Word: ade
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...lived in it, but to architects it was a milestone; it became the model for countless other slabs before and since the U N Building. In all his work, Corbu had lifted his prisms on high to reclaim the land underneath. His columned structures had freed the façade for inventive sculpturing, opened up interiors, surrendered the long dark walls to light. And as a grace note, he had added the roof garden. These devices, which he imperiously declared to be the basis of a "fundamentally new esthetic," seem simple in retrospect-but then, so does the arch...
Overshadowing the façade was the high dome, 8,909,200 lbs. of cast-iron ribs and plates so big at the bottom perimeter that an arc of it overhung the main wall-an engineering oddity concealed by the pediment topping the colonnade in front of the wall. Some critics prized this set-out look of the dome for the "cascade" effect it gave to a viewer standing close and looking sharply up. Classicists, however objected that the style varied too much from Old World models, whose domes are, set well back so that walls and roof can buttress...
...classicists, whether he knew or not, was House Speaker Sam Rayburn, who three years ago pushed through the proposal to "correct" the perspective by moving the east front wall 32½ ft. forward. To end the crumbling, he wanted a new façade of longlasting marble, and he rubbed his hands at the thought of additional space for congressional offices, a new restaurant, a tourist-free corridor. Cost for the overhaul: $17 million...
Seeing the new façade, most architects and others who were critical of the change tend to accept it peaceably. The new marble, plus the creamy paint on the dome, undoubtedly are an improvement over the flaked-sandstone look. And the forward shift of the front is so comparatively slight that visitors hardly note a significant change in the relationship of dome and wall...
...manner of banners, which someone had conveniently supplied, demanding that the U.S. "Liberate Hungary First," "Get Out of Alaska," and "Remember Little Rock." Someone had also brought along rocks enough to smash 47 windows, ink enough to splash photogenically on the embassy's pink stucco façade...