In the mid-1950s, the newly minted US Air Force needed a home. They rejected West Point brick. Too stuffy. Instead, they hired Skidmore, Owings & Merrill to build a modernist fortress of steel, aluminum, and glass on the windy slopes of the Rocky Mountains. Walter Netsch took the lead. He threw out classical columns and designed a strict geometric grid around a massive plaza called the Terrazzo. It looked incredibly futuristic. Angry congressmen actually called the designs "un-American" during tense Washington hearings. But the military didn't budge. They wanted to project the future of flight, not the past.
Then you have the famous Cadet Chapel. Netsch designed seventeen soaring aluminum spires that shoot 150 feet into the Colorado sky. Inside, he placed colored glass ribbons between the steel tetrahedrons to paint the stone floor in deep reds and blues. It looks gorgeous. Actually, it leaked constantly for decades. Just a gritty reality of experimental 1950s construction, which recently forced a massive, multi-million dollar renovation effort to save the structure from water rot. The entire Cadet Area represents more than just pretty buildings, though. It showcases the exact moment the United States decided its military future belonged to the jet age.
What Makes United States Air Force Academy, Cadet Area Special:
