Terror and Wonder: Architecture in a Tumultuous Age Book

Introduction

1 The Urban Drama 1

Disaster 3

Raising Up A Fallen Sky

The Best Way to Fill the Chilling Void in the Lower Manhattan Skyline Is with a Great New Urban Center, Not a Reproduction of the Destroyed Twin Towers 3

Don't Abandon New Orleans

The Big Easy, an American Masterpiece, Deserves to Be Saved; Its Rebuilding Should Stress Substance over Show 7

Security 12

Land Of The Sort-Of Free

In a Nervous City, Places Like the Federal Plaza Run Scared, While the Daley Plaza Hangs Tough 12

Fort Washington

From the Heartland to the Capital, Federal Buildings Put on the Armor of a Nation under Siege 18

Hubs Of Frustration

Airports a Symbol of Our Freedom of Movement Have Become Dehumanizing 25

The Promise And Perils Of Rebuilding 32

A Brilliant Tightrope Walk At Ground Zero

One Plan for the World Trade Center Site Rises above the Rest 32

Tower Of Banal

Latest Freedom Tower Design Erases Original Vision of Remembrance and Renewal 38

Reclaiming The Public Realm 43

A People's Park For The Future

Why Millennium Park Has Instantly and Interactively Established Itself as Chicago's New Town Square 43

The Millennium Park Effect

It Has Emerged as a Sparkling Example of How Big Cities Can Get Big Things Done 49

2 The Building Boom 55

Wretched Excess 57

Monuments To Mediocrity

The Demands of Business Trump the Art of Architecture in a Surge of High-Rise Residential Construction 57

Once Grand, Now Bland

The Boom in Branch Banks Is Shortchanging the Character of Neighborhoods 66

A Mickey D's On Steroids

When Supersize Isn't Necessarily Better 71

A Gallery Of Rogues

For Every Gem Produced by the Long-Running Building Boom, There Are Even More Clunkers 74

Gems Amid The Rough 81

A Sparkling New High-Rise

The Contemporaine, by Ralph Johnson, Heralds the Revival of Modernism 81

Pleasant Dreams

Lighter-Than-Air Serta Headquarters Elevates the Ordinary 85

Waves Of Creativity

The Aqua Tower, by Rising Star Jeanne Gang, Is One of Chicago's Boldest and Best New Skyscrapers 89

Does Supertall Mean Superb? 95

The Donald's Dud

Trump's Skyscraper, Shortened by the Post-9/I I Fear of Heights, Reaches Only for Mediocrity 96

Scaling Aesthetic Heights

The Fordham Spire Adapts to Our World in a Stunning New Way 101

Let's Twist Again

Third Time's the Charm for the Chicago Spire or Is It? 106

How To Build Today's Supertalls

Elegance, Not Machismo, Is Behind Chicago's Unprecedented Reach for the Sky 109

A Skyscraper Of Many Faces

In Trump's Context-Driven Chicago Skyscraper, Beauty Is in the Eye and the Vantage Point of the Beholder 116

Over The Top

The Burj Dubai, the New World's Tallest Building, Shows That Nothing Succeeds Like Excess 122

3 The Age of Icons 129

Cathedrals Of Culture 131

Winged Victory

Santiago Calatrava Marries Sculpture and Structure, and Molds a New Identity for the Milwaukee Art Museum 131

A Musical Ark For Los Angeles

Frank Gehry's Spectacular Disney Hall Draws Energy from the City's Chaos and Steers It toward a New Vision of Community 137

Rocky Mountain Highs And Lows

Daniel Libeskind's Denver Art Museum Addition Is a Striking Urban Presence but Doesn't Soar as a Showcase 142

Blades Of Glass

The New Spertus Institute and Its Gemlike Wall Form a Welcome Counterpoint to Chicago's Michigan Avenue Historic District 146

From Spectacular To Subtle 153

A Brighter Idea

Steven Holl's Bloch Building at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City Redefines the Museum Addition 153

Temple Of Light

Much More Than a Container for Art, Renzo Piano's Refined Modern Wing Opens to Nature and the City 159

A Sidewalk Through The Sky

With Nautical Flourish, the Nichols Bridgeway Connects the Modern Wing of the Art Institute to Millennium Park 164

Big Stars On Campus 168

The New School Of College Design

Can Sexy, Signature Buildings Successfully Fuse Form and Function? 168

Triumphant Homecoming

Helmut Jahn Designs an Illinois Institute of Technology Dorm That Looks Elegantly at Home 173

Standing Out While Fitting In

Thom Mayne's Campus Recreation Center at the University of Cincinnati Is the Latest Piece of an Exemplary Puzzle 177

4 The Changing Faces of Preservation and Conservation 183

New Challenges For Historic Preservation 185

The Danger Of Becoming Skin-Deep

Chicago Historic Buildings Become Shells as New Rules of Preservation Are Letting the City's History Slip Away 185

Healing Process

It's Unclear Whether Cook County Hospital Can or Should Be Saved, but There Hasn't Been a Full Airing of the Question 190

Why Losing Soldier Field's Landmark Status Matters

Uncle Sam Draws a Line, Saving Avant-Garde Architecture from Its Worst Excesses 195

Love It? Hate It? Or Both?

An Architecture Critic Revisits the Building He Despised as a Student and Has a Revelation 200

This Mies Building At IIT Can Go

Squat Brick Structure Isn't the Architect's Best Work, and the Metra Expansion Merits Its Razing 206

Historic Preservation And Green Architecture

Friends or Foes? 209

The Blooming Of Green Architecture 216

Chicago, My Kind Of Green

The Windy City Presents a Snapshot of the Sustainability Movement's Strengths and Shortcomings 216

Starting From "Net Zero"

First-of-Its-Kind Home in Chicago Will Produce as Much Energy as It Uses 221

Temple Of Green

In the Grand Rapids Art Museum, a Measured Approach to Design Reveals That Elegance and Environmentalism Are Not Incompatible 225

5 A New Era and New Challenges 229

Reimagining Regions And Housing 231

Going Forward

Planning for Chicago's Future Requires Burnham-Style Vision and a Big Pair of Green-Tinted Glasses 231

Shortsighted Polemics

The Ideological Catfights over Housing Threaten to Marginalize All of Architecture 240

Cha Polishes Its Rough Edges

Architect Dresses up the Dearborn Homes, Georgian Style, and Upgrades Living Spaces Inside 244

Brick By Brick

Born as a Horse Stable, the Brick Weave House Provides the Perfect Home for a Pair of Urbanite Gearheads 248

The Blessings And Burdens Of Infrastructure 252

A Grander Canyon

The Rebuilt Wacker Drive Has Emerged Not Only Fixed, but Finer 252

Chicago's Second Waterfront

A New Stretch of River Walk Furthers the Dream of Turning a Once-Harsh Industrial Zone into a Prime Public Space 257

New Randolph Street Station Works Within Its Limits

Renovated Transit Hub a Bright Spot in Daily Commute 261

The Way We Move-And Live

America's Infrastructure Crisis Arrives on Chicago's Doorstep 264

High Hopes And Sobering Realities 268

Good-Bye, Icons; Hello, Infrastructure

Obama Inaugurates a New Era of Architecture 268

Back To Basics

Obama's Infrastructure Plan Won't Match the Great New Deal Public Works, but It Moves America in the Right Direction 271

Acknowledgments 275

Illustration Credits 277

Index 281