The Pan Am Building and the Shattering of the Modernist Dream [Hardcover]

Meredith L. Clausen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 7, 2004

The Pan Am Building and the reaction to it signaled the end of an era. Begun when the modernist aesthetic and the architectural star system ruled architectural theory and practice, the completed building became a symbol of modernism's fall from grace. In The Pan Am Building and the Shattering of the Modernist Dream, Meredith Clausen tells the story as both history and cautionary tale -- a case study of how not to plan and execute a large-scale urban project that seems especially relevant in light of the World Trade Center and the ongoing discussions over what should be built in its place.The Pan Am Building was despised by many as soon as the plans were announced in 1958. The star power of the celebrity architects -- those deans of modernism, Walter Gropius and Pietro Belluschi -- overrode critics' objections. When construction was completed in 1963, it became more than an architectural question; this "mute, massive, overscaled octagonal slab," as Clausen describes it, built over Grand Central Terminal, blocked the view down Park Avenue, created deep shadows where there had been sunlight, and poured 25,000 office workers on the sidewalks each morning and evening. As Clausen tells it, the story of the building -- which was undistinguished architecturally but important because of its location and its moment in history -- encompasses the end of modernism's social idealism, the decline of Gropius's and Belluschi's reputations, the victory of private interests over public good, the revival of architectural criticism in the press (both Ada Louise Huxtable and Jane Jacobs emerged as prominent and influential critics), the birth of the historic preservation movement, and the changing culture and politics of New York City.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

When completed in Manhattan in 1963, the Pan Am Building towered over the barely preserved Grand Central Station and was the opening salvo in the glass-box corporate architectural revolution along lower Park Avenue. In this engaging study, Clausen, a University of Washington architectural historian, chronicles the development of the building from its 1958 announcement to its completion, centering her narrative on the roles of lead architects Walter Gropius and Pietro Belluschi and the death of the modernist ideal of socially functional architecture (in favor of buildings that maximized the cubic footage of a site). The clean but hulking Pan Am spurred the preservationist movement, along with the writings of critics Jane Jacobs and Ada Louise Huxtable. Clausen devotes a chapter to "Aftermath" and draws on the architectural community for her conclusions; as recently as 1988, architect Robert A. M. Stern called the Pam Am (now the Met Life) "an important lesson of what not to do, a landmark of the mistakes we made."
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Review

"From the birth and life of one of Manhattan's most detested icons, Meredith Clausen spins an engrossing tale that shows how large iconic projects in New York City all too often get built: through a complex dynamic of manipulable zoning statutes, real estate economics, and corporate image-making. This is also the story of how the extraordinary personal hubris of public officials can provoke ineffective, if voluble, interventions by municipal agencies, the popular press, and the public. If you think that the redevelopment of the World Trade Center site is at all unusual, read this book."--Sarah Williams Goldhagen, Graduate School of Design, Harvard University

"Are you one of the millions of people who hate the Pan Am building? Read this book!" Christopher Gray, "Streetscapes" columnist, New York Times, and author of New York Streetscapes

"Clausen has rifled through the archives and peered behind the glass curtain of mid-century modernism to spin a gripping tale of financial and aesthetic hubris run amok." Tom Vanderbilt Bookforum

"Clausen's fascinating study focuses on yet another modernist symbol, one that is still very much with us, despite its status as first among 'the buildings New Yorkers love to hate.'" WBUR

"Clausen's saga should be read by every New Yorker who cares about the city's future." Julia Vitullo-Martin New York Post

"Are you one of the millions of people who hate the Pan Am building? Read this book!" Christopher Gray , "Streetscapes" columnist, New York Times, and author of New York Streetscapes

"From the birth and life of one of Manhattan's most detested icons, Meredith Clausen spins an engrossing tale that shows how large iconic projects in New York City all too often get built: through a complex dynamic of manipulable zoning statutes, real estate economics, and corporate image-making. This is also the story of how the extraordinary personal hubris of public officials can provoke ineffective, if voluble, interventions by municipal agencies, the popular press, and the public. If you think that the redevelopment of the World Trade Center site is at all unusual, read this book." Sarah Williams Goldhagen , Graduate School of Design, Harvard University

"Are you one of the millions of people who hate the Pan Am building? Read this book!"--Christopher Gray, "Streetscapes" columnist, New York Times, and author of *New York Streetscapes*

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 416 pages
• Publisher: The MIT Press (December 7, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0262033240
• ISBN-13: 978-0262033244
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 8.3 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,227,394 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Behemoth Bad Example, January 18, 2005

By 

R. Hardy "Rob Hardy" (Columbus, Mississippi USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Pan Am Building and the Shattering of the Modernist Dream (Hardcover)

In 1987, _New York_ magazine ran a poll to determine the buildings that New Yorkers hate the most. The results were plain on a cover of the magazine, which showed a gigantic wrecking ball taking its first swipe at the Pan Am Building. The building is not only on New Yorkers' most hated list; though it has had a few defenders, it has since its inception drawn criticism from a worldwide public, from architects, and from professional architecture critics. How could such an unloved mass ever have been plonked on Park Avenue? There are plenty of reasons for the failure, and plenty of repercussions from it, and all is told in _The Pan Am Building and the Shattering of the Modernist Dream_ (MIT Press) by Meredith L. Clausen. Professor Clausen teaches architectural history, and she has produced a big, well-illustrated, and weighty volume that covers the history of the building and the history of much of twentieth century urban architecture. There are plenty of books devoted to particular building that are considered architectural successes; Clausen shows that one devoted to a failure can be just as interesting, though perhaps not as inspiring.

