Fordham's Westchester Campus: a Modernist Villa
by Ike Edgerton
Progress and Permanence
The building that houses Fordham's Westchester campus advertises the university with its physical form, making Fordham appear both progressive and permanent. Victor Bisharat, the Palestinian-born architect whose buildings punctuate the skyline of Stamford, Connecticut, designed the building in 1967 for the Flintkote Corporation.[1] The building passed between corporate owners until 2008, when Fordham University established it as a campus.[2]Bisharat borrows from three main sources to form the building's image, drawing upon the International Style aesthetic, the organic forms of Frank Lloyd Wright's architecture, and the aristocratic villa's interaction with nature to create a building that appears both forward-looking and deeply rooted.
Progress and Permanence
The building that houses Fordham's Westchester campus advertises the university with its physical form, making Fordham appear both progressive and permanent. Victor Bisharat, the Palestinian-born architect whose buildings punctuate the skyline of Stamford, Connecticut, designed the building in 1967 for the Flintkote Corporation.[1] The building passed between corporate owners until 2008, when Fordham University established it as a campus.[2]Bisharat borrows from three main sources to form the building's image, drawing upon the International Style aesthetic, the organic forms of Frank Lloyd Wright's architecture, and the aristocratic villa's interaction with nature to create a building that appears both forward-looking and deeply rooted.
Ever Onward: International Style
Bisharat designed the Westchester Campus building following a modified version of the Modernist International Style of architecture. The International Style, which celebrates the functional, undecorated machine aesthetic, was invented in the early 20th century by European intellectuals and adopted in the 1950s and 60s by corporations because its faith in the power of technology to improve the world aligned with their aims.[3] The building shows the clear signs of the International Style in the glass and steel box that forms its shell, a regular, repetitive construction whose precision and modularity bears the mark of the assembly line that the Modernist architects so admired.[4] The elongated white mushroom-shaped columns and the rounded terraces that surround the glass box in an unbroken rhythm emphasize the regularity of the structure. The swooping and rounded forms of both mushroom-columns and terraces also draw upon the International Style's aesthetic, recalling the streamlined and aerodynamic forms of airplanes and ships that the Modernists loved for their functional purity and the sense of speed and dynamism they conveyed.[5] Bisharat employs sweeping curves in many of his other buildings, like his Landmark Tower and High Ridge Corporate Park in Stamford, Connecticut.[6]
Bisharat designed the Westchester Campus building following a modified version of the Modernist International Style of architecture. The International Style, which celebrates the functional, undecorated machine aesthetic, was invented in the early 20th century by European intellectuals and adopted in the 1950s and 60s by corporations because its faith in the power of technology to improve the world aligned with their aims.[3] The building shows the clear signs of the International Style in the glass and steel box that forms its shell, a regular, repetitive construction whose precision and modularity bears the mark of the assembly line that the Modernist architects so admired.[4] The elongated white mushroom-shaped columns and the rounded terraces that surround the glass box in an unbroken rhythm emphasize the regularity of the structure. The swooping and rounded forms of both mushroom-columns and terraces also draw upon the International Style's aesthetic, recalling the streamlined and aerodynamic forms of airplanes and ships that the Modernists loved for their functional purity and the sense of speed and dynamism they conveyed.[5] Bisharat employs sweeping curves in many of his other buildings, like his Landmark Tower and High Ridge Corporate Park in Stamford, Connecticut.[6]
Borrowing from Frank Lloyd Wright
Bisharat's golf-tee shaped white columns have another source, however: they are directly inspired by the "lilypad" columns Frank Lloyd Wright used in the structure of his Johnson Wax Administration Building, built in 1938 in Racine, Wisconsin.[7] Bisharat, who admired Wright deeply, took to heart Wright's belief that a "building without a concept cannot achieve the noble stature of architecture," agreeing with the American's famous assertion in 1901 that, though the "machine is here to stay," it is the duty of the artist to "dominate it" and use its powers to our own best advantage.[8] Bisharat therefore sought to "humanize" his architecture by trying to return "romance," "detail and decoration" into his designs, rejecting the International Style's strict rejection of applied ornament in architecture.[9]
Bisharat's golf-tee shaped white columns have another source, however: they are directly inspired by the "lilypad" columns Frank Lloyd Wright used in the structure of his Johnson Wax Administration Building, built in 1938 in Racine, Wisconsin.[7] Bisharat, who admired Wright deeply, took to heart Wright's belief that a "building without a concept cannot achieve the noble stature of architecture," agreeing with the American's famous assertion in 1901 that, though the "machine is here to stay," it is the duty of the artist to "dominate it" and use its powers to our own best advantage.[8] Bisharat therefore sought to "humanize" his architecture by trying to return "romance," "detail and decoration" into his designs, rejecting the International Style's strict rejection of applied ornament in architecture.[9]
Forms from Nature
