Safety Enclosures
The urban blight that marked the late ‘60s
and ‘70s made open schemes like the MCA
“Garden Offices” anathema to developers in
more troubled, downtown zones. There, another
topographic strategy for center city revitalization
relied on huge vertical enclosures. Organized as
a walled super-block, largely blind to the street
and enfolding space, energy and freedom within,
Charles Luckman’s pioneering Broadway Plaza,
built from 1973 to 1975, had four distinct vol-
umes — residences-hotel, atrium-mall, office
tower and parking. These were compressed
into a tight stack of barely differentiated brick-
clad forms with only three well-secured entries
penetrating its huge street-side walls. Diniz
does his best to emphasize its apartness, but
dissolves the massy envelope into translucence.
The city around Broadway Plaza remained
virtually invisible from inside, except from the
revolving restaurant on top, where it appears as
a safely remote panorama. In Diniz’s vignette, the
struts and spars of constructive geometries ani-
mate this new city-within-a-city into a Piranesian
promenade, strongly articulated and tough, but
well lit, well guarded and secure.
Above Carlos Diniz, Broadway Plaza, Shopping
Area View, 1973. Charles Luckman & Associates,
architects. Ink on vellum.
Right Carlos Diniz, Broadway Plaza, Hotel View,
1973. Charles Luckman & Associates, architects.
Ink on vellum.
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