Synopses & Reviews
In our architectural pursuits, we often seem to be in search of something bigger, grander, or more luxuriousandmdash;and this phenomenon is not new. In the spring of 1910 hundreds of workers labored day and night to demolish the Gillender Building in New York, once the loftiest office tower in the world, in order to make way for a taller skyscraper. The
New York Times puzzled over those who would sacrifice the thirteen-year-old structure, andldquo;as ruthlessly as though it were some ancient shack.andrdquo; In New York alone, the Gillender joined the original Grand Central Terminal, the Plaza Hotel, the Western Union Building, and the Tower Building on the list of just one generationandrsquo;s razed metropolitan monuments.
In the innovative and wide-ranging Obsolescence, Daniel M. Abramson investigates this notion of architectural expendability and the logic by which buildings lose their value and utility. The idea that the new necessarily outperforms and makes superfluous the old, Abramson argues, helps people come to terms with modernity and capitalismandrsquo;s fast-paced change. Obsolescence, then, gives an unsettling experience purpose and meaning.
Belief in obsolescence, as Abramson shows, also profoundly affects architectural design. In the 1960s, many architects worldwide accepted the inevitability of obsolescence, experimenting with flexible, modular designs, from open-plan schools, offices, labs, and museums to vast megastructural frames and indeterminate building complexes. Some architects went so far as to embrace obsolescenceandrsquo;s liberating promise to cast aside convention and habit, envisioning expendable short-life buildings that embodied human choice and freedom. Others, we learn, were horrified by the implications of this ephemerality and waste, and their resistance eventually set the stage for our turn to sustainabilityandmdash;the conservation rather than disposal of resources. Abramsonandrsquo;s fascinating tour of our idea of obsolescence culminates in an assessment of recent manifestations of sustainability, from adaptive reuse and historic preservation to postmodernism and green design, which all struggle to comprehend and manage the changes that challenge us on all sides.
Synopsis
Things fall apart. But in his innovative, wide-ranging, and well-illustrated book, Daniel Abramson investigates the American definition of what andldquo;falling apartandrdquo; entails. We build new buildings partly in response to demand, but even more because we believe that existing buildings are slowly becoming obsolete and need to be replaced. Abramson shows that our idea of obsolescence is a product of our tax code, which was shaped by lobbying from building interests who benefit from the idea that buildings depreciate and need to be replaced. The belief in depreciation is not held worldwideandmdash;which helps explain why preservation movements struggle more in America than elsewhere. Abramsonandrsquo;s tour of our idea of obsolescence culminates in an assessment of recent tropes of sustainability, which struggle to cultivate the idea that the greenest building is the one that already exists.
About the Author
Daniel M. Abramson is associate professor of art history and director of architectural studies at Tufts University. He is the author of Building the Bank of England: Money, Architecture, Society, 1694andndash;1942 and Skyscraper Rivals: The AIG Building and the Architecture of Wall Street.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1 Inventing Obsolescence
2 Urban Obsolescence
3 The Promise of Obsolescence
4 Fixing Obsolescence
5 Reversing Obsolescence
6 Sustainability and Beyond
Notes
Illustration Credits
Index