Arts & Letters-Owings-Fire Extinguisher (4-10 February)

on this date in Design…

National Institute of Arts & Letters, honor society, Act of Congress passed 4 February 1913
Nathaniel Owings, American architect, birthday 5 February 1903
Fire Extinguisher, invented by Alanson Crane, patented 9 February 1863

The National Institute of Arts & Letters has a confusing and unnecessarily complicated history of inception.  Without going into much detail as to how, the organization is now known as the American Academy of Arts & Letters.  The original “Institute” was founded in 1902 but was recognized by an act of Congress in 1913.  This does not mean it is a government funded or controlled organization, simply that it is recognized and is essentially an honorary title.  Other organizations with this honor include the Girl/Boy Scouts and the Veterans of Foreign Wars.  Essentially, the purpose of the AAA&L is “to foster and sustain excellence in Literature, Music and the Fine Arts by identifying and encouraging individual artists.”  It does this by awarding prizes (money), exhibiting work and funding performances & literature of up-and-coming artist & authors.  To be elected to the 250 council is not only an honor by being recognized by your peers but is also a life-long membership.  The Academy has also identified and fostered some of the country’s most influential and important artists.  Despite a black period when modernism was shunned, today the AAA&L is more akin to the original progressive intention.  Members include Michael Graves, Charles Gwathmey, Maya Lin, Richard Meier, I. M. Pei and Robert Venturi to name just a few.    

As one of the founding members of the Chicago-based architectural firm Skidmore Owings & Merril (SOM), Nathaniel Owings’ business & organizational acumen lead the firm to become known worldwide for reliability for large-scale developments.  Despite a cantankerous relationship with Louis Skimore, SOM became and still is the quintessential “go-to” firm for record making skyscrapers.  The two were so independently strong willed that a satellite office had to be opened in New York so they didn’t have to be in the same city together.  But, with the even-tempered engineer John O. Merril in the middle, the business partnership was an enormous success.  SOM has the most buildings on the “World’s Tallest Buildings” list with 10. 

That’s 6 more than any other firm on the list and they are about to add 11^th with One World Trade Center holding fast to spots 1 and 2.  Owings retired from the firm in 1975 but remained an active advocate for open public spaces in American cities including acting as President Johnson’s design advisor for the National Mall in Washington, D.C.  Additionally, the California Architectural Council of the AIA continues his legacy by awarding an architectural prize in his honor each year to projects that reconcile the potential adverse needs between nature and the built environment.  The 2012 winner, the California Academy of Sciences is truly inspiring as it serves two purposes as a building and a science experiment simultaneously.  Think of it as one giant terrarium.     

In the wake of yet another deadly night club fire last week (this time in Brazil) it is appropriate that we look at a fire prevention device.  Before there were fire extinguishers, there were fire grenades.  It seems counter-intuitive to throw a grenade at a fire.  However, these small orb-shaped glass bottles filled with fire suppression liquid would be hurled at an ensuing fire with moderate success.  With the advent of the fire extinguisher, a person would have a bit more control over where the liquid landed and thereby a better chance of actually containing the fire.  The basic principle is to contain the liquid within a pressurized canister when opened the liquid will shoot out; much like a “Super-Soaker” water gun works.  Thankfully, there have been many devices created over the past few centuries but Alanson Crane’s was the first in the US. 

With each new technology, buildings and the public at large are safer provided municipal codes are in place, followed and enforced.  The US today has some of the strictest Life Safety codes in existence.  These are not hurdles that hinder the design process.  These are essential the functionality of a building and legitimize our job as design professionals.  The next time you enter a public building, take a moment to locate some of the devices put there by the designer for your safety: lighted exit signs, overhead sprinklers, fire alarms, emergency back-up lighting (thank you Super Dome) and attached to the wall--a fire extinguisher.     

