ABSTRACT
The death of the author is a familiar trope of textuality that diffuses intention and meaning into interpretation and possibility. The question of authorship that follows from this trope is not, however, an erasure of instrumentality. This chapter explores an architectural instance in which the literal and figural death of an author (more precisely, an architect) became juridical instruments in arguments over the viability and propriety of modern architecture. When Mansion House Square, an unrealized design by Mies van der Rohe for a tower in the City of London, was debated in the venue of a planning inquiry, discussion turned upon questions of authorship. To affirm or refute the accuracy of design histories of Mansion House Square, and its successor, No. 1 Poultry, is not the aim; rather it is to reveal the instrumentality of the terms used to navigate the uncertainties of attribution and appropriation.
