Seagram Building
New York City, U.S. Ludwig Miles van er Rohe and Philip Johnson (architects). 1954-1958 C.E. Steel frame with glass curtain wall and bronze
This building epitomizes the importation of modernist ideals from Europe to the United States. In its monumental simplicity, expressed structural frame and rational use of repeated building elements, the building embodies Ludwig Mies van der Rohe's oft-repeated aphorisms that "structure is spiritual" and "less is more." He believed that the more a building was pared to its essential structural and functional elements, and the less superfluous imagery is used, the more a building expresses its structure and form.
Form:
- steel frame with glass curtain wall and bronze
- set back from the street on a wide plaza that is balanced by reflecting pools
- the bronze veneer gives the building a monolithic look
- this model of skyscraper became the main model after World War 1
Function:
- wanted the structural elements to be visible
Content:
- a depiction of "less is more" (this is important because this comes to be rejected by pop art)
- reflection of the minimalist movement in painting
- interplay of verticle and horizontal lines
Context:
- International style of architecture
- thought that a house should be a "machine for living"
- clean space and white lines
- the internal structure is a skeleton system that holds the building up from within
- no ornamentation, no paint applied to the exterior
