbs. John D. deButts , who became AT&T's CEO in 1972, also wished to construct a new Midtown headquarters as a monument to the company and to boost his own name recognition. The 195 Broadway headquarters had a capacity of only 2,000 workers, but AT&T had 5,800 headquarters workers by
4200-445: A new style that welcomed variety and historical references, without returning to academic revival of old styles. In Italy at about the same time, a similar revolt against strict modernism was being launched by the architect Aldo Rossi , who criticized the rebuilding of Italian cities and buildings destroyed during the war in the modernist style, which had had no relation to the architectural history, original street plans, or culture of
4410-441: A pond. The building's sides are glass and charcoal-painted steel; the floor, of brick, is not flush with the ground but sits 10 inches above. The interior is an open space divided by low walnut cabinets; a brick cylinder contains the bathroom and is the only object to reach floor to ceiling. The New York Times described it in 2005 as "one of the 20th century's greatest residential structures. "Like all of Johnson's early work, it
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#17328517850504620-409: A populist ethic, and sharing the design elements of shopping malls , cluttered with " gew-gaws ". Postmodern architects may regard many modern buildings as soulless and bland, overly simplistic and abstract. This contrast was exemplified in the juxtaposition of the "whites" against the "grays," in which the "whites" were seeking to continue (or revive) the modernist tradition of purism and clarity, while
4830-704: A postmodernist Titanium and Stainless Steel tower that rotated upon its own axis. In addition to museums and cultural centers in Japan, he designed the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA), (1981–1986), and the COSI Columbus science museum and research center in Columbus, Ohio. The Sydney Opera House in Sydney , Australia, by the Danish architect Jørn Utzon (1918–2008), is one of
5040-443: A reputation for being inhospitable, dark, and windy. Following a renovation in the 1990s, the arcade was enclosed with recessed display windows with grids of bronze mullions. When the windows were replaced in the early 2020s, transparent mullions were added. At the extreme ends on Madison Avenue are single-story flat arches surmounted by flagpoles. These lead to recessed passages along 55th and 56th Streets, which act as an extension of
5250-527: A simple interior and a ceiling of curving plaster panels. In 1957, Johnson designed the Soreq Nuclear Research Center in Israel at the invitation of Shimon Peres . Johnson joined Mies van der Rohe as the architect of record (Mies did not have NY license) for the 39-story Seagram Building (1956). Johnson was pivotal in steering the commission towards Mies by working with Phyllis Lambert ,
5460-642: A single building can appear like a small town or village. An example is the Abteiberg Museum by Hans Hollein in Mönchengladbach (1972–1974). Asymmetric forms are one of the trademarks of postmodernism. In 1968, the French architect Claude Parent and philosopher Paul Virilio designed the church Saint-Bernadette-du-Banlay in Nevers , France, in the form of a massive block of concrete leaning to one side. Describing
5670-435: A small cafe, library, hearth room, pool room, screening room, and fitness center. Between the annex to the west and the main tower to the east was an atrium measuring 40 feet (12 m) wide by 100 feet (30 m) tall. The public atrium between the annex and the tower was originally covered by a metal and glass roof, the ceiling of which was a half- barrel vault (shaped as a quarter-circle). The atrium directly faced that of
5880-625: A small pavilion with columns by the lake in 1963, an art gallery set into a hillside in 1965, a postmodern sculpture gallery with a glass roof in 1970; a castle-like library with a rounded tower in 1980; and a concrete block tower dedicated to his friend Lincoln Kirstein , the founder of the New York City Ballet ; a chain-link "ghost house" dedicated to Frank Gehry . After completing the Glass House, he completed two more houses in New Canaan in
6090-524: A solo practitioner, Johnson invited Alan Ritchie to join him as a partner. Ritchie had been a partner for many years in the Johnson-Burgee office and was the partner-in-charge of the AT&;T building and the 190 South LaSalle office building, a skyscraper designed as an homage to the demolished Masonic Temple of Chicago. In 1994, they formed the new practice of Philip Johnson-Alan Ritchie Architects. During
6300-516: A steel parapet. The pediment, inspired by classical designs, was included to unify the symmetrical facades. Johnson may have also been inspired by his dissatisfaction with the Citigroup Center 's sloped roof, visible from his own office in the Seagram Building. Johnson/Burgee wanted to make the roof recognizable upon the skyline, and they decided upon a pediment because it was well suited for
6510-744: A style similar to the Glass House; the Hodgson House (1951) and the Wiley House (1953). In New York City, He designed two major modernist additions to the Museum of Modern Art; a new annex, and, to complement it, the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden (1953) In 1954–56, he made the pro bono design for Congregation Kneses Tifereth Israel , a synagogue for a conservative Jewish congregation in Port Chester, New York . It had
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6720-494: A summer house. He visited the landmarks of classical and Gothic architecture, and joined Henry-Russell Hitchcock , a prominent architectural historian, who was introducing Americans to the work of Le Corbusier , Walter Gropius , and other modernists. In 1928, he met German architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe , who was at the time designing the German Pavilion for the 1929 Barcelona International Exposition . The meeting formed
6930-402: A symbolic picture of a house, looking back to the 18th century. This is partly achieved through the use of symmetry and the arch over the entrance. Perhaps the best example of irony in postmodern buildings is Charles Moore 's Piazza d'Italia (1978). Moore quotes (architecturally) elements of Italian Renaissance and Roman Antiquity . However, he does so with a twist. The irony comes when it
7140-422: A technological necessity. Modernist high-rise buildings had become in most instances monolithic , rejecting the concept of a stack of varied design elements for a single vocabulary from ground level to the top, in the most extreme cases even using a constant "footprint" (with no tapering or "wedding cake" design), with the building sometimes even suggesting the possibility of a single metallic extrusion directly from
7350-549: A trifler, the dilettante he earlier feared himself to be, a model of futility who sought to find a messiah or to pursue messianic ends but whose most lasting following turned out to be the agents of the FBI—who themselves finally grew bored with him. In short, he was never much of a political threat to anyone, still less an effective doer of either political good or political evil. Franz Schulze, Philip Johnson: Life and Work (1994), p.144 In December 1934, Johnson abruptly left
7560-414: Is 647 feet (197 m) tall, as measured from sidewalk level to the highest point of the tower's broken pediment . There are no setbacks . Unlike other postmodernist structures with irregular ground-level plans, 550 Madison Avenue was designed as a rectangle at ground level, similar to older International Style buildings. The tower stories have a footprint measuring 200 by 90 feet (61 by 27 m). There
7770-558: Is a good example of his work in the period; it is supported by eight external ferro-concrete piers, or two on each side. The exterior structural members are clad in bronze and "black" Canadian granite . The windowless cube is set above the office areas, which recessed in a dry moat, giving a "floating" effect. A model of the building was exhibited in the United States Pavilion at the Brussels' World's Fair of 1958 ,as an example of
7980-416: Is a prevalent trait of postmodernism. The characteristics of postmodernism were rather unified given their diverse appearances. The most notable among their characteristics is their playfully extravagant forms and the humour of the meanings the buildings conveyed. Postmodern architecture as an international style – the first examples of which are generally cited as being from the 1950s – but did not become
8190-532: Is a skyscraper with an eight-story high arched entry and a split pediment at the top which resembles an enormous piece of 18th-century Chippendale furniture . It was not the first work of postmodern architecture , as Robert Venturi and Frank Gehry had already built smaller scale postmodern buildings, and Michael Graves had completed the Portland Building (1980–82) in Portland, Oregon , two years earlier. But
8400-549: Is also known for his early postmodern works, including a residential complex in the form of a castle with red walls at Calp on the coast of Spain (1973) and the social housing complex Les Espaces d'Abraxas (1983) in Noisy-le-Grand , France. The works of Austrian architect Friedensreich Hundertwasser (1928–2000) are occasionally considered a special expression of postmodern architecture. The Japanese architects Tadao Ando (born 1941) and Isozaki Arata (1931–2022) introduced
8610-525: Is an important element in many postmodern buildings; to give the façades variety and personality, colored glass is sometimes used, or ceramic tiles, or stone. The buildings of Mexican architect Luis Barragán offer bright sunlight color that give life to the forms. Humor is a particular feature of many postmodern buildings, particularly in the United States. An example is the Binoculars Building in
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8820-436: Is an urban landscape where visitors experience water in distinct ways. The gardens cover 4.3-acres (1.7 hectare), and comprise three very different kinds of water features; One offers a quiet meditation pool, surrounded with cypress trees and high walls, with a thin sheet of water cascading downward to the pool, making the sound of a rain shower. The second pool is an aerating pool with multiple illuminated spray fountains, beneath
9030-498: Is beginning to take shape". At its peak, the project's three foremen had to balance the requests of about "three dozen powerful prime contractors and 150 subcontractors and suppliers", according to Inc magazine. Workers from more than 70 trades were involved in the construction of the building. The cladding was attached to the steel frame starting in September 1981, several months behind schedule. The workings were so complex that even
