choose delicacies from a menr,r without prices on il, or

look out to an Chopter 2

sprawl."
,,nmarched view of movie srudios, oil wel1s and general suburban
the Nile Hilton:
The view on ground level was, however, the same as that of
"in back, the cLlstomary palm ffees and bathing girls adorn the customary
king-size, free'form pool nestled in a rainbow o{ cabanas
"ll Hiiton's expor-
tation of the American hotel abroad is assessed in chapter 6' Here it is

the form of the

enough to note that the view of the pyramids did not dictate
view
Nile Hikon. Rarher, the form of the Nile Hilton overdetermined the
means by which
of the pyramids' The object of the gaze was exotic, burt the
it was framed was famiLiar, at least to Americans'

reconstrlrcred froflr fragments found on the Acropolis in the

third quarter of
the nineteenth century (tig. 25).11 This athlete or young Theseus rvas a
the sacred
votive offering *ud" ,ro.,r-rJ 480 n'c'p' to the temple complex at
see the boy as
center of ancient Athens. An innocent modern viewer may
lo
an ideal rendering of adolescence, the transformation from innocent
shift in the
adult. For arr hisrorians, the marble marks another transition-a
the archaic style
form of ancient Greek art frorr the relative abslraction of
and ideaiized naturalism of the classical. The poignancy of
impermanent
is endr-rringly ren'
beauty, accentr:ated b,v the sculptttre's fragmentary state'
.1ered in marbie. The bov is a particutarly pou'erf,-rl
e[rbodiment of the
"The Greeks got
Greek lCeal The Greek lCeaL might be defined crudelv as
orrgin of
ll-Literarure, arr anl polLrics-rLehr' and that rightness \vas lhe
Weste rn cukure.,' Horrl rh. Greek lJeal * orks and
hou, the Kritios Bov has
appeared in 1992
been,-rsed as its sign is suggested bv an image anJ tert that
Greek art,
in the Washingron Posr. An .*truordinary erhibition oi ancienr
titled The Greek Miracle, was mounted at the National Callery ln
The cor-
Washington and sponsored in part by the Philip Morris Company'
rhe burst
poratiori publicized their s,-rpport in an advertisement that featured
tf ,h" Kri,ios Boy ar-rd a long caption ({tg' Z6):

,,we are all Greeks,,, rhe poer Shelley said. Born of democracy. Invention.
Philosophy. Theare. History. Sciences' And art, born from
that democracy

awe, mllse over the miracle of democracy'45

of ancient
This Philip Morris adverrisemenr is symptomatic of the location
メ ー ー 驚 ゝ ＼

Greek .ulirr" in the seLf-understanding o[ the West since the eighreenth 25. Athens, Acropolis N\useum, Krliios
this text voices a Boy. Pholo courtesy ot.]effre,v M Hurw:i
cenrury. Wlth its affected syntax and rhetorical c1ich6s,
rnodern
popular understanding of the relationship that exists between
brought to us
Western democracies and ancie,,t Greek artifacts' Greek art'
art, which is
by philip lv{orris, explicitiy makes us Greek. implicitly, Greek
("ali")
progr"r, ("evolution"), individualism ("free"), and universal truth
political work.
ulro *rk., us democratic. The lvork's spirrtr.ral aura is put to
into a 54
The great'r.t'of Gr.".e riinslates the abstract notion of democracy
 Approprioting Posts

bea.tiftri physical presence. The naturalism of Greek art lirerally naruralizes 26. Kriiios Boy, lrom on odvertisernent by
western dernocracy. The material immediacy of the work serves to obscure Philip Morris ior lhe exhtbition The Greek
Mirocle, lrom ihe Woshrngt'on Posf ,
the problematic aspects of both the ancient and modern democracies and
November 22, 1992
magically to connect them.a6
Ivluch has been written on rhe Wesrern consrrucrion of rhe Greek ideal.a?
This ideal forms the core of the West's secular soul. ]t tends to be expressly
democratic and rational and tacitly masculine, elire and triumphal. But it
comes in a variety of other forms, depending on the historical circumsrances
in whici-r ir is needed. From the eighteenrh through the twentieth cenruries,
the ic1ea1 has been malleable enough to be put ro very differenr uses by
Enlightenment thinkers, by Romantics, and by revolutionaries.4E But cer-
tain featr-rres of im appropriation seem to be relariveLy constant. Tivo ol these
elernents were articulated by Nicholas Biddle, a precocious young Ameri-
can, rvho traveled to Greece at the beginning of the nineteenth century:
"The sorl of Greece is sacred ro Genius & ro letters. The race of beings
whose achievements warm oLrr youthful fancy has long disappeared. But the
sod uncler which they repose; rhe air which listened ro rheir poerry & their
eloc}-relrce;the hills which sarv their valor are still the same."4e The Greek
Ideal typicaily had nothing to do with postclassical
Greece, excepr perhaps
in ter.ns of degenerative contrast. Medieval Greece was disdained. The
rational humanism of antiqLrity stands i. opposition to the superstitious
irrationality of the Byzantine lvliddle Ages. There was also a widespread
averstot'i to modern Greeks. Nineteenth,
and tr,ventieth-century travel
accoL*lts commonly express the
drsmess of their ar-rthors at the failure of the
contemporary population
lI甘 established bv
ぬ
J轟 鼻1麒 :∬ 革
札:ビ i∬鼻桃I違 L群
to li the cultural standards
1‖ ま
ざ麒1ぷ
メ
lを

