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Intentions
Harrison had
little formal education yet the thing that impressed his clients and
colleagues most was the way he carried himself the way he made good
decisions. Harrison was also known
for the way he was will to compromise to see the project through. This didn’t however hurt his sense of
knowing what was best for the client and making sure the client made wise
decisions. When Harrison
was delegated to head up a design team for the United Nations he set out to
find a team of colleagues who would represent the nations. He carefully chose each member of the team
of architects and engineers to be able together to design the best building
and spaces in which the decisions of the world would be made. The team which he put together comprised
of 11 architects including: G.A. Soilleux (Australia), Gaston Brunfaut
(Belgium), Oscar Niemeyer (Brazil), Ernest Cormier (Canada), Ssu-chi’eng
Liang (China), Le Corbusier (France), Sven Markelius (Sweden), Nikolai D.
Bassov (USSR), Howard M. Robertson (United Kingdom), and Julio Vilamajo
(Uruguay). Among this team
the one person Harrison was most apprehensive about was Le Corbusier because
he was strongly opinionated and Harrison felt hard to get along with because
of his accomplishments. As they began
to work together he was a problem constantly criticizing things that were
done. Perhaps though it was his
criticism that pushed the design along.
The goal of the
building was to have state-of-the-art offices for 2,300 people, which ended
up being 5,265 after
being expanded. It would invite
around 20,000 people a day. It would
be able to provide for the membership of 70 to 85 states. The seating would accommodate 700
delegates and their 240 advisors, 900 people from the general public, and 240
representatives of the press. The
program therefore would require 439,595 square feet of office space; 25,033
square feet of meeting rooms; and 351,483 square feet of miscellaneous
services. It would have a tall tower
in order to accomplish the program.
The intention
of this group of architects was to design a state of the art skyscraper. It would include all the “latest and
greatest” environmental systems. The
glass gem would bring together not just different materials, but different
nations, different mindsets, different disciplines to create what was to be
called the “workshop for peace”, a place where the worlds safety would be
carried out. |
Above:
Building Elements
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Above:
Building Requirements
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Above:
Building Elements
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Program Intention Critical
Technical Issues Performance
Specs
Appropriate Systems Beneficial Integration References