9240-416: Is covered with more than 10,000 rectangular pieces of glass. The Glass panels are not bolted, but glued to the structure, with a silicon based glue, to give it greater ability to resist Southern California earthquakes. Johnson and Burgee designed it to withstand an earthquake of magnitude 8.0. The tower was added in 1990. The cathedral quickly became a Southern California landmark, but its costs helped drive
9450-521: Is equivalent to that of a 60-story building with 8-foot (2.4 m) ceilings, but the building has higher ceilings and thus fewer stories. At 550 Madison Avenue, ceilings were typically 10 feet (3.0 m) high, and executive suites had ceilings of 12 feet (3.7 m). At the time, computer hardware required taller ceilings than was usual. As originally designed, the acoustic ceiling panels had air conditioning vents and minimal ceiling lighting, as each worker's desk had task lighting. In addition to offices,
9660-413: Is even more prominent. The two obtruding triangular forms are largely ornamental. They exist for aesthetic or their own purpose. Postmodernism , with its sensitivity to the building's context, did not exclude the needs of humans from the building. Carlo Scarpa 's Brion Cemetery (1970–1972) exemplifies this. The human requirements of a cemetery is that it possesses a solemn nature, yet it must not cause
9870-631: Is littered with small ornamental details that would have been considered excessive and needless in Modernism. The Venice Beach House has an assembly of circular logs which exist mostly for decoration. The logs on top do have a minor purpose of holding up the window covers. However, the mere fact that they could have been replaced with a practically invisible nail, makes their exaggerated existence largely ornamental. The ornament in Michael Graves ' Portland Municipal Services Building ("Portland Building") (1980)
10080-489: Is made up of several building units, all very different. Each building's forms are nothing like the conforming rigid ones of Modernism . These forms are sculptural and are somewhat playful. These forms are not reduced to an absolute minimum; they are built and shaped for their own sake. The building units all fit together in a very organic way, which enhances the effect of the forms. After many years of neglect, ornament returned. Frank Gehry 's Venice Beach house, built in 1986,
10290-600: Is noted that the pillars are covered with steel. It is also paradoxical in the way he quotes Italian antiquity far away from the original in New Orleans . Double coding meant the buildings convey many meanings simultaneously. The Sony Building in New York provides one example. The building is a tall skyscraper which brings with it connotations of very modern technology. However, the top contradicts this. The top section conveys elements of classical antiquity . This double coding
10500-680: Is the SIS Building in London by Terry Farrell (1994). The building, next to the Thames, is the headquarters of the British Secret Intelligence Service . In 1992, Deyan Sudjic described it in The Guardian as an "epitaph for the 'architecture of the eighties. ... It's a design which combines high seriousness in its classical composition with a possible unwitting sense of humour. The building could be interpreted equally plausibly as
10710-501: Is used, representing over 160,000 cubic feet (4,500 m) of the material. The stonework cost $ 25 million in total and required an additional 6,000 short tons (5,400 long tons; 5,400 t) of steel to support it. Varying reasons are given for the use of granite. Johnson considered pink granite as "simply the best" type of stone, and Ritchie said the Stony Creek pink granite had "more character" than granite from other sources. Burgee said
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#173285178505010920-625: The Beverly Hills Civic Center in a mixture of Spanish Revival, Art Deco and postmodern styles. It includes courtyards, colonnades, promenades, and buildings, with both open and semi-enclosed spaces, stairways and balconies. The Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley blends in with both the neo-Renaissance architecture of the Berkeley campus and with picturesque early 20th century wooden residential architecture in
11130-478: The Harvard Graduate School of Design , where he studied with Marcel Breuer and Walter Gropius , who had recently fled from Nazi Germany. In 1941, Johnson designed and built his first building, a house at 9 Ash Street in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The house, strongly influenced by Mies van der Rohe, has a wall around the lot which merges with the structure. It was used by Johnson to host social events and
11340-751: The Loyola Law School (1978–1984), and the California Aerospace Museum (1982–1984), then international commissions in the Netherlands and Czech Republic. His "Dancing House" in Prague (1996), constructed with an undulating façade of plaques of concrete; parts of the walls were composed of glass, which revealed the concrete pillars underneath. His most prominent project was the Guggenheim Bilbao museum (1991–1997), clad in undulating skins of titanium,
11550-582: The Nazi Party , and espoused antisemitic views. He wrote for Social Justice and Examiner , where he published an admiring review of Hitler's Mein Kampf . In 1939, as a correspondent for Social Justice , he witnessed Hitler's invasion of Poland , which he later described as "a stirring spectacle". In 1941, after the U.S. entered the war, Johnson abruptly renounced his earlier views, quit journalism, organizing anti-Fascist league at Harvard Design School . He
11760-683: The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC), is sometimes described as the world's first postmodern –style skyscraper. Alan Ritchie of Johnson/Burgee was named as design manager, while Simmons Architects was the associate architect. Engineers and contractors involved in the building's construction included structural engineer Leslie E. Robertson of Robertson & Fowler Associates; associate engineer Leroy Callender; foundation engineer Mueser, Rutledge, Johnston & DeSimone; mechanical engineer Cosentini Associates ; and interior designer ISD Inc. Frank Briscoe
11970-462: The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the building's exterior as a landmark in 2018. Olayan redeveloped the building in the late 2010s and early 2020s. 550 Madison Avenue is in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City . The rectangular land lot is bounded by Madison Avenue to the east, 56th Street to the north, and 55th Street to the south. The lot covers approximately 36,800 square feet (3,420 m), with
12180-737: The Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur and the World Financial Center in New York City. The American Institute of Architects named him one of the ten most influential living American architects in 1991 and awarded him the AIA Gold Medal in 1995. In 2008, the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat presented him with The Lynn S. Beedle Lifetime Achievement Award . In 1977, Pelli
12390-475: The modernist style are replaced by diverse aesthetics : styles collide, form is adopted for its own sake, and new ways of viewing familiar styles and space abound. Perhaps most obviously, architects rediscovered past architectural ornament and forms which had been abstracted by the Modernist architects. Postmodern architecture has also been described as neo-eclectic , where reference and ornament have returned to
12600-473: The "grays" were embracing a more multifaceted cultural vision, seen in Robert Venturi 's statement rejecting the "black or white" world view of modernism in favor of "black and white and sometimes gray." The divergence in opinions comes down to a difference in goals: modernism is rooted in minimal and true use of material as well as absence of ornament , while postmodernism is a rejection of strict rules set by
12810-527: The 1960s and 1970s, a series of buildings which took into account both historic precedents, and the ideas and forms existing in the real life of the cities around them. Michael Graves (1934–2015) designed two of the most prominent buildings in the postmodern style, the Portland Building and the Denver Public Library . He later followed up his landmark buildings by designing large, low-cost retail stores for chains such as Target and J.C. Penney in
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#173285178505013020-515: The 1970, such as IDS Center in Minneapolis (1973) and Pennzoil Place in Houston (1970–1976), were massive, sober, and entirely modernist. With the AT&T Building (now named 550 Madison Avenue ) (1978–1982), Johnson turned dramatically toward postmodernism. The building's most prominent feature is a purely decorative top modeled after a piece of Chippendale furniture , and it has other more subtle references to historical architecture. His intention
13230-558: The 1980s were clad in granite and marble and usually had some feature borrowed from historic architecture. In New York he designed the Museum of Television and Radio (now the Paley Center for Media) (1991). In 1982, working in collaboration with John Burgee, he finished one of his most famous buildings, 550 Madison Avenue , (first known as AT&T Building, then the Sony building before taking its present name). Built between 1978 and 1982, it
13440-761: The 21st century. Frank Gehry (born 1929) was a major figure in postmodernist architecture, and is one of the most prominent figures in contemporary architecture . After studying at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles and then the Harvard Graduate School of Design , he opened his own office in Los Angeles in 1962. Beginning in the 1970s, he began using prefabricated industrial materials to construct unusual forms on private houses in Los Angeles, including, in 1978, his own house in Santa Monica. He broke their traditional design giving them an unfinished and unstable look. His Schnabel House in Los Angeles (1986–1989)
13650-694: The American Academy in Rome, he worked in the offices of the modernists Eero Saarinen and Louis Kahn until 1958, and then became a professor of architecture at Yale University. One of his first buildings was the Guild House in Philadelphia, built between 1960 and 1963, and a house for his mother in Chestnut Hill , in Philadelphia. These two houses became symbols of the postmodern movement. He went on to design, in
13860-465: The German government, he traveled on a press tour which covered the invasion of Poland in 1939. Schulze dismissed these early political activities as inconsequential, concluding they merited "little more substantial attention than they have gained" and his politics "were driven as much by an unconquerable esthetic impulse as by fascist philosophy or playboy adventurism". In 1941, at the age of 35, Johnson abandoned politics and journalism and enrolled in