楓
b葛
遮漁
嚇
洒潔:龍 署
曜 酬筵:澪 蹴櫛
him。 ご 猛ざ駒 nited statcs.TEざ 島離邁r-55
 characteristically pre' €hopter 2
passage slrggesrs rhat the Gr-eek 1ileal is, nevertheless,
,"ru.l i., ih. of Greece'j1 Antiquity courlcl be recovered in the
^ut.riality by the Kritios Boy' it could
coLrntry's lanclscape. Akerr-ratively, as sllggested
be recuperatecl in its art. Indeed, the passion
for ancient Greece was insep-
arabLe {rom an apprecration and appropriation of its art.5r The spoils o{ Lord
the centrality of
Elgin and the writings of winckelmann both manifested
5r
art to the construction of the Greek ldeal
of rhe
The special aura of the Kritios Boy was effected by its embodiment
whole-the
creek Ideal. Thrs marble is a beautiful fragmer-rt of a larger
of Athens, the Acropolis iit-
Acropolis in Arhens. Srill rising above the city
Er-rropean consciousness'
eralizes the elel,ated statlls of Cleek art in'il/estern
Acropolis is the only sight on
In the'Wesr,s consrrucrion of its identity, the
more rvidely appro-
the periphery of Euro-American power that has been
Philip N{orris deployed a repre-
priui"d ihnn th" Egyptian pyramids' Just as
promotion' so
,.r'rtntiu. vestige of an aestheticized past in its advertising
an originat-
Hilton l.,t"rnntionul presented its gr-tests with a framed icon of
'w'esrern clrkure. Ar-Ld j,-rst as the Kritios Boy was removed from
ing sire of
the debrls in which it r,vas found, cleaned, and presented
with exquisite the-
freed of arny
atricalitv rn the Narional Gallery, so the Acropolis has been
\ff/estern prodr-rctior-i of its meaning'
history not relevant to the
Through the
The Acropoiis wzts not ahvays as purely ciassical as it is now.
flrsr decades of the nineteenth centllry, it was a paiirnpsest
of classical,
B,vzantine, Tlrrkish, and Frankish cultures. But to
function effectively as the
sire of western identitl, the Acropolis hacl lo be rervrirten.
origir-rotir-rg
on the
\\rertern archaeoiogisrs eliminatecl all c,f the postclassical sllLtctules
fortifications
siie: Br':anttr-Le ch,-rrches, Ctt,,.matl mosLlltesr ancl cfl-rsader
\\.ere excalared ro be,1rock. The meJievai anrl earLr.
modern hrstones of the
oi the site crrntin-
Acropoiis \\.ere thorollghLv eradicaied' The preeminence
Lres to necessitate its pLrrification. Erasltre
stilL takes place in mosi, ii not all,

of the textual representations of the Acropolis.tr ,t lecent

sch,llarh' book
is sympiornatic'
entirleal Architecture mdMeaning on the Athenian Acropolis
,,Meaning,, is singuriar. The only i'meaning" of interest to the author is that

proi1,-Lcedby antiqr-rity.The terrns "Byz:rntine" ancl "OttOman" ai:e not in the

irr..1.*. ln the introduction to dre book the author "vrites:
and perhaps
The Periclean acropolis is one of the most eLaborate examples
thepurestexpressionofclassicalfbrrner,ercreaiecl,andtheprirnarygozrltlf
ancl of the pro-
this book is ro speak of rhe meaning of im inclividr-ra1 buili-lings
Greece. . . . why
gram as a r,vhole, wirhir-r the irnrnediate context of classical
Ptrrthenon, in irs his-
olrf aitraction ro classical architect,"rral form? . . . The
rorical conrext, its matherLatical refinen-rent, its scr-rlptural narrative,
its
of cLrlture, a cel-
intemational styie, is a celehration of victor,v, a celebr:ltitln
ebralion of Ather-rs as cosrnopolis; it speaks ttl r-rs in intention:rl,
trnambigr'r'lr'Ls

terrns of the va[ie of hr-rmanity in thLs r'r"orld. . . . 1s

this the por'ver oiclassical
1-ristc)rically speciiic sor'rrcel Is
architectLrrel Or is its polver clerivecl frorn a less
theresomerhir-rginirsappealmorebitsic,lessintellect,-raL-et'en,thegods
f.,rhiJ, primrlll r.lig,u'r'i;'
rhat t1-re experience
As in the Pl-iiiip Morris ac{, the sraccat0 syntax suggests
of its histo-
of the Greek site exceeds grammllr' By stripping the Acropohs
ries, the culti-rral power of its classical monltments
works more eiiectiveLy'
as the embod-
The Acropolis becomes available for western contemplation
pres-
in-ieni of ,. nostalgic, pseu.loreligiolls memory, as welL as a democratic
56
ence .-'
 of other pasts is not limitecl to the Acropolis. In contrast Approprioting Posts
The elinii-iiatlon
the threat to Athen's fabric has come not jr-rst from Modern
ro mosr cities,
The city has also been under constant threat from antiquity.
constructic',r-r.
Ages through Ottoman ru1e, Athens was a small, provin-
Fro* ,1-,. lv{iddle
Tirrco-Byzantine walled ciry, with its two- or three.story
cial r.rr'n.r; The
buildings an.1
complex narrow streets, occupied the north and east slopes of
rhe Acropolis ({ie. 27). During the \Var for independence (1821-1833),
Arhels and hideously damaged. In 1835, after gaining its free-
u,:rs besieged

dorn tion-i the East, Greece received a king from the West: Prlnce Otho of
Bayarii'r. A plan for
an applopriate capital also arrived from the same solrrce.