Links: 

American Academy of Arts & Letters 

Biography of Nathaniel A. Owings on the SOM website 
Willis Tower, Chicago, IL
John Hancock Center, Chicago, IL
Nathaniel A. Owings Award
California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, CA

National Fire Protection Association
NFPA artidle on Brazilian nightclub fire, 27 January 2013
NFPA article on fire extinguishers
ESPN article on the Super Dome Super Bowl power outage, 3 February 2013
  

 

Miles-Meier-Frankl (8-14 October)

On this date in design…

Alexander Miles, American inventor, patented an electric elevator 11 October 1887
Richard Meier, American architect, birthday 12 October 1934
Paul T. Frankl, Austrian-born furniture designer, painter & architect, birthday 14 October 1886

Although Alexander Miles did not invent the elevator, nor even the electric elevator, the innovation in his 1887 patent improved the overall safety of the contraption that still was not entirely comfortable with the general population.  With U.S. Patent #371207, Miles improve the method by which the doors opened and closed so as to protect passengers from falling into the elevator shaft, which was still a real danger at the time.  His mechanism automatically closed access to the shaft when the car was not properly aligned with the desired floor.  As buildings climbed higher and higher, this advancement helped the public adapt to the ever-growing cityscape.  Imagine falling from the top floor of the Burj Khalifa because someone forgot to close the elevator door all the way.  

Speaking of the Burj, the legendary firm that designed the tower, S.O.M. has fostered a fair share of burgeoning architects including a brief stent in 1959 by Richard Meier who would become one of the famed New York Five.  He would also go on to work under Marcel Breuer, no doubt encouraged by his fascination with the work of Le Corbusier.  It has been argued that Meier perfected Corbu’s own theories of architecture more so than the master himself. 

Known as the “White Architect”, he espouses that white is in fact the rainbow of all colors in that it reflects the hues of the environment in which it resides.  One look at Meier’s Douglas House nestled among the green hillside and you understand his three essential concepts: Light, Color & Place.  Meier, like Hejduk, experiments with plain geometry and at the same time allows light & shadow to become part of the comprehension of the total space.  It is as if he has fully embraced the fourth dimension, time, to complete the spacial composition.  Other buildings by Meier include the Getty Center in Los Angeles, California (1997), the Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art, Spain (1995) and the controversial Arca Pacis in Rome, Italy (2006) where recently a compromise has been made to reduce the site wall to improve the view to the river. 

Inspired by the soaring heights buildings were reaching thanks to the invention of the elevator, Paul Frankl ventured into furniture design which became known as “Skyscraper Furniture”.  When he emigrated to New York City in 1914 after studying at the Berlin Polytechnic (as did Alfred Stiglitz), he embraced new materials with his furniture such as cork veneers and metal, shaping what would become known as the American modern aesthetic.  After moving to the west coast, Frankl’s work trended more toward biomorphic shapes which were reflective of clothing fashions of the time.  Until his death in 1958, Frankl was a vocal proponent of the modern design movement in numerous writings helping to validate these emerging designs into popular culture.   

 

Links:    

Profile of Alexander Miles in the Inventors Hall of Fame, Invent Now  

Richard Meier & Partners Architects LLP  

The Getty Center, Los Angeles, California  

Artile "Architecture of the Getty Center" at Reed College 

Museo dell'Ara Pacis, Rome, Italy  

Article "Mueso dell'Ara Pacis" at Reed College  

Buy a condo designed by Meier, Surfside, Florida  

Arm Chair 810, by Richard Meier for Knoll International 

"Paul T. Frankl and Modern American Design" by Christopher Long  

Brief history of the Johnson Furniture Company, Grand Rapids, Michigan  

Trajan-Chihuly-Burj Khalifa (17-23 September)

On this date in design…

Trajan, XIII Roman Emperor, birthday 18 September 53

Dale Chihuly, American glass sculptor, birthday 20 September 1941

Burj Khalifa, Dubai, U.A.E., anniversary beginning of construction 21 September 2004

On the outskirts of Seville in Andalusia, ancient Hispania, the infamous Roman Emperor Trajan was born to Roman elite parents.  Not only was he responsible for orchestrating massive gladiatorial festivals in which over 11,000 prisoners & thousands of animals were publically murdered, he instituted popular welfare programs and implemented multiple building campaigns all designed to keep the citizenry happy and entertained.  

