American Dominance.

In the 1950s America exerted an enormous influence on world architectural design, not only because of the volume of work being done but also because the most exciting new forms were being conceived and executed in the United States. Wealthy clients and the large number of emigrants from throughout the world made the United States the undisputed center of architectural innovation.

Great Architects.

With a few exceptions (Le Corbusier in France, Yoshimura in Japan, and Oscar Niemeyer in Brazil), architects everywhere found themselves copying American trends rather than originating their own. Great architects such as Frank Lloyd Wright, Walter Gropius, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Eero Saarinen, Philip Johnson, and Edward Durrell Stone were all at work in 1950s America — and the quality and amount of their output were staggering. The trend was unabashedly modern, although by the late 1950s more...