Remembering John Portman

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Docomomo US Staff

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Newsletter, Obituary
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Docomomo US is saddened by the passing of John Portman on December 29, 2017. Portman was known as one of the world's most influential architects and developers who wowed many with his futuristic atriums and whose designs revitalized city centers.

 

According to The New York Times

"One of the world’s best-known and most influential architects, Mr. Portman, over a half-century, redefined urban landscapes in the United States. He built the Peachtree Center in Atlanta, the Embarcadero Center in San Francisco, the Renaissance Center in Detroit and scores of hotel, office and retail complexes in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Fort Worth, San Diego and other cities."...

..."influenced by Frank Lloyd Wright, who harmonized structures with people and surroundings, Mr. Portman said his own buildings, especially hotels, were oases within cities, designed to enhance the experiences of the people who used them.

“Anyone can build a building and put rooms in it,” he told The Times in 2011. “But we should put human beings at the head of our thought processes. You want to hopefully spark their enthusiasm. Like riding in a glass elevator: Everyone talks on a glass elevator. You get on a closed-in elevator, everyone looks down at their shoes. A glass elevator lets people’s spirits expand. Architecture should be a symphony.”'

 

Read the full obituary in The New York Times HERE

 

Read More

Architectural Record | January 9, 2018

Looking Back on the Work of John Portman

 

John Portman & Associates | December 30, 2017

John C. Portman, Jr. 1924-2017