Tag Archives: Gordon Bunshaft

Lever House

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Lever House (1952) was New York’s first curtain wall skyscraper, beginning Park Avenue’s switch from masonry to glass buildings. The 24-story green glass tower gave impetus to the International Style of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. What’s more, it led the owner to switch careers, from sales back to architecture! Lever Brothers president Charles Luckman quit the company before Lever House was completed, moved to California and his first love, architecture. (He had trained for architecture at the University of Illinois, but was sidetracked to sales during the Great Depression.)

Though Luckman was involved in Lever House’s design, the architect of record was Gordon Bunshaft of famed Skidmore, Owings and Merrill.

Lever House avoided the typical “wedding cake” skyscraper design by occupying less than 25 percent of its lot (an exception to the 1916 zoning law that dictated stepped setbacks to permit sunlight to reach the street). Lever House’s success was widely copied by other tower and plaza designs (notably Mies van der Rohe’s masterpiece Seagram Building, diagonally across the street!).

Most of the Lever House ground floor is open plaza; the glass-enclosed portion includes an art gallery open to the public.

Along with the steel and glass curtain walls came another timely innovation: a window-washing gondola mounted on a rooftop track!

While the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission gave Lever House Landmark status November 9, 1982, the building’s original steel and glass facade had deteriorated. In 1998 Unilever sold the building; the new owners replaced the crumbling steel and glass with an aluminum and glass curtain wall – completed in 2001 and again designed by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill.

Lever House Vital Statistics
  • Location: 390 Park Avenue between E 53rd and E 54th Streets
  • Year completed: 1952
  • Architect: Gordon Bunshaft of Skidmore, Owens & Merrill
  • Floors: 24
  • Style: International
  • New York City Landmark: 1982
  • National Register of Historic Places: 1983
Lever House Suggested Reading

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Solow Building

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The Solow Building, also known as 9 West 57th Street, is one of those “love it or hate it” buildings. It’s bold and innovative, meeting New York’s setback zoning requirements with a dramatic swoosh, like the Nike logo. And that’s the problem, say critics – it ruins the block’s cohesiveness, like a 50-story black and white scar.

There’s no denying that the building, taken by itself, is among New York’s most recognizable buildings. Only one other building – the W.R. Grace Building on 42nd Street, by the same architect – looks anything like it.

Since completion in 1974, one major change was made to Solow Building’s 57th Street entry. The escalator bank was replaced with stairs leading down to a restaurant, “8-1/2,” and enclosed in glass. Look to the building’s W 58th Street side for an idea of the “before.”

Solow Building Vital Statistics
  • Location: 9 W 57th Street, just off Fifth Avenue
  • Year completed: 1974
  • Architect: Gordon Bunshaft of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill
  • Floors: 50
  • Style: Postmodern
Solow Building Suggested Reading

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Grace Building

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The W. R. Grace Building is another example of “love it or hate it” architecture. Like near-twin Solow Building (9 W 57th Street) also designed by Gordon Bunshaft, the Grace Building’s swooping facades break up the “street walls” in front and back. If only the building were on a block by itself…

In a sense this is Bunshaft’s revenge: This is the rejected facade treatment that Bunshaft had first proposed for the Solow Building!

Grace Building Vital Statistics
  • Location: 1114 Avenue of the Americas (block-through W 42nd – W 43rd Streets)
  • Year completed: 1974
  • Architect: Gordon Bunshaft of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill
  • Floors: 50
  • Style: Postmodern
Grace Building Recommended Reading

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