Seagram Building

The Seagram Building is a skyscraper at 375 Park Avenue, between East 52nd and 53rd Streets, in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The building, including its stone-faced lobby, bronze-and-glass exterior, and plaza, were designed by German-American architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, with Kahn & Jacobs as associate architects. Philip Johnson designed the interior of the Four Seasons and Brasserie restaurants, while Severud Associates were the structural engineering consultants.

The building, completed in 1958, stands 515 feet (157 m) tall with 38 stories, and it is one of the most notable examples of the functionalist aesthetic and a prominent instance of corporate modern architecture. It was designed as the headquarters for the Canadian distillers Joseph E. Seagram & Sons with the active interest of Phyllis Lambert.

The building is owned by Aby Rosen's RFR Holdings. The Seagram Building is on the National Register of Historic Places, and has been designated as an official city landmark by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission.

## Architecture

The building was designed by German-American *Internationalist* architect Mies van der Rohe, with Kahn & Jacobs as associate architects. Mies was given an unlimited budget by Phyllis Lambert, a member of the Bronfman family and the daughter of SeagramCEO Samuel Bronfman. This structure which resulted, and the style in which it was built, had enormous influences on American architecture. One of the style's characteristic traits was to express or articulate the structure of buildings externally.

## Facade

The Seagram Building was built of a steel frame, from which non-structural glass walls were hung. Mies preferred the steel frame to be visible to all; however, American building codes at the time required that all structural steel be covered in a fireproof material, usually concrete, because improperly protected steel columns or beams may soften and fail in confined fires. Concrete hid the structure of the building, something Mies wanted to avoid if possible, so Mies used non-structural bronze-toned I-beams to suggest structure instead. These are visible from the outside of the building, and run vertically, like mullions, surrounding the large glass windows. This method of construction 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.

One aspect of a facade which Mies disliked was the disordered irregularity when window blinds are drawn, since people using different windows will draw blinds to different heights. As such, Mies specified window blinds which only operated in three positions: fully open, halfway open/closed, or fully closed.

## Plaza

The Seagram Building and the Lever House across Park Avenue, set the architectural style for New York City skyscraper for several decades. It appears as a simple bronze box, set back from Park Avenue by a large, open granite plaza. Mies intended to create an urban open space in front of the building, despite the luxuriousness of the idea, and it became a very popular gathering area. The plaza was provided as part of the 1961 Zoning Resolution, which superseded the 1916 Zoning Resolution and offered incentives for developers to install "privately owned public spaces" like that of the Seagram Building.

The plaza was the setting of a planning study by sociologist William H. Whyte, whose film *Social Life of Small Urban Spaces*, produced in conjunction with the Municipal Art Society, records the daily patterns of people socializing around the plaza.

## Restaurants

The building was home to The Four Seasons Restaurant, designed by the architects, and Brasserie, by Diller + Scofidio. The interiors of the restaurants were designed by Philip Johnson. It now hosts three restaurants, The Grill, The Pool, and The Lobster Club, all of which are owned by Major Food Group.