Architecture in the sixties was undergoing a refinement of Modernism and a move to an even more streamlined contemporary look. Tall buildings or skyscrapers created a distinctly American structural type. Architects such as Philip Johnson, and John Burgee, of Johnson & Burgee are some of the architects who designed office buildings, which helped create a different look for the skylines of large cities. Architects used light and space, for example the Cleo Rogers Memorial Library by I.M. Pei, to create buildings, which were adapted for the activities, which took place in them.
He influence of space and futuristic design was apparent in some public buildings like the NASA complex at Houston, Texas. Eero Saarinen created the Memorial Arch in St. Louis, Missouri in 1965. Walter Gropius designed the Pan Am Building in 1963 with Pietro Belluschi and Emery Rothe & Sons. Louis I. Kahn in his Kimbell Art Museum of Ft. Worth and other buildings brought a feeling of austerity to American architecture. Robert Venturi wrote Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture in 1966 and called for a change in the reductive simplicity of Modernism, beginning a protest in the late 60's. Perhaps one of the most well-known and influential architects whose career began to rise in the sixties is I. M. Pei. Peter Eisenman and Frank O. Gehry are architects who have become world famous for their distinctive designs and who began making names for themselves during this time. Designers like Herman Miller left their mark on furnishings. Sleek contemporary styles like those by Verner Panton have translated well into future decades of furniture.
As in the fifties, art in America of the sixties was influenced by the desire to move into the modern age or future, which the space age seemed to forecast. Major works by Alexander Calder or Helen Frankenthaler showed a desire to escape from details to interpret. Artists wanted to inspire the viewer to leap into the unknown and experience art in their own way. A new artist who appeared was Andy Warhol, a leading name in pop art.