Monastery at Large

Category: John Portman

  • Regency Hyatt House Hotel – Atlanta (1967)

    John C. Portman of Edwards & Portman. Atrium of Regency Hyatt House Hotel (1967). Peachtree Center, Atlanta.1 2

    “The most exciting hotel on earth is open now in Atlanta,” proclaimed ads for the Regency Hyatt House (later Hyatt Regency Atlanta) in May 1967. 3

    That wasn’t an exaggeration — when it first debuted, the fantastic Space-Age design of the Hyatt’s 22-story atrium was considered groundbreaking, and brought more press attention to Atlanta than the city had received in decades.

    Seemingly overnight, the status of the hotel’s designer, John Portman (1924-2017), was elevated from that of a run-of-the-mill Atlanta architect to an internationally recognized architect, developer, and urban planner — whether that reputation was deserved is another matter.

    View of the original atrium design of the Regency Hyatt Hotel. Atlanta. Photograph from an undated postcard published by GA Scenic South Co., of Pell City, Alabama.

    As a product of Atlanta, Portman was, more than anything, a shameless self-promoter, and for years, he was widely credited as the inventor of the atrium hotel concept, which couldn’t be further from the truth.

    Atlanta’s own Kimball House Hotel, designed by L.B. Wheeler and completed in 1885, was centered around a 7-story central atrium,4 a concept G.L. Norrman replicated at a smaller scale in both the Printup Hotel in Gadsden, Alabama, and the Windsor Hotel in Americus, Georgia.

    The Windsor, incidentally, is the oldest-surviving atrium hotel in the United States, having opened two months before Denver’s Brown Palace Hotel,5 6 which was also built around an atrium.

    I’ll give Portman this much: he redefined the atrium concept for the 20th century, and the Hyatt was the first modern atrium hotel when it debuted, but that was 60 years ago — it’s not so modern now.

    Looking down at the atrium of Hyatt Regency Atlanta (altered)

    When I visited Atlanta for the first time at the age of 9, I saw the Hyatt atrium while most of its original 1960s elements were still intact. As a child, it was a revelatory experience: I was instantly obsessed with Portman’s designs and determined to someday move to Atlanta to become an architect.

    Then I grew up.

    My assessment of Portman’s work has drastically changed with age and experience: his narcissistic, inward-facing designs that shunned the urban environment have permanently maimed Downtown Atlanta, and his prioritization of spectacle and bullshit over substance and service is all too typical of the city’s hollow nature.

    Portman’s reputation in the United States diminished from the 1980s onward, and like many of the 20th-century American architects who were much-hailed in their time, his work is being rapidly — and justly — forgotten.

    Looking up at the atrium of Hyatt Regency Atlanta

    Atlanta gave lip service to Portman’s legacy in his later years, even as many of his works in the city were either demolished or gutted of their original character — the Hyatt among them. The hotel’s atrium is now a bland, sterile shell of its former self, and the uninformed visitor would never guess it was once considered revolutionary.

    Ironically, other cities have done a better job of preserving Portman’s work than his own hometown. San Francisco’s Embarcadero Center and Hyatt Regency, for instance, still retain their original flavor.

    But in Atlanta’s relentless drive to be the newest and best — and it never succeeds at either — the city’s developers compulsively destroy every shred of fabric that even hints of being old.

    Portman was among the worst offenders in that regard, so it’s only fitting that his work, too, is now being dismantled. No loss, really.

    References

    1. Portman, John C., and Barnett, Jonathan. The Architect As Developer. New York: McGraw-Hill (1976). ↩︎
    2. “Regency Opens a Showplace”. The Atlanta Journal and The Atlanta Constitution, June 25, 1967, 3-R. ↩︎
    3. Advertisement. The Atlanta Journal, May 30, 1967, p. 5-A. ↩︎
    4. “The New H.L. Kimball”. The Atlanta Constitution, May 1, 1885, p. 1. ↩︎
    5. “It Opens To-Day.” Americus Times-Recorder (Americus, Georgia), June 26, 1892, p. 1. ↩︎
    6. Historic Downtown Denver, CO Hotels | The Brown Palace ↩︎

