DOCOMOMO Documentation and Conservation of buildings sites and

DOCOMOMO Documentation and Conservation of buildings, sites and neighborhoods of the Modern Movement

do▄ co ▌ mo▄ mo_ Register 2006 • New York/Tri-State Chapter • Training Sesssion How to prepare a fiche Unitarian Church of Westport, CT Victor Lundy, 1965

The Register

do▄ co ▌ mo▄ mo_ Register One of docomomo‘s aims is to document significant examples of the Modern Movement and to share the knowledge of national/regional working parties world-wide by creating a collective register. Museum of Modern Art, NYC Edward Durrell Stone & Philip Goodwin, 1939

DOCOMOMO Register • International Register annual submissions • US Register continuous • Chapter Register continuous

DOCOMOMO-US Register

do▄ co ▌ mo▄ mo_ Register Levels ● Local: ● local level of the National and/or Regional Register. ● International: ● the international level of the New International Selection (NIS) and the preceding International Register (IR), both of docomomo Armstrong Tire Co. , New Haven, CT Marcel Breuer, 1969

do▄ co ▌ mo▄ mo_ Register • The National Register (NR) • • • Open list of locally significant heritage of the Modern Movement (momo). It can help assure or reinforce the protection and proper conservation of momo buildings It is a tool or weapon for a national/regional heritage designation campaign It has educational and strategic purposes Qualitative aim: to complete survey of momo buildings, sites, neighborhoods, gardens, and landscapes in the country/region. Chatham Towers, NYC Kelly Gruzen, 1964

do▄ co ▌ mo▄ mo_ Register • • • Virtual Database The register web-based database as constructed will be accessed through the docomomo-US website and has three components: Contributor portion where interested individuals will be able to set up accounts and work on fiches; Administrative portion where members of the Register committee will review and manage submitted fiches; Search and access, so users can search the database and retrieve fiches for viewing and printing.

Register Selection Criteria • Technological Merit • Social Merit • Artistic and Aesthetic Merit • Canonic Merit • Referential Value • Integrity Trenton Bath House, Trenton, NJ Louis Kahn, 1955

Technological Merit Does the work employ innovative and expressive modern technology to solve structural, programmatic, or aesthetic challenges? Alcoa Building, SOM, San Francisco, 1967

Social Merit Does the design reflect the changing social patterns of 20 th century life? Eichler Houses, SF Bay Area 1950 s-60 s Did the designer attempt to improve either living or working conditions, or human behaviors, through the work’s form or function?

Artistic and Aesthetic Merit Does the work exhibit skill at composition, handling of proportion, scale, material, and detail? Salk Institute, Louis Kahn, La. Jolla, CA 1959 -1965

Canonic Merit Is the work and the architect famous or influential? Marin Civic Center, Frank Lloyd Wright, San Rafael, CA 1957 Is it exemplary work?

Referential Value Did this work exert an influence on subsequent designers as a result of its attributes? The Sea Ranch, MTLW, Halprin, et al, 1965

Integrity Is the original design intent apparent? Have material changes been made which compromise the architectural integrity of the structure or site? Kaufman Desert House, Richard Neutra, Palm Springs, CA 1946

do▄ co ▌ mo▄ mo_ Register Minimum Documentation Fiche Composed by national/regional working party of: • • 0. 1 Picture of building/site depicted item: source: Date: • 1. Identity of building/group of building/urban scheme/landscape/garden 1. 1 current name of building 1. 2 variant or former name • • • • • 1. 3 Number & name of street 1. 4 town 1. 5 province/state 1. 6 zip code 1. 7 Country 1. 8 national grid reference 1. 9 classification/typology 1. 10 protection status

do▄ co ▌ mo▄ mo_ Register • • • • 2 History of building 2. 1 original brief/purpose 2. 2 dates: commission/completion 2. 3 architectural and other designers 2. 4 others associated with building 2. 5 significant alterations with dates 2. 6 current use 2. 7 current condition • • 3. Description 3. 1 general description 3. 2 construction 3. 3 Context

