Postmodern Architecture
Postmodern Architecture emerged in Philadelphia during the 1970s and 1980s as a reaction against modernist orthodoxy, reintroducing historical reference, decorative ornament, and contextual response that International Style had rejected. Philadelphia played a central role in postmodernism's theoretical development through Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown, whose writings and buildings challenged modernist assumptions and opened architecture to complexity, contradiction, and popular culture. The city's postmodern buildings, including One Liberty Place and Venturi's own designs, demonstrate the movement's varied approaches to historical reference and urban context.[1]
Origins and Theory
[edit | edit source]Postmodern architecture developed from dissatisfaction with modernism's limitations: its rejection of history, its hostility to ornament, its failure to create humane urban environments, and its claim to universal validity regardless of context. Critics argued that modernist buildings ignored their surroundings, alienated users, and impoverished architecture by excluding most of its traditional resources. Postmodernism proposed alternatives: buildings that acknowledged history, communicated meaning through recognizable symbols, responded to context, and embraced decoration as legitimate architectural element.[2]
Robert Venturi's Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture (1966) provided postmodernism's foundational text, arguing for architecture that embraced ambiguity, contradiction, and historical layering rather than modernism's clarity and simplicity. Learning from Las Vegas (1972), written with Denise Scott Brown and Steven Izenour, extended the argument to popular culture, finding value in commercial strips and decorated sheds that modernist critics dismissed. These texts, emerging from Philadelphia practice and teaching, established theoretical framework that architects worldwide would apply.[1]
Robert Venturi and Philadelphia
[edit | edit source]Robert Venturi's buildings in Philadelphia and its region demonstrate postmodern principles in built form. The Vanna Venturi House (1964) in Chestnut Hill, designed for his mother, applied complexity and contradiction to domestic architecture, creating a house whose gabled form referenced tradition while its asymmetries and spatial ambiguities challenged conventional expectations. The house became one of postmodernism's earliest and most influential examples, demonstrating that architecture could engage history without merely copying it.[2]
Venturi Scott Brown's later Philadelphia projects continued exploring postmodern themes. Guild House (1964), an elderly housing project, incorporated a conventional facade organization with oversized "ordinary" details and a symbolic antenna that acknowledged television's importance to residents' lives. The firm's additions to institutional buildings showed contextual sensitivity that modernism typically ignored. These buildings remain important documents of postmodern theory in practice, their deceptively simple appearances encoding sophisticated ideas about architecture and meaning.[1]
One Liberty Place
[edit | edit source]One Liberty Place (1987), designed by Helmut Jahn, transformed Philadelphia's skyline while challenging the informal "gentlemen's agreement" that had limited building heights to below William Penn's hat atop City Hall. The tower's 61 stories rose dramatically above previous limits, its Art Deco-influenced silhouette providing distinctive profile against the sky. The building's historical references—setbacks evoking 1920s skyscrapers, a spire that recalls Chrysler Building—mark it as postmodern despite its scale and commercial function.[2]
The building's construction provoked controversy over both height and design. Traditionalists decried violation of the Penn agreement; modernists criticized the historical pastiche; preservationists worried about precedent for further intrusions. Yet One Liberty Place's commercial success and dramatic presence established new parameters for Philadelphia development. Two Liberty Place (1990) followed, its similar design creating a paired composition that defines Center City's western skyline. Whatever reservations critics expressed, the Liberty Place towers demonstrated that postmodern commercial architecture could succeed in Philadelphia's market.[1]
Institutional Applications
[edit | edit source]Postmodern architecture influenced Philadelphia's institutional buildings during the 1980s and 1990s, as organizations sought alternatives to modernist anonymity. Buildings incorporated historical references, contextual responses, and decorative elements that modernism had forbidden. The results varied widely: some buildings achieved sophisticated integration of contemporary function with historical allusion; others applied superficial ornament that satisfied neither modernist nor traditionalist standards.[2]
University buildings adopted postmodern approaches that responded to campus contexts while providing contemporary facilities. Cultural institutions explored postmodern expression appropriate to their missions. These buildings often received mixed reviews—praised for departing from modernist bleakness, criticized for the arbitrariness or superficiality of their historical references. The movement's theoretical richness did not always translate into built quality, and lesser postmodern buildings attracted criticism that tarred the entire movement.[1]
Decline and Assessment
[edit | edit source]Postmodern architecture's dominance faded during the 1990s as architects moved toward other approaches: deconstructivism, sustainable design, and contemporary modernism that learned from postmodern critique without adopting its historicist vocabulary. The movement's reliance on applied ornament and historical quotation came to seem as arbitrary as the modernism it had challenged. Postmodern buildings lost their novelty, their once-provocative references becoming familiar and even dated.[2]
Assessment of postmodern architecture remains contested. The movement's theoretical contributions—its insistence on meaning, context, and historical continuity—have been absorbed into mainstream practice. Its buildings occupy more ambiguous position: neither old enough for historical appreciation nor new enough for contemporary relevance. Philadelphia's postmodern buildings document an important period in architectural thought, their significance tied to ideas as much as aesthetics. The city's role in postmodernism's theoretical development ensures that Philadelphia will remain central to any historical understanding of the movement.[1]
See Also
[edit | edit source]- Robert Venturi
- Denise Scott Brown
- One Liberty Place
- Two Liberty Place
- International Style Architecture