Classical AD: House Lever / Skidmore, Owings, & Merrill

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Located in midtown Manhattan

Houses Lever by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill has been one of the first office building in the glass of the International style in the United States. Located in midtown Manhattan, was originally the headquarters of the American Society of Lever Brothers soap. Built between 1951-1952, Lever House extends 24 stories tall in front of Mies van der Rohe’s Seagram Building, and should be in a perfect glass box itself.

Skidmore, Owings, & Merrill

Compensation design Lever House office tower above the horizontal base. Base raised from the horizontal plane to the ground by the stage, except for the game ended, with the public and in the box below the threshold between outside and inside the building. Here, on the ground floor has an exhibition space, visitors waiting room, auditorium, and kitchen demonstrations.

The basis of all it is raised a second (and larger) floor of the building. Extending horizontally toward the town, first floor contains a parlor employees, continued medical and general office facilities, and the third floor is the location of the employee cafeteria and terrace.

New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission

Increasing residual building floor contains offices and a penthouse is situated on the ground twenty-first. Three floors of the building there is a mechanical room, which is opaque to the outside, which gives a contrast and at the end for the rest of the tower is covered with glass.
One of the most important element of the Lever House is a glass curtain wall is a blue-green steel and stainless heat resistant. Its design has the goal of good economic and aesthetic. As has been the site of soap companies, using a glass-facade buildings all make it easier to clean and maintain the light in the firmament. A system was created with a gondola on the roof, glass washing machine that can move on the track to clean the glass. Curtain wall is also completely closed without opening the windows to prevent entry of dirt from the city in the building, and heat resistant glass has reduced cooling costs.

House Lever

The building, although designated a landmark in 1982 by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, needed a restore today because of water seeping into the building and broke the glass panel. In mid-1990 only one percent of the original glass remaining. In 1998, Unilever, the original company Lever Brothers, which was left on the floor of the building of RFR Holding LLC, a lever when it bought the building. They hired Skidmore, Owings, & Merrill once again to restore the curtain wall with state of the art technology solutions for the modern wall while preserving the original appearance of the buildings which were completed by all in 2001.

construction House Lever

Winner of numerous awards including AIA First Honor prize, National AIA price 25 years, and in New York Architectural League Gold Medal, Lever House is New York City history people have been fascinated for years with a modern style that has not faded into the past .

source : archdialy