Like Wright, Bisharat's main strategy for returning his structures to human interaction was to borrow his forms from nature. Bisharat adds fluting to Wright's lilypads, rippling their surfaces into continuous ridged forms reminiscent of the vascular system of a leaf or the gills on the underside of a mushroom. He continues to draw his inspiration from nature for the design of the building's interior, where the thin, curved, closely-spaced columns supporting the banister of the twisting staircase in the building's lobby remind the viewer of fish ribs.[10]
Like Wright, Bisharat's main strategy for returning his structures to human interaction was to borrow his forms from nature. Bisharat adds fluting to Wright's lilypads, rippling their surfaces into continuous ridged forms reminiscent of the vascular system of a leaf or the gills on the underside of a mushroom. He continues to draw his inspiration from nature for the design of the building's interior, where the thin, curved, closely-spaced columns supporting the banister of the twisting staircase in the building's lobby remind the viewer of fish ribs.[10]
Stone Foundations
Bisharat follows Wright's example again in placing his building on a solid base of rough stone to connect his building to the earth. Wright believed that buildings must draw in the elemental power of the earth, and his building complex at Taliesen, Wisconsin, begun in 1911, and his 1935 Kaufman House in Bear Run, Pennsylvania, both attest to this desire with the rough, unfinished stone walls at their foundations.[11] In the Kaufman House, better known as Falling Water, Wright went to an extreme in the solid stone, actually using the big boulder on which the building was built as the floor of the main rooms.[12] But Wright was not the first to use rough stone in his buildings' foundations: both Bisharat and Wright draw upon a long tradition in villa building by founding their structures on rock. Italian villas used rough stone in their lower stories to emphasize their connection to nature by using materials still bearing the marks of their removal from the bones of the earth.[13]
Bisharat follows Wright's example again in placing his building on a solid base of rough stone to connect his building to the earth. Wright believed that buildings must draw in the elemental power of the earth, and his building complex at Taliesen, Wisconsin, begun in 1911, and his 1935 Kaufman House in Bear Run, Pennsylvania, both attest to this desire with the rough, unfinished stone walls at their foundations.[11] In the Kaufman House, better known as Falling Water, Wright went to an extreme in the solid stone, actually using the big boulder on which the building was built as the floor of the main rooms.[12] But Wright was not the first to use rough stone in his buildings' foundations: both Bisharat and Wright draw upon a long tradition in villa building by founding their structures on rock. Italian villas used rough stone in their lower stories to emphasize their connection to nature by using materials still bearing the marks of their removal from the bones of the earth.[13]
Villa Form: The Mind in Nature
By emphasizing its connection to nature with stone foundations and its pastoral location, the Fordham building in Westchester draws upon villa form and ideology to establish its legitimacy and cultural authority. The villa, a country house designed to permit its owners to retreat from the sin and excess of the city and experience the virtues and delights of country living, was established by the Roman elite in the 2nd century BC and has remained the dream of the rich in the West since.[14] By echoing the villa's emphasis on interaction with nature, Bisharat created a prestigious association with cultured aristocrats for his corporate clients.
The Westchester campus building's big banks of floor-to-ceiling windows enable its occupants to look out to the acres of surrounding greenery, and its undulating terraces encourage the people indoors to go outside to breathe the fresh country air. The building's design opposes nature with its regular, smooth, machine-made forms, but unites with it at the same time by drawing on organic forms and employing rough materials. This echoes historic villa-builders' conviction that a union of systematically proportioned architecture with wild nature will stimulate the mind and body.[15]
By emphasizing its connection to nature with stone foundations and its pastoral location, the Fordham building in Westchester draws upon villa form and ideology to establish its legitimacy and cultural authority. The villa, a country house designed to permit its owners to retreat from the sin and excess of the city and experience the virtues and delights of country living, was established by the Roman elite in the 2nd century BC and has remained the dream of the rich in the West since.[14] By echoing the villa's emphasis on interaction with nature, Bisharat created a prestigious association with cultured aristocrats for his corporate clients.
The Westchester campus building's big banks of floor-to-ceiling windows enable its occupants to look out to the acres of surrounding greenery, and its undulating terraces encourage the people indoors to go outside to breathe the fresh country air. The building's design opposes nature with its regular, smooth, machine-made forms, but unites with it at the same time by drawing on organic forms and employing rough materials. This echoes historic villa-builders' conviction that a union of systematically proportioned architecture with wild nature will stimulate the mind and body.[15]
Solid Past, Bright Future
Fordham and the corporations that occupied the building before it all chose Bisharat's building because of the way it combined influences to convey a positive message about its owners. With its Modernist efficiency, Wrightian forms, and villa-inspired interaction with nature, the Fordham campus in Westchester looks forward to the future with space-age optimism and back to the peaceful past with its organic forms and its rugged foundations, lending its occupants an aura of forward drive and historic legacy.