The ne,,r, Athens was invented by King Otho's Gerrnan-trained architects,

Sramarios KLeanthes and Ecluard Schaubert. The plans for the city, as mod-
ified l.,y Leo von Klenze and numeroi-rs planning committees, imposed a
rzrric)nal, bealrx arts-cLassical order on the city. The plan's dominant boule-
virrcl, appropriateiy namecl Athinas Street, pointed torvard the Acropolis. Its
origini'rtir-rg center was Omonoia Square, the commercial focus of the city.
Another major sqtrare, the Plateia tolr Syntagmatos (Constitution Place),
rvas rhe site of elite residences, including the Royal Palace and the best
hgtels, n'rost notably the Grande Bretagne.is These two centers lvere con-
necied bv Panepistimious Street, the cultural axis of the new city.
zt.Plan oi Athens Modified frcm
Constrr-rcted there in good neociassical style were the university, the academy,
Kor Bcedeker, Greece: Handbook for
ancl rl're national library. These buildings "contributed to the first national hovellers, 4th ed (Leipzig: Boedeker,
aspiratior-r [of the state]: t1-re architectural transformation ofAthens inro a r e09)
 European-style capital. . . . The crearion of rhese institutions was intended
to address not so much the country's practical needs at the time, but rather
its projected image as the cuitural beacon of the Baikans and the Middle
East."5e The beaux arts regularity of the plan of the new Athens as well
as
the neociassicism and imposing scale ol irs pr-rblic and many of its privare
buildings reveals the polirical aspirations of the city. Athens had rhe trap-
pings if not the power of a European capital.
The nineteenth-century in'enrion of a new Athens occupied the space
beyond the walls of the medieval to*,n. The reconstrucrion of the oid sec-
tion of the city after the war was, in conrrasr to the beaux arts order of the
new city, unsystemaric. It included sr-rrviving fragments of the medieval and
early modern rown. Families buiir anew the shops and houses rhar had been
destroyed. The irregular plan of the old rown remained intacr. Irs old order
was not newly rarionalized. The complex plan and domestic scale of the
past was reprodrLced in a rich vernacular version of the then-currenr neo-
This space in Athens is known as plaka (fig. 2s). In the twen-
c1a6gpa1 sty1e.
th century, the threat to the bea,x arrs neoclassical capital of Greece
came fiom the nelv constrlrction of the Modern. in contrast, the threat to
medieval ancl vernacular neoclassical old city came from the new con-
ruction of antiquity.
\vestern traveler's disdain for the post-war of Independence Athens
was perfectly artlculated in 1857 by the American rolrrisr Samr_rel Wheelock
Fiske, quoted at the beginning of rhis chapter. The banrering rhreat voiced
by Fiske r,vas carried or-rt by archaeologists, sometimes on a smal1 scale, some.
times on a large scale. There u,ere rhe individual plunderers. Ludrvig Ross,
an earll arcliaeologisr, described the devastation wroLLghr on Athens by the
\\'ar ior Incependence and recorced the i-anda1s, both local (the rer-rsers of
ancienr srone) and foreign (artifact seekers), l'ho robbed rhe cirv of its
ancient monuments. But he aiso took adr,antage of destruction ior his oi,vn 28. Athens, o street in Ploko Photo by
appropriation of the past. The ruinarion of medier,ai churches provided him outhor.
particular satisfaction because they offered the richesr yield in his search for
ancient inscriptions.60 It is said of another classical epigrapher, the French-
man Michel Fourinonr, that he smashed inscriprions once he had tran-
scribed them so that no later scholar might dispute his ar-rthority.61
In the long term, state-sancrioned institutions committed to antiquity
represented an even more serious threat to Plaka. Plans for the elimination
of Plaka were already in place in the first modern schemes for the ciry. plaka
rvas to be treated as rhe exrension of the Acropolis and cleared of irc post-
classrcal structures as an archaeological zone first for an excavation of
antiqr-rity and then for its display. The limited funds of the Greek govern-
ment restrained its earliest attemprs ro erase the disrict. The infusion of
American moneys from the 1930s thro,gh the 1950s dicl allow the sysrem-
atic erpropriation of mr-rch of the ancient Agora.6r'Archaeological work on
the site was particularly intense after World War II. it culminatecl in the
reconsrrucrlon of the Stoa of Attalos (fig. 29). This project r,vas approved by
the ministers of education, finance, and coordination; supervised bv the
Department of Restorations in the Ministry of Education; and execr-rted by
the architectural firm of w. -Stuart Thompson and phelps Bamum of New
York.6i The r,vork was initiared by the Amerlcan Schoolof ClassicalstLrclies
with a sr,rbstantial conrribr-rrion by John D. Rockefeller Jr. The prisrine mon.
umentaliry of rhe Stoa dominated rhe bricoiage of rulns of rhe ancienr
Agora in m,ch rhe same way as the Modernist U.s. Embassy and the Hilton
initially conrrolled the more prosaic urban ch-rtter of rheir surroundings. 59
 The Stoa remains as much a rronument to the American School and to 29. Athens, Stoo o[ Ailolos, 2nd century
g.c.:., reconshucted beh,veen 1953 ond
Rockefeller as to Attalos.6a
1956 by the Amenccn School of Ciossico
If Plaka was threatened by American investment in Athens's past, the Studies n Aihens. Photo courtesy ol the
ne,uvcity was reordered by American investment in Athens's present. The Americon School ol Closstcol Studies in

Agora antl rhe area belou,Lykaberros, rhe hlghest hill in Athens, were rhe Athens.

rwo sires in the city most radically changed by American investment in the
1950s. The promotion of tourism transformed both spaces. No less than the
reconstituted Agora, the Arhens Hilton was a product of the fetishization
.
of Athens's classical past. Ir iiso contributed significantly ro rhe subversion ,

Athens l--] i lton . Hilton begannego-

tiations for a hotel in Athens in 1950. A letter of February 1951 from John
Houser to Conrad Hilton conveys a sense of the parties and issues involved.

Bill ]rwin spenr a week in Athens and we should have the answer from them
within the next two weeks as to whether rve are going ahead there. we are
dealing with rhe lvlilitary Pension Fund whose represenrarives yoLr mer.
You remember they had a sire they wanted Lrs ro Lrse br-rt they have com-
plied with our wishes and have taken an oprion on rhe ltalian Embassy srte
and adjoining land which is across from the Royal park. Bi[ went over the
fulllease conrracr with them which rhey are now studying. The proposal is for
a 200 to 250-room first-class horel rvith a rotal cosr of the project of around
$3,000,000.00.
The oral understanding is thar they will enter into the agreement wirh us
conditioned upon a 707o loan arranged rhrough ECA [Economic cooperarion
Administrarion] (already agreed to by ECA) and ability to purchase the prop-
erties we selected at a fair price. I will advise yolr as soon as we hear from
t.Athcnsl,i

1n addition to local officials, American agencies were intimately involved

in discr-rssions of the Athens Hilton, jusr as they had been in the early nego-
tiations for the lstanbul Hilton. A larer letter from Houser to Hilton, dated
June 1951, made this clear.66

Lelt Athens with rhe siruation unclear. Discovered rheir figuring of cosrs was
not based o^ realisric facm. They had figured $10,000 per room fully furnisi-recl 59
 ar-rd equipped. Cl-recked cost on the tr.vo new hoteis ben-rg built in CodtL and Chopter 2

rt is clear rhe Pension Fund estimate is low. I figr-rre it will cost at least $15,000
a room and asked for their financing to be adjusted to that figtLre. The land
wrlL cost abor-rt $1,100,000 so thar the 250 room l'rorel discussed will cost close
to $5,000,000 total. It was a shock to them but I think it would be a mistake

