Sandfuture: Exploring Minoru Yamasaki, Lost Humanist Architecture, and the Rise of Sick Buildings and Sick People

Architect Minoru Yamasaki stands behind an architectural model of New York City, 1958.

Artist and author Justin Beal shares the career and legacy of influential yet often forgotten architect Minoru Yamasaki. Yamasaki’s human-centered architectural design was often overrun by economics, politics, and capitalist symbolism, leading to his two most well-known developments, the Pruitt-Igoe housing project in St. Louis and the World Trade Center in New York City, to come crashing down on live television some thirty years apart–one at the hands of bureaucrats, the other by terrorists. Beal also considers how modern architectural trends and a changing climate have created a generation of buildings that ignore human needs, contributing to sick building syndrome. Beal recently published Sandfuture, his autobiographical exploration of Yamasaki’s legacy and how modern architecture has failed human health.

Related Collections:
Minoru Yamasaki Papers
Wayne State University College of Education Building Committee Records
Fred Hansen Papers

Related Resources:
Sandfuture

Episode Credits
Producers: Dan Golodner and Troy Eller English
Interviewer: Dan Golodner
Interviewee: Justin Beal
Music: Bart Bealmear

International Architect Minoru Yamasaki’s Impact on the Wayne State Campus

Reuther Library archivist Shae Rafferty discusses the career of Minoru Yamasaki, renown architect of the original World Trade Center, the Dhahran International Airport in Saudi Arabia, and many buildings in the metropolitan Detroit area. University archivist Alison Stankrauff shares the history and design of four Yamasaki buildings on the campus of Wayne State University in Detroit.

Related Collections:

Minoru Yamasaki Papers

Wayne State University Office of the President Clarence B. Hilberry Records

Wayne State University Office of the President William Rea Keast Records

Wayne State University College of Education Building Committee Records

Collection Spotlight: Minoru Yamasaki’s Campus Buildings

 

Images

Wayne State University – Events

Wayne State University – Places

Virtual Motor City

 

Episode Credits

Producers: Dan Golodner and Troy Eller English

Host: Dan Golodner

Interviewees: Shae Rafferty and Alison Stankrauff

Sound: Troy Eller English

With support from the Reuther Podcast Collective: Bart Bealmear, Elizabeth Clemens, Meghan Courtney, Troy Eller English, Dan Golodner, Paul Neirink, and Mary Wallace