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Two Different Stories from the Style of Design

Introduction

The beginning of the postmodern architecture as an international style is cited that it started in the year 1950s, but the architecture did not become a style on its own until the year 1970s. The style is still influencing the modern architectural style[footnoteRef:1]. The formalized together with the functional shapes and space are now being replaced with a diverse aesthetics. As we had many cultural fashions, the most pronounced and the visible ideas of the postmodernism can clearly be seen in architecture. People have also been describing postmodern architecture as the neo-eclectic where we have the reference and ornament that had come to replace the modern architecture that is unornamented. The eclecticism always has a combination of the non-orthogonal angles together with other surfaces that are unusual. In this discussion, we are going to compare two buildings the The AT&T Building, now known as the Sony Tower and the Seagram building. [1: Jun, Ren. "The history of future architecture." The Architect 4 (2008): 004. ]

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe 

He was born in the year 1886 and died in the year 1969. He was an architect of the German –American origin. He was mainly referred to as mies because it was his surname. Many architects tend to refer to him as the pioneer of the modern architecture[footnoteRef:2]. Mies just like his post-world War I contemporaries, he decided to venture into a new architectural style that was going to change or rather revolutionize the modern times architecture the same way the Gothic and the classical were able to do in their era. He managed to create the twentieth architectural style that was going to represent the modern styles in architecture having extreme simplicity and clarity. [2: hadidZaha architects. ZahaHadid., 2014. ]

Mies was constructing mature buildings that were made of modern materials including the plate glass that was defining the interior spaces and the industrial steel. He was trying to strive towards what was an architecture that had a minimum framework of the structurally ordered balance that happens to go against the free-flowing open space. He was also referring to his building as the “stones and bones” mode of architectural design. He was one person that would seek the rational approach that was guiding the creative process involving architecture. Mies was always concerned about the expression of the spirit regarding the modern era. Mies has an association with the quotation of the aphorisms that says “less is more” he was also fond of using the phrase “God is in the details.”

The Seagram building

The Seagram building is one of the skyscrapers, and it is located at 375 Park Avenue that is between the 52 and the 53 Street in the Midtown of Manhattan in the city of New York. The building was design by a German in the name Ludwig Mies Van der Rohe while other internal aspects and the lobby were the design of Philip Johnson including both the brasserie and the four season’s restaurants. The engineering consultants were the Severud Associates.

The Seagram building is as tall as 515 feet representing 157m tall and having 38 stories. The building was completed in the year 1958. It is standing as one of the functionalist aesthetic and a masterpiece of the corporate modernism. It is designed as the headquarters for the Canadian distillers[footnoteRef:3]. [3: Desley,Luscombe. "Architectural concepts in Peter Eisenman's axonometric drawings of House VI." The Journal of Architecture 19, no. 4 (2014): 560-611. ]

The architecture of Seagram

The international style that the structure was built had an enormous influence when it came to the American architecture. The structure had one of the characteristic traits that were aiming at expressing or rather articulating the structure of building externally. The structure was clearly arguing that functional utility of a particular building structural element when are made visible they have the ability to supplant what is a formal decorative articulation, and it will be able to more honestly converse with the general public better than a system that has applied ornamentals. It was showing the importance of allowing the structural elements of a building to be visible. The Seagram building, just like any other building that was constructed at that time was made of the steel frame. The non-structural glass walls were hanging from that steel frame. During the construction, the architecture was preferring that the steel frame be visible something that the USA building codes require that all the structures that have steel should be covered with a fireproofmaterial, and they normally use concrete. The improperly protected steel tends to fail when we have a confined fire[footnoteRef:4]. The architecture was trying to argue that the concrete was hiding the structure of the building, and Mies was trying to avoid this at all cost. He went ahead to use the non-structural bronze-toned I-beam so that he could suggest the structure. The use of these materials made them visible from outside, and they were running vertically just like the Mullions that happen to be surrounding the large glass windows. It is now common practice in construction for people to use the interior reinforced concrete so that they can support a larger non-structural edifice. As we look at the design of the Seagram, it took approximately 1500 tons in the construction of the skyscraper[footnoteRef:5]. [4: Mark,Wigley. White walls, designer dresses: the fashioning of modern architecture. MIT Press, 2001. ] [5: Ibid]

After the construction of the skyscraper, it was discovered that it was the most expensive skyscraper at the time because of the use of the high-quality material that were expensive. The lavish interior decorations that were including the travertine, bronze, and marble made it even more expensive. The only faced that he did not like the disordered irregularity regarding the windows when they are drawn. He had no control over it as people use windows at different times, and they tend to draw the blinds at different heights and these tend to make the windows appear disorganized.

The 38-story structure combined a steel moment frame and steel and reinforced concrete that was used for the stiffness of the laterals. The core shear that was made of steel had an extension up to the 17thfloor, and a diagonal core bracing was extending to the 29th floor. It was the first sky crapper to use the high strength bolted connections. It was also the first tall building to have a combination of moment frame and the braced frame. It was again the first tallest building to have a concrete lateral made from composite steel. All these observations were made by the Severud Associate, who was the structural engineers[footnoteRef:6]. [6: BernardTschumi, and Irene Cheng, eds. The State of Architecture at the Beginning of the 21st Century. Monacelli Press, 2003. ]

Philip Johnson

Philip Cortelyou Johnson was born in the year 1906 and died in the year 2005. Philip was one of the influential architects in America. He was known for the postmodern work since the years of the 1980s he was the founder of the architecture and design department in the Museum of Modern Art in the city of New York. In the year 1978 he managed to scoop the award of the American Institute of Architects and the following year he won the Pritzker Architecture Prize. In the year 1961, he won the election into the NationalAcademy of designs.

