ABSTRACT
Le Corbusier’s Carpenter Center at Harvard University is one of the first recognized uses of architectural concrete in the United States. This daring project, along with several others in Europe, triggered a marked interest and excitement among designers in the United States. As using concrete as an architectural medium became an identifiable trend, the architectural concrete industry evolved with the speed of a fad and left an enduring impression on the construction industry. If there was a specific turning point in the acceptance and use of architectural concrete in the United States, it seems to have come with I.M. Pei’s Kips Bay apartment complex in New York City, although a number of other projects were in the planning and building stages at about the same time. Outstanding achievements can be attributed to I.M. Pei; Eero Saarinen; Minoru Yamasaki; Sert, Jackson, and Gourley; Paul Rudolph; Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill (SOM); Pier Luigi Nervi; Phillip Johnson; The Architects Collaborative (TAC); and many others. Of special importance is the fact that the designs created by the architects listed have no common approach. Each is distinctive. Most of our finest examples of architectural concrete take advantage of the free-form plasticity of the material but show complete recognition of the intense discipline it requires. Where this discipline and attention to detail have not been given proper consideration in other projects, the results have been disappointing. Unfortunately, the designers frequently attribute this deficiency to the contractor’s lack of knowledge. Although this may be part of the problem, it cannot account for some of the early failures.