14070-410: The Houston skyline. Fifty-six stories high, it has two setbacks creating what appear to be three different buildings, one against the other. The three triangular gables were inspired by Flemish Renaissance architecture. The interior and exterior are covered with rough-textured red granite, which also covers the surrounding sidewalks. The new building for the Hines College of Architecture (1985) of
14280-409: The IBM Building at 590 Madison Avenue, and the presence of 550 Madison Avenue's atrium allowed additional floor area in the building. According to Burgee, he wanted the atrium to have a distinct identity from the office tower. The atrium, designed as an open-air pedestrian pathway, was enclosed in the 1990s when Sony moved to the building. A large television screen was installed with this renovation. In
14490-428: The Johnson building, adjoins the original Boston library built in the 19th century by the celebrated firm of McKim, Mead & White . Johnson harmonised his building with the original landmark by using similar proportions and the same pink Milford granite. In the late 1970s, Johnson combined architecture and landscape architecture to create two imaginative civic gardens. The Fort Worth Water Gardens opened in 1974,
14700-427: The Museum of Modern Art and began pursuing a career in journalism and politics. He first became a supporter of Huey Long , the populist governor of Louisiana. He tried and failed to recruit Long to join the National Party, which he founded. Johnson unsuccessfully ran for representative of New London in the Ohio state legislature. After Long was assassinated in 1935, Johnson became a correspondent for Social Justice ,
14910-406: The Museum of Modern Art as a curator and writer. At the same time, he began working to establish his architectural practice. He built a small house, influenced by the work of Mies, in Sagaponack, Long Island. In 1947, he published the first monograph in English on the architecture of Mies. In 1947, he curated the first exhibition of modern architecture of the Museum of Modern Art including a model of
15120-657: The NTT Headquarters in Tokyo (finished 1995) were preludes to a landmark project that Pelli designed for Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The Petronas Towers were completed in 1997, sheathed in stainless steel and reflecting Islamic design motifs. The dual towers were the world's tallest buildings until 2004. That year, Pelli received the Aga Khan Award for Architecture for the design of the Petronas Towers Pelli's design for
15330-702: The National Museum of Art in Osaka , Japan, was completed 2005, the same year that Pelli's firm changed its name to Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects to reflect the growing roles of senior principals Fred W. Clarke and Pelli's son Rafael. While postmodernism was best known as an American style, notable examples also appeared in Europe. In 1991 Robert Venturi completed the Sainsbury Wing of the National Gallery in London, which
15540-533: The Pre-Columbian Pavilion at Dumbarton Oaks . His January 2005 obituary in The New York Times described his works as being "widely considered among the architectural masterpieces of the 20th century". In 1930, Johnson became the first director of the architecture department of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. There he arranged for visits by Walter Gropius and Le Corbusier and negotiated
15750-512: The United States, which had a major influence on the design of retail stores in city centers and shopping malls. In his early career, he, along with the Peter Eisenman , Charles Gwathmey , John Hejduk and Richard Meier , was considered one of the New York Five , a group of advocates of pure modern architecture , but in 1982 he turned toward postmodernism with the Portland Building , one of
15960-567: The University of Houston paid homage to forms drawn from earlier periods of architectural history, using modern materials, construction methods, and scale. The facade of the Hines building resembles, on a larger scale, the neoclassic facades of the French architect Claude Nicolas Ledoux . 400 West Market (1993) in Louisville, Kentucky, is a 35-story office tower built of reinforced concrete rather than
16170-455: The Venice neighborhood of Los Angeles, designed by Frank Gehry in collaboration with the sculptor Claes Oldenburg (1991–2001). The gateway of the building is in the form of an enormous pair of binoculars; cars enter the garage passing under the binoculars. "Camp" humor was popular during the postmodern period; it was an ironic humor based on the premise that something could appear so bad (such as
16380-834: The World Financial Center in New York, which includes the grand public space of the Winter Garden, was completed in 1988. Among other significant projects during this period are the Crile Clinic Building in Cleveland, Ohio, completed 1984; Herring Hall at Rice University in Houston, Texas (also completed 1984); completion in 1988 of the Green Building at the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood, California; and
16590-518: The annex was demolished and replaced with a single-story annex. 550 Madison's articulation is inspired by that of classical buildings, with three horizontal sections similar to the components of a column : a base, shaft, and capital . The facade is clad with 60,000 pieces of roughly textured pink Stony Creek granite, weighing up to 7,000 pounds (3,200 kg) each, supplied by Castellucci & Sons from its Connecticut quarry. More than 13,000 short tons (12,000 long tons; 12,000 t) of granite
16800-431: The arcade could be converted into stores at a rate of $ 200 per square foot ($ 2,200/m). According to Sony, the arcades were "dark, windy and noisy", and a conversion to commercial space would provide "retail continuity" with the remainder of Madison Avenue. Johnson was not overly concerned about the closure of the arcade, saying, "It isn't that my ideas have changed. The period has changed." The plan did face some opposition:
17010-464: The arcades on either side appear deeper than they actually were. The granite wall of the original annex on 55th Street was windowless and had three garage doors. The granite wall on 56th Street had a tall window bay, a garage door, and a cornice. On all elevations of the facade, the intermediate stories are divided vertically into several bays , each of which has one single-pane window on each floor. The Madison Avenue (eastern) and western elevations of
17220-484: The arch may have been influenced by the Basilica of Sant'Andrea, Mantua . AT&T said the arch was supposed to make the building appear dominant and give it "a sense of dignity". To the left and right of the main entrance arch are three flat-arched openings, measuring 60 feet (18 m) tall by 20 feet (6.1 m) wide, with voussoirs at their tops. Originally, 550 Madison Avenue had an open-air arcade north and south of
17430-516: The architect of the Neue Staatsgalerie in Stuttgart, Germany (1984), described the style as "representation and abstraction, monumental and informal, traditional and high-tech." Postmodern architecture often breaks large buildings into several different structures and forms, sometimes representing different functions of those parts of the building. With the use of different materials and styles,
17640-461: The archway is a 70-foot (21 m) arched window, topped by a circular oculus with a 20-foot (6.1 m) radius. Both windows have glazed glass panels and vertical and horizontal bronze mullions . These windows are surrounded by stonework with rhombus tiles. The side walls of the arch have smaller round arches and rectangular stonework, while the top of the arch contains recessed rectangular lights. According to architectural writer Paul Goldberger ,
17850-554: The atrium, which became Sony stores, and the annex was converted into the Sony Wonder technology museum. The annex was completely gutted because, under guidelines set by the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 , the existing ramps and passageways were too steep. Inside, Dorothea Rockburne was commissioned to paint two fresco murals for the formerly bare sky lobby, and additional staircases, conference centers, and offices were installed on
18060-556: The basis for a lifelong relationship of both collaboration and competition. Johnson had a substantial fortune, largely due to his father's successful investment in Alcoa , the Aluminum Company of America. With this fortune, in 1930 he financed the new architecture department of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and in 1932 he was named its curator. As curator he arranged for American visits by Gropius and Le Corbusier, and negotiated
18270-569: The block immediately to the south, Stanley Stahl had paid $ 12 million since 1970 for a lot of 23,000 square feet (2,100 m). On Stahl's block, AT&T acquired seven buildings in late 1974, followed by two adjacent buildings to the west in 1975, the latter of which were acquired in anticipation of AT&T being allowed to construct extra space. Stanley W. Smith, president of the 195 Broadway Corporation, paid Stahl $ 18 million for his assemblage in October 1975. The land value appreciated significantly in
18480-567: The building and helped to refine the design details. The New York City Department of Buildings received blueprints for the new headquarters in January 1978. A Times editorial that month praised the AT&T project, as well as the neighboring IBM development at 590 Madison Avenue, as a "declaration of corporate commitment" to New York City, which had then recently rebounded from its fiscal crisis . AT&T announced its official plans on March 30, 1978, in front of New York City Hall . A rendering of
18690-482: The building from the cash-strapped AT&T for $ 236 million, or $ 315 per square foot ($ 3,390/m)—a relatively low rate given the building's location in Midtown Manhattan. Two years later, Sony contemplated selling the building once its merger with Bertelsmann was completed. Part of the Sony Wonder museum was renovated in 2008 and reopened the following year. An accumulation of ice dislodged from an upper floor after
18900-422: The building included a two-story auditorium at the fifth and sixth stories, as well as a CCTV studio at the eighth story. The office stories were generally less ornately decorated than the lobbies, but the executive offices on the thirty-third and thirty-fourth floors had elaborate wood paneling. AT&T had requested that the highest-quality materials be used, although escalating costs during construction led to
19110-458: The building is designed with three basements. One of these basement levels contained a 45-spot parking garage, originally meant for AT&T board members. There were also vehicular elevators for delivery trucks. The building's main lobby is just inside the large arch on Madison Avenue. The lobby measures 50 by 50 feet (15 by 15 m) and originally contained a floor made of black-and-white marble, as well as walls made of granite. The floor pattern