do▄ co ▌ mo▄ mo_ Register • • • 4. Evaluation 4. 1 Technical 4. 2 social 4. 3 cultural & aesthetic 4. 4 Historical 4. 5 general assessment • • 5. Documentation 5. 1 principal references (see bibliographical references) 5. 2 visual material attached 5. 3 rapporteur/date

do▄ co ▌ mo▄ mo_ Register Bibliographical references: -Book Author’s Last name, First name or Initials, Title, Town of Publication; Publisher’s name; year; ISBN Ex. Watters, Diane, Skyscrapers, New York, Rizzoli; 1997; ISBN 074805829 X -Article Author’s Last name, First name or Initials, “Title”, Name of Periodical, country, volume or issue number, year, pp. xy Ex. Brooks, Allen, “PSFS: a source for its design”, Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, vol. 27, 1967, pp. 299 -302 -World Wide Web site Author's name , Title of document in quotation marks , Title of complete work (if relevant) in italics or underlined, date of publication or last revision, URL in angle brackets , Date of access in parentheses

do▄ co ▌ mo▄ mo_ Register RESEARCH RESOURCES IN NEW YORK CITY Avery Architecture & Fine Arts Library Columbia University 300 Avery Hall 1172 Amsterdam Ave. New York, NY 10027 Telephone: (212) 854 -3501 New York Public Library Art & Architecture Collection Humanities & Social Sciences Library 42 nd St. and Fifth Avenue New York, New York 10018 -2788 Tel. 212 -930 -0835 E: artref@nypl. org The New-York Historical Society, 2 nd floor 170 Central Park West New York, NY 10024 General Collections Tel: (212) 873 -3400 x 225, 226 Fax: (212) 875 -1591 Department of Architectural Collections Tel: (212) 873 -3400 x 227 Fax: (212) 787 -9474 The Information Exchange (TIE) The Municipal Art Society of New York 457 Madison Avenue 3 rd Flr. New York, NY 10022 Tel: 212. 935. 3960, ext. 241 or 243 Fax: 212. 753. 1816 E: tie@mas. org Mo. MA Library Mo. MA Qns 33 rd Street at Queens Blvd. Long Island City, NY Tel (212) 708 -9433 fax (212) 333 -1122 E: library@moma. org

do▄ co ▌ mo▄ mo_ Register • Example 500 Park Avenue

do▄ co ▌ mo▄ mo_ Register • • • • • 1. 3 number & name of street 500 Park Avenue, a. k. a. 62 E. 59 th Street 1. 4 town New York 1. 5 province/state NY 1. 6 zip code 100 1. 7 country USA 1. 8 national grid reference • • • 1. 9 classification/typology COM 1. 10 protection status 1995 - City of New York Landmarks Preservation Commission, Landmark Designation List 265 LP 1920 • • • 2. History of building 2. 1 original brief/purpose The architecture of the new Pepsi-Cola world headquarters reflected the spectacular advances that the company had made during the decade of the Fifties when Pepsi-Cola’s sales had quadrupled, and its officers wanted a new office building as an asset in its continuing competition with Coca-Cola.

do▄ co ▌ mo▄ mo_ Register • • • • 2. 2 dates: commission/completion 1958 -1960 2. 3 architectural and other designers Gordon Bunshaft, design partner and Natalie de Blois, senior designer, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill SOM New York, interior design 2. 4 others associated with building Severud-Elstad-Krueger Associates, structural engineer Slocum & Fuller, mechanical & electrical Bolt Beranek & Newman, acoustical George A. Fuller Co. , contractor • • • 2. 5 significant alterations with dates The Pepsi-Cola Building was greatly expanded in 1981 -1984 for its then new owner, The Equitable Life Assurance Society, which had diversified into real estate development and securities brokerage. The former Nassau Hotel on 59 th Street was torn down and replaced with an addition to the 1960 office tower designed by the firm of James Stewart Polshek & Partners. . . 2. 6 current use offices 2. 7 current condition very good