The Pan Am Building was conceived in 1958. It was to be part of the complex of the Beaux Arts masterpiece, the Grand Central Station, which had been completed in 1913. The economic force behind the construction was Erwin Wolfson, a highly respected and successful real estate developer who had a quiet manner, broad interests, and remarkable erudition. Wolfson was unable to accept the proposal of Richard Roth, whose firm was prolifically designing efficient and economic buildings for businesses, and wanted a well known architect with a name, one that would provide the building with prestige and enable it more readily to be rented to moneyed clients. He didn't get one architect with a name, but two. Walter Gropius had an established worldwide reputation as an architect and an academic spokesman for the Modern Movement, the glass and steel functionalism produced by the famous Bauhaus school. He was joined by Pietro Belluschi, who had previously worked with him, an architect who had experience as a design consultant and architect for corporations, and who had previously designed tall office buildings, as Gropius had not. The resulting design was released to the public in February 1959. It was the largest office tower in the world, 59 stories tall, of faceted glass and concrete exterior, in a shape of a broad octagonal prism. It spanned the full width of Park Avenue, looming over the Grand Central Terminal. Where the terminal had above it the less soaring but more delicate New York General Building and then simply sky, the new building would block any vista and would dwarf adjacent buildings due to its immensity. Observers found the building a betrayal of the civic principles that Gropius and Belluschi had espoused. Just as the public could not stop the construction, it could not stop Pan Am's installation of a heliport on the roof, for express trips to and from the surrounding airports. It was too noisy and too dangerous, people said, and they were eventually proved right; the heliport was closed after a fatal crash in 1977, and one of the five fatalities was a pedestrian on the street below.

The accident sullied the reputation of Pan American Airways, which was under financial difficulties and went bankrupt in 1979. The building now bears a MetLife sign, but has had no change in the professional and amateur dislike directed toward it. Paris's Eiffel Tower was disliked when it was built, and is now beloved; nothing like that is going to happen to the Pan Am Building. The debacle has had its upside. The next development of the area was to have been a huge rectangular block constructed over the station, but the preposterous addition was so vilified that the Landmarks Preservation Commission's refusal to allow it was upheld by the Supreme Court. The Pan Am Building had disillusioned architectural professionals and the public, and served best in the capacity of a bad example, something the city should never allow again. Clausen's wonderful, detailed look at the failure is also a cautionary tale on hubris and the risks of letting money do just what it wants to make more of itself.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Extremely Repetitive, July 15, 2011

By 

Randall L. Wilson "Randy Wilson" (San Francisco) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Pan Am Building and the Shattering of the Modernist Dream (Paperback)

I really wanted to love this book. I had seen it in Moe's Bookstore in Berkeley several years ago and almost bought it. Every time I returned I searched for the book like it was a lost lover but never did it reappear on the bookshelves. Finally, in June I bought the book and read it over a short vacation.

Modernism is a subject dear to my heart and New York skyscrapers are a guilty pleasure. Add to that the sense of jet age travel and a nostalgia for my sixties childhood and it all added up to wanting to adore this book. Sadly, that didn't happen because I felt beaten over the head with the following thesis: The Pan Am building was conceived as a commercial venture that was meant to be a goliath astride Park Avenue. The developer hired on Walter Gropius and Pietro Belluschi to give it a patina of modernist glamour and gravitas but even they couldn't buck the commercial demands of the developer and create something special. Much of the criticism stemmed from the fact that the building served as a wall in the middle of Park Avenue one of the world's great urban thoroughfares. It's dull appearance wouldn't have mattered so much had it been located on Wall Street or in another American city.

This summary is endlessly repeated throughout the book's nearly four hundred pages and seven chapters. Meanwhile basic questions go unanswered. Why was the Pan Am building considered "modernist?" How did the Pan Am building spur on post-modernism or did it? Did the building really shatter the modernist dream as suggested by the subtitle or did it usher in the age of historical preservation which maybe the building's greater legacy?

Besides the repetition there were also unnecessary sections including one on the heliport which was built after the building and was very controversial in its own right. But the heliport wasn't related to the building's architecture and serves only to expand the book's bulk. Also, the author reviews Pan Am Airline's rise and fall which is also not related to the building's architecture and she makes a questionable assertion about how Juan Trippe the company's CEO and Chairman contributed to the airlines bankruptcy years later by spending so much money on a fleet of 747s in the late nineteen sixties.

On the positive side, the prose is very readable and the author has done a great deal of original research. The photos and illustrations are top-notch and as I said at the outset, its a great topic!

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great reading, January 23, 2006

By 

jtw400 (Miami, FL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Pan Am Building and the Shattering of the Modernist Dream (Hardcover)

Amazingly researched biography of a (bad) icon of New York's skyline. The only drawback is the overly academic, detached tone which lessens the thesis that the Pan Am assisted in the fall of the modernist regime. In any case, this is a must read simply for the story of how a big building gets built in a complicated urban environment.