  • Dobbs University Center (1987-2017) – Atlanta

    Portman and Associates. R. Howard Dobbs University Center (1987, demolished 2017). Emory University, Atlanta.1 2
    1. Fox, Catherine. “New Emory student center like an amiable, multilevel Main Street”. The Atlanta Journal and Constitution, March 8, 1987, p. 4-J. ↩︎
    2. Photos: Goodbye to the DUC | Emory University | Atlanta GA ↩︎

  • Midway School (1957) – DeKalb County, Georgia

    John Portman of Edwards & Portman. Midway Elementary School (1957). DeKalb County, Georgia.1 2

    Midway Elementary School in DeKalb County, Georgia, was built in 1957 and designed by John Portman (1924-2017), a decade before he achieved fame for his soaring atrium hotels, of which Atlanta’s Hyatt Regency Hotel (1968)3 4 is the prototype.

    Midway School was the first of many school buildings Portman designed in and around Atlanta through the 1980s. Most still stand, and most are unremarkable — the casual observer would never guess they were from the same firm that produced many of Atlanta’s landmark towers. Look closely, though, and you’ll find they share the same core concept.

    Entrance of Midway Elementary School

    Born and raised in Atlanta, Portman made millions off the very Atlanta idea that instead of solving the problems of a dysfunctional city, you could just turn your back on them and pretend they don’t exist.

    This idea was fundamental in Portman’s development of Peachtree Center in Downtown Atlanta, consciously designed to present blank, faceless, hostile exteriors to the person on the street, while concealing dramatic, cavernous (and privately controlled) spaces for customers inside.

    Portman replicated this concept for San Francisco’s Embarcadero Center, the Westin Bonaventure hotel in Los Angeles, Renaissance Center in Detroit,5 and the New York Marriott Marquis6 hotel — among many other large-scale projects — enjoying widespread acclaim from the late 1960s to the mid-1970s as a master of urban renewal.

    By the 1980s, however, Portman’s designs rapidly fell out of favor when it became apparent that they ultimately destroyed the life and fabric of cities he claimed to be saving. Atlanta suffered the worst: its central core remains a depressing void, largely because of Portman’s sprawling concrete fortresses.

    Entrance courtyard at Midway Elementary School

    You can see the beginnings of Portman’s inward focus in his early work, like Midway School. The solid brick walls at the front of the building seal off the interior from the outside world — looking in the narrow clerestory windows, you only glimpse the ceiling.

    The courtyard spanned by beams is particularly notable, as Portman would repeat this design in later projects like the Dana Fine Arts Building (1965) in nearby Decatur.7 8 9 There, he lined the courtyard with brick walls, effectively creating an exterior room. Two years later, the courtyard design evolved into the landmark Hyatt atrium.

    References

    1. Portman, John C., and Barnett, Jonathan. The Architect As Developer. New York: McGraw-Hill (1976). ↩︎
    2. “DeKalb School Design Chosen For Exposition”. The Atlanta Journal and Constitution, December 9, 1956, p. 3-E. ↩︎
    3. Portman, John C., and Barnett, Jonathan. The Architect As Developer. New York: McGraw-Hill (1976). ↩︎
    4. The Atlanta Journal and Constitution, June 25, 1967, pp. 1-R-20-R. ↩︎
    5. Portman, John C., and Barnett, Jonathan. The Architect As Developer. New York: McGraw-Hill (1976). ↩︎
    6. Mortiz, Owen. “Broadway’s newest smash.” Daily News (New York), September 5, 1985, p. 11. ↩︎
    7. Portman, John C., and Barnett, Jonathan. The Architect As Developer. New York: McGraw-Hill (1976). ↩︎
    8. Crown, John. “Agnes Scott Begins $900,000 Arts Building”. The Atlanta Journal, February 11, 1964, p. 8. ↩︎
    9. “Agnes Scott’s New Building”. The Atlanta Constitution, October 14, 1965, p. 56. ↩︎