19320-519: The building's Manhattan location, size, and originality made it the most famous and recognizable example of postmodern architecture . It was designated a city landmark by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission in 2018. Between 1979 and 1984, Johnson and Burgee built PPG Place , the postmodern headquarters of the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company . It is a complex of six buildings within three city blocks, covering five and
19530-538: The building's completion, AT&T spun off its subsidiary companies. As a result, AT&T never occupied the entire building as it had originally intended. Sony leased the building in 1991, substantially renovated the base and interior, and acquired the structure from AT&T in 2002. Sony sold the building to the Chetrit Group in 2013 and leased back its offices there for three years. The Olayan Group purchased 550 Madison Avenue in 2016 with plans to renovate it, and
19740-412: The building's space. AT&T wanted to rent out the space for as much as $ 60 per square foot ($ 650/m), but few companies were willing to sign a lease. The company had expected to move as many as 1,500 employees into 550 Madison Avenue, but the impending divestiture reduced that figure to 600. In early 1983, AT&T reneged on its rental proposal after city government officials warned company officials that
19950-461: The building's steel frame, are designed to resemble load-bearing columns; they use thicker stone to represent solidity, and they have notches to represent depth. There was no retail space on the Madison Avenue front because, according to critic Nory Miller, "AT&T didn't want a front door sandwiched between a drug store and a lingerie shop." After the AT&T Building's opening, the arcade gained
20160-606: The building's tax exemption could be canceled if AT&T were to receive rental income. The first occupants moved to their offices on July 29, 1983, and the Spirit of Communication statue was dedicated two months later, with full occupancy expected by the time of the Bell System divestiture at the end of the year. Only three of the office stories were occupied by late 1983. By January 1984, about 1,200 employees had moved from 195 Broadway to 550 Madison Avenue. That month, AT&T's longtime advertising agency, N. W. Ayer & Son , displayed
20370-538: The building, it became known as the Sony Tower. In early 1992, Gwathmey Siegel designed a renovation of the base, with Philip Johnson as consultant. The arcade space was to be converted into retail space; in exchange, the atrium was to be expanded with new planters and public seating. Edwin Schlossberg was hired to design the new storefronts and redesign the annex. Sony expected that 8,727 sq ft (810.8 m) of
20580-675: The building. In 1989, the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the Seagram's exterior, lobby, and The Four Seasons Restaurant as official city landmarks. In 2006, the building was added to the National Register of Historic Places. Throughout the 1960s, Johnson continued to create in the vocabulary of the modernist style, designing geometrical theatres, a monastery, art galleries and gardens. The Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute (1960)
20790-661: The ceiling above appears like a sky." Following his description, future concert halls, such as the Walt Disney Concert Hall by Frank Gehry in Los Angeles, and the Philharmonie de Paris of Jean Nouvel (2015) used the term "vineyard style" and placed the orchestra in the center, instead of on a stage at the end of the hall. Postmodern architecture first emerged as a reaction against the doctrines of modern architecture , as expressed by modernist architects including Le Corbusier and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe . In place of
21000-584: The center of the city. In 1980, Johnson and Burgee completed a cathedral in a dramatic new style: the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, California, is a soaring glass megachurch originally built for the Reverend Robert H. Schuller . The interior can seat 2,248 persons. It takes the form of a four-pointed star, with free-standing balconies in three points and the chancel in the fourth. The cathedral
21210-430: The central archway, extending west to the public atrium behind the building. The arcade, conceived as a 100-foot-high space, was downsized to 60 feet "for reasons of scale". The presence of the arcade allowed for what Johnson described as "a more monumental building" with more floor area. There are 45 granite columns within the arcade, weighing 50 short tons (45 long tons; 45 t) apiece. The granite columns, which encase
21420-767: The church and opens the chapel to light. During daytime the interior is lit entirely with natural light. In 1995, Johnson added a postmodern element to his own residence, the Glass House . This was a new entry pavilion in a sculptural form, which he called the "Monsta", or "Monster". Other late works include the Cathedral of Hope in Dallas , the Habitable Sculpture (a 26-story apartment tower in lower Manhattan), The Children's Museum in Guadalajara, Mexico, and The Chrysler Center . The Urban Glass House in lower Manhattan
21630-603: The church into debt. When the church declared bankruptcy in 2012, it was purchased by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange and became the Roman Catholic cathedral for Orange County. Working with John Burgee, Johnson did not confine himself to a single style and was comfortable mixing elements of modernism and postmodernism. For the Cleveland Play House , he built a Romanesque brick structure. His skyscrapers in
21840-657: The cities. Rossi insisted that cities be rebuilt in ways that preserved their historical fabric and local traditions. Similar ideas were and projects were put forward at the Venice Biennale in 1980. The call for a post-modern style was joined by Christian de Portzamparc in France and Ricardo Bofill in Spain, and in Japan by Arata Isozaki . Robert Venturi (1925–2018) was both a prominent theorist of postmodernism and an architect whose buildings illustrated his ideas. After studying at
22050-415: The company installed fiber-optic cables under Madison Avenue to connect its two buildings, and it installed microwave communications equipment atop 555 Madison Avenue. Sony had consolidated most of the operations for its Sony Music Entertainment division at the Sony Tower on 550 Madison Avenue, for which The New York Times noted that "such high-profile and elaborate space is appropriate and necessary". This
22260-634: The construction of the Wells Fargo Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1989. Pelli was named one of the ten most influential living American Architects by the American Institute of Architects in 1991. In 1995, he was awarded the American Institute of Architects Gold Medal. In May 2004, Pelli was awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from the University of Minnesota Duluth where he designed Weber Music Hall. In 2005, Pelli
22470-434: The converted Sony retail space at ground level generated less profit than expected, prompting Sony Plaza Inc. to hire a new general manager in 1995. The atrium was criticized for being inhospitable to the homeless, as private security guards patrolled the space. Sony leased four stories at 555 Madison Avenue immediately to the east in February 1995. By the following year, Sony was renovating its space within 555 Madison Avenue;
22680-459: The cost as high as $ 220 million. Despite the high cost of construction, AT&T never fully occupied 550 Madison Avenue. In early 1984, AT&T officials said that rather than constructing a museum in the annex for bonus zoning, they planned to use the annex for a showroom. The change of plan came after the Bell divestiture shrank AT&T's planned presence at the building. After the city firmly opposed
22890-580: The daughter of the CEO of Seagram . The commission resulted in the iconic bronze-and-glass tower on Park Avenue. The building was designed by Mies, and the interiors of the Four Seasons and Brasserie restaurants (later redesigned), as well as office furniture were designed by Johnson. In December 1955, the city of New York denied an architect's permit to Mies. He moved back to Chicago and put Johnson fully in charge of construction. Mies returned in late 1956 and finished
23100-568: The destruction of British cities in the years after World War II. He designed colorful public housing projects in the postmodern style, as well as the Neue Staatsgalerie in Stuttgart , Germany (1977–1983) and the Kammertheater in Stuttgart (1977–1982), as well as the Arthur M. Sackler Museum at Harvard University in the United States. One of the most visible examples of the postmodern style in Europe
23310-424: The difficult unity of inclusion rather than the easy unity of exclusion. In place of the functional doctrines of modernism, Venturi proposed giving primary emphasis to the façade, incorporating historical elements, a subtle use of unusual materials and historical allusions, and the use of fragmentation and modulations to make the building interesting. Accomplished architect and urban planner Denise Scott Brown , who
23520-436: The earlier, more austere modernist concert halls. The real revolution was inside, where Scharoun placed the orchestra in the center, with the audience seated on terraces around it. He described it this way: "The form given to the hall is inspired by a landscape; In the center is a valley, at the bottom of which is found the orchestra. Around it on all sides rise the terraces, like vineyards. Corresponding to an earthly landscape,
23730-436: The early 2020s, a new garden called 550 Madison Garden was constructed within the atrium. The garden contains shrubs, trees, bulbs , and perennial plants and is split into several sections. The space is open every day between 7 a.m. and 11 p.m. It is covered by a 70-foot-tall (21 m) metal-and-glass canopy, which collects 93,000 US gallons (350,000 L) of rainwater every year. The garden's greenery extends onto
23940-408: The early modernists and seeks meaning and expression in the use of building techniques, forms, and stylistic references. One building form that typifies the explorations of postmodernism is the traditional gable roof, in place of the iconic flat roof of modernism. Shedding water away from the center of the building, such a roof form always served a functional purpose in climates with rain and snow, and
