Seagram Building (New York City, New York) | office building, skyscraper, 1958_construction, International style architecture

USA / New Jersey / West New York / New York City, New York / Park Avenue, 375
 office building, skyscraper, 1958_construction, International style architecture

515-foot, 38-story International-style office building completed in 1958. Designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, it is considered the pioneer for large corporate boxes of the decades to follow, bringing modernist ideals from Europe to the United States. It was built as the corporate headquarters for Canadian distillers Joseph E. Seagram and Sons. Kahn & Jacobs prepared the architectural drawings for contractor George A. Fuller Company. The innovative Seagram Building set the stage for the design of New York skyscrapers for many years to come and is generally recognized as one of, if not the, finest examples of the International Style of architecture. The building occupies only 40% of the allowable zoning envelope, set far back from Park Avenue, freeing up space for a granite-paved public plaza which was internally heated. The plaza is an expensive aesthetic and symbolic gesture, especially significant in the dense urban environment which surrounds it. The building was designated an architectural landmark in 1989. The Seagram is the only building in New York designed by Mies van der Rohe.

The facade is clad in bronze glass and black-colored bronze over a steel skeleton. Mylar ceiling panels in a grid pattern, visible from the sidewalk illuminate the window-wall spaces. An interesting feature of the Seagram Building is the window blinds. As was common with International style architects, Mies wanted the building to have a uniform appearance. One aspect of a façade which Mies disliked was the disordered irregularity when window blinds are drawn. Inevitably, people using different windows will draw blinds to different heights, making the building appear disorganized. To reduce this disproportionate appearance, Mies specified window blinds which only operated in three positions – fully open, halfway open/closed, or fully closed.

The north and south ends of the ground floor are recessed, and there are wide steps at the east end of the main tower leading up to secondary entrances, with metal-and-glass canopies extending out over the steps. The east end of the tower is set back above these entrances, where it connects to a lower -story wing at the east end that projects out to the sidewalk at both 52nd & 53rd Streets. There is a loading dock at the east end of the south wing, and an entrance/exit to the underground parking garage at the east end of the north wing. The main entrance to the tower is behind the plaza on the avenue.

The building also had a notable restaurant, called The Four Seasons, that opened in 1959. It was associated with a number of milestone firsts in the hospitality industry. The Four Seasons is credited with introducing the idea of seasonally-changing menus to America. James Beard is considered founding father of The Four Seasons restaurant and a principal contributor to the development of its seasonal-food concept. He paired appropriate wines for each season, including offering American wines for the first time. The restaurant's interior was designed by Philip Johnson and was designated by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission as an interior landmark in 1989. The restaurant had two linked rooms with the centerpiece of one a pool and the other a bar that is topped by a quivering Richard Lippold sculpture designed by Philip Johnson. In June 2015, Aby Rosen, owner of the Seagram Building, announced that the restaurant's lease would not be extended; the restaurant began construction at a new location at 280 Park Avenue in 2016. Studios Architecture also performed alterations to the 11th floor rooftop deck in 2014.

www.375parkavenue.com
s-media.nyc.gov/agencies/lpc/lp/1664.pdf
studios.com/projects/375_park_avenue/
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Coordinates:   40°45'30"N   73°58'19"W
This article was last modified 5 years ago