Atrium With a View

                                         
     In his recent visit to Harvard's Graduate School of Design, well established architect John C Portman shared some of his "advice and wisdom." His signature work is the Hyatt hotel in Atlanta, GA built in 1967. When it opened it was a massive success for himself and the city. In describing it Portman said, "From my office I can go all the way to Frankfurt, Germany, without putting on a coat, or getting wet." Early visitor and Atlanta native Andrew Young remembered it this way in his documentary John Portman: A Life of Building:

"Its neck-craning, 22-story atrium was a completely new idea. Everyone became a country bumpkin when they walked into the Hyatt, you had to say: Oh, my God, what is this?”

      In speaking of his work, Portman calls himself a humanitarian explaining that his works are about the people more than the "things." However, he takes his vision even further:

 “I’m interested in taking the physical world and the individual, spiritual world together,” he said — a holistic vision of architecture that depends as much on Emerson and Toynbee as it does on engineering. “I would like to reset how we look at architecture.”

                              
      It is a bold thing to want to reset architecture, but had anything like this been done before? I think that it is interesting that he refers to Frankfurt for there resides the St Bartholomew Cathedral. This structure was built in the 14th and 15th centuries on the site of an even earlier church from the 12th century. The impressively tall tower has caused it to be dubbed "Frankfurt's first skyscraper." When this was built during the time of the Holy Roman Empire, this massive structure would have had the same humbling effect on villagers who visited but multiplied many times over, possibly causing them to cry out to their God as well. It even has a viewing platform for the public at sixty-six meters. 

     This structure certainly brings the physical and spiritual worlds together, but in an ancient and orthodox method that long predates Emersonian metaphysics. The high vaulted ceilings inspired by the trees, and the magnificent windows allow the experience of the architecture to be merged with the natural world, but it goes further than that. The high vaulted ceilings draw the visitors eyes consistently upward towards the heavens. The tall stained glass portals of that shaded light enhances the experience of the worshiper and tries to bring them closer to God. In fact everything about the architecture draws the eyes upward. 

                     

    
      Portman's impressive architectural victory indeed caused visitors to look upward in amazement at his fusion of natural elements into his building. Indeed, it wasn't long before Portman's designs became widely used and popular. However, long before Portman or Emerson, churches were fusing the natural, spiritual and architectural worlds in a way that still amazes and impresses and leads the eye ever upwards.

The article concerning Portman's visit Harvad's GSD can be found here.