24150-412: The elevator cabs was replaced with wood. The construction of the superstructure commenced in March 1980. Before installing the steel beams, workers assembled the shear tubes at the building's core, along with the 50-ton granite columns that supported the base. Since the steelwork began above the sky lobby on top of the base, workers climbed through the shear tubes to complete the sky lobby before installed
24360-471: The entire development process, AT&T faced an antitrust lawsuit from the United States Department of Justice . The parties reached an agreement in January 1982, with AT&T consenting to divest its Bell System effective January 1, 1984. Shortly after this agreement, AT&T decided to lease out 300,000 sq ft (28,000 m) on the 7th through 25th floors, comprising nearly half of
24570-592: The executives deemed "highly qualified". Thirteen of the recipients responded. Johnson and Burgee recalled that they set aside the questionnaire until AT&T called them two weeks afterward. Smith visited eight candidates and picked three finalists: Johnson/Burgee, Roche-Dinkeloo , and Hellmuth, Obata & Kassabaum . The three finalists were to give presentations to the committee and high-ranking officials. Johnson recalled that he did not have an elaborate presentation but instead brought photographs of his past work and came with Burgee. According to AT&T officials, "there
24780-401: The facade are identical to each other, as are the 55th and 56th Street elevations. The west and east facades are divided into nine bays each. The center bay is eight windows wide, with three sets of four windows on either side, as well as a wide single window at the extreme north and south ends. Granite spandrel panels separate the windows on different stories, except at the executive offices in
24990-400: The facade cladding required the involvement of members of four construction unions. The building topped out on November 18, 1981. Contractors made some mistakes because of the accelerated construction schedule; for instance, electrical ducts had to be carved into the concrete floors after they were built. By late 1982, the work was one year late and $ 40 million over budget. Throughout nearly
25200-416: The facade is clad in glass. When the plans were announced in 1978, Johnson claimed that the glass on the facade would make 550 Madison Avenue the city's "most energy-efficient structure". The windows are recessed into granite surrounds that are up to 10 inches (250 mm) deep. The architects had wanted deeper windows, but the high cost of the granite made this infeasible. Additionally, the round mullions of
25410-615: The façade, replacing the aggressively unornamented modern styles. This eclecticism is often combined with the use of non-orthogonal angles and unusual surfaces, most famously in the State Gallery of Stuttgart by James Stirling and the Piazza d'Italia by Charles Moore . The Scottish Parliament Building in Edinburgh has also been cited as being of postmodern vogue. Modernist architects may regard postmodern buildings as vulgar, associated with
25620-474: The feud between Burgee and Johnson continued to grow. In 1988, the firm's name was changed to John Burgee Architects with Johnson as the "design consultant". In 1991, Johnson responded by establishing his own firm. The feud ended badly for Burgee; he was saddled with all of the firm's debts, while Johnson no longer had any responsibility. Burgee was eventually forced to declare bankruptcy and to retire, while Johnson continued to get commissions. After four years as
25830-473: The final design. Johnson and Burgee examined various structures, such as the entries to the Tribune Tower design competition , for inspiration. Judith Grinberg created a 7-foot-tall (2.1 m) sketch of the AT&T Building's facade "to interpret [Johnson's] design intent"; the sketch was sold to London's Victoria and Albert Museum in 2010. In addition, Howard W. Swenson created numerous styrofoam models for
26040-436: The first American commission for Mies van der Rohe , after he fled Nazi Germany . In 1932, he organized with Henry-Russell Hitchcock the first exhibition dedicated to modern architecture at the Museum of Modern Art, which gave name to the subsequent movement known as International Style . In 1934, Johnson resigned his position at the museum. During the 1930s, Johnson became an ardent admirer of Adolf Hitler , openly praised
26250-414: The first American commission for Mies van der Rohe. In 1932, working with Hitchcock and Alfred H. Barr, Jr. , he organized the first exhibition on Modern architecture at the Museum of Modern Art. The show and their simultaneously published book International Style: Modern Architecture Since 1922 , published in 1932, played a seminal role in introducing modern architecture to the American public. When
26460-538: The first major structures in the style. The building has since been added to the National Register of Historic Places . The most famous work of architect Charles Moore (1925–1993) is the Piazza d'Italia in New Orleans (1978), a public square composed of an exuberant collection of pieces of famous Italian Renaissance architecture. Drawing upon the Spanish Revival architecture of the city hall, Moore designed
26670-450: The first time. Years later he would describe the event to his biographer, Franz Schulze: "You simply could not fail to be caught up in the excitement of it, by the marching songs, by the crescendo and climax of the whole thing, as Hitler came on at last to harangue the crowd". He told of being thrilled at the sight of "all those blond boys in black leather" marching past the Führer. Sponsored by
26880-410: The following years; by 1982, Stahl's plot alone was worth $ 70 million. To save time and limit inflation-related costs, AT&T awarded some construction contracts before certain design details were finalized. Demolition permits for the site had been approved by 1976, but, because of subsequent delays, a park or a temporary taxpayer building were considered for the site. The Alpine Wrecking Corporation
27090-480: The form, they wrote: "a diagonal line on a white page can be a hill, or a mountain, or slope, an ascent, or a descent." Parent's buildings were inspired in part by concrete German blockhouses he discovered on the French coast which had slid down the cliffs, but were perfectly intact, with leaning walls and sloping floors. Postmodernist compositions are rarely symmetric, balanced and orderly. Oblique buildings which tilt, lean, and seem about to fall over are common. Color
27300-590: The former Louisa Osborn Pope (1869–1957), a niece of Alfred Atmore Pope and a first cousin of Theodate Pope Riddle . He had an older sister, Jeannette, and a younger sister, Theodate. He was descended from the Jansen family of New Amsterdam. His ancestors include the Huguenot Jacques Cortelyou , who laid out the first town plan of New Amsterdam for Peter Stuyvesant . He grew up in New London, Ohio . He had
27510-452: The foundation. The resulting hole was 45 to 50 feet (14 to 15 m) deep. Excavations were ongoing in February 1979 when deButts was replaced by Charles L. Brown as AT&T CEO. Brown, who was less enthusiastic about a grand headquarters than deButts had been, sought a review of the project, but construction continued nonetheless. Faced with rising construction costs, the architects had to substitute cheaper materials; for example, granite in
27720-459: The glass Farnsworth House of Mies. In 1949, he began building a new residence, the Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut, that was completed in 1949. It was clearly influenced by Farnsworth House of Mies, an influence which Johnson never denied, but looked quite different. The Glass House is a 56-foot by 32-foot glass rectangle, sited at the edge of a crest on Johnson's estate overlooking
27930-652: The ground, mostly by eliminating visual horizontal elements—this was seen most strictly in Minoru Yamasaki 's World Trade Center buildings. Another return was that of the "wit, ornament and reference" seen in older buildings in terra cotta decorative façades and bronze or stainless steel embellishments of the Beaux-Arts and Art Deco periods. In postmodern structures this was often achieved by placing contradictory quotes of previous building styles alongside each other, and even incorporating furniture stylistic references at
28140-485: The headquarters was shown on the front page of the next day's Times . Mayor Ed Koch described the project as "a strong vote of confidence" in the city's future, and the news media characterized it as part of a trend of midtown revitalization. AT&T initially expected construction to begin in late 1978 and be complete by 1982 at an estimated cost of $ 60 million. The design, particularly the broken pediment, received widespread media attention, prompting AT&T to reexamine
28350-574: The ideas of the postmodern movement to Japan. Before opening his studio in Osaka in 1969, Ando traveled widely in North America, Africa and Europe, absorbing European and American styles, and had no formal architectural education, though he taught later at Yale University (1987), Columbia University (1988) and Harvard University (1990). Most of his buildings were constructed of raw concrete in cubic forms, but had wide openings which brought in light and views of
28560-419: The largest of which is 82 feet (25 m) high. In 1995, he constructed a postmodern gatehouse pavilion for his residence, Glass House . The gatehouse, called "Da Monstra", is 23 feet high, made of gunite , or concrete shot from a hose, colored gray and red. It is a piece of sculptural architecture with no right angles and very few straight lines, a predecessor of the sculptural contemporary architecture of
28770-441: The last quarter of the 20th century as some architects started to turn away from modern functionalism which they viewed as boring, and which some of the public considered unwelcoming and even unpleasant. These architects turned toward the past, quoting past aspects of various buildings and melding them together (even sometimes in an inharmonious manner) to create a new means of designing buildings. A vivid example of this new approach
28980-480: The lobby with wooden paneling and black glass. The frescoes, titled "Northern Sky" and "Southern Sky", measure 30 by 30 feet (9.1 by 9.1 m) and consist of red and yellow patterns with spheres. When the building was renovated in the 2020s, the Rockwell Group converted the sky lobby into an amenity space. The amenity spaces include a central lounge flanked by Rockburne's paintings, as well as four conference rooms,
29190-441: The main lobby, elevators led to a sky lobby on the seventh floor, 77 feet (23 m) above ground level. The building's security checkpoints were originally in the sky lobby, which was clad with veined Breccia Strazzema marble but otherwise sparsely decorated. Between 1992 and 1994, after multimedia conglomerate Sony acquired the building, Dorothea Rockburne was hired to paint two abstract frescoes, and Gwathmey Siegel redesigned
