This short writing is about postmodernism architecture and what it brings for its time. It focuses on one of the most iconic building in midtown Manhattan which is the Lipstick Building.

 

Post modernism is a concept, idea, or practice also can be related to simplicity. It’s a movement started in 1960’s as a response to formality and lack of variety of modern architecture. Rosalind Krauss, defined postmodernism as a break with the aesthetic field of modernism and a new concept of space and time. It began as an international style, the first examples started in the 1950’s and become more significant in the 1970’s and continues to influence present-day architecture. It can also be described as neo-electric because it brings back ornament to some design replacing the aggressively bland modern style. It is simply the rejection of strict rules that binds modernist style and seeks a different meaning, and expression or articulation in the use of building concept and forms. Many architects Help shape the postmodernism period for example Philip Johnson and John Burgee.

 

The lipstick building officially named “53rd at third” is New York’s most distinctive architecture; its shape and color are impossible to confuse with any other skyscraper. Glass was really important to philip johnson’s design and also to other architects in that period of time. The lipstick building is a graceful elliptical shape completely different from it surroundings. The building is the second post-modern contribution of the architect Philip Jonson on the Manhattan skyline, after the AT&T building he built two years earlier. That oval form also means that all the offices located in the perimeter of the plan are corner offices. The 138 meters high building consists of three oval cylinder placed on top of each other, from the top to the bottom Creating a spiral movement as it rises. According to Philip Johnson the continues columns going all around the perimeter of the building is a reminder of the Baroque period which make the form very fashionable. Its shape along with the fact that the building’s floor decreases as it gains height and the red tone granite that covers it have made the start of the name lipstick.

 

Inside the building there’s a large lobby of 9 meters high which appeared really hollow for an open space with a lot of Set backs. The reason why was because the elevators and emergency stairs are located at bottom of the building and not in the typical central position. Other than that the lobby as a huge post-modern hall, a series of kiosks and a cafeteria that has adopted the official name of lipstick Café. The rest of the building is used entirely to house offices of different companies.