Tradition on the Trapezoid

Even before July 21, 1921, the day Billy Mitchell flew a cocky pennant from the tail of his biplane as he led a demonstration bombing of the German battleship Ostfriesland, the Air Service, then and for 26 years after, a limb of the Army, was determined to have its own traditions. Last week the design of the new Air Force Academy, unveiled in models at Colorado Springs, resolutely avoided any resemblance to pseudo-Gothic West Point or the traditional brick and stone buildings at Annapolis. Said one of the architects, Nathaniel Owings: "It was our job here to provide the framework for the traditions of future generations of airmen."

The Air Academy will be fashioned of stainless steel, aluminum and glass around a 17,500-acre trapezoid at the foot of the Rockies. Explained Owings: "We believe that the architectural concepts of the academy buildings should represent . . .

the simple, direct, modern way of life--that they should be as modern, as timeless and as styleless in their architectural concept, as efficient and as flexible in their basic layout, as the most modern projected aircraft." Most of the buildings will have glass walls, all of them will be low (never more than 70 ft. high), and most flat-topped.

A Great Glass Cube. A long chapel with a peak that looks as if it had been cut by a giant's pinking shears will dominate the main campus. The Air Force release says that the chapel, like "the ancient Abbey of Mont St. Michel," stands on high ground and dominates its surroundings. The resemblance ends there. Below the chapel there will be a broad terrace, named the Court of Honor. Off the terrace the long Administration Building will stand, and across from it a great glass cube, the Social Hall with a 3,000-seat theater and prom-sized rooms. It will be only a short moonlight walk away from the proposed Guest House.

Designs may change between now and 1957 when the first classes will move in (between this summer and then, cadets will be trained in Denver), but at present the barracks are designed to hold six groups of four squadrons each. Each cadet will have built-in furniture (except the bed) and one roommate. Bedroom floors will be of terrazzo, inside walls of painted plaster. The dining hall will seat all 2,496 students. The academic buildings will have a closed-circuit TV system for special lectures. The walls of the classrooms will be movable, so that instruction groups can vary in size. Students will move from class to class on outside galleries, "thus providing a visual release from classroom work."

A Cigarette Factory? Plans call for an airfield with an 8,800-ft. runway and an Air Force village with four neighborhoods of single homes ("all will look out upon continuous areas of common outdoor living space"), complete with a shopping center and a school system for the families of the airmen, officers and faculty who will staff the school. The Air Force has planned for a "natatorium," squash courts, football, speedball and soccer fields. Construction of a traffic system of highways with cloverleaf intersections and parking space for football crowds will start in June.

Not all of those who viewed the model campus last week approved. Representative Porter Hardy Jr., Virginia Democrat, grumped: "Someone said the academy looks like a modernistic cigarette factory.

I'm not saying that's my idea but let's call it unique." But very conservative Senator Herman Welker, Idaho Republican, was pleased with the design, "Heavenly. I have nothing but thrills in my heart for the cadets who will enjoy this academy."

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