Art: Any Form You Need

In 1957, on a low Connecticut hilltop five miles northwest of Hartford, there rose an office building of such beauty that the American Institute of Architects labeled it one of the "Ten Buildings in America's future." Made of steel, glass and aluminum, the Connecticut General Life Insurance Co. head quarters combined the taut discipline of Mies van der Robe's masterpieces with grace notes—inner courtyards, reflecting pools, broad promenades—as old as the most ancient palaces. Now, perhaps to their dismay, the officers and employees of Connecticut General can look out their windows and see...