「 to accept anything brrt a very outstanding hotel. Suggested decreasing it to

200 roorns if necessary Lvhich apparently satisfied them. The Pension Fund,
however, sti11 wants sorne protection from risk and since we won't give it-it
rs upro their governn-rent. They are having meetings in the next day or so to
decide it. Believe rhe course is r,vise, for rhe lvlilitary Pensron Fund is power-
ful ancl il we clicln't earn enough for rhe m to meet fixed charges we woulcl be
in rro1rbie. The guarantee of the government if given wiLl give us protection
too in that way. It would be easy to talk them into a deal, bLrt it [Ls] so unat-
tractive ro us commercially that [1] decided it was better to have everything
oLrt on the table and be sure oLIr parlners won't be hurt. If they get the govern-
ment glrarantee and assurance {rom ECA, they are to send me a cable so I will
stop for a short stay on the rvay back to Rome.
The enclosed government cables are very con{idential. The long one is the
one sent by the ECA in Rome ancl the short one the reply from Paris our
friends are rryint ,o get cleared. They were given to me by 1'rail in secrecy br-rt

tho,"rght you rvor-rld want to see them.5?

¶ielittncき st311ぎ Ettnomit c。 8pei夏 おIAdmttistiati3蓋 薔縄面■竃ま統

thar it was inrerested in sr-rbsidizing the Hilton project, but was hesitant
abolir making public irs support of a 1ux-rry American hotel. In its own bu1.
letins, the ECA provided the rationali:ation for sr-rch a subvention. Soon

塞彗選
I善 裏
趾 鼎 轟撃 豊世 and Tukett For Greecs howeveL
Itaし

tourism seems to offer the primary hope for economic tE*..v.

Among the cor-rntry's most important assets are its historical interest and its
-
frne cIimare and scenery. Tourist traffic has contributed substanrially to its for-
eign exchange earnings in the pasl, and with the annexation of Rhodes,
which has already been developed as a tourist resort by the Italian Govern-
menr, its potential earnings from tourists are still greater. . . . F1rnds available
for this object r,vilL be spenr ro improve hotels and to bLrild nelv ones; and
modest sums will also be spent for the preservation ancl better display of his-
torical monuments. Cranted restoration of order throgghout Greece, it
appears that rhe expenditures for tourism r.1]1 rean quick and rich retrrrns.6s

Apparently the financial and site problems suggested in Houser's corre-

spondence cor-ricl not be resolved. lV1uch later, in April 1957, an agleement was

reached berween Hilton and ApostoLos Pezas, the Greek shipping magnate.
Apparenrly Apostolos Pezas, like John D. Rockefeller Jr., was committed to
constructing :l monurrent in Athens that wor-rld write his memory into
the landscape.6e Nevertheless,financial exigencies caLrsed Pezas to sel1 his
shares ro lonlki Hotel Enrerprises, a subsidiary of loniki Bank, in February
1960, well before the horel's opening in April 1963. Aithough the iocal
owner of the Athens Hrkon was, in the end, not dilectly linked with the
Greek government, the state's intimate involr,'ement in the negotiations for
suggel■ d・ b,構 owners 1lme rea

/assiliadis― ―who alsc happened t0 60

Ofthe TOwn Pianning[)irectorate,Ⅳ ir.Pヽ
 be One Of the aSSOChtcd archttects whO destned the bd鳳 hgttm'1'geゞ
,¨ 。Ing POsPs
I ApproP百
ヒ
nder existing laws relative tO buildings Ofpublic tltility and tOurislll,tO prO´ ￨
cllre a

1鼎 猷 輌螂 ё 彎鐘壺甜献
h耳 面
r・

,H OV∝
A rhens.as
At五
ttC l漂
轟 l‐ 」in
II"l続
twた
轟LiLi i温 3‐ し品
lstanh]ll,nパ ρ91r IIざ IЪ 瀬ぶ鷹 薦褻種襲鐘轟謳
驚jI麓 I漁 ぶ製
滋 :
asStlred the HlltOn Of the lnOst advantageOus sitc and highcst quality bulld´
『
ing The owners did nOt,hOwever,always get exactly what thcy wanted.A
stOry flom the tilne Of thc hOtel's cOnstrtiction tOld by Eric Pick,One Ofthe
constlltingノ ヘmerican architects,stlggests that the buildingt signiflcancc was
solnetimes greatcr than that Of its pOsscssOrs:

や
0/hcn l heard thatヽ ア
icc Prcsident LyndOn JOhnson was visiting/へ
thcns,I
thOLlght it、 〃0ヒ lld bc great pヒ lblicity tO havc hin visit thc cOnstructiOn sitc

Tlle cmbassy said that wOuld be inci he wOuld stop On his way f10m thc air´
pOrt bctween 10_1lAM Nグ cll,thc managcr and Owners were prescnt,the
bank presidcnt and thcir stal19,and a ceremOnialstand was sct tip and carpcts
、
/crc laid out The cavalcadc was sightcd,but thcy clrOvc right by l callcd thc
Embassy tO ask what was the mattcr Thcy answered,“
There wasn't anyone
out thcrc;Johnson cxPeCtCd a thOusand wOrkcrs"I said,“
Ivcll,thc Owncrs
and managcr wcre thcrcl"They said,“
JOhnson docsnt care abOut thcm Hc
didn't see any wOrkers,sO hc didn)t stOp"When l said that l cOuld gct wOrk´
ers out,they a110wed that he rnightstOp on the way back tO thc airport lt was
ltinch tilne,I got several hundrcli wOrkcrs tO cOmc out and linc´
up in f10nt of
the hOtcl And sure cnOugh JOhnson stOppcd and startcd tO makc a speech
He talkcd fOr a half an hOur Or rDrty´ nve minutcs Hc had bcen a rOad wOrk´
cr anc1 10aded and driven trし lcks at cOnstruction sitcs.Hc insistcd On gOing
intO the raw building with all thcse wOrkers and talking with thcm.The
bankcrs wcre upsct,bヒ lt HiltOn was happyノ
、
nd JOhnson was happy72

