Trump Tower
GLITZY” is an adjective often applied to Scutt’s work, and with all things glitzy—Liberace’s wardrobe, Las Vegas, the Academy Awards—there is a strong component of kitsch, vulgarity, and glamour. Visitors come to Trump Tower to experience architecture in
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DER SCUTT OF SWANKE HAYDEN CONNELL ,
accurately, the interpenetration of surface and space. The skylit atrium is like a carnival hall of mirrors that splinters and refracts space. From any vantage point, it is not immediately clear what is solid surface, what is reflection, and what is space perceived through glass. The result is that the whole volume of interior space is pulled apart, and left that way, like open drawers in a chest. Scutt does not try to impose a modernist unity on the space: it is fragmented and discontinuous in a way that buildings never were before. Structural columns disappear behind mirrored panels that make their support seem illusory. Escalator riders seem to float on air above mirrored panels, and appear fragmented 1 and even headless from other angles. Modernists were always on the verge pulling space apart, but sought unity; Der Scutt is happy to leave space l i t z y ” i s an adjective often in pieces like the shards of a broken mirror. The applied to Scutt’s work, and with all disjunctive properties of the interior space are things glitzy—Liberace’s wardrobe, even clearer now that the atrium is connected by Las Vegas, the Academy Awards— there is a strong component of kitsch, vulgarity, an interior passage in a postmodern collage to the oversized basketball gym of Niketown and and glamour. Visitors come to Trump Tower to experience architecture in a way one does in few the IBM Building courtyard nearby. The bronze glass exterior is not quite as other spaces: they ride the escalators wide-eyed, heads atilt, video and flash cameras at the ready. exciting, and may have contributed to the building’s generally low critical rating. The façade sets The 58-story, 664-foot-tall tower’s six-story back horizontally rather than vertically and casatrium is a sensory overload. cades into a series of small, planted setbacks in the Scutt learned his lessons from Las Vegas. base. Philip Johnson and John Burgee used a simHis materials are sensuous to the point of giddiilar technique in their streamlined glass Transco ness: acres of glowing apricot Breccia Pernice marble (no wonder Italian quarrymen call marble Tower in Houston, completed the same year. carne, or “flesh”—there is a Rubenesque carnality to the whole interior). Flattering bronze mirrors reflect the surfaces into infinity. The detailing is exact, down to the bronze Chippendale-topped showcases capped with T’s for Trump. Real-estate magnate Donald Trump is reified throughout, from awards on the wall to his personal books on display, like a latter-day Caesar. The surface glamour almost gets in the way of perceiving what a fine postmodern space this is. The building is about surface or, more
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[ 1 ] Trump residences are typically one-third empty, because the owners have multiple homes. [ 2 ] The Trump’s vertically aligned setbacks create a sawtooth profile against the sky. [ 3 ] Inside: open vs. enclosed space, solids vs. voids, and reflected vs. transparent surfaces.
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