The Pan Am Building and the Shattering of the Modernist Dream (Hardcover)

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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

"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

"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

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 497 pages
• Publisher: The MIT Press (December 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0262033240
• ISBN-13: 978-0262033244
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 8.1 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,568,407 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 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 (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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 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

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.