Quote:
Originally Posted by esquire
There's no question that it's a product of its time, but at the same time it has aged fairly well. The panels don't look tired or worn out, and certainly the hotel still caters to the same high-ish end business clientele that it always did. The design looks original and fresh, as it did in the 1960s.
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This is not quite what I meant. It does not look like it is falling apart. I was speculating more abstractly about the precast cladding construction technique and how it might have looked more impressive or unique back in the 1960's.
It is a kind of curse that if you pioneer a new approach to construction that turns out to work well you will be copied in the future and your original creation will stand out less. If you build something impractical you are less likely to be copied and you may have created a landmark but not had the same impact. The most popular historic buildings that non-architecture-enthusiasts notice are often late exemplars of well-defined styles, not the pioneer buildings.
The curves do give it a bit of that space age distinction that differentiates it from low end buildings from 1982.