Word: jahn
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...impressed by Architect Helmut Jahn's design for the Houston tower [Nov. 8]. The only thing the proposed skyscraper lacks is King Kong swinging from its phallic spire...
While the C.F. Murphy firm designed many noted buildings over the past 45 years, the first prominent building to show Jahn's personal imprint is Chicago's recently completed Xerox Center. It is straight Mies with one sweeping, un-Miesly rounded corner. Jahn's later design for Chicago's One South Wacker office building demonstrates a less graceful bent toward changed public taste...
More decisive for Jahn's development was a commission to design an addition to the Chicago Board of Trade Building, a 1930 premodern skyscraper by one of the pioneering firms of that style, Holabird & Root. "We were forced to study this old building carefully," says Jahn. "Holabird & Root opened our eyes. We saw that applying historic ornaments like gaudy wallpaper does nothing to relate a building to its older neighbors. History itself must be the generator of new forms...
...competition for the Houston tower proved to be Jahn's opportunity to test this insight. The president of Century Development, Richard Everett, who is also an architect, laid down precise criteria: a building that would give Houston's skyline an identity and its downtown center a focal point. Says Everett: "We wanted a landmark, and we wanted a building that would be open to people and give them a civic space with a lot of public...
...Jahn's winning landmark tapers to a large pinnacle topped by a spire. The corners surge to the top in five stepped leaps. The pinnacle will contain an observation deck and a rooftop restaurant. The building, turned 45° on its square site, has four lOO-ft.-high corner entrances that lead to a ten-story shopping and festival arcade...