untitled (after tigerman)

a building for an architectural center and design education commons on a hypothetical urban condition in chicago, illinois, the historic capital of modern american architecture where the concentration of industry, transportation and exchange between 1880 and 1900 gave form to the architectural typology of the skyscraper which would become a mythological ideology by mid-century as mies van der rohe defined the style of the steel and glass tower that was to become more than a functional extrusion for purposes of dwelling and working; rather a speculation and spectacle in the modern cosmopolis which suggests old ideas: the potential of the modern skyscraper was never realized. the image of the high-rise eclipsed the tangible experience of dwelling and thinking in an environment extruded from the original city landscape. the design ‘untitled (after tigerman)’ proposed here re-explores historical tower type-forms: core, cruciform mass, frame; each element revisited with contemporary materials and methods and a radical approach to programming: four separate vertical program environments connected by a street rising from an open plan at the street level; an intersection stacked for access between the quadrants; the skyscraper as city. the cross-corridor as crossroad. programs as blocks. elevators as public transport. the lobby as agora. each vertical block is built up to accommodate its own need, no spaces are shared between programs. the social life of the skyscraper as city occurs on its streets in passing: golf swings practiced on the corner, chance encounters, and people just standing there…