Building the Cold War : Hilton International Hotels and Modern Architecture

Rating:
Summary: Conrad and Communism
Review: Annabel Wharton has written a stunning and brilliant book about the US, Europe and the Middle East during the 1950s and 1960s, the height of the Cold War. She tells the story of how Conrad Hilton and his hotel empire participated in the rebuilding of Western Europe and key spots in the Middle East in the wake of WWII by establishing the Hilton International hotels--architectural monuments to modernism--as "little Americas" away from home for US businessmen, tourists, and diplomats. She explores Hilton hotels in London, Berlin, Istanbul. Rome, Cairo , Athens and other locales. Wharton is a smart, witty writer, and this book is a great pleasure to read.

Rating:
Summary: Hotels as Armaments
Review: The weapons that won the Cold War include ICBMs and nuclear bombs flown on B-52s. These were threats, but never had to be deployed into action. But one weapon that did go into action was hotels. Hilton hotels. This is the surprising demonstration in _Building the Cold War: Hilton International Hotels and Modern Architecture_ (University of Chicago Press) by Annabel Jane Wharton. What is even more surprising is that Hilton hotels did not just participate in the capitalist boom that eventually dislodged the Soviet Union. They were deliberately placed, designed, and run to make a profit, to be sure, but also to dislodge the Red Threat. This is not just the author's speculation. Conrad Hilton made it explicit: "Let me say right here, that we operate hotels abroad for the same reason we operate them in this country - to make money for our stockholders... However, we feel that if we really believe in what we are all saying about liberty, about Communism, about happiness, that we, as a nation, must exercise our great strength and power for good against evil. If we really believe this, it is up to each of us, our organizations and our industries, to contribute to this objective with all the resources at our command." He was careful not to disparage our country's military, but said, "I will tell you frankly, satellites and H-bombs will not get the job done."

Wharton has done an excellent job of giving a broad history of the overseas Hilton, while giving case studies of specific ones. The Istanbul Hilton, for instance, had all the usual amenities, like lawns (completely foreign to the area), tennis courts, and a swimming pool. It had the extraordinary feature, common in foreign Hiltons, of iced water piped into every room. However, the marquee covering cars that drove up to the entrance was a wavy horizontal structure that was referred to as the "flying carpet." The interior lobby had a series of domes in the ceiling, a bow to mosque designs, and there were teakwood screens and Turkish carpets. Work by local artisans decorated the public spaces. Nonetheless, you can see in the pictures (and in this book, there are many useful ones) that the Istanbul Hilton is still a concrete, metal, and glass box like nothing else around it. Old hotels concentrated on public rooms inside; the Hiltons looked out, with lots of glass in every room to supply a view. The view was carefully chosen. In Istanbul, it faced East, toward the Soviet Union, daring those Commies to look American modernity and wealth in the eyes.

Wharton is a historian of medieval art. Her family used some of these hotels when she was growing up, and she has returned to them to give an architectural history of the Hilton overseas effort. (She could not visit two Hiltons now lost, the one in Havana and the one in Tehran.) It is a remarkable history, no longer active because the Cold War is over, and because others followed Hiltons into the modernism market. The Hilton hotels still exist, but they are just hotels now, not unique as architecture nor as Cold War armaments. They shaped the way American visitors viewed foreign capitals, and boosted American economic (and therefore political) policies. Conrad Hilton may not have won the Cold War, but he did more than plenty of the generals.

Rating:
Summary: Hotels as Armaments
Review: The weapons that won the Cold War include ICBMs and nuclear bombs flown on B-52s. These were threats, but never had to be deployed into action. But one weapon that did go into action was hotels. Hilton hotels. This is the surprising demonstration in _Building the Cold War: Hilton International Hotels and Modern Architecture_ (University of Chicago Press) by Annabel Jane Wharton. What is even more surprising is that Hilton hotels did not just participate in the capitalist boom that eventually dislodged the Soviet Union. They were deliberately placed, designed, and run to make a profit, to be sure, but also to dislodge the Red Threat. This is not just the author's speculation. Conrad Hilton made it explicit: "Let me say right here, that we operate hotels abroad for the same reason we operate them in this country - to make money for our stockholders... However, we feel that if we really believe in what we are all saying about liberty, about Communism, about happiness, that we, as a nation, must exercise our great strength and power for good against evil. If we really believe this, it is up to each of us, our organizations and our industries, to contribute to this objective with all the resources at our command." He was careful not to disparage our country's military, but said, "I will tell you frankly, satellites and H-bombs will not get the job done."

Wharton has done an excellent job of giving a broad history of the overseas Hilton, while giving case studies of specific ones. The Istanbul Hilton, for instance, had all the usual amenities, like lawns (completely foreign to the area), tennis courts, and a swimming pool. It had the extraordinary feature, common in foreign Hiltons, of iced water piped into every room. However, the marquee covering cars that drove up to the entrance was a wavy horizontal structure that was referred to as the "flying carpet." The interior lobby had a series of domes in the ceiling, a bow to mosque designs, and there were teakwood screens and Turkish carpets. Work by local artisans decorated the public spaces. Nonetheless, you can see in the pictures (and in this book, there are many useful ones) that the Istanbul Hilton is still a concrete, metal, and glass box like nothing else around it. Old hotels concentrated on public rooms inside; the Hiltons looked out, with lots of glass in every room to supply a view. The view was carefully chosen. In Istanbul, it faced East, toward the Soviet Union, daring those Commies to look American modernity and wealth in the eyes.

Wharton is a historian of medieval art. Her family used some of these hotels when she was growing up, and she has returned to them to give an architectural history of the Hilton overseas effort. (She could not visit two Hiltons now lost, the one in Havana and the one in Tehran.) It is a remarkable history, no longer active because the Cold War is over, and because others followed Hiltons into the modernism market. The Hilton hotels still exist, but they are just hotels now, not unique as architecture nor as Cold War armaments. They shaped the way American visitors viewed foreign capitals, and boosted American economic (and therefore political) policies. Conrad Hilton may not have won the Cold War, but he did more than plenty of the generals.