Seagrams Building , 1958-Present
EXTENSION OF THE SIDEWALK
The Seagrams building is located on lexington avenue and east fifty-second street in Manhattan, NY . The project was completed in 1958 by the world famous architect Mies Van Der Rohe and architect Phillip Johnson. Mies Van Der Rohe was a famous architect in Europe that practice and taught modernism. He fled because of the Nazies and went to America in the late 1930’s. The building is an icon of the modernist movement and led to a change in the government's view on how buildings interact with the street. The skyscraper was made out of painted bronze and dark tinted glass. The bronze is oiled and must be re oiled every two years to maintain its black color. The bronze exterior is not structural but rather a decoration to give the idea of exposed material. HE wanted to expose the structure, however the building code did not allow it so he put black I beams vertically along the facade to give the impression of exposed structure. The structure is hidden in the walls and not actually shown. The architect often said less is more, this concept is shown in this tower. He tried creating functional architecture, The windows can change to any of three settings, this is all to make the building be seen as uniform. “The existing density of buildings along Park avenue made it nearly impossible to see any one of them except by crossing the street”. The tower is placed 100 ft back from the street edge allowing for a grand plaza to the front. The plaza has two large fountains on either end an a staircase in the middle taking you up to the plaza. “A plaza provided a welcome moment of spatial relief in a near rhymeless architectural cliff.” This outdoor space is highly active inviting people with its vast seating around the fountains. The city was not sure at first how to react to the creation of this vast plaza and decided to put additional taxes on the company.This plaza became a popular space which then influenced the city to give incentives to developers that added spaces on the property where the public can experience.By pushing back the structure from the edge Mies moved away from the typical New York skyscraper. The ground floor plays with the idea of interior and exterior by extending the floor of the plaza into the lobby and extending the ceiling of the lobby out into an overhang outside. In the offices above light is introduced from luminous ceiling panels and the window. The building gets a great deal of natural light due to the ceiling to floor outer glass made of grey topaz which also helped with sun and heat protection. Because of its use of modern materials as well as its push back the building became a template for buildings designed after. In 1970 the exterior became a landmark and then in 1990 the interior of the building became a landmark which is a high honor only a few buildings have earned.
Sources:
http://interactive.wttw.com/tenbuildings/seagram-building
Mies Van Der Rohe a critical biography. Franz schulze , page
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