Interior urbanism : architecture, John Portman and downtown America / Charles Rice.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Rice, Charles, author.

Series:

Online access with DDA: Askews (Architecture)

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Portman, John, 1924-2017.

Portman, John.

Interior architecture--Social aspects.

Interior architecture.

Architecture and society.

Urban policy.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (177 p.)

Distribution:

London, England : Bloomsbury Publishing, 2020

Place of Publication:

London, England : Bloomsbury Academic, 2020.

Summary:

Vast interior spaces have become ubiquitous in the contemporary city. The soaring atriums and concourses of mega-hotels, shopping malls and transport interchanges define an increasingly normal experience of being 'inside' in a city. Yet such spaces are also subject to intense criticism and claims that they can destroy the quality of a city's authentic life 'on the outside'. Interior Urbanism explores the roots of this contemporary tension between inside and outside, identifying and analysing the concept of interior urbanism and tracing its history back to the works of John Portman and Associates in 1960s and 70s America. Portman - increasingly recognised as an influential yet understudied figure - was responsible for projects such as Peachtree Center in Atlanta and the Los Angeles Bonaventure Hotel, developments that employed vast internal atriums to define a world of possibilities not just for hotels and commercial spaces, but for the future of the American downtown amid the upheavals of the 1960s and 70s. The book analyses Portman's architecture in order to reconsider major contexts of debate in architecture and urbanism in this period, including the massive expansion of a commercial imperative in architecture, shifts in the governance and development of cities amid social and economic instability, the rise of postmodernism and critical urban studies, and the defence of the street and public space amid the continual upheavals of urban development. In this way the book reconsiders the American city at a crucial time in its development, identifying lessons for how we consider the forces at work, and the spaces produced, in cities in the present.

Contents:

Cover page

Halftitle page

Title page

Copyright page

CONTENTS

ILLUSTRATIONS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

A note on images

PROLOGUE: THE ATRIUM EFFECT

1 TRANSFORMATIONS IN MODERN ARCHITECTURE

'What do these two pictures have in common?'

Mapping postmodern hyperspace

2 THE BUSINESS OF ARCHITECTURE AND DEVELOPMENT

'A continually-evolving character without precise definition'

3 ATLANTA, NEW AMERICAN CITY

Changing demographics and emerging alliances

Central Atlanta Progress

Investor prerogative

Pedestrianism, but not as we know it.

4 THE GEOMETRY OF INTERIOR URBANISM

Entelechy

Peachtree Center

Embarcadero Center

Bonaventure Hotel

Renaissance Center

Consistency and proliferation

5 URBAN STUDIESON THE STREET

Street life

Architects and sociologists on the street

Incorporating the street

EPILOGUE: ON HOLLOW FORMS

NOTES

BIBLIOGRAPHY

INDEX.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Vendor-supplied metadata.

ISBN:

9781472581228

1472581229

9781472581211

1472581210

OCLC:

1201425937