Modernism’s Siren Song, Restored
Krueck + Sexton refocuses the buildings that inspired skylines across the world
Krueck & Sexton’s renovation of 860-880 Lake Shore Drive will sharpen the features of a definitively influential residential high-rise, the form and structural systems of which have been emulated the world over. Their work will restore the two buildings’ shared travertine plaza, replace glass panels in the lobby, fix lighting scheme distortions, and repaint the buildings. The architects were challenged by the buildings’ strict Miesian dimensions and proportions and the need to preserve both the buildings’ original appearances and the established social history and patterns of use.

The Pittsburgh Civic Arena: Memory and Renewal
This article contains excerpts from an abstract prepared for the 2008 DOCOMOMO conference, “The Challenge of Change,” by Rob Pfaffmann, AIA, Pfaffmann and Associates, adapted for this special edition of AIArchitect to explore what we have truly learned from our past. It challenges the current belief that Modern planning and design interventions are obsolete through a proposal to reuse the Pittsburgh Civic Arena as an anchor for a new urban plan that interweaves the multiple historic layers with Modern planning themes.

Iconic Belluschi Structure Receives Landmark Status—and a Renovation
RMJM Hillier restores Philadelphia’s Rohm and Haas building
Pietro Belluschi created the landmark Rohm and Haas building on the corner of Market Street and South Independence Mall West in downtown Philadelphia between 1963 and 1965. The building was conceived as one of the first steps in Philadelphia’s legendary City Planner Edmund Bacon’s plan to revive Independence Mall. According to legend, when Bacon approached owner Otto Haas about moving his growing company there, Haas is reported to have said, “This city may or may not survive. But if companies like Rohm and Haas desert it, then surely the city will not survive!” Rohm and Haas hired Belluschi, then dean of the school of architecture at MIT, to create its new headquarters in the International Style. Although still shy of its semicentennial, RMJM Hillier took the lead in having the Rohm and Haas building designated a National Historic Landmark, a step that both preserves the historic character of the building and grants funds for renovation.