Word: kaufmans
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...York's celebrated concrete canyons and glittering skyscrapers, which many people consider exciting, are actually sterile, pompous and stupefyingly dull. At least that is Melvyn Kaufman's view-and he is doing something about it. A partner in the William Kaufman Organization, a prominent New York building firm founded by his father, he has launched a campaign "to humanize buildings through shock and disruption...
...Kaufman's efforts began in earnest in 1970, when he opened a new office building in the Wall Street area. From a distance it looks like the other towers all around it-humdrum-but it has its surprises. On the roof stands a replica of a World War I Sopwith Camel, complete with an AstroTurf runway and a wind sock. Says Kaufman: "It's something for the workers in surrounding towers to look...
...building also has no lobby. Instead, Kaufman provided a lively outdoor plaza with pools, a thicket of trees, and an old-style candy store-all for less cost than the usual marble and glass entry. The whole area forms a relaxing and pleasing contrast with what Kaufman calls "the street-level sterility of the financial district...
Once inside the building, another shock awaits them. The maverick builder thinks elevators are "like coffins." Not here. They are garishly painted and lit in red and blue so that riders' faces acquire a purplish tinge. "Not always flattering, but it makes people talk," says Kaufman. "And conversation makes the trip into a human experience." Such experiences may not suit everybody, but the building is fully rented...
Broad, who has been chief since Kaufman's retirement in 1965, knows relatively little about building a house and lets others make technical innovations and aesthetic improvements. He gives great autonomy to the company's local division heads, and many have become paper millionaires through the K. & B. stock-option plan. K. & B.'s homes look much like the repetitively designed houses put up by many other builders. Broad's main concern is mass producing and selling a product that happens to be housing but could just as easily be bed springs or toenail clippers. Says...