Let us assure you

Architecture can often find itself in service of a message: this institution is trustworthy or forward-thinking; that individual or company is powerful; here is a world you want to buy into. This topic looks at examples of the built environment as a kind of public relations strategy. In unpacking the ways that architecture—and, equally importantly, representations of it—lays claims and exerts influence, we might better understand the versions of reality that architecture proposes to us.

Empire

Postscript: History Repeats Itself

The Political Life of a Building

Toys Shape Minds no. 5

Ben Schnall, View of the dedication ceremony of the John F. Kennedy Educational Civic, and Cultural Center showing a partial view of the platform with people and a photograph of the model of the building, Mineola, New York, 1968

Power Pictures

Toys Shape Minds no. 16

Ed Fausty and Brian Rose, photographers. Williamsburg Bridge, New York City, New York. 1981

New York: Capital of the Twentieth Century

Stone and Gold

Hedrich-Blessing, studio. Export Building, Half-Ton Truck Plant, Chrysler Corporation Dodge division, Mound and Eight Mile Roads. June 1938

Detroit: The Invisible Content of a Photograph

Realism and Illusion

In Search of a Public Image

Classigraphy

Touring The Architecture of Reassurance

Hang the Architect

Robert Burley. Overview, overcast day, Mountain View Cemetery, Oakland, California. October 1991.

The Architecture of Death

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Article 11 of 16

Realism and Illusion

Photographs by Catherine Wagner

Minnie Mouse’s kitchen, Mickey’s Toontown, Disneyland, Anaheim, California, 1995. PH1996:0089

Minnie Mouse’s kitchen, Mickey’s Toontown, Disneyland, 1995. PH1996:0073

Minnie Mouse’s house, Mickey’s Toontown, Disneyland, 1995. PH1996:0072

Mickey Mouse’s laundry room, Mickey’s Toontown, Disneyland, 1995. PH1997:0077

Mickey Mouse’s house, Mickey’s Toontown, Disneyland, 1995. PH1996:0090

Mickey Mouse’s living room, Mickey’s Toontown, Disneyland, 1995. PH1996:0071

World Bazaar with castle in background, Tokyo Disneyland, 1995. PH1996:0084

World Bazaar, Tokyo Disneyland, 1995. PH1996:0079

Rockwork surrounding Sleeping Beauty Castle, Fantasyland, Disneyland, 1995. PH1996:0088

Sleeping Beauty Castle, Fantasyland, Disneyland, 1995. PH1996:0077

Storybook Land, Disneyland, 1995. PH1996:0070

Storybook Land, Disneyland, 1995. PH1996:0086

Beanstalk outside Sir Mickey’s Store, Fantasyland, Disneyland Paris, Marne-la-Vallée, 1995. PH1996:0078

Avenue of the Planets, New Tomorrowland, Magic Kingdom, Walt Disney World, Orlando, Florida, 1995. PH1996:0087

Entrance, New Tomorrowland, Disneyland, 1995. PH1996:0083

Autopia, Tomorrowland, Disneyland, 1995. PH1996:0075

Westernland, Tokyo Disneyland, 1995. PH1996:0080

Westernland, Tokyo Disneyland, 1995. PH1996:0081

Big Thunder Mountain, Westernland, Tokyo Disneyland, 1995. PH1996:0085

Jungle Cruise, Adventureland, Tokyo Disneyland, 1995. PH1996:0093

Indiana Jones Adventure, Adventureland, Disneyland, 1995. PH1996:0076

Special effects tank, Backstage Studio Tour, Disney-MGM Studios, Walt Disney World, 1995. PH1997:0079

New York streetscape, Studio Backlot Tour, Disney-MGM Studios, Walt Disney World, 1995. PH1996:0094

The Darkroom, Disney-MGM Studios, Walt Disney World, 1995. PH1996:0091

One of the notions I worked with was the idea that Disney sets perfect the art of illusion. My photographs act exponentially to add yet another layer to the simulacrum of heightened reality. Whether I was in Paris, Tokyo, Florida or Los Angeles the sets were vacant of cultural clues.
— Catherine Wagner, 1997

In 1995, as part of the development of the exhibition The Architecture of Reassurance, we commissioned Catherine Wagner to photograph the four Disney theme parks (in Anaheim, California; Orlando, Florida; Tokyo; and Paris). The resulting photos were also shown in the 1997 exhibition Realism and Illusion.

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