Ы茸含 貸‖
∬牌l牌 篇胤鰍岬曖"ihettchms κ
叩輛´
。 6■
HiltOn were Greek natiOnals.PrOkO´
pbS■ ,製 141S,E.MA/Ourekaぉ and spyrOs Staよ Os were the pHncゎ
aL Of
the unatrtakingithc American irm Ofwarncr,Burns,Tt‐
lan and Lunde was
thc cOnstlltant 74(charles ui/arncr had already contribllted tO the design Of
thc caribe Hilton,)75 NO claims had been madeお
r the Egyptian character
of the Nlle Hll仁 on by Welton Beckctt,its American architect 76 The Nlle
HiltOn was patently Modern with a pharaOnic gloss and anズ
ヘmerican sub´
tcxt.Nathaniel Owings of SOM remembered the lstanbul HlltOn as
TLlrkish, but thc Ttlrks wOrking On the prOleCt regarded it as essentially
American MOdein The Athens Hilton,■
…
tinably Greek.Spyrδ ζ
‐ 99ntrast,was claimed to be iden´
s棧 遭
k6蔦 6hさ 6r the a■ Aitさ と,轟 な ‐
:ξ intiittё d thit thc
On Wa蜘
…
Thc gcncralidca Ofthc dcsign was with the type symmetrical bilateral ATRI´
UN(Of the main bOdy Of the building which wete surrOunded by cOlumns
(“ pterOn"in ancicnt Crcck temples)with constructiOn ofpartitiOns ofc10stra
walls FrOm a dccOrativc aspcct tllc inlaid dcpictiOns Ofthc Rへ
NATHENIAN
and Other Crcek mOtiR(Greck Key,triglyphs,etc)which were dcsigned by
thc crcek artisans,」 MOralぉ and J■ arouhぉ ,maintain in thc dccOr the
cxteriOr appearance Gencrally thc matcrials which have sttstained the exte´
rlor and interiOr 10bbics arc marble,l10saic,and brOnzc,77

Although HiltOn lnternatiOnalゝ cOntract vvith the(3reek architects Of the

Athcns Hilton requirさ d them t。 宙sit thc HiltOns in MOntrcal,Istanbul,and,
6コ
larer, Cairo, Spyros Starkos insisted that this experience had no effect on
Chopter 2

rheir thinking. The Isranbul Hilton, he observed, was Tlrrkish, the Nile
Hilton Egyptian, and the Athens Hilton essentlally Greek. For lvlr' Staikos,
the Greek architectural form of the building distinguished it clearly from
its

predecessors.i.t The tlvo Americans who \vorked on the proiect were

rlore
.ir.r]rrrp.., about the Strlrcture's Greekness. Charles Warner, a principal of
Warner, Burns, Toan and Lunde, r,vas modest in his ascription of Hellenic
qr-ralities to the Athens Hilton: "The only Greek thing about the building
was the base on Lr,hich it rvas set and the landscaping, with horizontal,
plarealr-reffaces. These were 'acropolytic' (not apocalyptic)-a piace for
peo-

pl. to guth"r, like the ancient agoras. We did a sirnple bLLilding, wirh a base 30. Aihens, Athens lllllcn, 3xierior vr-''/v
lrom the west. Photo by outhor
and columns, not modelecl on ancient columns, but creating a classical
rhythm. With an entablature, which is the bar and terrace on the roof'
Greek in spirit, but not narrowly Greek."79 Eric Pick, the on-site American 3r. Athens,
Arhens Hi lon, inierioi vrew
through the ioLbi-^s ioword ihe lrcni
architect, sirnilarly attributed the br,rilding's Greekness to its sociai sDaces:
*k had a Greek quality in terms of planning. The Greeks iike to ,o.irt,r" i,.,
il::'d" ;[:r".*::1]i:,H [::.
open, park-like surroundings, like the ancient agora. The hotel acted as
a chonged The corpeis used to be b ue-
in a gleen area, it had atria surrounded by shops, with olive
groy' now ihey crre flome red' chonglng
forum. It was
rrees and a big pooi at the back, and all that opened ,o n tig lobby
with sev- fi.:r:;ff :"r::',,*],
erai leve1s."80 As did Mr. Staikos, the advertising for the hotel emphasized inrerv ew, Nouember 27, 1997
^:i:::iill:
Phoro by
..ATHENS, ANCIENT CAPITAL OF CULTURE. OUihOI
its GreeK characler:
Treasure-trove of antiquity and a modern, vibrant city, entrusted with the
archirecrrLral rvonders of the centuries. . . . [T]he majestic Athens Hilton,
rr.velve srories high, entered through a series of descending stages in ancient
Greek amphirhearer stvle, classic lobbies, gallery terraces, gardens, superb
sri.inminE pooL, healih cilrb, garden rooms. Interior courts in the manner
of
old Greek arria, srrrrounded bv fascinating shops "sl The Athens HiLton
rvas

treated as a ne\\' ancient monument' \\.olthy of ihe great tradition of classi-

cal architecture in whrch ii participated.'r Locallv thrs understanding of
the

Hilton has apparentiy been broadly accepted. In a recent poll askrng, "Is the
Parthenon a monument?" "ls the Parliament (formerly the Royal Palace
of
King Ludwig of Bavaria) a morillment?" and "ls the Athens Hilton a mon-
Lrment7,, overhalf the respondents answered yes to the last question.Er
For the uninitiared, however, the Athens Hilton might not seem so dif-
ferent from its predecessors in Istanbut and Cairo. The hotel was again a
luminous horizontal mass poised over an extended base. As in the lstanbr-rl
anc{ Nile Hiltons, it was assumed that guests wor-rLd arrive by
automobile'
And indeed, they lvere driven in from the broad avenue Leoforos Vasilissis
Sofias (figs.30,31, and 32). They were deposited under the porte cochere
covering ,h" drir., then entered a lobby flanked by open couttyards sur-
rounded by shops. Parallel with their line of vision was reception. Beyond
were a series of descending lobby ancl lounge levels. Like the Hiltons
of
lsranbul and Cairo, the hotel was one of the hlghesi buildings in its city
at

