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ワールド・トレード・センター ＸＩ

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Calling Minoru Yamasaki (1912-86) a tragic figure might be a bit too much but there are two events that surely cast a shadow on his career and legacy: first, the early demolition of his Pruitt-Igoe social housing project, later claimed to be a metaphor for the miscarriage of the modern project, and secondly the horrendous 9/11 attack at his World Trade Center. On top of that his ingenious combination of structural engineering and decorative ornament fell out of style and led later generations to discount Yamasaki’s architecture. With that said it doesn’t take wonder that decades flew by after his death until in 2017 a comprehensive monograph sought to put him back on the map and up for reevaluation. Dale Allen Gyure’s “Minoru Yamasaki - Humanist Architecture for a Modern World”, published by Yale University Press, is as much fascinating biography as it is American architectural history and paints a comprehensive and complex picture of Yamasaki’s life and times. Yamasaki had to severely fight his way into university, architecture and ultimately the success he was to enjoy later on: born to Japanese immigrants into a working-class environment he not only had to work hard beside his studies at University of Washington and later New York University but, these were the days of WWII, was also confronted with the hostile and racist environment following the Pearl Harbor attack. Gyure with great sensitivity addresses these topics but of course also recounts Yamasaki’s impressive career through to the commission of the WTC and in so doing also tells the story of an architect with a keen interest in foreign cultures and styles, a passion that blossomed in lockstep with his growing success and global travels. With the help of countless photos and plans Gyure shows how these inspirations transformed Yamasaki’s architecture (an architecture he realized in different offices and partnerships constellations) and what interesting results they brought about. Regrettably these aren’t documented in a proper work catalogue, a flaw that still cannot cloud the author’s pioneering work and at any time worthwhile narration.

minoru yamasaki overseeing a model of the world trade center, balthazar korab

NewYork, 1980

Alex Webb USA. Georgia. Atlanta. 1996.

Jay Maisel

Dream 80’s nyc penthouse