Soon after building the Chicago Tribune Tower, Hood is asked to do his first Skyscraper in New York, the American Radiator Building, on a lot facing Bryant Park.
In the standard "solution"- the direct multiplication of the site as often as the zoning envelope permits- the west face of such a Tower would have a blind wall, so that a similar structure could be built directly against it. By shrinking the area of the Tower, Hood is able to perforate the west facade with windows, and so designs the first example of his City of Towers. The operation makes pragmatic and financial sense; the quality of the office space increases, therefore the rents, and so on. But the exterior of the Tower presents different- i.e., artistic- issues to the architect. He has always been irritated by the boring window openings in the facades of Towers, a potential tedium that increases in direct proportion to their height- acres of meaningless black rectangles that threaten to reduce their soaring quality.
Hood decides to build the building in black brick, so that the holes- embarrassing reminder of the other reality inside- can be absorbed within the stem and thus become unnoticeable.
The top of the black building is gilded. Hood's down-to-earth alibi for the top briskly severs all connections between gold and any possible association with Ecstasy. "The incorporation of publicity or advertising features in a building is frequently an item for consideration. It stimulates public interest and admiration, is accepted as a genuine contribution to architecture, enhances the value of the property and is profitable to the owner in the same manner as other forms of legitimate advertising."
excerpt: pp.165, "Delirious New York." Rem Koolhaas. 1994. Monacelli.
