07/23 | Frank Lloyd Wright - Johnson Wax Administrative Building

200 kilometers from Chicago on the shores of Lake Michigan lies Racine Wisconsin the offices of the Johnson company designed by Frank Lloyd Wright are one of the American architects greatest masterpieces on June 4th 1937 and elderly architect stood before a cohort of inspectors from the federal technical Commission he had been hired to build the offices of a company that specialized in household products and he had come up with a totally original project he had designed a large office area with 60 reinforced concrete columns hollow on the inside and 6.5 meters high their base would taper to a diameter of just 22 centimeters their tops would spread out to cover the building a technical feat that seemed unrealistic and even dangerous to the Commission's engineers who were determined to rein in the 70 year old architects flights of fancy they had demanded a full tales guest the column had to bear a 6 ton weight at its summit but they would only be reassured if it can support twice that hip Johnson who commissioned the project had already spent a great deal of money his credibility and that of his architect were at stake six tons 12 tonnes the column held up a crudite a clue the architect ordered more weight to be added more and more cut to the quick by the weariness of the technicians who had doubted his talent he didn't want to leave it at that the column was now bearing 60 tonnes on its crown they say that the old man struck it with his cane and that the whole thing collapsed it lasts [Music] footage doesn't confirm this feat but that doesn't matter the technique was perfect the legend was underway and the Johnson wax building would soon be built [Music] on its completion the press hailed this tour-de-force the building became the symbol of a powerful and innovative America in May 1938 the editorialist of Life magazine expressed his enthusiasm this building is like a woman swimming naked in a river fresh slippery and musical in her movement in her attitude the interior of an office building like a woman swimming naked in a river yes that's it Wright has invented the office of the future added the columnist of American business as for the architect himself he wrote it requires someone fully developed to appreciate this building in its entirety technically in the field of the scientific art of architecture it's one of the most remarkably successful constructions in the world I like it they like it the first thing that strikes the visitors of the building is the intensive use of the word family the protective family the cult of work religion isn't far away the Johnson family has been making wax and other household products since 1886 in 1935 hip Johnson the young heir was 36 he wanted to give the company a modern image and build new offices for his employees posterity has cast in bronze the encounter between the industrialist and the architect who was to interpret the ambitions of Johnson wax and Sun at the turn of the 1930s Wright was living a reclusive life in the country teaching architecture to a group of disciples he was famous throughout the world but as he neared seventies career seemed to be over he had built only two houses in the last seven years and he was almost broke he was known above all for his houses integrated within the landscape but for some time he had been drawing and redrawing the plans of an ideal city until the end of his life he would dream of the city of the future a utopian return to the pioneer Prairie where nature would form a constant environment Wright was in this state of mind when on July 20th 1936 he objection a man half his age came to see him and asked him check in hand to build an office building on the rubble of part of his old factory an office building in an ugly and unhealthy suburb the offer didn't immediately inspire the architect who initially suggested building a vast city shrouded in greenery in the countryside away from the town Johnson refused Wright's wife was able to talk her husband round right had to imagine a building that was located as he put it in the heart of a totally worthless setting for this reason he would give the building the appearance of a fortress no windows blank facades long brick walls space rolled in on itself a fort deliberately cut off from its surroundings a long low profile that allowed the architect to stress the horizontality that he loved far from the fashionable skyscrapers that he aboard my idea was that the horizontal lines of a building the lines parallel to the ground identified with the ground and made the building belong to it the old architect managed to convince the young company chairman who told his entourage the deal was signed it concerned only the offices at our and additional premises would be added 10 years later the architect started by imposing a discreet and almost secret main entrance too bad for usual practice too bad for the pride of Johnson wax right considered that the whole building should be the symbol of the company not just the traditional Street facade you have to move around and admire this apparently impenetrable building in order to gain entrance there is no opening on the facade along the Main Street you have to persevere the sole entrance lies on the west side it's a garage entrance for right by 1936 the car was part of architecture and conditioned space and movement still in your car but already in the heart of the building the garage ceilings are low like a cave with its light sources and mysterious outlines the pedestrians if there