Plate G1.no2: Kluczynski Federal Buildings (Chicago) by Miles van der Roh

I studied architecture in the 1980s – a remarkable time. Post-Modernism was in its ascendancy – Rossi and Stirling were the Gods; comparatively, Fosters and Rodgers + co. erected Meccanno-esque structures, somewhat in defiance of aesthetic etiquette – and all set against the legacy of Modernism, its implications still being digested, whilst at the same time being brutally rejected.
Yet Modernism persisted; Meier and Ando the lauded exponents, and we, my fellow students and I, became the Post Post-Modernists. We felt kinship with the underlying integrity of Modernism, its honesty and austerity – yet we could also endorse décor. ‘Less is more’……more or less. That previously undigestible act of decoration by Mies, the half ‘I’ beam applied to the façade of the Seagram Building and others – was finally, forgivable.*

*Further comment can be found in: E Books – A Walkers Diary (A Walkers Diary Vol 3)