From Publishers Weekly
When completed in Manhattan in 1963, the Pan Am Building towered over the barely preserved Grand Central Station and was the opening salvo in the glass-box corporate architectural revolution along lower Park Avenue. In this engaging study, Clausen, a University of Washington architectural historian, chronicles the development of the building from its 1958 announcement to its completion, centering her narrative on the roles of lead architects Walter Gropius and Pietro Belluschi and the death of the modernist ideal of socially functional architecture (in favor of buildings that maximized the cubic footage of a site). The clean but hulking Pan Am spurred the preservationist movement, along with the writings of critics Jane Jacobs and Ada Louise Huxtable. Clausen devotes a chapter to "Aftermath" and draws on the architectural community for her conclusions; as recently as 1988, architect Robert A. M. Stern called the Pam Am (now the Met Life) "an important lesson of what not to do, a landmark of the mistakes we made."
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Pressestimmen
"Clausen has rifled through the archives and peered behind the glass curtain of mid-century modernism to spin a gripping tale of financial and aesthetic hubris run amok." Tom Vanderbilt Bookforum "Clausen's fascinating study focuses on yet another modernist symbol, one that is still very much with us, despite its status as first among 'the buildings New Yorkers love to hate.'" WBUR "Clausen's saga should be read by every New Yorker who cares about the city's future." Julia Vitullo-Martin New York Post