Nauman, R A (1999) The United States air force academy: A case study of rhetoric and reality in the making of modernism. PhD thesis, University of New Mexico, USA.
Abstract
This case study of the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, construction of which was begun in 1954, analyzes the myths and realities of architectural modernism. The process of the project's realization has been reconstructed using archival documents from the Air Force Academy Construction Agency, the United States Air Force Academy, and the firm of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (SOM), in addition to Congressional proceedings and mass media accounts. That process included the initial decisions involving the location of the facility in Colorado, the choice of SOM as the architectural firm, the firm's decision to use an International Style modernist vocabulary to realize the project, and their attempts to convince Congress, the military establishment and the public to subsidize and endorse their design. The resulting history is diachronic, complex and often contradictory, grounded in the specifics of political, cultural and geographic realities, replacing the synchronic narrative posited by SOM and their advocates. An analysis of the project leads to a rethinking of modernism itself. Debates within the architectural community over such matters as regionalism and monumentality vie with public perceptions and expectations to create a rich tapestry of meanings, as the successes and failures of the Academy design are presented within a framework of Cold War culture. Contrary to the technological teleology of “international” modernism, the Academy's actual production was grounded in a bureaucratic and political process whose outcome was not predetermined. Rather, the Academy's conception and meanings developed with the project itself. Included in those meanings were the interweaving of myths and metaphors of flight and American West with those of modernism. SOM's experiences with World's Fairs expositions and museum exhibitions provided them with both the rhetoric and the marketing experience to present their design within such a context. The firm's experiences also underscored the importance of the photographic image in conveying and transmitting the arguments upon which the project's success depended for its political as much as cultural success.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Thesis advisor: | Mead, C |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | culture; failure; market; marketing; regionalism; United States; case study |
| Index terms: | case study, architectural firm, media, marketing, war, meaning, United States, regionalism, agency, history, documents, narrative |
| Subjects: | data collection methods, business, architectural and construction history, economic analysis, qualitative and interpretive research, conflict and crisis studies, Geography, professional development, sociology |
| Topics: | Legal Issues, Business Strategy, Information Management, Research Practice, Geographical Context |
| Descriptive scope: | 4 PCTE |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here