![]() The “Miesian glass box,” also referred to critically as the “anonymous glass box” due to its lack of distinctive styling, appeared throughout small and large cities throughout America and Europe between the late 1950s and 1970s. Commercial architecture became an increasingly important form of public relations: the building provided an image for a corporation desiring to promote itself. Pragmatic utilitarianism became the driving force throughout America, and even more so in Europe. The leading architect and proponent of the style after the War was Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, who believed in structural honesty and designed some of the earliest glass and curtain-wall office towers of the 1950s. The ideas of the earlier International style that emerged in the 1920s and 30s were still potent, and thus the style flourished during the first major building boom, 1948-49. After WWII, American interests were characterized by a confident, enthusiastic desire to “get on with the business of progress”. This (anti-) style epitomized the height of the modern movement in the United States and Europe.īy the late 1920s, American architects and clients were increasingly persuaded that European modernism was both visually progressive and structurally sound. Except for houses, international-style forms completely dominated American architecture from the 1950s through the late 1970s. It was rarely used for houses and was more common for commercial and institutional buildings through the 1970s. ![]() Typical applications were the same, however. Hence the term, “anonymous glass box”.īACKGROUND AND INSPIRATION: Even more radical than art deco or art moderne, the international “style” was promoted as a solution for those who scorned art deco. High-rise buildings are boxy and completely devoid of ornamentation or other stylistic features other than the sleek appearance of steel, glass, and plastic. Often with thin, metal mullions and smooth spandrel panels separating large, single-pane windows between floors. IDENTIFYING FEATURES: Modern structural principles and materials: concrete, glass, and steel are the most common occasionally reveals skeleton-frame construction, exposing its structure rejected non-essential decoration ribbon windows and corner windows are a hallmark of the style bands of glass are as important as bands of “curtain wall” balance and regularity admired and fostered flat roof, without ledge. PERIOD OF POPULARITY: 1940s – 1970s (mostly 1950s – 1970s for office towers and other high rises). This is the epitome of international office-tower architecture: a uniform curtain wall “draped” over a steel frame.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |