How The Seagram Building Has Changed America

The Seagram building located in New York is labelled as one of the top ten buildings that changed the United States of America . The lecturer, Mario Carpo, discussed this iconic piece of architecture during the lecture on October 9th 2014. The Seagram, which was completed on the 22nd of May 1958, has been a breakthrough in modern architecture, through its sleek and simple design. In this paper, I will discuss to what extent has this building been a successful icon of international style architecture, through discussing basic facts, describing its built form, examining the technology used for its creation and the impact it has had in the realm of architecture.

Part 1: Facts

The discussed building was designed by the German architect, Ludwig

However, on the exterior, one would appreciate the pinkish-grey tinted glass panels aligned in a consistent manner coated with grey topaz for sun and heat protection. In fact, the building comprises of 122,000 sq. feet of pinking grey tinted glass. Together, the panels create a curtain wall: which is a system with large glass uninterrupted windows, therefore creating a consistent visually pleasing façade. The modern movement at the time inspired the choice of the curtain wall. Additionally, non-structural bronze l-beams are encased around the perimeter of the glass panels, and fused between the glass windows, which provided the glass façade with depth and shadow. Mies initially hoped to express the structural steel frame on the exterior of the building, however, the building code in the United States of America requires that structural steel should be covered in fireproof materials for safety reasons, therefore in order for Mies not to compromise on his original designs, the bronze l-beams were attached to mullions in order to suggest the structure of the building. In total, 153,000 sq. feet of bronze cladding was used during its construction and the dimension of each bronze l-beam is 4.5 wide by 6 inches. Moreover, the horizontal part of the l-beam is three times thicker than the vertical component. Glass panels with the surrounding bronze l-beams

Lewis Mumford called it the “Rolls-Royce” of buildings, due to its’ aesthetic and symbolic gesture, making other buildings in New York almost threatened and intimidated by the Seagram building . Nowadays, sleek, mass-produced simple glass-and-steel constructed skyscrapers and buildings are found in a vast number of cities around the world. Mies’ influence has also travelled through different continents, with many international style skyscrapers found in cities such as Dubai. Additionally, the Seagram could be seen as a symbol of the rising economic affluence of the States and the strength of the American capitalist democracy. For these reasons, the building is described as “the building of the millennium” by New York Times and a “building that expresses the best of the society in which you