BUILDING FOR TOMORROW
Lester Beall [Designer]
Lester Beall [Designer]: BUILDING FOR TOMORROW. Hartford: Connecticut General Life Insurance Company, n. d. [1957]. Square quarto. Stapled, stiff photographically printed wrappers. 28 pp. Color and black and white photography throughout. A very good or better copy with light wear overall and patterned sun-fading and scuffing to front panel.
9 x 9.5 square booklet announcing the completion of the new headquarters of the Connecticut General Life Insurance Company on 280 acres of rolling farmland in Bloomfield, Connecticut. Photographs by Ezra Stoller and W. Eugene Smith.
Lester Beall designed the corporate identity package for Connecticut General in 1956. BUILDING FOR TOMORROW incorporates the award-winning CG Logo, square binding, and typography from Beall's CG Corporate Style Manual [Remington pp 94-97].
Exceptional snapshot of the post-war shift in American industry when modern architects and designers were enlisted for distinctive emblems of prestige.
Designed by Gordon Bunshaft of Skidmore Owings and Merrill, the campus-like plan, and extensive amenities, included a full service cafeteria and after-hours programs, reflected a desire to offer a highly civilized and satisfying office environment to Connecticut General employees. The building set new standards for flexible space planning, efficiency of operation, economy of construction methods, maintenance programs, and planning for future expansion.
Florence Knoll and the Knoll Planning Unit were responsible for the interior design. Isamu Noguchi designed the gardens and landscaping.
Built in 1954-1957, the Connecticut General Life Insurance Company’s headquarters in Bloomfield (now known as the Wilde Building, for company president Frazer B. Wilde), was a pioneering example of an International Style suburban corporate structure. Designed by Gordon Bunshaft of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, it was conceived as a modern campus with sophisticated amenities in a bucolic area. The skills of interior designer Florence Knoll and sculptor Isamu Noguchi were also called upon in the building’s creation. In 1982, CG and INA Corporation joined to form CIGNA, which proposed to demolish and replace the building with a new development in 1999. Preservationists acted to oppose these plans and the building was placed on the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Eleven Most Endangered Historic Places list in 2001. CIGNA eventually decided to remain in the building and rehabilitate it. [Historic Connecticut Buildings]
Lester Beall (1903 - 1969) was a true American Original -- an American Constructivist. Primarily self-taught in graphic design, he exemplified a great knowledge and understanding of the European Avant-Garde. His early work shows Constructivist and Bauhaus influences mixed with his personal Midwestern sensibility. Beall exhibited a great talent for communicating ideas and elevating the taste and expectations of the corporate client. In 1937, Beall became the first American designer to have a one-man show at the Museum of Modern Art, featuring his posters for the Rural Electrification Administration.