51福利

Welcome to the second installment of the 2024 Special Edition! We are excited to share the following articles and photo essay, which highlight Eero Saarinen鈥檚 outsize influence on corporate modern architecture; the impact of Formica on Cincinnati and other businesses; and how American corporate campuses influenced similar developments in Canada.

I spent an entire day wandering the atrium and manicured outdoor walkways feeling, thinking, and seeing what I imagined Eero Saarinen wanted (or didn鈥檛 want!) the inhabitants of this building to see and feel and think, my camera searching for compositions and forms that I hoped would reveal a version of the building that wasn鈥檛 the current and familiar depiction of the place. Saarinen鈥檚 design impresses as much as it provokes; the otherworldly reflections off the facade; the blissfully smooth curves of the sunken granite lobby and stairways; the linear walkways that seem to float along the perimeter of the atrium like walkways on a ship鈥檚 deck. You can鈥檛 help but feel transported听鈥� time moves differently within the space听鈥� and I wanted to try and capture this essence.

In 1949, General Motors officially announced its intention to construct a centralized product development campus, called the 鈥淕eneral Motors Technical Center;鈥� the site would finally co-locate all the disparate research, engineering, design and manufacturing activities that had outgrown its previous homes into one cohesive site. The press release read: 鈥淎rchitecturally, the buildings will be of unique design, both modern and functional in concept,鈥� 鈥� now an enormous understatement given the legacy of the Eero Saarinen-designed campus and its influence on industrial architecture.

Whether it鈥檚 big box chain stores or anonymous manufacturing facilities, wide, flat-faced buildings are a common sight on the route into Rochester, Minnesota, from the north. About five miles from downtown, the IBM Manufacturing & Training Facility has a similar boxy massing to other buildings on the street but has a distinctive blue facade pattern. From the air, the vast scale of this building can start to be understood 鈥� in fact, when viewed from above, it resembles a computer chip. IBM Rochester is still the largest IBM facility under one roof, enclosing 3.6 million square-feet on 400 acres. In this city, IBM鈥檚 frequent moniker 鈥淏ig Blue鈥� applies to both the company and the building. Commissioned in 1956 and designed by Eero Saarinen & Associates, the opening of the building in 1958 marks a key moment in IBM鈥檚 design legacy and Minnesota鈥檚 computing industry.听听

Founded in 1913, the Formica Company boasts a rich history intricately linked with the development of Cincinnati. As the company expanded, its manufacturing campus gradually moved northward from the Ohio River, mirroring the city鈥檚 own growth. The Formica庐 brand has made a significant impact on corporate campuses not only through its own unique architectural expansion but also by manufacturing laminate products that have furnished corporate buildings since the 1930s.

The Golden Mile can be found fifteen kilometers to the northeast of downtown Toronto, Canada and was one of the nation鈥檚 first industrial complexes that transition to commercial in the post-war area. The Golden Mile was once a place where iconic corporate campuses and companies like IBM. and others served as catalysts for economic development while supporting the growth and expansion eastwards alongside iconic planned residential subdivisions, which sprang up to house the new industrial workforce and support their modern lives.听

In 1970, then Herman Miller CEO Max De Pree began a poetic brief for a Herman Miller manufacturing facility in the United Kingdom by stating, 鈥淥ur goal is to make a contribution to the landscape of aesthetic and human value.鈥� The building that resulted from what became titled A Statement of Expectations was a pioneering High-Tech project by Nicholas Grimshaw that recently saw its own award-winning adaptive reuse into, very fittingly, an art and design school. We are happy to share a story originally published by Herman Miller鈥檚 WHY Magazine in 2014 that tells the story of The Bath Brief, and Herman Miller鈥檚 collaboration with Grimshaw.

It's been way too long听since our last听commercial real estate round up, and this year's annual theme, Corporate Campuses,听provides听the perfect听opportunity for a revisit. We听hope you enjoy perusing some of听our finds, including:听a Pomo headquarters that's instantly recognizable as a Michael Graves design; an elegant Yamasaki in Michigan; a former church looking for a new use designed by Elizabeth Wright Ingraham; and if you've听ever dreamed of an office space in "The Pyramids," now is your chance.

The Texas Instruments Semiconductor Building and headquarters in Dallas, Texas, is an example of a much lesser explored, yet no less historically relevant, corporate research facility from the same era as the well-publicized industrial complexes by Eero Saarinen. In 1958, Texan architects O鈥橬eil Ford with Richard Colley, Arch Swank and Sam Zisman conceived of the massive complex (Fig 1), which typified Ford's daring creativity and stands as what has been considered the most technologically innovative design of his career. The Semiconductor Building serves as a larger artifact of twentieth-century technology, showcasing both advancements in concrete structural design and pioneering breakthroughs in the field of digital electronics.

The Ford Motor Company corporate campus is located in Southeast Michigan, about 10 miles west of Detroit in the city of Dearborn. Ford first began purchasing property here along the Rouge River in 1915, but it was not until 1917, with the impetus of World War I, that they completed the first structure to produce eagle boats for the war effort. Countless additions later, the Rouge complex, now referred to as the Ford Rouge Center, is still operational and is itself a hallmark of adaptive reuse. The expansion of production at the Rouge anchored Ford in Dearborn, where the company would continue to expand its campus, especially after World War II.

Postwar corporate campuses were an important proving ground for architects to demonstrate the core principles of modernist design: that form should follow function, and that the honest expression of building materials should put their inherent qualities on display. Because corporate campuses in this era were also seen as rural oases, set apart from their urban high-rise counterparts on large plots of land, landscape design played an essential role in the expression of place. In many cases, the architectural expression of a modernist corporate campus required that it borrow some drama from its surrounding landscape. And, in some cases, this meant bringing the outside in.

