Lever House

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The Lever House, taken in 2007

The Lever House is one of Gordon Bunshaft , worked for Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) designed skyscraper at the Park Avenue in New York City . It was built from 1951 to 1952 in the international style , as exemplified by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe in the 860–880 Lake Shore Drive Apartments , and is considered one of the defining examples of skeleton structures of this style. The British drugstore manufacturer Lever Brothers commissioned the building as its new American headquarters. It has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since October 2, 1983 .

The reinforced concrete skeleton construction built, 94 m high building has a curtain wall ( English curtain wall ) aluminum profiles and transparent and green colored glass. Together with the UN headquarters , which was built at the same time , it was the first building of this type in New York. In front of the facade on the short north-western side of the building is the external staircase with the elevators. There are no offices on the ground floor, it is completely glazed on the outside and is used as an exhibition space. Half of the block between Park Avenue, 54th and 53rd Streets is occupied by Lever House.

In the course of the relocation of Lever Brothers administration to Greenwich , Connecticut , the use by the builders ended in 1997. The parent company of Lever Brothers, Unilever , however, remained with offices on the top four floors of Lever House. In 1998, RFR Holding bought the building and renovated it for $ 25 million. SOM was commissioned to replace the heavily weathered curtain wall, taking into account the monument protection. During the renovation, which was completed in 2003, a sculpture garden by Isamu Noguchi , which was planned for the original construction, was installed in the lobby. The aluminum manufacturer Alcoa and several financial companies moved in as new tenants . The “Casa Lever” restaurant is on the first floor.

Arne Jacobsen took the building as a model for his work on the former SAS hotel in Copenhagen . The building received the Twenty-five Year Award in 1980 from the American Institute of Architects .

literature

  • Judith Dupré: Skyscraper - The story of the most famous and important skyscrapers in the world. Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers, New York 1996, translated by Marianne Kurda, Könemann Verlag, Cologne 1996, ISBN 3-89508-294-5 , p. 44 f.

Web links

Commons : Lever House  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Report of the Landmark Preservation Commission (PDF; 1.0 MB), November 1982 (English)
  2. ↑ National Park Service : List of new admissions 1983 (PDF; 18.6 MB), page 167 (English)
  3. ^ Marios C. Phocas 2005: Hochhäuser , Vieweg + Teubner Verlag, ISBN 3519004968 . P. 14
  4. ↑ emporis : profile of the building
  5. ↑ som.com: Project description ( memento of the original from July 25, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.som.com archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed January 10, 2010 (English)
  6. ↑ Michael Sheridan 2003: The SAS House: Jacobsen's Lost Gesamtkunstwerk , in: Louisiana Museum of Modern Art: Arne Jacobsen. Absolutly Modern pp. 44–49 (English)
  7. ↑ American Institute of Architects : list of winners

Coordinates: 40 ° 45 ′ 34.5 ″  N , 73 ° 58 ′ 21 ″  W.