The International Modernist Style developed out of a search for a building style unique to and expressive of the modern world.  Modernist architects’ work expressed the technology, materials and functions that were new to the twentieth century.  The resulting architecture was thought to be inevitable: based on function, technology and the spirit of the times.  It adhered to the American architect, Louis Sullivan’s dictum, “Form follows function.”  The style is characterized by architecture stripped of extraneous ornament, historical references and traditional symbolism.  It demanded amnesia relative to history.   The Modernist style was considered a mark of high morality; historical types and styles were “a lie,” in Le Corbusier’s words, and ornament was a “crime,” according to Adolf Loos.  Instead of incorporating ornament or using historical typologies, they attempted to give aesthetic value to functionalism.  The naked function and bones of its structure would be the final form.  Mies van der Rohe’s famous phrase, “Less is more” represented the minimal ideal of Modernist architects and their buildings.  They aimed for purity: sheerness, flatness, and smoothness.  They aimed for a new style that could be relevant universally, based on inevitable, scientific facts of construction and human behavior.   
3.Implications for Contemporary Architecture
The San Francisco Federal Building represents an institutional embrace of innovation, especially by government agencies.  After the success of Morphosis’ design in San Francisco, they worked on two other projects for the GSA.  One is a courthouse in Eugene, Oregon (1999-2006).  The other is a satellite-operations facility for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (2001-2005) in Suitland, Maryland. Morphosis has also done projects with government agencies outside of the federal government, such as their California Department of Transportation District Headquarter building (2005), and the commission to design a state capitol in Alaska (2005).  Morphosis is appealing to government and their designs are now favored by many of the officials responsible for commissioning large-scale projects.
This building’s success at improving conditions of habitability, sustainability, and urbanism implies that the strategy of participation, collaboration and responsiveness can succeed in producing well-designed buildings. This building represents a shift in architectural practice in which the human-factors approach to architecture goes from being an outsider’s perspective to something central.   In its sensitive social agenda, it creates a highly specific solution that better addresses the complexity of the world.   Its innovative strategies towards achieving complexity, though risky at first, will hopefully serve as a model for the private sector. As Mayne said, “Today's experiment is tomorrow's history.”Furthermore, this building goes beyond the human-factors critique of architecture as art.  This building expresses its time as a work of art, yet succeeds in overcoming the functional problems stemming from this association.  Through this work, the GSA and Morphosis prove that one can resolve a social agenda with an artistic agenda.  The building shows that art through architecture is a necessary human activity; a means of understanding ourselves and nature, a means of creating and a means of communication.
复杂的现代性：旧金山联邦大楼
在当代城市建筑中关注的是在计划中建筑物增加了许多复杂性的挑战。今天，当代建筑师回应他们所认为的建筑物是一个多元化的，不可思议的，对于他们来说是在不断变化世界中面临的一个艰巨任务。他们的目标是重新设定建筑物，从它的物质形态，使在同一个空间的实用功能，以及内部联系的相互关系这三个方面入手。“建筑的当代城市，”写到。桑福德昆特，著名建筑理论家，“包括在一个巨大的全球性物质要素，社会，经济，生物，空间，相互构成，内侧和外侧的展开，零部件，非物质的液体。”通过引入层的复杂性，其设计的各个方面，当代建筑师都集中在从事有关建筑和适居和城市空间的关系，他们的做法在重新构建的期望。同时，许多当代建筑师的作品打破开放，我们假设，在其所有的物质和无形的素质，他们仍然很内工作和对路径集由现代主义建筑师。历史上是连续的，而不是支离破碎的，许多当代建筑师努力实现增加的复杂性，但他们在现代主义学说。以传统的现代主义建筑，使他们更敏感的特质，更简化和天真， 现代主义建筑英文文献和中文翻译(2):http://www.751com.cn/fanyi/lunwen_5717.html