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08 · Postmodern & Contemporary

Late Modernism

c. 1965–1990

Sharp-angled towers in mirrored glass, sculpted concrete volumes, tall atriums, and smooth curtain walls with no ornament.

Look for

Curtain wall Exposed concrete Double-height space
John Hancock Tower, Boston, Massachusetts: an example of Late Modernism architecture
John Hancock Tower, Boston, Massachusetts. Photo: Tomtheman5, CC BY-SA 3.0
Ford Foundation Center for Social Justice, New York, New York
Ford Foundation Center for Social Justice New York, New York · Stakhanov, CC BY 3.0
Pennzoil Place, Houston, Texas
Pennzoil Place Houston, Texas · Agsftw, CC BY-SA 3.0
Pacific Design Center, West Hollywood, California
Pacific Design Center West Hollywood, California · Benoît Prieur, CC0
Oakland Museum of California, Oakland, California
Oakland Museum of California Oakland, California · Californiathegreat, CC BY-SA 4.0

what it is

Late Modernism is the phase of modernist architecture from about 1965 to 1990 in which architects kept the glass, steel and concrete of the International Style but gave buildings sculpted forms. Towers have sharp angles, notches or slanted planes, and their walls are continuous sheets of reflective glass in thin metal frames. Interiors often open into atria, tall glazed courtyards under a roof. Concrete buildings are cast as terraces or other shaped volumes, and ornament is absent.

Examples include I. M. Pei's John Hancock Tower in Boston (1968-1976), a 790-foot parallelogram clad in blue reflective glass; Kevin Roche's Ford Foundation Building in New York, which has a 160-foot-high atrium; Roche's Oakland Museum of California (1969), a three-tiered concrete structure with roof gardens; and Cesar Pelli's Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood (Center Blue, 1975). International Style towers are typically plain rectangular prisms of glass and steel, while late modernist buildings use angled plans, notched corners, terraces and large atria.

how to spot one

Curtain wall An outer wall of glass and metal panels hung on a building's steel or concrete frame, carrying only its own weight. It keeps out weather on most office towers built since the 1950s. Exposed concrete Concrete left uncovered as the finished surface, often marked by the wooden formwork (molds) it was poured into. It is the main material of Brutalist buildings of the 1950s to 1970s. Double-height space A room or hall whose ceiling spans two floors, often with tall windows or an upper gallery, a balcony overlooking it. It is common in entrance halls and modern living rooms.

Also look for

Flat roofModular repetitionCantileverSkylight

history

Late Modernism has no single founder or launching building. It describes work from about 1965 to 1990 by architects who had trained or worked inside the modernist tradition. Kevin Roche (1922-2019) studied under Mies van der Rohe at the Illinois Institute of Technology, worked for Eero Saarinen from 1950 to 1961, and formed Kevin Roche John Dinkeloo and Associates in 1966, the year I. M. Pei's firm became I. M. Pei & Partners. Roche's Oakland Museum of California opened in 1969. Henry N. Cobb of Pei's firm designed the John Hancock Tower in Boston (1968-1976).

After some panes fell from the Hancock Tower's facade, all 10,344 were replaced, and a tuned mass damper was added on the 58th floor to reduce sway. Johnson and Burgee's Pennzoil Place in Houston (1975) was named Building of the Decade by Ada Louise Huxtable of The New York Times. Modern architecture remained dominant until the 1980s, when postmodern architecture gradually replaced it as the principal style for institutional and corporate buildings. Roche won the Pritzker Prize in 1982 and Pei in 1983.

where to find it

Downtown cores of American cities: Boston's John Hancock Tower, New York's Ford Foundation Building, Houston's Pennzoil Place, and the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood.

architects

I.M. Pei

easy to confuse with

Villa Savoye, an example of International Style International Style Glass walls hung on exposed steel or concrete grids: weightless, ornament-free, and endlessly repeatable. Boston City Hall, an example of Brutalism Brutalism Monumental raw concrete: repeated modular units, deep-set windows, and fortress-like massing. Centre Pompidou, an example of Structuralism / High-Tech Structuralism / High-Tech The building turned inside out: exposed frames, ducts and elevators on the outside, painted in bright colors. Portland Building, an example of Postmodernism Postmodernism Classical bits quoted at the wrong scale in bold colors: columns, pediments, and keystones with a wink.