29400-484: The mid-1970s, most of them in New Jersey. AT&T began looking for a Midtown site in the early 1970s, hiring James D. Landauer Associates to assist with site selection. It wished to build a site near Grand Central Terminal but eschewed Park Avenue as being too prominent. The western blockfront of Madison Avenue between 56th and 57th Streets was being acquired by IBM, which refused to give up its lot to AT&T. On
29610-476: The mid-20th century. This stretch of Madison Avenue in Midtown was a prominent retail corridor during the 20th century, but new office buildings were developed on the avenue in the two decades after World War II ended. The site at 550 Madison Avenue was described by New York magazine as "unusually human" compared to Midtown's other office developments due to the neighborhood's relatively low height. 550 Madison Avenue
29820-405: The middle of the city block between 55th and 56th Streets, was also included in the design; a plaza was built in its place in the 2020s. The presence of the atrium enabled the building to rise higher without the use of setbacks because of a provision in the city's zoning codes. The ground-level lobby is surrounded by retail spaces, originally a public arcade. The office stories are accessed from
30030-466: The modernist doctrines of simplicity as expressed by Mies in his famous "less is more;" and functionality, "form follows function" and the doctrine of Le Corbusier that "a house is a machine to live in," postmodernism, in the words Robert Venturi, offered complexity and contradiction . Postmodern buildings had curved forms, decorative elements, asymmetry, bright colours, and features often borrowed from earlier periods. Colours and textures were unrelated to
30240-586: The modernist movement. He worked with Mies on another iconic modernist project, the Seagrams Building in New York City. However, in the 1950s, he began to include certain playful and mannerist forms into his buildings, such as the Synagogue of Port Chester (1954–1956), with a vaulted plaster ceiling and narrow colored windows, and the Art Gallery of the University of Nebraska (1963). However, his major buildings in
30450-548: The most prestigious award in architecture, in 1995. Isozaki Arata worked two years in the studio of Kenzo Tange (1913–2005), before opening his own firm in Tokyo in 1963. His Museum of Contemporary Art in Nagi artfully combined wood, stone and metal, and joined three geometric forms, a cylinder, a half-cylinder and an extended block, to present three different artists in different settings. His Art Tower in Mito , Japan (1986–1990) featured
30660-407: The most recognizable of all works of postwar architecture, and spans the transition from modernism to postmodernism. Construction began in 1957, but it was not completed until 1973 due to difficult engineering problems and growing costs. The giant shells of concrete soar over the platforms which form the roof of the hall itself. The architect resigned before the structure was completed, and the interior
30870-466: The move, AT&T agreed to construct a three-story exhibition space within the annex. In exchange, AT&T was granted a $ 42 million, ten-year tax abatement that August. The museum, which was named Infoquest Center, opened in May 1986. That September, AT&T said it would move up to 1,000 of its 1,300 employees to Basking Ridge, and seek to rent out at least 600,000 square feet of 550 Madison Avenue. The company
31080-769: The movement in his book, Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture . Venturi summarized the kind of architecture he wanted to see replace modernism: I speak of a complex and contradictory architecture based on the richness and ambiguity of modern experience, including that experience which is inherent in art. ... I welcome the problems and exploit the uncertainties. ... I like elements which are hybrid rather than "pure", compromising rather than "clean" ... accommodating rather than excluding. ... I am for messy vitality over obvious unity. ... I prefer "both-and" to "either-or", black and white, and sometimes gray, to black or white. ... An architecture of complexity and contradiction must embody
31290-564: The narrow tower. During the design process, Johnson/Burgee had considered various ornamental designs before deciding on the circular notch. One of the previous buildings on the site, the Delman Building at 558 Madison Avenue, had a similar broken pediment, although Johnson denied claims it influenced 550 Madison Avenue's rooftop. Instead, Johnson claimed to have been inspired by Al-Khazneh in the Jordanian city of Petra . 550 Madison Avenue has
31500-509: The nature outside. Beginning in the 1990s, he began using wood as a building material, and introduced elements of traditional Japanese architecture, particularly in his design of the Museum of Wood Culture (1995). His Bennesse House in Naoshima, Kagama, has elements of classic Japanese architecture and a plan which subtly integrates the house into the natural landscape, He won the Pritzker Prize ,
31710-467: The neighboring Berkeley Hills. Philip Johnson (1906–2005) began his career as a pure modernist. In 1935, he co-authored the famous catalog of the Museum of Modern Art exposition on the International Style, and studied with Walter Gropius and Marcel Breuer at Harvard. His Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut (1949), inspired by a similar house by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe became an icon of
31920-670: The new trends in American architecture. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2010. Another major project of the period was the Atrium of the David H. Koch Theater (formerly the New York State Theatre, the home of the New York City Ballet , at Lincoln Center in New York. In 1967, Johnson entered a new phase of his career, founding a partnership with architect John Burgee . He began to design office building complexes for large corporations. The most prominent of these
32130-415: The newspaper of the radical-populist and anti-Semitic Father Charles Coughlin . Johnson traveled to Germany and Poland as a correspondent, where he wrote admiringly about the Nazis. In Social Justice , Johnson expressed, as The New York Times later reported, "more than passing admiration for Hitler". In the summer of 1932 Johnson attended one of the Nuremberg Rallies in Germany and saw Hitler for
32340-492: The next 10 years, they worked closely together and explored new directions in architecture, designing buildings as sculptural objects. The Gate of Europe in Madrid (1989-1996) was originally a collaboration with Burgee and one of his rare works in Europe. It features two office buildings leaning toward each other, the first example of this style, which spread to America. The towers are 26 stories each, and both lean by 15 degrees from vertical. 191 Peachtree Tower in Atlanta
32550-401: The northeast, 590 Madison Avenue to the north, and Trump Tower and the Tiffany & Co. flagship store to the northwest. The site was occupied by a stream before being developed in the 1800s. The AT&T Building directly replaced fifteen smaller structures, including several four- and five-story residences dating from the late 19th century, which were converted into commercial stores in
32760-459: The office stories. Barry Wine , founder of the Quilted Giraffe, was hired as the chef for the building's private dining club. The new atrium and retail spaces, known as Sony Plaza, were completed in 1994, and the Sony Wonder museum opened in the annex that May. The company name was prominently displayed in Sony Plaza: its logo was emblazoned on the jackets of the atrium's security guards, and banners with Sony's name were displayed. In its first year,
32970-474: The original associate architect Harry Simmons Jr. said that a "valued and useful space" would be razed, while Joseph B. Rose of the local Manhattan Community Board 5 said it would create "a dangerous precedent" for converting public plazas to commercial space. Conversely, David W. Dunlap of The New York Times said the changes were "unquestionably an improvement" both aesthetically and functionally. The New York City Planning Commission had to review and approve
33180-410: The original design were given a more rectangular shape, and the window arrangement was dictated by the interior use. The building also includes more than 1,000 pieces of brass manufactured by the Chicago Extruded Metals Company. The main entrance is on Madison Avenue and consists of an archway measuring 116 feet (35 m) high by 50 feet (15 m) wide, with a recess 20 feet (6.1 m) deep. Within
33390-560: The original marble flooring. The lowest portions of the lobby wall are decorated with the mesh, while the rest of the walls are covered in white marble. Solid Sky , a 20,000-pound (9,100-kilogram) spherical blue sculpture by Alicja Kwade , hangs in the lobby. Spirit of Communication (also Golden Boy ), a 20,000-pound (9,100-kilogram) bronze statue, was moved to 550 Madison Avenue's main lobby in 1983. Created by Evelyn Beatrice Longman in 1916, it had stood atop AT&T's previous headquarters at 195 Broadway until 1981. The statue depicts
33600-422: The pink color was chosen to contrast with 590 Madison Avenue, the gray-green granite structure built simultaneously by IBM to the north. The granite facade helped to reduce energy consumption compared to the glass curtain walls used on many of the city's contemporary skyscrapers. In 2020, during the building's renovation, it received an "A" grade on a citywide energy-efficiency ranking system. About one-third of
33810-476: The plan in detail before deciding to proceed without modifications. In late 1978, the project received several floors' worth of zoning "bonuses" and exemption from setback regulations, in exchange for public space, a three-story communications museum, and a covered arcade on Madison Avenue. The next month, Johnson decided to use Stony Creek pink granite on the AT&T Building's facade. Construction started in December 1978 when workers started excavating foundations;
34020-489: The problems of Modernism, communicating meanings with ambiguity, and sensitivity for the building's context, are surprisingly unified for a period of buildings designed by architects who largely never collaborated with each other. These aims do, however, leave room for diverse implementations as can be illustrated by the variety of buildings created during the movement. The characteristics of postmodernism allow its aim to be expressed in diverse ways. These characteristics include
34230-435: The proposal. While the plans resulted in a net loss in public space, they also increased the overall zoning bonus. The commission approved slightly modified plans in September 1992, which retained small portions of the arcade. Sony bought out the Quilted Giraffe's lease, and the restaurant closed at the end of 1992. The Sony Tower was renovated between 1992 and 1994. Windows with bronze gridded frames were installed to close off