are any in this futuristic world would have to use the parking area to attain the sole entrance that is located within the building itself an obligatory and narrow passageway you have to slow down the reception area inspires contemplation and even meditation we finally discover the full scope of the largest room in the building the cathedral of work [Music] 200 people work here on an equal footing without partitions corridors or different levels in a central open space a rectangle 45 metres by 65 around which the whole building is organized and revolves everyone can move around freely from the accountants department to the legal department from international sales to personnel management a mezzanine attached to the columns surrounds the entirety of the main room this is the department managers area overlooking to the staff the sounds of the outside world do not reach the employees cork on the ceilings and sand sprayed onto the concrete columns absorb the noise right promised his client a building where each person will feel they're in a pine forest breathing good air and bathed in light within a hermetically sealed building a person working can only see his colleagues at their desks no looking out the window since there aren't any no other view than the room itself the light comes from above this vast building is in its entirety light and plastic up there where there could have been a cornice is an open grove filled with glass the reinforcing frame is mainly hammered welded metal his considerations on light led the architect to make the ceiling and lateral walls independent here he wins his battle against right angles that vanish completely a gap rather than a window a broken and annihilated right angle the clerestory welcomes the light of day electricity takes over when necessary to regulate the lighting of the main office in Wright's project the light of day should also have flooded in from the ceiling from the gaps between the mushroom columns [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Laughter] the pillars placed at regular intervals make up this rather domesticated forest invented by the architect their enlarged tops provide cover through their sheer number these mushroom columns create a ceiling as well as a roof but right had to accept leaving the electric light on continuously set into the ceiling too much sunlight dazzled the staff a grey sky could spoil the whole effect water would stagnate on the roof and a snowfall could darken the whole room he had to install protective covers that provide access to the electrical system the main characteristic of the building is the simple repetition of frail and Hollow monolithic rods that rise up as if on tiptoe from small brass shoes set into the floor since the concrete posts are not dependent on the floor great flexibility as possible should the building move Johnson waxes earthquake-proof should such an event ever occur in the region of the Great Lakes but hip Johnson deserved the best throughout the building the columns follow the same principle if we remove the protective grading we can see inside one of them while examining the structure of a Californian cactus the forms of the natural world again right hit upon the idea of making reinforced concrete with a structure of open steel mesh rather than rods an innovation that enabled him to reduce the thickness of the pillars the hollow shell like columns are able to conceal electrical and telephone wiring [Music] right would adapt this basic principle form according to their use and location trees clearings roots and flowers fill offices lodges meeting rooms and garages [Music] he claimed that he had invented an organic form of architecture the building is a body and moreover it breathes through nostrils his collaborators say that the ideas came to him quickly but that it took him a long time to explain the geometry of the building he would often change details at the last minute and his frequent improvisations made life hard for the engineers and construction foreman because of a higher ideal of simplicity this building was necessarily going to be a demanding work and over a fairly long period I acted like a pregnant woman there were daily headaches the well-known power of the Racine unions the professional builders codes that were followed to the letter locally people say that we don't get on but I've never had any trouble with hip Johnson although towards the end he did complain a little as the inevitable occurred and the building originally planned continued to grow the project ended up costing four times the original estimate him Johnson gradually sank the company's capital into it as the board looked on paralyzed the main reason was that the building was designed as a prototype where one technical feat follows another there are Pyrex tubes throughout the building right was the first to use them for architectural purposes he borrowed the idea from the chemical industry and had kilometers made of them they would need to be replaced over the years by Plexiglas for reasons of insulation and fragility the tubes were glued together horizontally and hung from the aluminum frames by wires Wright was charmed by their roundness the same love of curves and by the quality of light that they provided there was no uniformity he played on varying thickness or placed them at different heights to vary the effect [Music] pyrex preserves privacy by offering light without transparency instead of windows or opaque partitions we find these translucent tubes at times slightly unreal shapes can be made out the