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THE FUTURE IS IN THE PAST GOODBYE TO GLASS BOXES Philip Johnson’s design for the AT&T building is an example of this visual wit and ornamentation in postmodernist architecture. When it first opened the AT&T Building stood in stark contrast to the modernist skyscrapers, featuring a number of ornamental flourishes, its most notable one being the decorative “Chippendale” motif pediment that tops the building. This reference to Chippendale style furniture is an example of one of the major postmodern tools of pastiche. The AT&T building’s chippendale motif paired with its high arched entrance look like a “wardrobe piece” (sturken and cartwright, 340) or “grandfather clock” (hughes, 10).
ACT OF BORROWING FROM THE T WAS CONSIDERED A GROTESQUE EAT TO THE MODERNIST IDEAL This was a fun and witty pastiche of historical styles and features without meaning or comment on history itself. This playful ornamentation was one of the first to break away from modernist doctrine of discipline and functionalism in its blending different style periods without function. Robert Hughes says that the monumental shaped towers of the ‘20s and ‘30s such as the Rockefeller Center, Empire State, the Chrysler Building were the definitive fantasy monuments of American capital, and that no modernist “glass slab could hope to be as rich in imagery as” (hughes, 10). This was the idea that Phillip Johnson with the AT&T building adopted, contextualising the building as part of the iconic New York skyline and imbuing it with the
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