His chief architect of his many triumphal arches throughout the empire and “Trajan’s bridge” across the Danube was Apollodorus of Damascus.  Apollodorus is also often credited for building the Pantheon, although there has never been any reliable documentation of that.  One of Trajan’s most notable projects completed during his reign in Rome was his forum & market complex.  It was once thought to be the world’s first shopping mall but recent theories suggest it was an administrative office complex.  On the more unusual site, he broke from the arch tradition to create a new type of monument: Trajan’s Column which commemorates one of his many military successes.  He was anything but modest, but then again, was there ever a Roman emperor who was? 

With the 50^th anniversary of the founding of the Art Glass Movement being celebrated this year by multitudes of retrospective and exhibits it is all too fitting that the work of Dale Chihuly be featured.  As one of the brave pioneers into this medium that was once restricted to large-scale industrial production, he has been able to produce pieces that are extraordinarily delicate, enticing, overwhelming by sheer magnitude.  His studio works much as one from the Renaissance, where he as the master oversees a core of apprentices.  To build the communal spirit there is one enormous long natural wood table that all are encouraged to congregate at not just for meals but for collaboration. 

The majority of his work is evocative of sea creatures, collections of fire tongues and unearthly flora.  As much as the name Chihuly is salivated over by designers & clients alike, the time may have come that he has reached the pinnacle; dangerously teetering on the verge of becoming a one-trick-pony as Britto and Gehry.  This is a difficult wire to tread as artists strive to satisfy the desires of an adoring public while maintaining a forward-thinking creative flow.  None the less, I still would jump at the chance to own a piece and will make room in my schedule to see any exhibition in the neighborhood. 

Ahhh, the Burj!  This still amazes and astounds me.  This vertical city was six years in the planning and will sit atop the list as the tallest structure built by man for many, many years.  Thanks to the design team from Skidmore, Owings & Merril (SOM) evoking images of Frank Lloyd Wright’s mile high tower, that pinnacle has come closer than ever before and trumps any attempt since.  The Burj Khalifa stands at 2,717 feet high, over 1000 feet taller than the next contender.  Equally as iconic as this new tower is the architectural firm who designed it.  SOM has designed 10% of the world’s top 100.  This may seem like a small number until you analyze the list a bit closer: out of 100, that is 10 completed and separate buildings.  The next closest in number would be Cesar Pelli & Associates with four but it may be unfair that the Petronas Towers were each counted separately.  If that’s the case then Cesar is tied with Tange & Associates (see 3 September entry) but none of Tange’s buildings reach the 1000 foot mark.  For SOM, all but one is over a thousand.  After the building boom than gave us the Chrysler Building lay dormant, SOM reinvigorated the race for the sky with the first project to attempt that mark after the Empire State Building with the John Hancock Center in Chicago in 1969 and established themselves on the global market as the “go-to” firm for massive buildings. 

So it may be a little unfair that they have out-shined everyone else since they’ve been at it longer than anyone. 

Links: 

Trajan's Complex & other Rome attractions 

Map of Trajan's Complex, Rome, Italy 

Trajan's Bridge over the Danube (Encyclopedia Britannica) 

Map of Trajan's Bridge, Drobeta-Turnu Severin, Romania 

Dale Chihuly Studio 

Dale Chihuly current & upcoming exhibitions 

Chihuly pieces on view at the Boca Raton Museum of Art, Florida 

Chihuly pieces on view at the Palley Pavilion, Lowe Art Museum, Miami, Florida 

Burj Khalifa, Dubai, United Arab Emirates 

Map of Burj Khalifa 

List of the World's Tallest Buildings