outside world appears confusing and unsettling each employee would find balance at his or her desk for write the decor was a blend of architecture and furniture he designed 48 pieces tables desks lamps and file cabinets he chose the color tones that are all variations on the famous Cherokee red the red of the bricks the furniture the carpeting the lift gates according to Johnson's calculations the staffs pleasure at working in this setting and the new organization of the company's services increased efficiency by about 25 percent hip Johnson an astute manager also took care of his staff social and cultural life an auditorium was designed for them above the reception area sheltered behind a row of plants painstakingly designed with a ceiling like a cascade or possibly a host of flying saucers the auditorium is a cafeteria and a meeting place for the whole staff it is also used for shows plays singing and lecture and filmed screenings the architect had even planned to install a monumental organ on the mezzanine above the main office but Johnson rejected the idea out of hand even so the collective spirit has limitations it seemed implausible to place the management and upper executives at the end of the large office room bronze lifts bird cages right would call them stop at every floor above the reception area these narrow refined cars designed by the architect in person weren't for the use of the staff in general only Johnson his closest collaborators and their honored guests had access to the management floor the executives could just make out the main office room from the reception atrium and then walk to their offices or the meeting room opposite stands Johnson's office it's the only part of the building with an opening onto the exterior and a private balcony the building was completed in 1938 and its inauguration was a triumph [Music] the main thing that the American public praised was the beauty of a building streamlined like the body of a car the fuselage of a plane or the hull of a ship it was fashionable [Music] it was high time that the starving American public was given something streamlined in aerodynamic so Swift and sure of itself that anyone could see the virtues of what people called modernity clearly displayed in this building five years went by business had never been so good for the Johnson company and it was raining in the main office the water tightness needed to be corrected what of that Johnson had to grow again a new research lab was required illustrators immortalized this second meeting between the two men Johnson immediately warned right right listened absently and responded with the project that was inspired by his love of Japan an elegant little tower in the middle of an inner courtyard the company Chairman allowed himself to be convinced again he didn't know that the initial estimate would triple rights main idea was to sink a 50 meter high central column 15 meters into the ground a concrete core on which the rest of the building would be balanced each level is designed according to the same principle all the floors are cantilevered some to the wall others between floors are circular resonance hanging in midair the outer walls bear only their own weight the facade with its rounded angles would like the rest of the building be made of bricks and Pyrex no less than 28 kilometres of tubes [Music] the backbone of the tower the central core is a shaft carrying error electricity water stairs and even a lift no monumental entrance here either the small doorway in the courtyard leads only to a technical control room rising above a new garage the tower is installed alongside the office building as part of the whole therefore the main entrance has to be found within the building itself at the end of some office or other right imposed his idea the premises had to be linked to each other so that no one would ever need to leave the increasingly large building in 1980 the tower had to be shut down for nonconformity with safety requirements but even standing empty the tower continues as an image of the renown of Johnson wax this unique Tower of glass rising over Racine Wisconsin is the research center for Johnson's wax where science and industry worked together to make housekeeping easier for 42 million American homemakers in this tower is the Johnson laboratory where scientists test and blend many kinds of wax but a building became the company's corporate image Frank Lloyd Wright's genius was sold with the same conviction as a tin of wax architecture and household products were henceforth inseparable [Music] the building itself became the theater of the Johnson companies ideas family religion work free enterprise [Music] with the johnson wax building rights Korea found a new lease of life he would never cease working when he died in 1959 at the age of 90 he was still hard at work him Johnson would survive him by 20 years his board had feared that he would lead the company into its ruin with his massive building project but in fact he made it the triumphant emblem of a multinational company with a 5 million dollar annual profit and now the whole building stands there earthquake-proof fire-proof noise proof and vermin proof almost idiot proof most people see enough of it to be delighted to be envious or to go mad there's no other possible escape from the building [Music]

Channel: csxlab

Views: 243,374

Keywords: Architecture, 07, of, 23, Frank, Lloyd, Wright, Johnson, Wax, Administrative, Building

Id: lqQCLm7k_mo

Length: 27min 8sec (1628 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 25 2011