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
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Levels
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Local:
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local level of the National
and/or Regional Register.
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International:
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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
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• The National Register (NR)
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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
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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
20th century life?
Eichler Houses, SF Bay Area
1950s-60s
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, LaJolla, 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
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Minimum Documentation
Fiche
Composed by national/regional
working party of:
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0.1 Picture of building/site
depicted item:
source:
Date:
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1. Identity of building/group of
building/urban
scheme/landscape/garden
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current name of building
1.2
variant or former name
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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
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2 History of building
2.1
original brief/purpose
2.2
dates: commission/completion
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architectural and other designers
2.4
others associated with building
2.5
significant alterations with dates
2.6
current use
2.7
current condition
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3. Description
3.1
general description
3.2
construction
3.3
Context
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4. Evaluation
4.1
Technical
4.2
social
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cultural & aesthetic
4.4
Historical
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general assessment
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5. Documentation
5.1
principal references (see bibliographical
references)
5.2
visual material attached
5.3
rapporteur/date
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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 074805829X
-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
42nd St. and Fifth Avenue
New York, New York 10018-2788
Tel. 212-930-0835
E: artref@nypl.org
The New-York Historical Society, 2nd floor
170 Central Park West
New York, NY 10024
General Collections
Tel: (212) 873-3400 x225, 226
Fax: (212) 875-1591
Department of Architectural Collections
Tel: (212) 873-3400 x227
Fax: (212) 787-9474
The Information Exchange (TIE)
The Municipal Art Society of New York
457 Madison Avenue 3rd Flr.
New York, NY 10022
Tel: 212.935.3960, ext. 241 or 243
Fax: 212.753.1816
E: tie@mas.org
MoMA Library
MoMA Qns
33rd 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
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1.3
number & name of street
500 Park Avenue, a.k.a. 62 E. 59th Street
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town
New York
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province/state
NY
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zip code
100
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country
USA
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national grid reference
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1.9
classification/typology
COM
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protection status
1995 - City of New York Landmarks Preservation
Commission, Landmark Designation List 265 LP
1920
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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.
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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
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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 59th 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
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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 and 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 ninebay East 59th 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.
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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 59th 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.
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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
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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
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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)
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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 Pepsi4. Floor
plan/lobby interior
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5.3
rapporteur/date
Hänsel A. Hernandez-Navarro/ March 12, 2001