The Sony Plaza

It was formerly known as the AT&T building, and it is 647 feet that are 197m tall. The building has 37-story, and it is also called a sky scrapper. The building is located at the 550 of the Madison Avenue and is between the 55th and the 56th street in the city of New York the City borough of Manhattan. Currently, the building is the headquarter of the Sony Company. The design of the building was done by Philip Johnson together with his partner John Burgee, and it was complete in the year 1984. It was able to stir a lot of controversy regarding its ornamental top, and people would sometimes refer to it as the Chippendale. It had one of the spectacular arched entranceways that was big and measuring approximately seven stories regarding the height. Having these many ornamental additions on it, it was presenting a major challenge to many of the modern architects. The effect that the building was having to the eyes of the public has ended up to be described as a way of legitimizing what people were calling the postmodern architecture.

The AT&T building

In the year 1978, the building got permission to be able to add approximately 81,928 square feet that are exactly (7,611.4m^2). It is equivalent to some four-floor space on what was the proposed building. It was a deal to enable the AT&T to provide be able to provide public open space and some other three story communication museum. The firm was then awarded extra 43,00 square feet that are exactly 4,000m^2 that was about worth two floors as a bonus for agreeing to create 14,00-square-foot along the Madison Avenue that was going to include both the sitting and the retail kiosks. In the year 1984, the firm changed its mind that it won’t be able to build the museum as it was earlier agreed.

The AT&T was granted a tax break of about $42 million but is was under the condition that the Company was going to keep the headquarters at 550 Madison Avenue, and it will not be renting out that space for the other tenants. Because the Company had decreased in size in a substantial way, the firm had to sign a 20-year lease agreement on Madison with the Sony Company, and they had to relocate their headquarters to 32 6th Avenue that was between the Lispenard and WalkerStreet. After a while, the Sony Company was granted that option of purchasing the building.

The Sony Building

The Sony building has the modernist body that has a classical foot and sports a variously and large defined ornamental as the head. It has a referential of the anthropomorphism and also a bond with the with the grand New York architecture of the skyscrapers[footnoteRef:7]. It is also exemplified by the Chrysler Building and Empire State that had flourished in the past before the taking over of the nihilism of the Miesian box. The base of the building is having its model in the New York municipal building that is created by the classicizing firm of the Mckim, Mead, and White in the year 1908. The architectural decoration on the base of the building is indicating a dense evocation of sacred buildings[footnoteRef:8]. [7: James,Steele. Architecture and computers: action and reaction in the digital design revolution. Watson- Guptill Publications, Inc., 2001. ] [8: Daniel,Libeskind. Daniel Libeskind: the space of encounter. Universe, 2000. ]

Many people are referring to the building as the unique fusion of aesthetic rebellion and the corporate commerce. It was referring that the building had less architectural than it was a logo and it was also having a less art of work with more hood ornaments. The method that Philip Johnson was trying to bring out was the one involving a pure form of modernist architecture.

Similarities

There were marked similarities concerning these two building and the architects behinds the building. Both Mies and Philip were trying to use the modernist forms of architecture. In most of their buildings they were using the modern materials in the process of construction of the buildings. Regarding the building, they tend to build buildings that are tall capitalizing on the modern resources. They try to make their building as strong as possible. Both the Sony and the Seagram are skyscrapers a clear indication that these are architects that value modernist architecture.

Conclusion

The modernist architecture has the habit of branding the postmodernism architecture as being vulgar. The modernist believes that the postmodernism architecture was associated with the populist ethics. The postmodern architecture tends to refer to the modern building as bland, soulless, abstract and overly simplistic[footnoteRef:9]. The contrast was clear in the juxtaposition of the grays against the whites. The whites were serious about the continuation process of the modernism tradition of clarity and purism. The grays, on the other hand, were trying to embrace a more multifaceted cultural vision. The divergence that was taking place between the gray and the white was leading to different goals. When we look at modernism, we can see that it is focusing on the minimization and the true usage of the available materials together in the absence of the ornaments. The postmodernism, on the other hand, is side to be the rejections of the strict rules that tend to exist having been set early by the modernists. The postmodernism also seeks expression and meaning when it comes to the forms, building techniques and other different styles[footnoteRef:10]. [9: Hvattum, Mari, and Christian Hermansen. Tracing modernity: manifestations of the modern in architecture and the city. Routledge, 2004. ] [10: Bao-tong, L. I. "Comparison between Rem Koolhaas and Le Corbusier [J]."Shanxi Architecture 2 (2008): 026. ]

New trends are now becoming evident in the 20th century when many of the architects were now turning away from the modern functionalism. The architects were claiming that the modern functionalism is boring, and many people were considering it as unpleasant and unwelcoming.

When we look at the example of works of Rem Koolhaas and Santiago Calatrava, we can clearly see marked differences. Calatrava between the years 1989 to 1991, he was able to build a Montjuic Communication Tower. The Tower is slender and made of steel standing at 136meters tall. The tower has a brick foundation that holds the telecommunication equipment[footnoteRef:11]. When you look at the design arched entrance, it looks like a human eye. The base is also covered with what is a ceramic shard that happens to be trencadis a kind of a mosaic technique. The modernist architecture was mostly using the kind of technique in this building. [11: Lefaivre, Liane, and Alexander Tzonis. Critical regionalism: Architecture and identity in a globalized world. Munich: Prestel, 2003. ]

Bibliography

Libeskind, Daniel. Daniel Libeskind: the space of encounter. The universe, 2000.

Luscombe, Desley. "Architectural concepts in Peter Eisenman's axonometric drawings of House VI." The Journal of Architecture 19, no. 4 (2014): 560-611.

Hvattum, Mari, and Christian Hermansen. Tracing modernity: manifestations of the modern in architecture and the city. Routledge, 2004.