New Formalism (architecture)

Mark Taper Forum, Los Angeles, designed by Welton Becket and Associates, 1967

The now destroyed original World Trade Center in New York City, designed by Minoru Yamasaki with Emery Roth & Sons associates

New Formalism is an architectural style that emerged in the United States during the mid-1950s and flowered in the 1960s. Buildings designed in that style exhibited many Classical elements including "strict symmetrical elevations" ^[1] building proportion and scale, Classical columns, highly stylized entablatures and colonnades. The style was used primarily for high-profile cultural, high tech, institutional and civic buildings. Edward Durrell Stone's New Delhi American Embassy (1954), which blended the architecture of the east with modern western concepts, is considered to be the symbolic start of New Formalism architecture. ^[2]

Common features of the New Formalism style include:

• Use of traditionally rich materials such as travertine, marble, and granite or man-made materials that mimic their luxurious qualities
• Buildings usually set on a podium
• Designed to achieve modern monumentality
• Embraces classical precedents, such as arches, colonnades, classical columns and entablatures
• Smooth wall surfaces
• Delicacy of details
• Formal landscape; use of pools, fountains, and a sculpture within a central plaza ^[2]

Origins and Principles

The Embassy of the United States, New Delhi, designed by Edward Durell Stone, features a grille wrapping around the building that serves as decoration and a filter for the sun.

Born as a rejection of the rigidity of Modernism, New Formalism attempted to wed Classical architectural with concrete's ability to take on fluid, expressive forms to create new shapes such as umbrella shells, waffle slabs and folded plates. Early innovators of this style, such as Edward Durell Stone, believed that International Style's focus on function was not enough and that buildings must put a greater or equal value on aesthetic beauty. In 1958, Stone famously called for a re-examination of classical and ancient artistic traditions in a Time magazine interview in which he stated, “What we need is to put pure beauty into our buildings.” ^[3]

Stone's rejection of the glass facades in favor of arabesque grilles are clear to see in the US Embassy in New Delhi, opened in 1959. In addition to grilles or screens instead of glass and exterior walls made of exotic material, New Formalist structures have a carefully organized hierarchy of space, and an emphasis is placed on the structural grid of the building. ^[4]

Notable architects

• Welton Becket
• Philip Johnson
• Edward Durell Stone
• Minoru Yamasaki
• Friedrich Silaban
• Gunnar Birkerts

Notable examples

Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts

Istiqlal Mosque

• McGregor Memorial Conference Center, Detroit, Michigan (1958)
• Pacific Science Center, Seattle, Washington (1962)
• Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, New York City (1962/69)
• Memphis International Airport, Memphis, Tennessee (1963)
• Uptown Campus, University at Albany, SUNY, Albany, New York (1964)
• 2 Columbus Circle, New York City (1964)
• Northwestern National Life Building, Minneapolis (1965)
• Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Los Angeles, California (1964)
• Equitable Building, Los Angeles, 1969
• Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, New Haven (1963)
• Cambridge Tower, Austin, Texas (1965)
• Original World Trade Center, Lower Manhattan, New York City (1966)
• Ahmanson Theater, Los Angeles, California (1967)
• Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles (1965)
• United States Confluence Theater - now John H. Wood Federal Courthouse, San Antonio, Texas (1968)
• The Forum, Inglewood, California (1967)
• Wilshire Colonnade, Los Angeles, California (1970)
• John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington, D.C. (1971)
• Teacher Retirement System of Texas Headquarters, Austin, Texas (1973)
• Istiqlal Mosque, Jakarta, Indonesia (1978)
• Weber County Main Library, Ogden, Utah (1968)
• San Diego Sports Arena - now Pechanga Arena, San Diego, California (1966)

References

1. Wiffen, Marcus, American Architecture Since 1780: A Guide to the Styles, The M.I.T. Press, Cambridge Massachusetts, 1969
2. "Architectural Styles in Fullerton: New Formalism". fullertonheritage.org. Archived from the original on 2017-11-29. Retrieved 2014-12-30.
3. TIME (1958-03-31). "Art: More Than Modern". TIME. Retrieved 2025-04-17.
4. "New Formalism". Washington State Department of Archaeology & Historic Preservation (DAHP). 2011-05-27. Retrieved 2025-04-17.