do▄ co ▌ mo▄ mo_ Register • • • 3. Description 3. 1 general description The building exterior consists of a ground story, in which the interior lobby and plaza are unified; a ninestory office block, cantilevered from ten columns… The nine-story curtain wall of the office block feature one-quarter-inch-thick encaustic-etched anodized aluminum spandrels and nine-by-thirteen-foot panes of polished gray-green plate glass of one-half-inch thickness. The five-bay Park Avenue façade and nine -bay East 59 th Street façade are further articulated by polished aluminum “I”-section mullions framing each bay…. 3. 2 construction The Pepsi-Cola building features reinforced construction with structural steel column reinforcing. • • The 390 tons of steel columns were bolted together by a high-tensile strength bolting method, which has been used successfully in bridge and industrial plant construction. The method was first used in Manhattan after the New York City code was changed on July 30, 1956. Ten concrete columns reinforced with structural steel provide the main support for the entire structure. The building is cantilevered on its East 59 th Street side with the result that there are no columns in offices on that side of the building. Two-men bolting teams assembled and tightened approximately 400 bolts in one working day, an easier, quicker, cleaner and safer, and much quieter method than the commonly used four-man riveting team. Dreier Structural Steel Company supplied the steel and accomplished the bolting method of erecting the columns. . . 3. 3 context The Midtown section of Park Avenue in New York City is characterize by the concentration of office towers and company headquarters.

do▄ co ▌ mo▄ mo_ Register • • 4. Evaluation 4. 1 technical For Pepsi-Cola, SOM made the curtain wall as simple as possible at the time. The building looks exceptionally thin-surfaced, as its large panes of glass --almost in the same plane as the spandrels--seem continuous with them. The polished gray-green plate glass was made in the largest panes then obtainable, nine feet high by thirteen feet long and only a half-inch thick. The glass was cushioned by neoprene glazing strips… 4. 2 Social The Pepsi-Cola Building is socially significant mainly due to one of its principal players, senior designer Natalie de Blois. Representing a different attitude and approach to the architectural practice of pioneer • • • women architects, were women who joined the field after WWII. One of them was Natalie de Blois. She joined SOM in 1944 and remained with the firm for 30 years almost invisible while greatly contributing to the firm's reputation for tastefully innovative corporate design, one that became the firm's signature. As basic design coordinator with SOM, de Blois worked with partners Gordon Bunshaft, Robert W. Cutler, and William S. Brown and was responsible for programming, design presentation, working drawings, interiors, as well as coordinating with members of the structural and mechanical trades. . . 4. 3 cultural & aesthetic Pepsi-Cola is the epitome of simplicity: a single raised rectilinear volume, where the only contrasting accents are in the delicate detailing of the window sills and mullions. It has been referred to by critics as an exquisite silvery glass jewel box… 4. 4 historical

do▄ co ▌ mo▄ mo_ Register • • 4. 5 general assessment Architectural writers have consistently praised the building for its superb design, innovative technology, sensitive siting, gemlike treatment, and especially its sophisticated curtain wall, a nearly smooth skin of gray-green and aluminum spandrels, accented mullions which serve to create visual interest. Former New York Times critic Ada Louise Huxtable puts Pepsi -Cola at the top of the list of the city few modern landmarks—a kind of Pazzi Chapel of corporate design stemming from the taut delicacy of its sleek façade and its perfectly adjusted proportions… 5. Documentation 5. 1 principal references “ 500 Park–A Skillful Solution” Ada Louise Huxtable, The New York Times, Sunday, May 3, 1981. pp. 27 & 31. co AIA nomination master book) • • Goldberger, Paul. Photography by David W. Dunlap. The City Observed: New York, A Guide to the Architecture of Manhattan. New York: Vintage Books, 1979, ill. Jacobus, John. Twentieth-Century Architecture: The Middle Years 1940 -65. New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1966, ill. 5. 2 visual material attached 1. Park Avenue Elevation North-South Section(Not released for publication. Source: SOM Pepsico AIA nomination master book) 2. Park Avenue Elevation, North-South Section(Not released for publication. Source: SOM Pepsico Photolog) 3. Typical floor plan and ground floor plan (Not released for publication. Source: SOM Pepsi 4. Floor plan/lobby interior

do▄ co ▌ mo▄ mo_ Register • • • 5. 3 rapporteur/date Hänsel A. Hernandez-Navarro/ March 12, 2001