ie School of Architecture

Sede Central de las Naciones Unidas

Arquitecto: Wallace Harrison.

Año del proyecto: 1947 finalización proyecto 1950.

Localización: Se encuentra en la vecindad de Turtle Bay, en la parte oriental Midtown de Manhattan, en la ciudad de New York.

Introducción: El territorio ocupado por la sede de las Naciones Unidas, se considera territorio internacional, y sus fronteras son la primera avenida oeste, la cuadragésima segunda calle al sur, la cuadragésima octava al norte y el East River neoyorquino al este.

Estructura: El complejo incluye un buen número de importantes edificios. Mientras la Torre de la Secretaría es la predominante en las vistas del mismo, la sede incluye la cúpula del edificio de la Asamblea General, la librería Dag Hammarskjöld, así como el Centro de Conferencias y Visitantes. Justo dentro de la valla perimetral del complejo se levanta una línea de astas con todas las banderas de los 192 estados miembros de la Organización de las Naciones Unidas más la bandera de las Naciones Unidas ordenadas en orden alfabético por su nombre en inglés.

Construcción: Este edificio cambio los patrones que hasta entonces reglaba el diseño de los rascacielos. Primeramente, los arquitectos realizaron un edifico puro, sin formas, un edificio lineal sin quiebros. Sus caras se recubren con cristal y mármol, simbolizando el pasado art decó de la ciudad a través del mármol y el futuro, ya que las cortinas de cristal cada vez ganaban más peso en el diseño. Segundo, se pensó que para un edifico de tales dimensiones, los aparatos de aire acondicionado debían instalarse en otro lugar, más allá del techo de la torre, por ello, los arquitectos introducen cuatro plantas entre el edificio habitable y el techo que dan servicio a la torre. Este espacio, se recubrió de una cortina prefabricada de acero. Otra de sus características, fue la inclusión de un cristal que controlaba la entrada de sol.

Actualmente: edificio en remodelación.

listas: s_XX , use_OFFICE_WORK_SPACES , use_PUBLIC_SPACE

etiquetas: naciones unidas , oficinas , onu , organismo oficial

listas: services_SHOPPING, CURIOSITIES...

etiquetas: almacen , derribos , warehouse

obligatorio

listas: s_XX , use_MUSEUM_MUSEO

"Entering into the spirit of this interior, you will discover the best possible atmosphere in which to show fine paintings or listen to music. It is this atmosphere that seems to me most lacking in our art galleries, museums, music halls and theaters."

— Frank Lloyd Wright. "Frank Lloyd Wright", The Architectural Forum, January, 1948, Vol 88 Number 1. p89.

Letter to Harry Guggenheim
[James Johnson Sweeney replaced Hilla Rebay as director of the museum in 1952]
March 17, 1958

Lieber Harry: Lend me your ears!

understand from your letter to Sweeney that his function is concerned with the selection and direct presentation of the contents of the museum and does not extend to the violation of the architecture of the building; he was to have no right to qualify or change the building.

This type of structure has no inside independent of the outside structure as one flows into and is of the other. Integrity is gone if separated and you have the conventional building of yesteryear. The features of this new structure are seen coming inside as well as the inside features going outside. This integration yields a nobility of quality and the strength of simple city—a truth of which our culture has yet seen little and James has seen none. His work has had no architectural relationship whatsoever. Whitewash has been his vade mecum. He has whitewashed old buildings as he whitewashed his own home and always with this white shroud for paintings flooded it with artificial light. A cheap means to get effects. Take a gold frame off a painting, put a white mat on it and you will see what I mean. To thus tear the inside from the outside of the memorial would not only thus cheapen the character of the thing but actually destroy the virtue and beauty of the building. The various massive forms created inside as the architecture would be out of scale if exaggerated by white-washing them all together white regardless and you would have an effect something like you can see in the toilets of the Racquet Club should you happen to look in.

Now here is the situation now. The building we have built was formed on the idea that an architectural environment that made the picture an individual thing in itself—emphasized like a signet in a ring, not placed as though painted on a flat wall—would give relief and emphasis to painting never known before. Take that away and you have murdered the soul of the building to promote the cliché Sweeney’s whitewash would be and literally destroy the nobility of its conception and inception. This I know you do not intend to do and so understood it from your letter. Not so Sweeney. He still wants to whitewash the whole building.

