Title & Author:

Romantic high tech / [presented by] Helmut Jahn.

Publication:

London, England : Pidgeon Digital, 1984.

Description:

1 online resource (1 video file (28 minutes)) : sound, color

Notes:
Helmut Jahn, 1984 -- St. Mary's Athletic Facility -- Bank Of The South West Tower, Houston -- Rust-Oleum Corp HQ, Vernon Hills, Illinois -- American Royal Arena. Kansas City -- Area 2 Police HQ -- Argonne Program Support Facility -- First Source Center -- Left: Pennzoil Place, Houston, By Johnson Burgee. Right: Hancock Tower, Boston, By I. M. Pei -- Left: AT & T Building, New York, By Johnson Burgee. Right: Portland Building, Oregon, By Michael Graves -- Left: Lloyds Of London Building, London, By Richard Rogers & Partners. Right: Hong Kong & Shanghai Bank, Hong Kong, By Foster Associates -- Left: Wainwright Building, By Louis Sullivan. Right: Federal Center, Chicago, By Mies Van Der Rohe -- Tribune Tower, Chicago, 1925 By Ray Hood -- Jahn's Entry To "Late Entries To The Tribune Tower Competition" -- Jahn's Entry To Messe Frankfurt Competition -- Xerox Center, Chicago -- One South Wacker, Chicago -- Board Of Trade Addition, Chicago -- North West Terminal, Chicago -- State Of Illinois Center, Chicago -- Park Avenue Tower, New York -- 362 West Street, Durban, South Africa -- 425 Lexington Avenue, New York.

Summary:

Helmut Jahn was born in Germany, trained in architecture at the Technische Hochschule Munich between 1960 - 1965, and continued to work in that city until 1966 when he moved to the USA. There he trained for a short while at IIT, Chicago, under Myron Goldsmith and Fazlur Khan, before starting work with C. F. Murphy & Associates under Gene Summers. Since 1973 he has been Partner and Executive Vice President. In 1977 he joined the Chicago Seven Group. One of the moving lights of Chicago, he has received many awards and honours and has become internationally famous for the new life he has injected into the design of the skyscraper. Having started as a believer in functionalism, he has steadily moved away from the strictly Miesian character of the Murphy work. Of his recent buildings, he says in his talk that the functional, programmatic and technical aspects have very little influence on their appearance. The buildings deal with image. They synthesise an approach from abstract geometric forms to historic archetypal forms, to Art Deco, forms that echo the joyful symbolism of early skyscrapers like Chicago's Tribune Tower and Wrigley building. Though the buildings have a formal order and a connection to history, there's a re-thinking of the distribution of interior space, so that atriums and other amenities not in the brief come out of the design process, there's an innovative use of technology and there's a social and civic impact on the spaces in and around.

Subject:

Architectural design United States.
Architecture, Modern 20th century.
Design architectural États-Unis.
Architecture 20e siècle.
Architectural design.
Architecture, Modern.
United States.

Added entries:

Jahn, Helmut, 1940-2021, narrator.