LETS TALK ARCHITECTURE!

As a young boy, some of my fondest memories were taking long walks with my Dad and his brother Norman, my Uncle. We'd look at homes under various phases of construction and I'd listen to them conversing with such passion about costs and quality. It's no wonder then that New York and Miami fascinates me with such a variety of commercial buildings and more to the point, it's diverse architectural styles. Now before you peg this as another Pan Am BLOG (which it is not) any architectural school that is worth it's salt will mention the Chrysler Building (where Pan Am was housed until 1963), the Empire State Building, the Flat Iron Building, Rockefeller Center and yes, the former Pan Am Building. So, you see, this Blog is really about imagination. Here's a neat story for all you lucky New Yorkers.

Around 1960, a big office building project was really being talked up. This building was unlike anything in the world. It was going up just North of Grand Central Station at the foot of Park Avenue. Interestingly, it would "straddle" the New York Central (now the Metro-North) Railroad tracks underground. It would become the biggest office building in the world! Erwin Wolfson was promoting the huge building and he had Juan Trippe in mind to, hopefully, get Pan Am interested in becoming the anchor tenant. Ever the genius, Trippe wanted the building turned 90 degrees on its axis; he also wanted the leasing price reduced with 30 foot tall letters atop the building that spelled out PAN AM that lit up in bright white at night and one more item-----an equity stake in the building. Trippe got most of what he asked for with the exception of the signage----the letters were built 15 feet in height! People were said to either love the building or hate it. Personally, I've yet to see a Trump property match the beauty of it's lobby and floral arrangements. And the concrete casting outer vertical panels to me actually symbolize beauty and strength. I even took an elevator ride to the 46th Floor and convinced a nice receptionist to let me stand at the window to look out at the Manhattan skyline as Pan Am executives did every day for 28 years. It was awesome.

By cotrast, building security guards barely let me wander into the Chrysler Building lobby nearby. But how lavish it is!

The now closed Terminal 5 at New Yorks JFK Airport is the world-renowned TWA Terminal designed by Eero Saarinen and remains today incredibly beautiful with its bird-like symbolism and cavernous styling. Saarinen once said, "All the curves, all the spaces and the elements right down to the shape of the signs, display boards, railings and check-in desks were to be of a matching nature. we wanted passengers passing through the building to experience a fully-designed environment, in which each part rises from another and everything belongs to the same formal world". Sadly, after American Airline's purchase of TWA in 2001 Terminal 5 was closed as it was so modernistic that upgrades were difficult. JetBlue plans to demolish part of the structure and reopen a new section by 2008. Otherwise, the future of the building is anyone's guess as a hotly debated topic has included suggestions for restaurants or a convention space.

In Chicago, I was able to get "up close and personal" with the cylindrical-shaped twin parking garages at the center of the downtown Marina Complex where actor Steve McQueen filmed his last movie, "Hunter' in 1980. A dangerous stunt requiring a car driven by thugs to drive off one of the circular garages and plummet hundreds of feet into the Marina below was included in the film.

In Cincinnati, Union Terminal is regarded as one of the world's most beautiful art deco train stations in the world with an arched concrete dome structure 200 feet in height with multiple glass frontage reminiscent of an old tube radio set. Inside the terminal, a tiny newsreel theatre where train commuters could keep up on progress of World War II remains in pristine condition. In the center floor area, a columnar clock still provides the time. But the towering rotunda contains a virtual rainbow of semi-circular colors. Architect Weinhold Reiss commissioned mosaic tiles no bigger in size than your thumb nail to be cemented together to create murals depicting freshly painted masterpieces of the industrial evolution of the region from Riverboats to Trains. These expansive murals include the now-defunct Baldwin piano factory, meat packing plants, tool and die plants all along a lengthy concourse leading to train platforms. Taxi's and buses would enter one side of the terminal and proceed underground along a C-shaped route where they emerged on the other side of the building at street level. Further below, one could have their car valeted for weeks while its owners took vacations. By the time they returned, the cars were serviced with oil changes, lube jobs and patched intertubes (used during this time period of the 1940's inside tires). The interior lighting fixtures of the Terminal are all silver steel, combined with marble rest rooms and waiting rooms with circular overstuffed leather seating and wooden telephone booths.

Yes, Architect Phillip Johnson, creator of the President John F. Kennedy Memorial Plaza in downtown Dallas and the all glass Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, California is impressive, as is the famed Art Deco District of Miami Beach where smaller boxy-rooms of the Leslie Hotel or the Madison once gave immigrants a sense of prestige with their marble lobbies. The bright hues of Pink, Red, Blue, Aqua, Yellow and Green accenting detailed exteriors along Collins Avenue is nothing short of remarkable. It tickles the heart that strong imaginations and big dreamers who created the 1,453 foot tall Sears Building or the Transamerica Occidental Insurance Building in Chicago now pale in comparison to today's glass and steel structures of monotony. As actress Sela Ward remarked in her biography "Homesick", no shopping mall ever really inspired her. I would have to second that sentiment.

Last week, in a fine bookstore, I became caught up in a book on a defunct past-time in America: The Drive-In. The book featured nationwide Drive In's of a wide variety of designs.

There's simply no way to capture Gothic style cathedrals and even a basic overview of American landmarks in a mere BLOG. As such, I'm necessarily omitting Los Angeles and many other fine cities and towns but here's my point. No matter where you live, take a walk one day and observe the textures, colors, spires, cables, columns, roofs, steps, doors, windows and see if you can capture with a disposable camera buildings of interest to you and "feel" what the creators, the architects had in their hearts and souls. As the late Jack Lemmon states in Blake Edwards' comedy film "That's Life" where he plays a renowned architect, "Hell, even the materials themselves can symbolize a thing of beauty for God sakes!."

In closing, when I was a kid, I once "borrowed" my father's Kodak "Brownie" camera and took photos of abandoned gas stations near my Grandmother's home in Detroit. Only after my father picked up the developed film at a dime store did he express an "Ohhhh!" and I was the identified culprit who snapped pictures of old gas pumps with the wooden colored marbles that once twirled in the spyglass while the gas station attendant filled up a car with gasoline! Maybe that's why Antique Malls thrill me. They do what architecture is destined to do--whether the subject at hand is a commercial office building, a church, theatre, hotel or apartment building. The challenge and joy is to create a special feeling within and/or make an artistic statement!