the time of its construction. As in the case of the Nile Hilton, the Athens
Hllton lvas presented as a site from which the city could be controlled: "A
preliminary look out over the city from the balcony of your room or from
rhe rerrace of the Galaxy Roof and Bar will heip yolr lay or-rt your excursions
throughout rhe ciry."sa Again hke the Nile Hilton, the guest room block
,.rporrd..l r(r a specraclrlar view, though by embracing it with a gentle cLlrve
,urh., thar-r bir poinring at ir with a flat angle. This block was once more
perforated by a regular grid of batconies. The familiar ameniiies of Hilton
Loder',ity were inc|-rded: radios, telephones, and ice water on tap in each
room, air-condirioning, and r,vall-to-wa11 carpeting (fig. i3). The customary
62
 and restaurants lvere part of its program: a dinner- Approprioting Posts
.isortiTren[ of b,rutiques
,^.." .lrb promoted the remarkable view at the top of the building; a soda
I^,,.*,n-r"nck bar and other eateries at lower levels along with shops with
i"-r" *rar There ra,'as the expected swimming pool and cabanas. The
.l**.rri.rl pairing o[ b.,uriqtre" around rhe two arria flanking the main
ro the Athens Hilton appeared to be a multiplication of the single
",.,rr.n.. around the garden courtyard in Istanbul. SimiLarly,
.iurr., of lLrrLuy retailers
the pumpkir-r-domed restaurant of the Athens Hilton had the same volup-

なザ一
〓
〓一
一
■ ● ●■

一
■

￨￨:サ 11:111i:

63
 鵬ttttTlLll:∬ 器 鮮
￨∬ :層 鳳
:二 if::ぜ c:驚思 i窓
Om it
tive Hilton lnternational brmula rather than to diVergc■
Part of thiS HiltOn lorlnula was thc constructiOn of the local by Cmp10y´

寝盤THi『 盤sttn胤難ittf道 ∬ 蓋∴
鷲灘
篇1驚lTT柑 甘lЪ ∬贈 」血
L The httЮ Om l∞ ∬ d∝
C

に
血 d“ J Wh∝ As h mttbL・

il:I∬ T:嵐 rTTtttittst:胤

orated With local crafts and its fixturcs
r example,evoke
simulated ancient altiね ctS.The guest100m lamp standS,も

pLcrn Tlr"
32, tefrAihens, Alhens Hllton,
l

o-er' 'oo11 bloo 'ses obove 'he '' '''

i.e's oi 'he core or tre ground Plo '
,Vtodiliud [rom "Athens Hilton,"
Arch trektonike 1 5- 1 6
(Moy-Augusl
r 9591

33. Abore Ahens, AIhens Hlrton'

!'4/
below ihe sink in o guest room shou'in' 1

i1"'
lhe ihird woter cock rhot conlrolled
flow o[ ice woler. ll is now disconrle(:1"]
Photo by ouihor.

64
 figurines (fig. 34). The Hilton also displayed the rvork of con-
Archaic horse Appropriofing Posts
artists. The most impressive contribution appeared on the
remprrrary Greek
closing the narrow ends of the cr-rrved guest room block.
rnonumentirl slabs
massive blank panels provided an imposing surface for a monr-rrien-
These
tal u,ork by the rvell-known Greek artist Yannis Moralis.s5 On the enrrance
:l slcle ofthe structure,Moralis depicted the Panathenaic prOcessiOn in a cOn´
remporrrr), interpretation of Greek archaic forms. A colossal Athena in the
.,varnors who brought her the
upper right received the ranks of maidens and
ciry,'s olferings. The figures were constructecl of a few lines of black shaclows
caughr in tar-rt incisions in the stone. The back face of the b*ilding was
enlir.enecl ivith staccato registers of incisecl vertical hnes and sma1l scluares
aligneci v'ith the floors of the guest roorn block. The Hilton again avoided
kirscl-r, rhor-rgh here it is not or-rly tl-rrough quality reproductions of rhe
alcient as in Cairo but also by the deployment of contemporary u,orks.
GLrests \,vere rlet with the serious pleasure of Art.s6
ー
ヅ For all its Hiltonesqut elel.leni,the feature Of the Athens HiltOn that
t rllost markcd it as a HiltOn and simultaneOuslvJd,ntincd it as uniquely
Greek was its relation with the landscape.
beior.r, d-re Lykabettos outcrop, in.a zone inade available for development in
rh. r{1i5; tt"llrJje rlre ili.so.hiver *irh.r major trrban rrororrvry (fig.
35). Tlris ne* iri6iiil6-n*#AihEns"io ih. was qLrickly occupied
"oirh.rrr
wirh hi$-class buildrngs. Alexander Papageorgiou-veneras described the
nrtur'. ,-,1- the expansion:
3q. Athens, Athens Hilton, guest room
omp stond, on originol fjxture siill in use
Ti'ris privilegecl area siruared on the easrern edge of the i.ner city, between Photo bv outhor.
tl-re Royal Garden and Lykat,ettos and tangentiar to the main arreries of
L)ephissias Avenue and VasileosKonstantinou Avenue, was destinecl to fLrlfill gs. Sketch plon cl Aihens, by outhor:
some representative urban firnctions. Some important nelv builclings were A, Athens Hilton; B, Porthenon; C, Stoo
already under consrrucrion or plar-rned in rhe vicinity of this area: rhe ol Attolos; D, U S. Embossy; F, Royol
Polcce, now the Porlioment; F, Gronde
A,-rerican Ernbassy designed by Gropius ancl built in 1957-1958 at rhe north;
Brelogre, /, Vosilissis Sophios A,;enue;
the Athens Hilton designed by vassiliadis, vourekas a.d Sraikos, built in 2, Vosi ecs Konslontinou Avenue.
1958-1962, in the center. others were ro follow in the easr: the Narional

1.1‐
A
F:

′
2/
、
オ
Ｃ

:‐
一
一

■
︶

″
具ヽ
1警
: /→ ト

ニ サ /
=ミ
 怒  ︲
．
G:,-=-'. *::.::.-l :'.' i. l,ii:JF.Lru1os, Farouros and Mylonas, built in 1968-1973; Chopter 2
::-= -'...:. :.:.- i...e:-:h Foundation, designed by Doxiadis Associates, builr in
i::,"-,:: : :r.e Fr:en.1s oi lvlusic Concert Hall designed by Keilholz and

︰
'. :.:entlr' compieted.si
-r=:.1:.

