Review: Clausen | The Pan Am Building and the Shattering of the Modernist Dream
Review by Pollyanna Rhee
Editor’s note: Now that the redesign of the Freedom Tower is moving downtown New York towards the “practical” skyscraper-as-bunker aesthetic, we’re glad Ms. Rhee sent along this review of a new book on another controversial, practical New York tower.
With the ebullient prosperity after World War II, the private car, buoyed by federal highway funds, and air travel began to displace railroads. In order to offset losses railway companies began to take advantage of their valuable real estate holdings. As owner of a dozen blocks in Midtown Manhattan the New York Central Railroad with real estate developer Erwin S. Wolfson began development schemes on Park Avenue. In May 1958 a plan for the largest commercial office building in Manhattan was revealed. Eventually the structure would break other records—the largest mortgage, the most steel ordered for a single construction job, the largest lease in history, and, just a few months back, the largest known selling price for a single commercial building. The prize for signing the aforementioned largest lease was name and signage rights for Pan Am. Continue reading
