Pompadour The pompadour exuberates confidence and panache. Thick strands brushed high back and rippled down and across the site create an eminent landmark. Its reflective surface imposes grandeur and elegance, echoing the king of rock and roll.
This building encompasses and incorporates site, massing, and interior organization into its purpose, which is to create a landmark for Graceland and represent Elvis in his uttermost significance. The initial massing of this project reflected the king’s energetic dance moves by the abrupt twisting and sliding of the volumes to either sides of the site. The skin of the building and the ground condition connect these volumes, making it possible for the topography to embrace the building and allowing the structure to rest lightly over the surface of the ground. It also slopes down towards the building from all sides, permitting water to be collected from all edges of the construction. The spatial organization of the building creates a network, connecting the multiple spaces and providing the opportunity for the public to travel all throughout the building and explore a variety of different spaces. The chapel was placed where the building bulges, at the corner of the site, allowing for a successive hierarchical placement of the other spaces. As people enter and leave the chapel they go through a series of smaller vestibules and enter the reception space on the other side of the building when necessary. The building bulges then pinches towards the center of the site, bulging again, but less, when connecting to the existing building. This places the entry space right at the center of the building, creating a simple circulation. The two bulges created by the swelling of the volumes and apertures house the two most important programmatic spaces, the chapel and the reception area. The other spaces being the vestibule, the restrooms, and the gathering spaces, are all located towards the center of the building. The apertures are larger in the chapel space for the maximum natural day lighting; this however, brought up the need for more insulation in this space. The apertures pinch with the surface, and increase in quantity towards the central pinch of the building, again maximizing day lighting. The way the apertures were positioned resulted in the creation of a pattern that accentuated the building’s overall form and the spatial organization. The interior spaces fall under very different topologies, both from the exterior and from each other. The chapel space has a very light feel due to its pillowed walls, high ceiling, and pure white interior. This opposes the reception space that has much more reflective surfaces that give a crystalized and tessellated atmosphere. The darker colors of the reception area also give the space a more private feel. Both of these spaces differ from the exterior in the sense that the surfaces are much more ragged and much more intricate. The exterior of the building is also reflective, but it reflects the outside, making the surface a more public source of appreciation. The skin
of the building consists of a series of smooth ripples that are accentuated by the single color and reflectiveness of the surface. The Pompadour is a place for sensorial experience and immersion in architecture. The building resembles the hairstyle made famous by Madame de Pompadour in France during the mid eighteenth century that was brought up again by the early rock and roll singers in the fifties. Elvis Presley became famous while he wore this hairstyle, greased back, accentuating the bad boy look. The building’s audacity and grandiosity make of it more than a landmark, it symbolizes the immortality of Elvis Presley.