Prominent German-American Internationalist architect Mies van der Rohe was given an unlimited budget by Seagram's heiress Phyllis Lambert. 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. On completion in 1958, the Seagram Building's $41 million construction cost made it the world's most expensive skyscraper at the time, due to the use of costly, high-quality materials and lavish interior decoration including bronze, travertine, and marble. The interior was designed to assure cohesion with the external features, repeated in the glass and bronze furnishings and decorative scheme.
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.
Features
Structural features
The 38-story structure combines a steel moment frame and a steel and reinforced concrete core for lateral stiffness. The concrete core shear walls extend up to the 17th floor, and diagonal core bracing extends to the 29th floor. According to Severud Associates, the structural engineering consultants, it was the first tall building to use high strength bolted connections, the first tall building to combine a braced frame with a moment frame, one of the first tall buildings to use a vertical truss bracing system and the first tall building to employ a composite steel and concrete lateral frame.
Plaza
The Seagram Building and Lever House, which sits just across Park Avenue, set the architectural style for skyscrapers in New York City 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" which were meant to emulate that of the Seagram Building. The Seagram Building's plaza was also the site of a landmark planning study by William H. Whyte, the American sociologist. The film, Social Life of Small Urban Spaces, produced in conjunction with the Municipal Art Society of New York, records the daily patterns of people socializing around the plaza. It shows how people actually use space, varying from the supposed intent of the architects.
Restaurants
The building was home to The Four Seasons Restaurant, designed by the architects, and Brasserie, by Diller + Scofidio. It now hosts three restaurants, The Grill, The Pool, and The Lobster Club, all of which are owned by Major Food Group.