This year鈥檚 51福利 theme 鈥淐orporate Campus鈥� has sought to 鈥渆xplore and understand the influence of suburban corporate architecture and corporate campuses on the edge of more urban cores, their peaks, and now their valleys.鈥� In a post-pandemic world, and in the past year in particular, the evolving role of the corporate campus, and the office in general, has proven to be on trend across culture.

51福利 is pleased to share the following selection of articles and recorded presentations that explore an extensive range and breadth of topics under the subject of this year's thematic focus, Revisiting Urban Renewal.听

I have lived in Southwest DC for the past seven years in a 1963 cooperative housing 鈥渃ampus鈥� that was built as part of the 1945 Redevelopment Land Agency (RLA). Considered to be the first formal urban renewal project in the United States, the RLA dislocated thousands of residents and their intact community of mainly Black Americans. The photograph that I was most familiar with that depicted the 鈥渂efore鈥� community was the 1939 image (image #1) that shows the proximity of Southwest, District of Columbia, to the U.S. Capitol Building. Many residences in the foreground were built in 鈥渁lley ways鈥� and did not have electricity, running water, or indoor plumbing.听

Taking measure of a life鈥檚 work as complex as Ed Logue鈥檚 raises challenges. He described his career to an oral historian from the Library of Congress in 1995 as 鈥渁 helluva ride.鈥�

Rushed design processes, poor construction quality, post-occupancy mismanagement and a general lack of maintenance characterize the typical modernist public housing estate; their decline symbolic of the cycle of neighborhood obsolescence and redevelopment that once enabled these projects. While originally conceived as alternatives to blighted post-war urban neighborhoods, these stigma-prone estates throughout Europe and the Americas have ironically become convenient targets for demolition. It is no surprise that proponents for their preservation are first confronted with poor public perception and ideological conflicts 鈥� fundamental issues that are often more inhibiting than the physical viability of preservation.

2024 will mark the 20th anniversary of the publication of Root Shock: How Tearing Up City Neighborhoods Hurts America and What You Can Do About It. The book explores the long-term consequences of urban renewal in Black neighborhoods and has many lessons to help us understand the complex problems we face today. Root Shock was written by Dr. Mindy Fullilove with support from the research team she co-founded, the Community Research (now known as the Cities Research Group).

During the 1950s and 1960s, architectural models, maps, and renderings helped local boosters justify and build support for urban renewal in communities across the nation. New York City鈥檚 master planner Robert Moses helped pioneer this practice. Urban historian Themis Chronopoulos has analyzed how brochures produced by Moses鈥� Committee on Slum Clearance juxtaposed images of actual (if outdated) places 鈥� tenements, corner stores, back alleys 鈥� against illustrations depicting the sleek, modern residential and commercial structures that might be built in their stead.

In Coral Gables, an ongoing conversation concerns the beauty of our architectural heritage. Does our design sensibility begin and end in the 1920s, when the city was founded as part of the City Beautiful Movement? Or do we view our built environment as a dynamic work in progress 鈥� a 鈥渕oveable feast鈥� of diverse building styles that reflect changing standards of beauty, utility, and sustainability.

With close to a month left to our National Symposium in New Haven, 51福利 President Robert Meckfessel admits an embarrassing secret; he has never been to New Haven. In this month鈥檚 President鈥檚 Column, read about what Bob is most excited to see when he visits this 鈥渁rchitectural cornucopia鈥� for the first time next month.

Interested in hearing more about Modern Travel: Finland? 51福利 President Robert Meckfessel shares his own Finnish travel experience, a Modernist pilgrimage sure to “affirm one’s life as an architect.” Read more in this month’s President’s Column.

The Italian-born photographer and, of course, long-time Docomomo member, Andrea Brizzi has been capturing the built environment for 40 years. His most recent photography features a series of forgotten Modernist works in northern Italy and Sardinia.听

The Modern architecture movement in the United States has a rich but complicated history, one that 51福利 is committed to explore, even as we advocate for its preservation. This history is closely intertwined with that of Modernism in Europe, but the post-war American version has its own flavor and context, driven by our own unique demographics, economics, cultures and politics. Out of that complex mix arose countless examples of innovative, thought-provoking architecture and landscape, both by transplanted Europeans and by our own home-grown American practitioners. Several aspects of that, however, are less admirable and merit further examination to understand the true and complete story of Modernism.

How the producers of Star Trek The Original Series employed an existing design genre to provide us the World of the Future.

How did Milwaukee, in the middle of the country, in the middle of the 20th-century, come to have some of the nation鈥檚 most inspiring and monumental mosaic murals? How is it that many churches, libraries, schools, government buildings and public spaces across Wisconsin have mural-sized mosaics fully integrated into the architectural surroundings? A close look at four mosaics commissioned in Milwaukee, at a time when modern art and architecture were capturing a new spirit of innovation and civic pride, reveals different approaches to using mosaic as an architectural art form and presents a unique perspective on the history of arts in Wisconsin.

Last April, the 51福利 Board of Directors and staff assembled in Milwaukee for our first long-range planning retreat in five years, to consider the future of 51福利 鈥� our goals, aspirations, challenges, opportunities, and role in the future of preservation. This was sorely needed, especially since the context we work in has dramatically changed in the past five years, as we have dealt with COVID, a leadership transition, a dynamic political landscape, our own growth and expansion, and more.

听Jessica Anshutz, aka the "Rust Belt Mallwalker" shares a visual essay of malls she has documented since 2016.