Periodically, advocates of different architectural philosophies argue about, or presume to know, what the American public truly desires in its built environment. Once upon a time, traditionalists felt secure in the knowledge that what Americans wanted was an architecture based upon tradition, but that an architectural establishment was foisting something quite different from that upon a wary and weary public. Indeed, even many modernists felt that the public resented their work; such modernists countered that the right, forward-looking thing is often unpopular. Then, a few years ago, Herbert Muschamp, in the New York Times, triumphantly asserted that the modernist architecture of today had struck a deep, resonant chord with the people. He cited the works of Frank Gehry. After all, weren't tourists flocking to Bilbao for their Wow! architectural experience of a lifetime?
Recently, as part of its 150th birthday celebrations, the American Institute of Architects teamed up with the well-known polling firm Harris Interactive to see if they could find out Americans' 150 favorite buildings in the United States. The results of the poll are here. On the left of that page you will see a link for "Methodology." I find it bizarre that the AIA makes you download a Microsoft Word document for this rather than just rendering it as a web page. Truly bizarre. In any event, here's basically how the methodology worked. In the fall of 2006, the AIA polled 2,448 of its own members (which is to say, professional architects), who got to name up to 20 of their favorite works of American architecture. Works receiving six or more mentions, of which there were 247, were then presented to a sampling of 1,804 U.S. adults in December 2006-January 2007. There's a little more to the methodology, of course, but that's the gist. It seems to me like fairly standard polling practice. While the members of the public who were polled were allowed to "write in" buildings that were not among the 247 presented to them, still in evaluating the results one must bear in mind that for the most part the public was limited to a preselected list, one that was heavily biased toward modernist buildings.
What counts as "modernism" or "traditionalism" is not always clear, so it's hard to divine the percentages on a list like this. But using my own standard of "ornamental" and "non-ornamental," and not thinking about it too hard, I'd say that 64 of the 150 buildings (or roughly 42%) fall in the latter category. And, interestingly, they are heavily bunched up toward the bottom. That then clearly makes you wonder about the other 97 preselected buildings. Were they all, perhaps, modernist buildings?
Thus, let's look at the top 40. That's where I think we get the fairest sense of true public preference.
The number one building was the Empire State Building. This seems unsurprising to me, though I suspect that if only New Yorkers had been polled, the Chrysler Building (no. 9) may have won. The top ten is rounded out thus: the White House; Washington National Cathedral; the Jefferson Memorial; the Golden Gate Bridge; the U.S. Capitol; the Lincoln Memorial; Biltmore; the Chrysler Building; and Maya Lin's Vietnam Veterans' Memorial.
The next ten: St. Patrick's Cathedral; the Washington Monument; Grand Central Terminal; Eero Saarinen's Gateway Arch; the U.S. Supreme Court building; the St. Regis Hotel in Manhattan; the Metropolitan Museum of Art; the Hotel del Coronado in San Diego; the World Trade Center; and the Brooklyn Bridge.
The surprises are actually quite few. For me, the stunner is the St. Regis Hotel. Where did that come from? I personally happen to think that the St. Regis, which opened in 1904 (and was expertly extended eastward in 1927) is a splendid building. But that it finished in 16th place is very hard to believe. And even though it no longer stands, the World Trade Center (the only truly modernist building in the top 20) is hardly a surprise at no. 19.
One thing I find interesting is that several of the top 40 are traditional buildings built deep into the 20th century, such as the Jefferson and Lincoln memorials, Washington National Cathedral, the National Gallery of Art, the Supreme Court, and the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. Also noteworthy is that Frank Lloyd Wright, whom we are told over and over again is America's favorite architect, doesn't make an appearance until nos. 29 (Fallingwater) and 30 (Taliesin, Spring Green). (Right after Taliesin is Chicago's Wrigley Field.)
Well, you can look at the list yourself. It's easy to say that such polls and lists are fatuous exercises that really tell us nothing significant. I beg to differ. I agree that as a guide to the public's absolute taste (if such a thing exists), or as a guide to the formation of one's own taste, such polls and lists are, indeed, useless. But as a guide to what 1,804 U.S. adults thought when presented with a list of 247 buildings, then this AIA poll is an unassailable document of real sociological value, and to read it as such may yield insights, after all, into what the public prizes. Does anyone doubt that the Las Vegas Bellagio Hotel is the U.S. public's 22nd favorite building? I don't.
This also makes me wonder what such a poll conducted exclusively among ICA&CA's membership would look like. Hmmm. Stay tuned.
I'm pleased to see that ICA&CA board member David M. Schwarz came in at no. 118 with his American Airlines Center in Dallas.
Oh, and Frank Gehry does not show up till 99th place.