Lever House
New York, New York · 1952
Photo · Photo by J. Alex Langley/ESTO
A seminal precedent for the mid-century modern glass curtain wall, demonstrating the use of a slender slab geometry and reflective glazing to achieve a weightless, corporate aesthetic.
- What we like about this project
- The corner of the building appears incredibly sharp and thin due to the minimal profile of the corner mullion.
Materials
- glass
- stainless-steel
- aluminum
Visual identifiers
- glass-curtain-wall
- stainless-steel-mullions
- rectangular-slab
- reflective-facade
Style tags
- international-style
- modernist
- rationalist
Visual tags
- mid-century-modernism
- curtain-wall
- corporate-architecture
- high-rise
- monolithic-volume
- Geometry
- A slender, rectangular slab volume rising vertically with a highly regular, orthogonal grid of mullions.
- Facade system
- Glass curtain wall with stainless steel framing and green-tinted spandrel panels.
- Structural guess
- Steel frame structure with concrete slabs
- Spatial scale
- Multi-story commercial office tower scale, towering over the immediate streetscape.
- Lighting
- Bright, direct daylight reflecting off the glass facade, creating a high-contrast glare at the top corner and soft cloud reflections across the surface.
- Atmosphere
- Bright, optimistic, and clean, defined by the crisp reflection of clouds on a blue-sky day.
- Environmental context
- Dense urban setting in New York, surrounded by other mid-to-high-rise corporate towers under a clear blue sky.
- Spatial experience
- The tower reads as a light, reflective volume floating above its base, mirroring the sky and clouds on its sheer glass skin.
- Composition rhythm
- A continuous, fine-grained grid of vertical mullions and horizontal spandrel bands that wraps the entire volume uniformly.
- Style reading
- International Style Modernism
- Program
- Corporate office headquarters
- Perspective
- Exterior Facade
- Discipline
- architecture
- Materials
- glass, stainless-steel, aluminum
- Visual identifiers
- glass-curtain-wall, stainless-steel-mullions, rectangular-slab, reflective-facade
- Style tags
- international-style, modernist, rationalist
- Visual tags
- mid-century-modernism, curtain-wall, corporate-architecture, high-rise, monolithic-volume
- Geometry
- A slender, rectangular slab volume rising vertically with a highly regular, orthogonal grid of mullions.
- Facade system
- Glass curtain wall with stainless steel framing and green-tinted spandrel panels.
- Structural guess
- Steel frame structure with concrete slabs
- Spatial scale
- Multi-story commercial office tower scale, towering over the immediate streetscape.
- Lighting
- Bright, direct daylight reflecting off the glass facade, creating a high-contrast glare at the top corner and soft cloud reflections across the surface.
- Atmosphere
- Bright, optimistic, and clean, defined by the crisp reflection of clouds on a blue-sky day.
- Environmental context
- Dense urban setting in New York, surrounded by other mid-to-high-rise corporate towers under a clear blue sky.
- Spatial experience
- The tower reads as a light, reflective volume floating above its base, mirroring the sky and clouds on its sheer glass skin.
- Composition rhythm
- A continuous, fine-grained grid of vertical mullions and horizontal spandrel bands that wraps the entire volume uniformly.
- Style reading
- International Style Modernism
- Program
- Corporate office headquarters
- Perspective
- Exterior Facade
- Discipline
- architecture