Lever House - 400 Park Avenue @ East 52nd Street - by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill

**ZippyTheChimp** · February 29th, 2004, 06:40 PM

**TLOZ Link5** · February 29th, 2004, 06:48 PM

The best International-style building in the world, although the UN Building might come close.

**Gulcrapek** · February 29th, 2004, 08:10 PM

I luvv it. It's so pure. Maybe the most important thing to me is the fact that there are no huge spaces inside for rows of windowless cubicles, and almost every office has a giant wall of windows. I think about the tenants of these things a lot.

**Kris** · February 29th, 2004, 08:23 PM

Originally Posted by TLOZ Link5

The best International-style building in the world, although the UN Building might come close.

That title according to me goes to the Seagram Building. I did vote 10.

**Gulcrapek** · February 29th, 2004, 08:40 PM

The Seagram is a mess on its opposite-the-avenue face...

**Kris** · February 29th, 2004, 08:51 PM

How so?

**Gulcrapek** · February 29th, 2004, 08:55 PM

The bundle of mass trailing like a metallic hemorrhoid. It contaminates the building's supposed purity of form.

**TLOZ Link5** · February 29th, 2004, 09:01 PM

Originally Posted by Gulcrapek

The bundle of mass trailing like a metallic hemorrhoid. It contaminates the building's supposed purity of form.

I always thought that the bustle was very discreet.

**dbhstockton** · February 29th, 2004, 09:06 PM

That photo doesn't do it justice: the building is about the composition the vertical slab and horizontal base. That's what makes it totally unique, though its curtain wall was so often imitated. It's also very generous with its site in a way that would later be written into NYC's zoning.

I gave it a 10.

You can see how radical it looked in its original contect here in this old postcard view:

**Kris** · February 29th, 2004, 09:16 PM

Originally Posted by Gulcrapek

The bundle of mass trailing like a metallic hemorrhoid. It contaminates the building's supposed purity of form.

It's only a "contamination" if you expect the form to be elementary.

**ZippyTheChimp** · February 29th, 2004, 09:16 PM

I hope you looked at the others.

I figured Seagrams would come up, but it's an afternoon building - doesn't photograph well looking into the morning sun.

**JonY** · March 31st, 2004, 09:38 AM

The first pic posted by ZippyTheChimp certainly shows Lever House at its best.

An excellent example of corporatism that was completed in 1952.

I admire how the smooth glass curtain wall effectively conceals the steel structure that lies beneath it.

The 2-story base always looks like it was added as an afterthought - style of the base, 'stuckonism' :wink:

Rating it in context of when it was built - 9 (however losing a point for the base :twisted: ), so 8.

**Edward** · April 3rd, 2004, 10:21 PM

Lever House courtyard.

**fioco** · April 4th, 2004, 01:54 AM

This would be a far different buildng without the base, and far less effective. The base creates the dialogue. A horizontal slab (square donut) levitates above the ground. The vertical slab is elevated from the podium with a stilt-like initial articulation. I can't speak the architectural jargon, but I enjoy the building and rate it tops for aesthetic appeal.