Seagram Building
The Seagram Building is a skyscraper at 375 Park Avenue, between 52nd and 53rd Streets, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe along with Philip Johnson, Ely Jacques Kahn, and Robert Allan Jacobs, the high-rise tower is 515 feet (157 m) tall with 38 stories. The International Style building, completed in 1958, initially served as the headquarters of the Seagram Company, a Canadian distiller.
"Seagram Tower" redirects here. For the structure in Ontario originally named Seagram Tower, see Tower Hotel (Niagara Falls). For the structure in Montreal, Quebec, that formerly served as Seagram's headquarters, see Seagram House.Seagram Building
375 Park Avenue, Manhattan, New York 10152, U.S.
1958
May 22, 1958
516 ft (157 m)
465 ft (142 m)
38
849,014 sq ft (78,876.0 m2)
Jaros, Baum & Bolles (MEP)
February 24, 2006
06000056[1]
December 14, 2005
06101.010696
1664[4]
Facade
1665[5]
Interior: Lobby
1666[6]
Interior: Four Seasons Restaurant
Phyllis Lambert, daughter of Seagram CEO Samuel Bronfman, heavily influenced the Seagram Building's design, an example of the functionalist aesthetic and a prominent instance of corporate modern architecture. A glass curtain wall with vertical mullions of bronze and horizontal spandrels made of Muntz metal form the building's exterior. On Park Avenue is a pink-granite public plaza with two fountains. Behind the plaza is a tall elevator lobby with a similar design to the plaza. The lowest stories originally contained the Four Seasons Restaurant, which was replaced in 2017 with the Grill and Pool restaurants, and the Brasserie restaurant, which was superseded in 1995 by the Lobster Club. On the upper stories are modular office spaces.
Seagram revealed plans for the building in July 1954, when it announced construction of its headquarters on the up-and-coming commercial strip of Park Avenue. After Lambert objected to Pereira & Luckman's original design, Mies was selected as the architect that November. The building's construction began in late 1955 and finished in 1958, although the official certificate of occupancy was not granted until 1959. The Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America (TIAA) purchased the building in 1979, and it remained Seagram's headquarters until 2001. TIAA sold the building in 2000 to Aby Rosen's RFR Holding LLC, which has continued to operate the structure.
Upon opening, the Seagram Building was widely praised for its architecture. Described in The New York Times as one of "New York's most copied buildings", the Seagram Building has inspired the designs of other structures around the world. Within New York City, the Seagram Building helped influence the 1961 Zoning Resolution, a zoning ordinance that allowed developers to construct additional floor area in exchange for including plazas outside their buildings. In 1989, the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the Seagram Building's exterior, lobby, and The Four Seasons Restaurant as official city landmarks. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2006.
Site[edit]
The Seagram Building is at 375 Park Avenue, on the east side of the avenue between 52nd and 53rd streets, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City.[7][8] The building was never officially named for its original anchor tenant, Canadian conglomerate Seagram, and is legally known only by its address.[9] The building is assigned its own ZIP Code, 10152; it was one of 41 buildings in Manhattan that had their own ZIP Codes as of 2019.[10] The land lot has a frontage of 295 feet (90 m) on 52nd Street to the south, 200 feet (61 m) on Park Avenue to the west, and 302 feet (92 m) on 53rd Street to the north.[8][11] The site slopes down to the east.[8][12][13]
The 53rd Street side contains an alley about 7 feet (2.1 m) wide, facing 100 East 53rd Street; the alley allows the Seagram Building to remain symmetrical despite the site's irregular shape.[14] Other nearby buildings include 345 Park Avenue across 52nd Street to the south; 399 Park Avenue across 53rd Street to the north; Lever House diagonally across Park Avenue and 53rd Street; and the Racquet and Tennis Club Building and Park Avenue Plaza across Park Avenue to the west.[7] In addition, 599 Lexington Avenue and the Citigroup Center, as well as the New York City Subway's Lexington Avenue/51st Street station (served by the 6, <6>, E, and M trains), are on Lexington Avenue less than one block to the east.[7][15]
During the late 19th century, the Seagram Building's site had included the original Steinway & Sons piano factory, as well as tenements made of brick or brownstone.[16] The Park Avenue railroad line had run in an open-cut in the middle of Park Avenue until the 1900s. The construction of Grand Central Terminal in the early 20th century covered the line, spurring development in the surrounding area, known as Terminal City.[17][18] The adjacent stretch of Park Avenue became a wealthy neighborhood with upscale apartments, including the Montana Apartments, on the site of the piano factory.[16] Largely commercial International Style skyscrapers replaced many of the residential structures on Park Avenue during the 1950s and 1960s.[19][20] These skyscrapers included the Seagram Building, Lever House, the Union Carbide Building, and the Pepsi-Cola Building.[21] When the Seagram site was assembled in the early 1950s, it contained the Montana Apartments and four smaller row houses and apartment buildings.[22][23][24]