International (fl. 1950-1980), also International Style, architecture, for the purposes of this blog, is a catch-all term for the functionalist and minimalist skyscrapers of the United States built between the 1950s-1970s. Related to the larger Modern and more specific Mid-Century Modern movements, International architecture represents the change in the architectural zeitgeist from the lavishly ornamented Art Deco and Beaux-Arts architecture to a rejection of perceived unnecessary decoration.
The term "international style" was coined by Henry-Russell Hitchcock and Philip Johnson in their book of the same name, published in 1932, to describe a specific type of Modern architecture, though it is a bit of a misnomer. Although International architecture was, as the name suggests, a global style, it was expressed differently in other countries.
For the sake of clarity, there are many different terms for the overall Modern movement. I define the ones I use as such:
- Modernism - a blanket term for all vaguely Modernistic architecture built from the mid-1940s until the late 1970s
- International - see first paragraph
- Mid-Century Modernism - smaller-scale Modernist architecture built in the United States from 1950-1969, usually more kitschy and more readily embracing the bright fashions of the era
The American style we call International traces its roots to the International movement in Europe in the 1920s, based on Le Corbusier's Five Points and the work of the Bauhaus. In the United States, architects like Rudolph Schindler and Richard Neutra (both Austrian, not American) designed early "white box" houses at the same time. The United States was beginning its Art Deco craze during this period, another proto-Modernist movement, and by the end of World War II modern architecture became popular.
Early examples of International architecture in the United States include the 1931 McGraw-Hill Building and 1932 PSFS Building, which owe certain characteristics to late Art Deco/Art Moderne architecture but share several features with later International skyscrapers, such as a flat wall plane, lack of ornamentation, and piers that create a vertical emphasis in the case of the PSFS Building. A MoMA exhibition in 1932 exposed Americans to these works and other Modern designs.
A notable development in the International style's history is the rise of the Nazis in Germany, who disliked avant-garde architecture, leading many architects (including Jewish ones) to immigrate to other countries, such as the United States and Russia. They landed at various colleges, such as Mies van der Rohe at IIT in Chicago and Walter Gropius and Marcel Breuer at Harvard. Their pedagogy shaped American architecture after World War II, and with corporate firms such as Skidmore, Owings, & Merrill also designing similar buildings, the International style had arrived.
International was the choice of almost every newly-constructed skyscraper in major cities after World War II. Mies van der Rohe's 860-880 Lake Shore Drive apartments were an example being built in the late 1940s, and many tall, black "glass boxes" began to sprout up in New York and Chicago. International architecture was also the most commonly used style for urban renewal buildings.
International style buildings are characterized by their simplicity and functionality. They are generally unornamented, only featuring subtle elements in form that emphasize their verticality, such as piers along the facade. The facades are very glassy due to skyscraper construction making possible the curtain wall, enabling the exterior to only bear its own load. Materiality is concrete, glass, and steel, with varying levels of more opulent interior finishes such as marble or granite. Massing is very rectangular and almost always a perfect rectangular prism on skyscrapers. Black and gray colors are most common. Interiors are very flexible due to the regular steel frame, which was used for a modular interior layout in certain designs. International buildings strive for a monumental scale, such as massive skyscrapers or wide factories. Transparency and dematerialization are achieved through the usage of glass and open floor plans. International designs usually have a large site that is mostly unoccupied, creating "towers in the park."
International architecture faced increasing controversy beginning in the 1960s, as the once innovative "glass boxes" quickly became stale with little innovation. Critics such as Robert Venturi and Jane Jacobs explored the style's banal and simplistic design and its detrimental effect on the larger urban fabric, as International design created the car-centric method of urban planning that our cities continue to suffer from. International buildings were built into the late 1970s, but by the 1980s it was largely supplanted by Postmodernism. However, International architecture established many principles that inform skyscraper design today, and some contemporary buildings are being designed in a "neo-modern" language.