Notes:
[1] Roger Panetta, email message to author, November 27, 2012; Obituary of Victor Bisharat, New York TImes,January 20, 1996.
[2] Fordham eNewsroom, "Fordham Campus Nabs Local Awards," Fordham University Web site, http://www.fordham.edu/Campus_Resources/eNewsroom/topstories_1550.asp (accessed December 5, 2012).
[3] Hasan-Uddin Khan, International Style: Modernist Architecture 1925-65 (Koln: Taschen, 1998) 7, 13, 27; Richard Weston, Modernism (London: Phaidon Press, 1996) 229-30
[4] Weston 168; Reyner Banham, Theory and Design in the First Machine Age (2nd Ed. Cambridge, Mass: The MIT Press, 1996) 225.
[5] Weston 193.
[6] Landmark tower img, High Ridge img.
[7] Raed Al Tal, "Structures of Authority: A Sociopolitical Account of Architectural and Urban Programs in Amman, Jordan (1953-1999)," (PhD diss., Binghamton University, 2006) 114; Peter Blake, The Master Builders: Le Corbusier, Mies Van der Rohe, Frank Lloyd Wright (New York, London: W. W. Norton & Company, 1996) 379.
[8] Blake 337.
[9] Al Tal 113; "Palestinian Architect Designs Buildings That Are Not Ordinary," Florence Times Tri-Cities Daily,December 3, 1974, Henry Russel Hitchcock and Philip Johnson, The International Style (New York, London: W. W. Norton & Company, 1995) 81.
[10] Fordham University, Fordham Westchester: A great new location for meetings and events! (New York: Fordham University, n.d.) 4.
[11] John Archer, Architecture and Suburbia: From English Villa to American Dream House, 1690-2000 (Minneapolis, London: University of Minnesota Press, 2005) 263; Blake 380.
[12] Blake 380.
[13] James Ackerman, The Villa: Form and Ideology of Country Houses (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1990) 32; Archer 47, 49.
[14] Ackerman 9, 12, 136, 201.
[15] Archer 47, 68.
Fordham and the corporations that occupied the building before it all chose Bisharat's building because of the way it combined influences to convey a positive message about its owners. With its Modernist efficiency, Wrightian forms, and villa-inspired interaction with nature, the Fordham campus in Westchester looks forward to the future with space-age optimism and back to the peaceful past with its organic forms and its rugged foundations, lending its occupants an aura of forward drive and historic legacy.
Notes:
[1] Roger Panetta, email message to author, November 27, 2012; Obituary of Victor Bisharat, New York TImes,January 20, 1996.
[2] Fordham eNewsroom, "Fordham Campus Nabs Local Awards," Fordham University Web site, http://www.fordham.edu/Campus_Resources/eNewsroom/topstories_1550.asp (accessed December 5, 2012).
[3] Hasan-Uddin Khan, International Style: Modernist Architecture 1925-65 (Koln: Taschen, 1998) 7, 13, 27; Richard Weston, Modernism (London: Phaidon Press, 1996) 229-30
[4] Weston 168; Reyner Banham, Theory and Design in the First Machine Age (2nd Ed. Cambridge, Mass: The MIT Press, 1996) 225.
[5] Weston 193.
[6] Landmark tower img, High Ridge img.
[7] Raed Al Tal, "Structures of Authority: A Sociopolitical Account of Architectural and Urban Programs in Amman, Jordan (1953-1999)," (PhD diss., Binghamton University, 2006) 114; Peter Blake, The Master Builders: Le Corbusier, Mies Van der Rohe, Frank Lloyd Wright (New York, London: W. W. Norton & Company, 1996) 379.
[8] Blake 337.
[9] Al Tal 113; "Palestinian Architect Designs Buildings That Are Not Ordinary," Florence Times Tri-Cities Daily,December 3, 1974, Henry Russel Hitchcock and Philip Johnson, The International Style (New York, London: W. W. Norton & Company, 1995) 81.
[10] Fordham University, Fordham Westchester: A great new location for meetings and events! (New York: Fordham University, n.d.) 4.
[11] John Archer, Architecture and Suburbia: From English Villa to American Dream House, 1690-2000 (Minneapolis, London: University of Minnesota Press, 2005) 263; Blake 380.
[12] Blake 380.
[13] James Ackerman, The Villa: Form and Ideology of Country Houses (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1990) 32; Archer 47, 49.
[14] Ackerman 9, 12, 136, 201.
[15] Archer 47, 68.