Preview
Source Collection
Alan Karchmer collection, Special Collections Department, University of Memphis Libraries
Identifier
21_1.D
Description
Office building, 1399 Madison, Memphis, Tennessee. Built around 1955. Photographer: Alan Karchmer. © Alan Karchmer.
Austere in its lack of ornament, smooth and uniform wall surfaces, and minimal use of color, the international Style followed the work of notable architects Walter Gropius of the Bauhaus, Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier. Structures are cubistic in their rectangular severity. Roofs and intermediate floors are often cantilevered beyond their supports allowing free standing non-structural curtain walls to read as being without real support, de-emphasizing mass and weight for the sake of sheer volume. Curved surfaces and cylindrical forms sometimes appear as contrasting elements. Symmetry is frowned upon being replaced by a careful counterpointing of dissimilar elements. Interior and exterior relationships become much more direct.
Date Created
2021
Date
undated
Recommended Citation
"Office building, 1399 Madison, Memphis" (2021). Images. 42.
https://digitalcommons.memphis.edu/speccoll-mss-karchmera2/42
Keywords
Architecture--Tennessee--Memphis.