34440-686: The rare wood. The decorative materials used in the building included Burmese teak document cabinets, Turkish onyx elevator panels, Chinese silk in the employee dining room, and Italian leather in the executive dining room. Italian marble was used for the executive staircases. After Sony moved into the building in 1992, Gwathmey Siegel renovated the interior with additional staircases, as well as doors topped with glass panels. The offices were refitted with sound systems and Sony videocassette recorder systems. The spaces were generally more flexible than under AT&T's occupancy, as they were meant to accommodate record and movie production. A conference center for Sony
34650-404: The rise of the Nazis in Germany forced the modernists Marcel Breuer and Mies van der Rohe to leave Germany, Johnson helped arrange for them to come to work in the United States. He created a small organization called the Gray Shirts, styled after the Nazi Brownshirts. The amount of power he yearned for was inversely proportional to the amount he actually attained. In politics, he proved to be
34860-473: The roof of the rebuilt annex to the west. The atrium also includes a waterfall, seating areas, and circular floor pavers that demarcate various parts of the space. The design details include poetry inscribed on the pavers, as well as a "steam pit" that is heated during the winter. The parking garage and truck elevators were in the annex, with a ramp to the garage from 56th Street and the elevators from 55th Street. The annex had its own lobby near 56th Street. There
35070-428: The same month, AT&T received a $ 20 million tax abatement on the construction cost. The foundation excavation cost $ 3.1 million and largely consisted of blasting into the underlying bedrock. The detonations used about 50,000 pounds (23,000 kg) of Tovex gel. The underlying rock layer was made of mica schist , the composition of which was unpredictable if detonated, so about 8,000 small blasts were used to excavate
35280-409: The side of the building that to some extent appear to be real, yet they are not. The Hood Museum of Art (1981–1983) has a typical asymmetrical façade which was at the time prevalent throughout postmodern buildings. Robert Venturi's Vanna Venturi House (1962–1964) illustrates the postmodernist aim of communicating a meaning and the characteristic of symbolism. The façade is, according to Venturi,
35490-465: The sidewalks on these streets. There are multicolored granite pavement tiles within these passages. The 55th and 56th Street elevations of the facade contain flat arches measuring 16 feet (4.9 m) tall, supported by granite-clad piers at regular intervals. Just above each flat arch is a circular opening with canted profiles, atop which are four vertically aligned rectangular openings. The circular openings were carved in false perspective , making
35700-464: The state of Michigan. The Chapel of St. Basil at the University of St. Thomas in Houston, Texas (1992) is a notable late work. The design includes a domed chapel, a campanile, and a meditation garden, a labyrinth. Its structure is a combination of the basic forms: a cube, a sphere, and a plane. The cube contains the worship area, beneath a semi-sphere, which is presented as the symbolic opening to heaven. The vertical rectangular granite plane divides
35910-425: The steel crane. At the same time, the IBM Building was under construction on 56th Street, limiting access there. Shortly after work started, Local 282—the union whose workers were constructing the building—threatened to strike because of claims that black workers were "invading" job sites. This prompted IBM to hire two additional foremen. In December 1980, Paul Goldberger wrote for The New York Times that "the arch
36120-404: The steel frame as with typical skyscrapers. Leslie Robertson determined that each granite panel had to be anchored individually to the steel frame, and the mounting apparatus had to be strong enough to support the weight of two panels. At the roof is a broken pediment , consisting of a gable that faces west toward Fifth Avenue and east of the Madison Avenue. The center of the pediment features
36330-511: The structure or function of the building. Rejecting the "puritanism" of modernism, it called for a return to ornament, and an accumulation of citations and collages borrowed from past styles. It borrowed freely from classical architecture, rococo , neoclassical architecture , the Vienna Secession , the British Arts and Crafts movement , the German Jugendstil . Postmodern buildings often combined astonishing new forms and features with seemingly contradictory elements of classicism. James Stirling
36540-409: The substitution of cheaper material in some places. The acoustic ceilings were manufactured by the Industrial Acoustics Company , which fabricated 325,000 square feet (30,200 m) of perforated steel panels clad with vinyl. In addition, AT&T bought $ 5.5 million worth of honey-colored Burmese teak furnishings such as paneling, trim, and doors from L. Vaughn Company, which hired 75 workers to supply
36750-491: The taxes forgiven since 1987. The refunded tax abatements were used to fund programs at the financially distressed City University of New York for the 1991–1992 academic year. AT&T moved its headquarters to 32 Avenue of the Americas , its long-distance telephone building in Lower Manhattan, and removed the Spirit of Communication statue. With the sale of the building, Burgee commented, "The period of making image buildings for companies appears to be over." After Sony leased
36960-414: The time, AT&T wanted to move most employees to a cheaper space. AT&T had signed a tentative 20-year lease with Sony by that May, although neither company confirmed the rumor at the time. Sony signed a 20-year lease agreement for the entire building that July, including an option to purchase 550 Madison Avenue. AT&T also forfeited $ 14.5 million of tax abatements to the city government, equivalent to
37170-588: The top three stories, which contained bays with glazed curtain walls. The north and south facades are divided into six bays each, separated by granite piers. There are joints , or gaps, where the panels meet. The panels are further divided by shallower false joints, which resemble the real joints. The granite panels are typically 2 or 5 inches (51 or 127 mm) thick, while the mullions are 6 or 10 inches (150 or 250 mm) square. The granite panels are extremely heavy, with many panels weighing over 1 short ton (0.89 long tons; 0.91 t), so they could not be hung onto
37380-515: The typical steel. It is topped by a concrete cupola, a vestige of the building's original owner and builder, Capital Holding. In 1986, Johnson and Burgee moved their offices into one of their new buildings, the elliptical Lipstick Building at 885 Third Avenue in New York, nicknamed because of its resemblance to the color and shape of a stick of lipstick. A feud was beginning between the two architects, with Burgee demanding greater recognition. As their business flourished and number of clients grew,
37590-508: The use of sculptural forms , ornaments, anthropomorphism and materials which perform trompe-l'œil . These physical characteristics are combined with conceptual characteristics of meaning. These characteristics of meaning include pluralism, double coding , flying buttresses and high ceilings, irony and paradox , and contextualism . The sculptural forms, not necessarily organic , were created with much ardor. These can be seen in Hans Hollein 's Abteiberg Museum (1972–1982). The building
37800-443: The visitor to become depressed. Scarpa's cemetery achieves the solemn mood with the dull gray colors of the walls and neatly defined forms, but the bright green grass prevents this from being too overwhelming. Postmodern buildings sometimes utilize trompe-l'œil , creating the illusion of space or depths where none actually exist, as has been done by painters since the Romans . The Portland Building (1980) has pillars represented on
38010-420: Was Pennzoil Place (1970–76) in Houston, Texas. The two towers of Pennzoil Place have sloping roofs covering the top seven floors and are trapezoidal in form, planned to create two large triangual areas on the site, which are occupied with glass-covered lobbies designed like greenhouses. This idea was widely copied in skyscrapers in other cities. The new building of the Boston Public Library (1972), known as
38220-627: Was Venturi's wife, and Venturi wrote Learning from Las Vegas (1972), co-authored with Steven Izenour , in which they further developed their joint argument against modernism. They urged architects to take into consideration and to celebrate the existing architecture in a place, rather than to try to impose a visionary utopia from their own fantasies. This was in line with Scott Brown's belief that buildings should be built for people, and that architecture should listen to them. Scott Brown and Venturi argued that ornamental and decorative elements "accommodate existing needs for variety and communication". The book
38430-445: Was a logical way to achieve larger spans with shorter structural members, but it was nevertheless relatively rare in Modernist buildings. However, postmodernism's own modernist roots appear in some of the noteworthy examples of "reclaimed" roofs. For instance, Robert Venturi's Vanna Venturi House breaks the gable in the middle, denying the functionality of the form, and Philip Johnson's 1001 Fifth Avenue building in Manhattan advertises
38640-405: Was a project begun with Burgee. It is composed of two 50-story towers joined and crowned with two classical pavilions. The Comerica Tower (1991-1993) was also begun with Burgee. Like their earlier Postmodern works, it featured elements borrowed from historical architecture, particularly the triangular gables, borrowed from Renaissance Flemish architecture . It is the second tallest building in
38850-429: Was also a three- and four-story annex at the western end of the site. At the time of 550 Madison Avenue's construction, there was a lease on the adjacent Corning Glass Building that limited the height of any structures near that building to 60 feet (18 m) in height. This restriction included the westernmost lots of the AT&T site, so the roof of the annex was exactly 60 feet tall. Following an early-2020s renovation,
39060-497: Was also installed on the twenty-eighth floor. The AT&T executive offices on the thirty-fifth floor were retained, and an executives' dining club called the Sony Club was opened within the space. AT&T was established in 1885 and had been headquartered at 195 Broadway in Lower Manhattan since 1916. In the subsequent decades, AT&T became the world's largest telephone company, and maintenance costs on its headquarters increased. With its continued growth, AT&T acquired land for
