Architects from around the nation gathered at Yale to discuss the future fate of failing federal buildings.

The U.S. government owns more than 250 public buildings constructed between 1960 and 1980, and most of them are in trouble.

Many office buildings and courthouses of the era -- including New Haven's Giaimo Federal Building at
150 Court St. -- were poorly built or badly designed by today's standards, and haven't held up well. In some cases, facades are crumbling; in others, the air quality is bad or wiring is inadequate. Many of the buildings use space and energy inefficiently. Instead of anchoring declining neighborhoods, they have had negative urban impact. Once seen as impressive and modern, many now look unattractive, according to current architectural aesthetics. Only a few are still considered well designed and built.

Should the buildings be renovated? Demolished and replaced? Adapted and reused for other purposes? Experts began exploring the alternatives at "Architecture of the Great Society: A Forum on Public Architecture from the 1960s and 1970s," a one-day conference sponsored by the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA).

Robert A.M. Stern, dean of the School of Architecture, hosted the meeting, which was held on Dec. 5 in the auditorium of the Yale Center for British Art. The program included a series of panels, each followed by lively group discussion and disagreement. Participants included more than 100 architects, academics and historic preservation experts as well as representatives of the GSA from Washington and around the country.

In his opening remarks, Stern related the forum to Yale and New Haven. He called attention to the buildings on campus that date from the period under consideration, including three by Louis I. Kahn: the British Art Center, the Yale University Art Gallery and Holcombe T. Green Jr. Hall, the new home of the School of Art.

Stern said: "I am taking a bit of your time to tell you about these Yale buildings because, along with Eero Saarinen's Ingalls Hockey Rink and Stiles and Morse Colleges, Gordan Bunshaft's Beinecke Library, Philip Johnson's Kline Science Tower and Marcel Brewer's Becton Hall, they contribute a remarkable treasure of the difficult -- and difficult to appreciate -- masterpieces of 1950s and 1960s architecture that are a great part of this University's legacy. Yale, a private institution, is committed to restoring these great buildings and maintaining them for the future. So for those reasons alone, we are honored to help with this important symposium."

He spoke of the relevance of holding the GSA forum in New Haven, which he called "a great and also misunderstood city."

"New Haven was in fact the original Model City," Stern said. "It was on the basis of what was done in New Haven that the Model Cities Program of the federal government was largely based. New Haven led the way in urban highway construction, in wholesale slum clearance and a lot of other things that were fundamentally destructive of the public realm. But New Haven also led the way in preservation and restoration of historic neighborhoods and legislative landmarking. The city built artistically cutting-edge public works, including schools, housing, libraries and fire stations," he noted.

Stern urged the audience to "Keep in mind that this city and this University have much to contribute to, and much to learn from, the critical work that we are all here to help with today."

Throughout the day, discussion was heated. One participant asserted that some of the buildings under consideration were simply not worth salvaging.

"The GSA has a lot of lousy buildings," said San Francisco architect Arthur Gensler. "They are, were and will forever be junk. They're bad inside and they have cheap facades. Why shouldn't government workers have the best possible environment to work in?" He called the buildings "uninhabitable" and "environmentally horrible."

Taking a more moderate position, Herbert Newman, a faculty member at the School of Architecture and architect in New Haven, suggested that some of the federal office buildings "received importance beyond their value." Because they are named buildings, like the Abraham A. Ribicoff Federal Building and Courthouse in Hartford, or the Hubert Humphrey Building in Washington, a degree of grandeur is implied, but these "are frequently vernacular buildings," said Newman, rather than important monuments.

Throughout the day, participants considered how to evaluate the quality of a public building and how to balance the competing priorities of history, function and performance. The forum concluded with a panel titled "Next Steps: Setting the Agenda for the Future."

-- By Gila Reinstein

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