Ivory white of the same cast as the exterior should be used to give the architecture due coherence and dignity—thereby adding to the life of the picture by way of atmosphere—a quality picture galleries have never yet contributed.

For this I left the interior walls circular and devised a way of showing the picture as charming in itself—an independent object even when walls were behind it. I will represent this to your satisfaction when the light is overhead and the building closed in. I am sure you would consent to nothing otherwise.

Affection,

ie School of Architecture lo descubrió en diciembre de 2008

listas: s_XX , use_MUSEUM_MUSEO

etiquetas: concrete , frank lloyd wright , hormigon , spiral

una joyita en NY

Philip Johnson (in association with Landis Gore and Frederick C. Genz, Architects) 1949-1950

One of the earliest examples of Mies van der Rohe's brand of modernism in New York City is Philip Johnson's Rockefeller Guest House. Designed for Blanchette Hooker Rockefeller, the house was praised at the time by critics for its simplicity and elegance. Ada Louise Huxtable described it as:

"sophisticated . . . handsome, unconventional."

The home was primarily intended as a place for social gatherings, and as a modern art gallery for its owner. Its design was based largely on Mies' sketches for the IIT campus buildings as well as his drawings for unbuilt court houses. Designed at a time when Johnson was primarily designing private residences, the Guest House makes use not only of the architectural vocabulary that he favored at the time, but also of the proportions that he would use in future residences (like the Hodgenson House and the Oneto House, both of which have front doors and surrounding windows nearly identical to the façade and fenestration that Johnson used to enclose the small courtyard in the Rockefeller Guest House).

In the late 1940's and early 1950's, Johnson had built only single-story structures, and thus when faced with the dilemma of how to design a façade with a second floor, he turns to Mies van der Rohe's sketches, and places a second floor almost entirely of glass. The relationship between this design and that of the Wiley House is apparent, when one considers that both have a substantial first floor made of stone or brick (in this case red brick walls laid in a Flemish bond) with a second floor of glass, though the urban context of the Rockefeller Guest House limits the top floor to being just a one sided version of the all glass pavilion which sits atop the Wiley House. This division between floors also allows for the separation of public and private functions, something which Johnson no doubt picked up from Marcel Breuer during his time at Harvard. The second floor, which was meant to be a bedroom, has seldom if ever been photographed.

The home is one room wide, and upon entering, the living room stretches far back until it is book-ended by floor to ceiling windows that closely mimic the façade's layout. The living room space has white brick walls and features lighting fixtures designed by Mr. Johnson. Beyond the windows, there is a small courtyard that features a prime example of Philip Johnson's concept of "safe danger". In the courtyard, visitors must carefully walk on square travertine stepping-stones and avoid falling into the shallow reflecting pool on either side. It is perhaps details such as these, as well as Johnson's wit and attention to detail, that have made this house so desirable overtime. The home was sold at auction for $11 million. Previous to being sold at auction, The Rockefeller Guest House was donated by the Rockefellers to the Museum of Modern Art in 1955, after which it had its share of owners. Johnson himself rented the home and lived there from 1971 to 1979. The home was given landmark status by the Landmarks Preservation Commission in December 2000.

Bellon 2004

ie School of Architecture lo descubrió en diciembre de 2008

listas: s_XX , use_RESIDENTIAL_HOUSING_individual

etiquetas: brick , ladrillo , patio , philip johnson

listas: s_XX , use_RESIDENTIAL_HOUSING_individual

etiquetas: marcel breuer

listas: s_XX , use_INDUSTRIAL , use_MUSEUM_MUSEO

etiquetas: donald judd

interesante trabajo tipografico

ie School of Architecture lo descubrió en diciembre de 2008

listas: profession_GRAPHIC DESIGNERS

etiquetas: tipografia

listas: use_SHOP, COMERCIAL_TIENDA, LOCAL

etiquetas: oma , rem koolhaas