Arquitectura y Reagan

Architecture and Politics in the Reagan Era: From Postmodernism to Deconstructivism Author(s): Mary McLeod Source: Assemblage, No. 8 (Feb., 1989), pp. 22-59 Published by: The MIT Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3171013 Accessed: 18/11/2008 19:07
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available athttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact informationmay be obtained at http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=mitpress. Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit organization founded in 1995 to build trusted digital archives for scholarship. We work with the scholarly community to preserve theirwork and the materials they rely upon, and to build a common research platform that promotes the discovery and use of these resources. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

The MIT Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Assemblage.

http://www.jstor.org

AO4v
* ***, *? .

IDZ so, elb

..

r
? . .. .

V
tumoh ' &.mbdwo

i#f'

F
I

I!I

*'7244

2ill

Mary
in
From

McLeod
and
Era:

Architecture
the

Politics

Reagan

Postmodernism to

Deconstructivism

Professor of MaryMcLeodis Associate at Architecture ColumbiaUniversity and whereshe teachesdesignand history theory.

"Postmodernarchitectureis the architectureof Reaganism." Among many leftist architectsand critics, thiskind of statement has become a cliche. The pseudohistorical nostalgia, the fabricatedtraditions,the panderingto a nouveau-riche clientele, the populist rhetoricthat often sounds more paternalisticthan democratic, the abandonment of any social vision - all seem related in some way to the conservativeturn in American politics. On the other hand, neoconservativecritics Daniel Bell and Hilton Kramerhavevehemently attackedpostmodernismfrom their perspective, claiming that it undermines social stability and fundamental spiritualvalues. This attackon disparatefronts immediately revealsthe difficulties of any simple equation between postmodernismand a political position. The relation between style and ideology has alwaysbeen a complex one, but in the instance of postmodernism the problem iscompounded: first, by the confusion surroundingwhat postmodernismis and, second, by the ever-quickeningcycle of consumption that seems to cause political meanings to change with increasing rapidity, raising more fundamental questions about the nature of architecture'spolitical power.

PostmodernArchitecture:Some Definitions
1. PhilipJohnson holding a model of the AT&T building, cover, Time, 8 January1979

Almost inevitably, any essay about postmodernismmust confront the problems of defining this diverse and pluralistic movement. Attemptsat definition have varied from broad-scalehistorical periodization(FredricJameson), to
23

assemblage 8

philosophical equations (postmodernismas the cultural to equivalent of poststructuralism), specific stylistictrends or intentions, often at oddsfrom one field to another (autonomy and formalism, for example; are seen as modern in one field, postmodern in another). In American architecture, where the word was firstpopularized, the critic has the potential advantageof its widespreadusage. The first, and still the most common, understandingof the term refersto the tendency that rejectsthe formal and social constituents of the modern movement...