Engineering and Manufacturing Headquarters, Parker Hannifin Aerospace, 1970
1970
A.C. Martin & Associates
Designed by Albert C. Martin & Associates, the Parker Hannifin Headquarters in Irvine, CA housed the company’s administrative and manufacturing facilities on a vast, 74-acre site. The firm’s location in Orange County reflected the region’s expanding technology sectors and the increasing tendency in the late 1960s and 1970s toward the design of corporate campuses. The commission was a good match for A. C. Martin & Associates, which had expanded its office to include an architectural software design division and was helping to change Southern California’s skyline by engineering sleek Late Modern towers and corporate offices.
Composed of four separate buildings that housed admistration services and manufacturing facilities, the Parker Hannifin Building was envisioned as a campus that would incorporate the entire development process. It was also master planned to anticipate the company’s subsequent growth. The simple, steel modernist construction and tilt up walls were designed to be easily disassembled for simplified building expansion.
Thom was in his element photographing Parker Hannifin. In one photograph, he frames the 40,000 square foot admistration building in one-point perspective, emphasizing its vast horizonality as a California sun sets behind its illuminated interior. Inside, he captures a play of intersecting geometries through tightly-cropped images: dropped ceiling, diagonal skylight, and wall and floor masses shift past one another as streams of light and the contrasting patterns of brick and tile animate surfaces.
References:
“Parker Hannifin Corp.,” Encyclopedia of Cleveland History, Case Western Reserve University, from Thomas A. Piraino, Jr., Parker Hannifin’s 100-Year Journey, 2017.
Agis Salpukas, "Parker-Hannifin Buys Growth". The New York Times, December 20, 1979.
AC Martin Portfolio, “Engineering and Manufacturing Headquarters, Parker-Hannifin Aerospace.”
