Network Theory:
The Skyscraper
Once considered monolithic entities
expressing power and unity in
corporations, towers were names and
avatars to their respective companies:
The Woolsworth Building, The
Chemical Bank Building, etc. More
recently, people such as Donald
Trump try to resurrect such images of
monolithic potency- witness the Trump
Towers. Certainly, phenomena such
as this reached its apex in the 1950s
and 1960s- a time period when SOM
could be said to be in its prime. Most
of these towers are still present today
all along Manhattan. Unified structures
of steel, glass and concrete they still
exhibit rabid devotion to Mie’s original
thesis, architecture built on minimalist
structured principle.
Today’s towers reflect a new reality
home to competing tenants, different
interest groups, differing entities each
carving their share in square footage.
In turn, these corporate offices are
often satellites to a broad array of
networks. Citibank may have
accounting offices in 733-3rd Avenue
but it is to say this is an office amongst
many. And yet today’s tower, with it’s
monolithic hold over facade fails to
reflect this new reality- the cellular
networked dynamics that operates new
offices.
With precidence rooted in examining
past empires, stategies and
approaches served to define the
contemporary tower.
Michael R. Tom
Fall 2005
Critic: Srdjan Weiss
