Camera Constructs: Photography, Architecture and the Modern City by Andrew Higgott & Timothy Wray

Author:Andrew Higgott & Timothy Wray [Andrew Higgott]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Taylor and Francis
Published: 2016-12-04T16:00:00+00:00

International Appeal

The above exam pies suggest that the revival of the architectural model was closely associated with its ability to operate as an image. Through both straightforward representations and composite techniques, model photography exerted a wide-ranging appeal that transcended the nature of its subject. This is well exemplified by Corbett's eclectic work, which he publicized largely through model photographs, regardless of the size or style of the design – from the neoclassic Bush House in London to his Modernist Sun House project for the Forward House show in New York, an exhibition organized by the Macy & Co. store in cooperation with The Architectural Forum in 1932 (Corbett was one of eight 'great architects' who were each invited to design a 'small house' for the show). 38 Corbett was also a member of the team, led by Raymond Hood, which designed the high-rise Rockefeller Center complex in New York throughout the 1930s. 39 The scale model for this massive urban project was the protagonist of the review published in 1932 by The Architectural Forum , which figured model-makers at work as well as several pictures of their final creation (Figure 11.6 ). The latter were mainly taken from above in order to give an overall view of the imposing complex. Most eloquent of all was perhaps the photograph showing the architects surrounding a smaller version of the model, with Corbett and the project manager John R. Todd gesturing over it as if engaged in a game of chess. As Adnan Morshed has pointed out, this image speaks to the rise of the Modernist planner as a heroic figure in 1930s America – a kind of superhero on a mission to reshape the metropolis. 40

11.5 Composite model photograph arid plans of Bush House in London, by Harvey Wiley Corbett. Full page from The Architectural Review , vol. 55, April 1924, p133

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