Some of the most pervasive myths of modern architecture surround the Seagram Building, the emblem of standardization—manifested by the extruded shaft of the tower, the applied bronze I-beams that are stand-ins for the structural steel frame encased in concrete within, and the urban stance of the building, an autonomous prismatic object set back on a spare granite plaza. Every aspect of Mies van der Rohe’s building has been extensively documented, illustrated, and imitated. Kiel Moe’s critical assessment of this Modernist icon reads it through the lenses of material ecologies and environmental load. In the process, he demolishes so much of its mythology.
The book’s title implies a dire warning: “Unless architects begin to describe buildings as terrestrial events, processes, and artifacts, architects will—to professional and collective peril—continue to operate outside the key environmental and political dynamics of this century.” Moe assesses architecture as a material, geological, and ecological artifact—essentially the substance of which it is made, and the embodied energy and labor that it represents. To do so, he performs a painstaking material audit of the Seagram Building, modeling and measuring the quantities of steel, concrete, and glass that make up the tower’s 38 stories.
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