39270-498: Was also retail space within the original annex, facing the western wall of the atrium. Infoquest, an AT&T technology exhibit, was initially housed in the annex; it opened in 1986 and operated until about 1993. The annex became the Sony Wonder Technology Lab museum in 1994; it was open on Tuesdays through Saturdays, and Sony described the free exhibits as a "technology and entertainment museum for all ages". The fifth through thirty-third stories have offices. 550 Madison Avenue's height
39480-415: Was awarded an American Institute of Architects Gold Medal . In 1979, he was the first recipient of the Pritzker Architecture Prize . Today his skyscrapers are prominent features in the skylines of New York, Houston, Chicago, Detroit, Minneapolis, Pittsburgh, Atlanta, Madrid, and other cities. Johnson was born in Cleveland , Ohio, on July 8, 1906, the son of a lawyer, Homer Hosea Johnson (1862–1960), and
39690-410: Was broken into individual structures, with a different structure for every room. His Norton Residence in Venice, California (1983) built for a writer and former lifeguard, had a workroom modeled after a lifeguard tower overlooking the Santa Monica beach. In his early buildings, different parts of the buildings were often different bright colors. In the 1980s he began to receive major commissions, including
39900-540: Was conducting a "feasibility study" for the headquarters. AT&T mandated that Johnson/Burgee select an associate architect as per the provisions of the Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 1972 . Harry Simmons Jr., head of a small African American firm, was selected out of seven interviewees from a field of 28 candidates. Simmons's firm was tasked with designing twenty percent of the overall architectural detail. According to design manager Alan Ritchie, DeButts explained "what he wanted in broad terms" but gave wide latitude to
40110-403: Was designed by Philip Johnson and John Burgee of Johnson/Burgee Architects . Johnson had been an influential figure in modernist architecture during the late 20th century, having helped design the Seagram Building nearby in the 1950s, but he reverted to more classical motifs for 550 Madison Avenue's design. The building was among Johnson and Burgee's most influential works and, according to
40320-420: Was designed largely after he left the project. The influence of the Sydney Opera House, can be seen in later concert halls with soaring roofs made of undulating stainless steel. One of the most influential buildings of the postmodern period was the Berlin Philharmonic , designed by Hans Scharoun (1893–1972) and completed in 1963. The exterior, with its sloping roofs and glided façade, was a distinct break from
40530-473: Was eventually submitted as his graduate thesis; he sold the house after the war, and it was purchased by Harvard in 2010 and restored by 2016. In 1942, while still a student of the architecture school, Johnson tried to enlist with Naval Intelligence , and then for a federal job, but was rejected both times. In 1943, after his graduation from Harvard, he was drafted to the Army and was sent to Fort Ritchie, Maryland , to interrogate German prisoners of war . He
40740-533: Was hired to dismantle the existing structures. The company removed non-load-bearing walls, salvaged recyclable materials, demolished the structures' upper stories by hand, and finally used machinery to destroy the lower stories. The two buildings nearest the Corning Glass Building were temporarily preserved to allow that building's fire code rating to be retained. Around 1977, a committee of three AT&T officials and three officials from Smith's offices mailed questionnaires to twenty-five architects or design firms which
40950-404: Was honored with the Connecticut Architecture Foundation's Distinguished Leadership Award. Buildings designed by Pelli during this period are marked by further experimentation with a variety of materials (most prominently stainless steel ) and his evolution of the skyscraper. One Canada Square at Canary Wharf in London (opened in 1991); Plaza Tower in Costa Mesa, California (completed 1991); and
41160-433: Was inspired by Mies, but its pure symmetry, dark colors and closeness to the earth marked it as a personal statement; calm and ordered rather than sleek and brittle." Philip wrote that the burnt wooden homes he had seen in Poland "where nothing was left but the foundations and chimneys of brick," were a further source of inspiration. Johnson continued to add to the Glass House estate during each period of his career. He added
41370-460: Was inspired by the designs of British architect Edwin Lutyens . The lobby's ceiling was a groin vault . One wall of the main lobby contained an arcade with Byzantine-inspired column capitals, behind which was an elevator lobby with bronze elevator doors. After a 2020s renovation, the lobby was redesigned with large windows at its western end, as well as decorative materials like terrazzo, leather, and bronze mesh. The terrazzo floors incorporate some of
41580-417: Was instrumental in opening readers' eyes to new ways of thinking about buildings, as it drew from the entire history of architecture—both high-style and vernacular, both historic and modern—and In response to Mies van der Rohe 's famous maxim "Less is more", Venturi responded, to "Less is a bore." Venturi cited the example of one of his wife's and his own buildings, Guild House , in Philadelphia, as examples of
41790-413: Was investigated by the FBI , and was eventually cleared for military service. He evaded indictment and jail by cooperating with the prosecution, though, according to some critics, it may have been because of his social connections, but no evidence of this was ever produced. Years later he would refer to these activities as "the stupidest thing I ever did [which] I never can atone for". In 1978, he
42000-495: Was investigated by the FBI for his involvement with the German government, Coughlin and Lawrence Dennis , an American fascist economist, and was cleared for continued military service. After the trial of Dennis and his collaborators , Johnson was relieved of his interrogation duties and transferred to Fort Belvoir, Virginia , where he spent the rest of his military service doing routine duties. In 1946, after he completed his schooling and his military service, Johnson returned to
42210-412: Was known for his postmodern works in Europe, the Bonnefanten Museum in Maastricht , the Netherlands , completed in 1995. Rossi was the first Italian to win the most prestigious award in architecture, the Pritzker Prize , in 1990. He was noted for combining rigorous and pure forms with evocative and symbolic elements taken from classical architecture. The Spanish architect Ricardo Bofill (born 1939)
42420-433: Was modern but harmonized with the neoclassical architecture in and around Trafalgar Square . The German-born architect Helmut Jahn (1940–2021) constructed the Messeturm skyscraper in Frankfurt, Germany, a skyscraper adorned with the pointed spire of a medieval tower. One of the early postmodernist architects in Europe was James Stirling (1926–1992). He was a first critic of modernist architecture, blaming modernism for
42630-461: Was no close second" candidate; Smith subsequently recalled that Johnson/Burgee were open to different design ideas. On June 17, 1977, the day after the presentations, The New York Times reported that AT&T had hired Johnson/Burgee to design a 37-story headquarters on the site. Johnson was quoted as saying that he wanted the new headquarters to be a "landmark" representing the company. The Wall Street Journal reported shortly afterward that Johnson
42840-447: Was one of last designs with Alan Ritchie, and was not completed after Johnson's death. It is a condominium building in lower Manhattan whose form was inspired by Johnson's most famous early work, the Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut. The final building he designed with Richie was the Pennsylvania Academy of Music building in Lancaster, Pennsylvania , which was completed in 2008, three years after his death. In 1978, Johnson
43050-404: Was part of a move to consolidate Sony's United States operations away from the Sony Corporation of America , which had overseen Sony Pictures and Sony Music, and give more control over the United States operations to executives in Japan. The Wall Street Journal described the equipment upgrades as indicative of "a long-term commitment to the area". In 2002, Sony exercised its option to purchase
43260-417: Was reconsidering leasing out its Madison Avenue headquarters by early 1987. After Koch threatened to rescind the entire tax abatement, AT&T agreed to move only 778 employees. The fine-dining restaurant The Quilted Giraffe moved into the building in June 1987. Having substantially decreased in size, AT&T sought to rent 80 percent of the space at 550 Madison Avenue to other companies in January 1991. At
43470-459: Was selected to be the dean of the Yale School of Architecture in New Haven, Connecticut , and served in that post until 1984. Shortly after Pelli arrived at Yale, he won the commission to design the expansion and renovation of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, which resulted in the establishment of his own firm, Cesar Pelli & Associates. The museum's expansion/renovation and the Museum of Modern Art Residential Tower were completed 1984;
43680-417: Was that postmodernism saw the comeback of columns and other elements of premodern designs, sometimes adapting classical Greek and Roman examples. In Modernism , the traditional column (as a design feature) was treated as a cylindrical pipe form, replaced by other technological means such as cantilevers , or masked completely by curtain wall façades. The revival of the column was an aesthetic , rather than
43890-417: Was the construction manager, while William Crow Construction and HRH Construction were the general contractors . 550 Madison Avenue's developer, telecommunications firm AT&T Corp. , had requested that the building use material obtained exclusively from the United States. The primary portion of the building is the 37-story office tower along Madison Avenue, on the eastern section of the land lot. The tower
44100-436: Was to make the building stand out as a corporate symbol among the modernist skyscrapers around it in Manhattan, and he succeeded; it became the best-known of all postmodern buildings. Soon afterward he completed another postmodern project, PPG Place in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (1979–1984), a complex of six glass buildings for the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company. These buildings have neo-gothic features, including 231 glass spires,
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