Images of the Pacific Design Center, by Cesar Pelli. Digital Imaging Project: Art historical images of European and North American architecture and sculpture from classical Greek to Post-modern. Scanned from slides taken on site by Mary Ann Sullivan, Bluffton College.

Pacific Design Center

Cesar Pelli
1975

Distant views and an entrance corner
Popularly known as the "Blue Whale," this building fulfills Charles Jencks' definition of "slick tech"--an exaggeration of the technological image toward the glossy and ultra-smooth. Here the Argentinian architect uses a membrane of various kinds of glass--transparent, semi-transparent, and opaque.

The front with the cylindrical escalator tower
Although the plan is an apparent rectangle, the main hallway cuts a diagonal through the building--a kind of Mannerist surprise.

Other works by Pelli on this site include: the Clorox Building and Commons--Courthouse Center.

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Copyright © Mary Ann Sullivan. I have photographed (on site), scanned, and manipulated all the images on these pages. Please feel free to use them for personal or educational purposes. They are not available for commercial purposes.

Page created by Mary Ann Sullivan

Distant views and an entrance corner Popularly known as the "Blue Whale," this building fulfills Charles Jencks' definition of "slick tech"--an exaggeration of the technological image toward the glossy and ultra-smooth. Here the Argentinian architect uses a membrane of various kinds of glass--transparent, semi-transparent, and opaque.


The front with the cylindrical escalator tower Although the plan is an apparent rectangle, the main hallway cuts a diagonal through the building--a kind of Mannerist surprise.