Char-.. ir-arner, rhe principal of the American architecrural firm involved

Ln i::e prcjecr, erpiained the hotel's relation to its urban setting: "The site
\i a: r:r a cepression amongsr brownish-beige, four- or five-story apartment
biccks oi aparrmenr buildings. . . . The idea was to do something whire and
mart'le, ro form an anchor in the city. Surrounded by the monastery hills,
*'e needed a little heighr, somerhing to lift rhe heart of the city. The prob-
lcm was to Iiir it oLir olthai depression."!s The Hilton hetped lifr rhis spece
out of more than a physical depression. The Athens Hilton, like the Nile
Hilton, was popular with the rich, famous, and powerful. ,,young King
constantine and Queen Anne-Marie ofren dropped in at the coffee shop
(he is a spagheti and sundae fan) during their courrship and before his
accession to the throne. And for some reason or other, Greek film star
Melina Mercouri has chosen the spacior-rs iandscaped grounds of the hotel
as a favorire walking spot for her black poodle."8s In Athens as in Istanbul
and cairo, the building of the Hilton confirmed and contributed to the sta-
tus of its location. In a city desperately undersupplied with accessible parks,
the Hilton provided the well-to-do with a cenrral-city playground.
Admission to its large pool and rennis courts was available for a fee.eo
Electric streercars were inrroduced to Athens first in this area. property val.
nes increasecl clramatically.
The discrepancr bet*'een rhe lururv of rhe Hikon and the poverty of
nearbl neighborhoo,.ls *'as iocalL' recosni:ed and sarrri:ed. The Neru york
llmes nored rhat the Flrkon, buLlt not far tiom "rhe ,,r-orking class district
knorln as PongrarL. r. rhc srrb;ecr.,f a mu.iral rcvrr. iall.J'Hrlr.,n Jnrl
…
Pangraur.… The vcss wI蔽薔 瓢 爾 礫 面 裏 価 高 覇 墓 ご

■
まltOn alld Pangrad

:Here l市 e the rich and the poor

i li::?T
MoLeover, some Greeks regardetl the Athens Hiiton as an obvior-rs locr_rs of
the overprivileged alien. In lv{ay 1969, a bomb was erploded in the hotel by
opponents of the right-lving military regime in retaliation for American
slrpport of the Colonels.e2 Br-rt the resentment of the contrast between the
conspicuor-rs expenditure of the American Hilton and the poverty of Greece
was remarkably rarely expressed. More characreristically, the hotel was
clescribed with veneration, as in this note from a local jor:rnal: "yes, here is
good taste, daring prodigaliry and imagination. There is no place for cliscus-
sion, criticism or humor. Here, the quality of the most perfect American
prodi-rct, the shining caclillac, has been co,pled with the added luxury of
the European tasre and rhe Greek marble."el lvlost Greeks, like the critrc
just quoted, seemed to see the Hilton as a promise of their or,vn modernist
possibility. The Hilton presenred to the Greeks, as ir hacl to the TLrrks and
Egyptrans, modernity's technical r-rtopia. In any case, both rhose Greeks who
like,l the building and those Greeks who ciisliked it apparently looked at the
Hilton and reacted to its Modernitv, h:xury, and internationalism as a sign
of American technology and wealth, nor as an autochthonous piece of
architecture. 66
 46rericans,
in contrast, tended to gaze out frorr] the Hilton to Athens,s Approprioting posts
112sr
greatness Thg.lmportance gf the s-ite was rhe specracle thar it allowed
hotel tO preSent to its cOnsumers.The Oblect of thこ guestt histOrically
♂
aS,研 COurse,可 三c Parttelon,the crOwning feature Ofthe AcrO´

1離
韓速翼ムξ :il日
l盤 駆 む 評
:Hnton d汁
棚甜 ξ 脚 篤 脊潔
化賢
さ
楓e broad westぬ ce Of thき
曇 cttt c6Aionted tAL:兵 :耗 :譜 。
f

ilithenat temple.The plan Ofthe building was detcrmined by thc view that
it u,ould in tum produce' charles warner commented, "'!u'e weren,t trying
to match t!" 4Tq*s, thoygh the building looks righr al ir.,,e5 \il/harever
琲 Al寵 可正面bAs,the HittIII凝 五
[」
6鷲 ri五 さ
続通桐 ramadc vお u´
arro in
2t axお
:11l ... the city rrr
ln vqrrv,
CairO,the
LrrLHiltOn
r lrrLulrwas
wabubiquitOusl
uLrILlLIltouSIy promlnent, In
ln
Athe.s, the Hilton lvas particularly present when viewed frorn the
iAcropolis. The Parthenon was made the ancienr foil of the modern
Hilton.

I Parthenon The viewer assumcs the pOsition Of Pheidiast goddess 10。 king
1 6ut of her cc:la nOt at thc sacred mOuntain Of HymettOs,but at the HiltOn
l(lg.36).A Anal島 11´ page telephotO image shOws thc Hilton in such a way
thatit appcars tO bc set On its Own,compcting acrOpolis.The essay also has
a Le Corbusier― likc heading´ sketch.The ParthenOn,an Ob10ng Of brief ver´
ticals with a pcdilllcnt occupies the fOregrOund; a sccOnd, sirllilarly sized
lorill madc up of hOrizOntals usurps the backgrOund. Scully vitriOlicaHy
denounces the Athcns Hilton as“ vandali,平 ."SCully begins:“
once
lGreecel dcmonstrated what camus talled a`pact Of fliendshiP'between
men and the earth ...NOw she represents. .the Oppositei the destruc´

写事f乱 L尋 litIぷ
'urtulcLr lt 諸
誂鳳猟焦
器iI宙棚 watch喝
'+1_0
uolrtemporary \,vays. m peculiarly bitter and instructive to
in a landscape once regarded as hory."ei Scurly's.anger
+o* th. ru_J trd resr-rlted
ure of modern Athenians in their priesrly obligation to
-rir-,tuir,
ancient and sacred panorama.The cOnsecrated sPace 10r Scully involved
,h.o {
甫ich m6re than in archac610gical sitc:“
[T]he ParthenOn and its sacred

