Architectural historian Daniel Paul will present the history of mirror glass architecture. Used for the first time by the Eero Saarinen and Associates office for the Nokia Bell Laboratories, it was Anthony Lumsden and Cesar Pelli who initially developed the reflective glass skin in mid-1960s Southern California. The material’s distinctive performance and aesthetic allowed it to quickly establish itself as a global archetype of late-modern ‘corporate vernacular’. But beyond the material itself, the history presented in this lecture shines a light on a common yet disregarded building typology, in which the technologies and economies of our contemporary condition were incubated.
Daniel Paul is a Los Angeles-based architectural historian, employed by the global consulting firm of ICF. His 15-year investigation of the history of late-modern glass skin architecture has never been presented in Europe. He has over 20 years’ experience in preservation advocacy, filing numerous landmark nominations that include late-modern works.
Image: CNA Park Place. Los Angeles, CA. Langdon and Wilson Architects. Design 1969, completion 1971. Photograph by Wayne Thom.