Join author Nicholas Adams as he shares his book Gordon Bunshaft and SOM: Building Corporate Modernism (Yale University Press, 2019). Adams explores the contested line between Bunshaft’s ambition for acclaim as a singular artistic genius and the collaborative structure of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill’s (SOM) architectural partnership. Gordon Bunshaft, FAIA, (1909–1990) received the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 1988 and remains the only SOM partner to have achieved this distinction. Adams counters Bunshaft’s maxim that “the building speaks for itself” with necessary critical context about this modernist moment at a time when the future of Bunshaft’s iconic works is very much in question.
Bunshaft’s landmark 1952 design for Lever House reshaped the Manhattan skyline and elevated the reputation of SOM, the firm where he would spend more than 40 years as a partner. Although this enigmatic architect left behind few records, his legacy endures in the corporate headquarters, museums, and libraries that were built within his distinctive modernist principles.
Bunshaft’s career was marked by shifts in material. Earlier glass and steel structures, such as New York’s Chase Manhattan Bank (1961), gave way to revolutionary designs in concrete, such as the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library (1963) at Yale University (New Haven, CT), and the doughnut-shaped Hirshhorn Museum (1974) in Washington, DC. Bunshaft’s collaborations with artists, including Isamu Noguchi (1904-1988), Jean Dubuffet (1901-1985), and Henry Moore (1898-1986), were of paramount importance throughout his career.
Adams is Professor Emeritus of Art at Vassar College (Poughkeepsie, NY) where he taught from 1989 to 2018, after teaching stints at McGill University (Montreal), Lehigh University (Bethlehem, PA), UCLA, and Harvard University (Cambridge, MA). In addition to Bunshaft and SOM, he has written about Antonio da Sangallo the Younger (1484-1546) and Gunnar Asplund (1885-1940), and was editor of the Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians from 1992 to 1996.
Adams on Bunshaft: Sunday, March 17, 2024; 1-2:30 PM PST; $5 go to https://www.sahscc.org/site/index.php?function=event_details&id=500 and pay via PayPal. Zoom link sent upon registration.