博 lil't尾 :W:ltttti「 慰1∫ 猟 l::識 II:∬ :ご 撫 TЪ

have rnanagcd tO sustain that demOnstration of ultilnate reality thrOughout
轟
all the spectacular vicissitudes Of apprOxirnately twenty´
flve hundred
years''98 FOr Scully, the Creek's unconsciOnablc neglect Of a landscape

Jttd К血 り wぉ 。mた cd by
蔦 Ittt:c鳳 蹴 :ぷ :驚 蹴 輩■: il="螂
"た 口国輛Ⅲ貯冤 r

Tllぉ Hilton must surcly be thc best yct Ofiぃ

numerOus clan,sincc it makes
thOsc that did similar thOugh vastly lcss critical jObs On lstanbul and CairO
scem cOmparativcly innOcuOus.Theノ ヘ
thens building is bOth Ovcr scalcd and
arrOgantly sitcd fOr its clients'blcary vicw(thc architccture of the
υο
)`γ γ
Come into its own atlast);it is at Oncc t00 big,in t00 1mportant a placc,and
indeinsibly sited in that place _ II]f onc takes a positiOn in the ParthenOn
whcre Phcidias'ivOry and gold statuc Ofノ
ヽthena Oncc st00d,it will be secn
that thc temple,Oncc Orientated directly tOward its apprOpriatc sunrise ovcr
thc mountain,is nOw Oriented tOward the sun and the HiltOn―
whosc egg´
Crate facade lccrs up on axis betwecn the twO central cOlull■
ns_ The effcct
 啄一 糞謝 ︲︲
Chopter 2

nliry most accurarely be described as obscene. . . . [T]he Hiltonis not entirely 36 Alhens,Alhens HilTOn Os v ewed frOm
l■ 隔 J■ M随 訥IS醐 い
9_PO■ henOll'「 静
lacking in importance, being so cot-tspicltous an example of what can happen ″

扮榔繹鼈電
Alhens H‖on:A Sludy inヽ bndclism′ J
whcn rnen bLrild on the earth lvithor-rt intelligence, reverence, or love.ee

Scully conrlemns all aspects of the Hilton with a ferocity rarely encoLrntered
in the balanced clisco,-rrse oi the Architectural Forum. Some parts of the
strLrcture n-right unclerstandably be rnocked. He caustically describes the
By;antine Caf6 as one of those "charmingly oriental, Hiiton'trade-mark-
war.y slab-h-rnchroorL-kiosks." But Scu11y is equally vicior-rs in his criticism
of parts of the project that perhaps deserve a more circumspect assessment.
I-Ie characterizes Morahs's mural, for example, as "the giant graffiti on the
hLriLtling's northern flank lthad call to mincl the last palsied scratchings of a
.1ving civilizsslon.)'lrrtr Scu11v's anger over the Hrlton's desecration of the
sacred landscape verges on the h1,perbolic.
In his anger, ScLrlly supplerLents Hilton advertising. The Hiiton's special
relatior-r to the Parthenon, promoted in the corporation's commercials, is
confirmeC by Scully's denunciirtion. Both Hilton ancl Scully exaggerate the
 ヽ

扁翼導電
度よ還 出薦 lm亀[凱lr糖 為黒l::き
Approprioting Posts

that Hilton
drarr,ing also
irnplies the has desecrated the great archirecr's
as well as the topography of the city. Moreover, Scully,s final photo-
affeirri ro be a coIlage'
tH,l,on an.1 Scr,rlly's textual and visual hyperboles
come from the same
rce. As Le
corbr,rsier wrote in 1911: "Hyrnettr,rs and Pentelicus, two very

分 躍1点 r属 1寵 ξWi鍵 常辮 ,Ⅷ '∬

1習熙 :

『attention, like in
The Acropolis,
sand, rhe Piraer-rs.
ivares our
flat
one
the
a pearl
whose
its shel1.
only
sr-rmmit bears temples,
collects the shel1
塾 1lsPCarl Ttt temp19,are thc causc Of this landscape."101 Le COrbusた rも
話 ervationお persuasivc The classical architecture ofAthens,nOt its geOl´
`ζ
! consecrates the city. But the sacred panorama so central to the Greek
ii,lerl ruus a space created by American and Western Europeans in the nine-
iienth a,-td eariy trventieth centuries thro.gh rhe restoration of the
千 島 rtllenon and the climinatiOn OfcOnlpeting hお tOries BOth Scully and HiltOn
accepted the truth of this consrrucrion. Hilron sr-rccessfully commodirized
:11lit truth by packaging its view.Scully was inhriatcd by the hOtelt dぉ rup´

ま
tion of the sainc truth Scully is,Of cOurse,cOrrect The impOsitiOn of thc
:1ltOn,a visually dcmanding building,in this setting changed the meaning
熟F the landscape Had the great palace Of Ludwig l designed by Karl´
schinkel for the Acropolis been constr.cred, rhe site would have
Friedricl-r
heen rvritten instead as a docr-rment of German nineteenth.centllry cultural
imperialism.i.r The Hilton introduced irs text of an A,rerican twentieth-
cenrury presence with greater subtlety. The object that gave Athens its mid-
iⅢ endeth´ century cultural and tOuristic value_thc Acropolis_was main´
薫
lined intactOnlyお r thOse viewing it f10m the sOurce ofthc siteも rcwriting,
:the HiltOn The raw nerve that the HiltOn laid bare in an excmplary histO´
JHan Ofthe western architectural traditiOn was symptomatic ofthe depth Of
the EurO´ American intellectualも stake in the Greek ldeal and its aesthetic
materialization. Scully's article is the proverbial other.side-of.the-coin
of
'Philhp lvlorris's adverrisement
' for The GreekMiracle.
The Athens Hrkon was the product of the same venerarion of Greek
'antiquity
that occasioned both
Sci-rl1y's wrath and phihp lv{orris,s advertise-
ment' T'he hotel was the response of capital to cultural ciemands for rhe
spectacle of a reassuring past, a past
that confirmecl the vierver's faith in the
present' Like the Nile Hiiton,
the Athens Hilton remade an ancienr land-
' scape in the process of packaging it for our consurnption.

69