Michael Graves’s Portland Building

Abstract

Singled out as a landmark in architectural history even before it was built, Michael Graves’s Portland Building, known only through drawings, was considered an icon of postmodernism and immediately became a fixture in architectural history texts. Since it exploded onto the scene in the early 1980s, it has been heralded as one of the most controversial, published buildings in architectural history. But little has been written about the building itself, how it came to be, how well it functions, and how it has stood the test of time over the past thirty years. In Michael Graves’s Portland Building: Power, Politics, and Postmodernism, Meredith L. Clausen argues that despite the voluminous critical literature of theorists and critics focusing on its meaning, symbolism, associations, and reinterpretation of classicism, a decidedly different picture of the building emerges when viewed through the lens of historical documents. The focus here is on the dynamics of the competition, the conflicting civic priorities, the powerful role of the media, and politics both local and in architecture.