ARCHITECT'S

The Seagram Building, erected in 1956-58, is the only building in New York City designed by architectural master Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. Carefully related to the tranquil granite and marble plaza on its Park Avenue site, the elegant curtain wall of bronze and tinted glass enfolds the first fully modular modern office tower. Constructed when Park Avenue was changing from an exclusive residential thoroughfare to a prestigious business address, the Seagram Building embodies the quest of a successful corporation to establish further its public image through architectural patronage. Like virtually all large buildings of the time, it was built in a steel frame, from which non-structural glass walls were hung. Mies would have preferred the steel frame to be visible; however, American building codes required that all structural steel needed to be covered in a fireproof material because improperly protected steel columns or beams may soften and fail in confined fires. Concrete hid the building’s structure – which Mies wanted to avoid – so the architect used non-structural bronze-toned I-beams to suggest structure instead. The beams are visible from the outside of the building and run vertically, like mullions, surrounding the large glass windows. Using an interior reinforced concrete shell to support a larger non-structural edifice has since become commonplace. As designed, the building used 1,500 tons of bronze in its construction. Another interesting feature of the Seagram Building is the window blinds. Mies wanted the building to have a uniform appearance. One aspect Mies disliked about facades 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. Mies specified window blinds that only operated in three positions – fully open, halfway open/closed, or fully closed to reduce this disproportionate appearance. (© ArchEyes)

COLLECTION

DFW