por Pedro Leguina Prado
Desde el año 1937 hasta 1952, Walter Gropius, pronto acompañado por Marcel Breuer, dirigió el “departamento de arquitectura de la Graduate School of Deisgn de la Universidad de Harvard. La aureola que le confiere su antiguo status de director de la Bauhaus atrae a numerosos estudiantes que figurarán en la primera fila de su generación”[1] como, P. Rudolph, P. Jonson[2], I. M. Pei, y Henry N. Cobb. (continua en más información)
El inicio de Henry N. Cobb en la práctica profesional está marcado por la fundación, en 1955 junto a I. M. Pei y Eason H. Leonard, de I.M. Pei & Partners, actualmente conocida como Pei Cobb Freed & Partners. Dentro del estudio, H. Cobb se especializa en los edificios de oficinas de gran altura y confiesa que “desde entonces, apenas a habido un día en el que él directamente, o junto a sus compañeros, en que no ha estado involucrado en el diseño de una o más torres”[3] de oficinas.
El primero proyecto del que Cobb se responsabilizó directamente, cuando contaba solo con la edad de 29 años, fue la torre del Royal Bank of Canada. Él mismo me confesó que solía ser confundido con un estudiante de arquitectura. Pero sin duda, el proyecto más importante de Henry Cobb fue el que llevó a cabo en su ciudad natal: la torre John Hancock de Boston, que supuso un punto de inflexión en su carrera profesional y un punto de referencia en la generación de sus posteriores proyectos:
P.L.: In your Madrid 2012 lecture you talked extensively about the influence Copley Square and the Hancock Tower had as a hinge point in your career and in your subsequent work. In which ways are your current projects still descendants of the Hancock Tower?
H.N.C.: My most recent tower—embedded in Palazzo Lombardia, the new seat of government of Lombardy in Milan—is, like the Hancock Tower, a contingent presence in its city. Hancock is contingent with respect to Trinity Church and Copley Square; the tower portion of Palazzo Lombardia is doubly contingent—first, with respect to the array of sinuous low-rise buildings from which it emerges, and second, with respect to the nearby Pirellone of which it is the respectful complement. Whereas the Pirelli tower is singular, compact, convex, autonomous, my tower is dual, diffuse, concave, contingent.
P.L.: In relation to your lifelong preoccupation on the way a tower meets the ground, this far along in your career, what have you found in this respect? Any theoretical conclusions?
H.N.C.: All my towers are in various ways transfigured as they meet the ground. The theoretical conclusion is that towers should be so transfigured.
A propósito de de este viaje, formulé una serie de preguntas directamente relacio-nadas con éste:
P.L.: In relation to our upcoming trip to Chicago, what hotel, perhaps of architectural interest, would you recommend us staying in?
H.N.C.: The Burnham would be a good choice. It is a renovation/conversion of the Reliance Building —a splendid work of the Chicago School.
P.L.: Last time we met last november you mentioned a bearing-wall building in Chicago being one of your favorites.
H.N.C.: The building that I spoke about and especially love is the Monadnock Building by John Wellborn Root—the last bearing-wall office building in Chicago and a masterpiece. Don’t fail to see it.
P.L.: In Columbus, Indiana, we hope to visit the Cleo Rogers library. Is there anything you would like to point at there or anyother work you would recommend us visiting?
H.N.C.: You should visit the Miller House (Saarinen/Roche) and its Garden (Kiley), which are, I believe, now open to the public.
P.L.: When meeting briefly at your NYC office you suggested in leui of visiting the Farnsworth House, more “discoveries” could be found at the Johnson Wax Headquarter in Racine, Wisconsin. What would you guide us to look for?
H.N.C.: Of course you should see the Farnsworth House and also Crown Hall at IIT and 860-880 Lake Shore Drive—all by Mies. Wright’s Robie House is a must-see, as are Unity Temple and the Wright Studio in Oak Park. The Johnson Wax Headquarters in Racine (about 1 hr. From Chicago by train) is not to be missed. I note that all these buildings are on your itinerary.
P.L.: In our itinerary, we will encounter a couple of Walter Gropius buildings, the PanAm building in NY and the Frank House in Pittsburgh. As you were trained under the teaching program established and led by Walter Gropius at Harvard from 1937 to 1952, could you tell us in which manner we could find his methodology inherent in these two works of architecture?
H.N.C.: I have never seen the Frank House and have never found it especially interesting. As for the PanAm building, it is a monster for which Gropius and Belluschi must share the blame. There is no intelligible relationship between that building and Gropius’s pedagogy.
P.L.: Finally, is there in NYC anything special, rarely visited, that you would recommend to us?
H.N.C.: I strongly recommend a walk in Central Park, a walk across the Brooklyn Bridge, and a boat ride to the Statue of Liberty, both of which are on your itinerary. The Chrysler Building is best viewed from 43rd Street and Fifth Avenue.
Pedro Leguina es arquitecto por la Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London (2000), tras haber completado el primer ciclo en la Architectural Association School of Architecture, Londres. En la actualidad desarrolla su tesis doctoral en la E. T. S. de Arquitectura de la Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, dentro el Dpto. de Proyectos Arquitectónicos.
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario