Landmarks Preservation Commission

November 9, 1982, Designation List 161

LP-12/7

LEVER HOUSE, 390 Park Avenue, Borough of Manhattan. Built 1950-52; architects
Skidmore, Owings and Merrill; Gordon Bunshaft, partner in charge and chief designer.

Landmark Site: Borough of Manhattan Tax Map Block 1289, Lot 36.

On February 9, 1982, the Landmarks Preservation Commission held a public hearing

on the proposed designation as a Landmark of Lever House and the proposed designation
of the related Landmark Site (Item No. 8). The hearing was continued to April 13,
1982 (Item No. 4) and again to June 8, 1982 (Item No. 2). All hearings were duly
advertised in accordance with the provisions of law. A total of eight witnesses spoke
in favor of designation at the three hearings. There were no speakers in opposition
to designation. Statements have been received from the owners opposing designation.
Other statements have been received supporting designation.

DESIGNATION AND ANALYSIS

Lever House, situated on the west side of Park Avenue between East 53rd Street
and East 54th Street is a 24-story glass and stainless steel clad office building
composed of a vertical slab rising above a horizontal base. Its construction in
1950-52 heralded the beginning of a new wave of American skyscraper construction and
a new synthesis of modernist archi.t ectural ideals. Since the time of its completion,
its crystalline forms and glazed curtain walls have attracted worM '. attention. It
has assumed a major role in the literature of modern architecture and has been wide-
ly recognized as a key monument in the evolution of the International Style.

Lever House also heralded the almost complete transformation of Park Avenue
that took place in the years following 1952, The mile-long stretch of Park Avenue
from the Grand Central complex to East 59th Street changed in a single decade from
an avenue of traditional masonry apartment houses to one of glass and steel office
buildings.

Lever House was the first New York real estate venture to take advantage of a
zoning provision which permited a building to rise with no setbacks provided that
the building covered only 25 percent of the lot.l As a result, Lever House ' broke the
tradition of "shaped tower" skyscrapers which had prevailed since the 1910s.

Lever House introduced many innovations into skyscraper design that were to be
much imitated. The most obvious was the use of glass covering almost 100 percent
of the visible facades, as well as an integrally designed window-washing mechanism
to keep it clean. It also introduced the concept of opening a portion of the
ground floor to public use and of providing an open courtyard at its base. This
last feature was later to become, in the form of the open plaza, almost a standard
component of New York office building development.

Above the ground floor the building serves solely to house the offices of the
Lever Brothers Compa ny, an American manufacturer of household ;products whose desire
for a New York headquarters of outstanding design2 resulted in a major architectural
statement.

Lever Brothers Company

The Lever Brothers Company traces its American or1g1ns to 1888 when William
Hesketh Lever (1851-1925), a British manufacturer of "Sunlight" soap, toured the
 -2-

United States with the idea of expanding his company's markets ab~oad.3

Lever was a businessman from Lancashire, England,who became successful selling

his patented line of soaps. Eventually he purchased a factory near Lancashire which
enabled him to produce as well as to sell his products. In 1887 Lever founded Port
Sunlight, a model company town on the Mersey River near Liverpool composed of manu-
facturing plant, business headquarters, workers housing, and support facilit~es. It
was the first venture of the Lever Company to provide "the best in terms of design,
comstruction and amenities"4 to its employees.

In 1890 the new soap venture was turned into a private company, and agencies
were established in America, throughout the British Empire to sell Sunlight. In
1894 the private company gave way to a public company which became Lever Brothers
Ltd. By 1900 Lever Brothers Ltd. had established factories in Australia , Canada,
Germany, Switzerland,and the United States.S

The original American factory, which was located near Boston, had been purchased
by Lever himself during his 1888 tour. His exposure to America left a lasting impres-
sion on the founder of Lever Brothers. He purchased his company's first advertising
slogan in Philadelphia, and was also impressed with the innovative nature of American
packaging. Charles Wilson in History of Unilever, writes:

Lever Brothers Company in the United Stated was always "sui

generis," Lever himself had been fascinated by the American
scene. Many of his ideas on technology and marketing -- more
especially advertising -- were by-products of his observations
on his American journeyings.6

In 1929 Lever Brothers Ltd. merged with a Dutch compan~Margarine Unie. The
resultingmu~ti~ational corporation was Unilever Ltd. (In the United States, the
Unilever enterprises comprise Lever BrothernCompany.) In the 1930s the transfer
of Lever Brothers Ltd. from Port Sunlight to London signaled the transformation of
a Lancashire soap business into an international enterprise.

In 1949, spurred in part by the success of the new synthetic detergent "Tide,"
Lever Brothers Company moved the center of its operations "from Boston into the
brisker air of New York."7 The new president of Lever, Jervis J. Babb, was familiar
with modern corporate architecture as he hadworkedin Frank Lloyd Wright's famous
glass-towered Johnson's Wax building in Racine, Wisconsin, while vice-president of
that company. 8 ·

Lever Brothers Company commissioned Skidmore, Owings & Merrill to design a mod-
ern headquarters for their exclusive use on Park Avenue and also commissioned from
them a research facility and manufacturing plant in Edgewater, New Jersey,9 thus
following the innovative tradition of Port Sunlight some 60 years earlier. The
design of both these structures was assigned to the firm's principal New York designer,
Gordon Bunshaft. Bunshaft, ,an American di sciple of Walter Gropius and Hies van der Rohe, Has
the firm's principal interpreter of the International Style. The very progressive
concepts of Bunshaft were particularly well suited to thecorporateimage that Lever
Brothers wanted to project. The company that had introduced to the American public
such well known brand names as Lux, Lifebouy, Tide, etc., clearly wanted to convey
an image of sparkling cleanliness and modernity. The International Style, which at
that time was seen to symbolize production and modern living, found an enthusiastic
corporate sponsor in Lever Brothers Company.
 -3-

The Site

In 1815 the site of the present Lever House was part of a farm owned by Charles
McEvers, whose house stood on the western end of his property near Fifth Avenue,lO
His tract stretched from the imaginary line of Fifth Avenue to that of Fourth
Avenue (later Park Avenue).

The history of Fourth Avenue, however, really begins with the advent of the rail~
roads. In 1834 the New York and Harlem r ailroad first carried passengers alonf newly
laid tracks down the center of Fourth Avenue from 42nd Street to 96th Street.l
By 1848 the New Haven Railroad entered Manhattan along Fourth Avenue. Due to increased
noise, smoke, and danger of fire and injury, the city government directed the rail-
roads to depress the tracks a long the avenue. As railroad traffic increas-Ad , more
s pace was needed to la~ additional tracks. By 1881 Fourth Avenue was widened to 140
feet. The trains ran in an open cut below grade south of 56th Street . On either
side of the depressed tracks were 27-foot wide roadway s and 15-foot wide sidewalks .
North of 56th Street the tracks were partially covered over with a "beam tunne l"l2
consisting of raised planted malls running down the center of the boulevard .
H'ithin these planted malls open wells-provided light and ventilation to the tracks '!:Jelow.

The overall effect of the landscaped "beam tunnels" was widely admired,l3 al-
though the smoke and noise must have poured out f rom the open wells. In 1888 Fourth
Avenue officially became known as Park Avenue. A drawing of Park Avenue from the 1870s
shmv-s s ubstantial brownstone residences lining the side streets off Park Avenue in
the Fifties and Forties.l4 Most of the structures facing on Park Avenue itself appear
to be one- . or. otwo-s.t ory carriage houses or commercial buildings. By 1885 , the block
b e tween 53rd and 54th Streets on the west side o f Park Avenue was completely built up
with four- and five-story buildings.l5 South of 53rd Stree t were locate d manufacturing
buildings such as the Stei nway Piano Factory and the Schafer Brewery .

By 1905 all this had changed. In conjunction with the reconstruction of Grand
Central Terminal, the street was taken up a gain and new excavations were begun that
took the full width of Park Avenue. The buildings on either side had to be propped
up on steel "needle beams" to prevent thei r collapse. New double stacked tracks were
constructed under gr a de. Th e nature of the new cleaner e l e ctric trains made it possible
t o r ebuild Pa rk Avenue s oli dly wi th no ope n we lls . A gen erous plante d ma ll was built
down the center of the avenue, and park benches were placed along a central walk.
The new Grand Central Terminal opened in 1911, and thereafter Park Avenue changed
gradually f rom an avenue of rowhouses,tenements, and larger commercial buildings to a
thorough f a r e lined with large apartment houses f or the we althy .

In 1928-29 the central ma ll wa s narrowe d t o accommoda t e more lanes of automobile

t r affic. I n 1936 twenty rowhouses owned by Rob e rt H'. Goe l e t of the r emaining 22
on the block between East 53rd a'nd East 54th Streets wes t of Park Avenue were demo-
lished.l6 In their place were built a small commerc ial building with taxpay er type
s hops along Park Avenue and the Normandie movie theater f ronting on East 53rd Street
(see photogr aph). Both the theater and the one-story commercia l building were de-
signed in the Art De co styl e . Thes e two buildi n gs we r e t aken down in May 1950, as
wer e the two r emain i n g browns t ones f ronting on 54th Stree t. I n the ir pl ace wer e to
rise the new offices of t h e Lever Brother s Company . Excavations for t h e new bui lding
began in August of 1950.17
 -4-

In 1961, architectural historian Henry-Russell Hitchcock described the changes

along Park Avenue that a visitor would encounter after a ten year absence:

If he knew the Park Avenue of the dozen blocks above 46th Street
as it was before 1950 he will hardly recogni ze the scene. Of
the older landmarks, St. Bartholomew's, several hotels, the Racquet
Club, and two skyscrapers, the Ritz Tower and the Grand Central
building - soon to be out-topped by the Pan American Building
behind behind it - survive. But almost without exception the
solid brick and stone blocks of the 1teens and twenties have been
replaced by glazed curtain walls - in several cases literally so
since the old internal structure has been retained.
If the visitor has the curiosity to ask, he will soon learn that
this change began in 1951 with the construction of Lever House by
Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, the first example of a tall curtain-
walled business building.l8

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (S.O.M.)

The firm of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill was established in 1936 in Chicago by
Louis Skidmore and Nathaniel Owings. By 1950, in addition to the original head-
quarters, the firm had established offices in New York City, San Francisco, and
Portland, Oregon. Although the offices were managed individually, professional
expertise was shared among them, and they possessed a common approach to building
design and project management. Thus - de-centralized, the firm despite its Chicago
origins, has long been truly national;l9 its works are generally considered as part
of the whole rather than as the work of separate offices. It has been pointed out
that the national character of S.O.M. is as much a twentieth-century phenomenon as
the architecture. Only in an age of rapid air travel could architects and specialists
supervise concurrent projects in widely diverse parts of the country. Today S.O.M.
is still among the largest and most prolific of the large international architectural
firms.

In 1930, 33 year-old, Indiana-born,Louis Skidmore had just returned from a

"grand tour" of Europe.20 A r ecent M.I.T. graduate he managed to find work in the
hard-pressed economic climate of the early thirties by persuading the directors of
the 1933-34 "Century .of Progress" Exhibition in Chicago to appoint him chief designer.
This opportunity introduced him not only to the latest innovations in industrial ·
construction but also to the world of the American businessman. Some 700 companies
displayed their wares at the fair and Skidmore had to deal with all of them.

Just prior to this, he had married Eloise Owings, a fellow Indianan whom he had
met in Paris. Her brother, Nathaniel Owings, was a recent graduate of the Cornell
Architecture school. Skidmore and his hrct:her-in-law became friends and set up an
informal working partnership. Later, Skidmore asked Owings to join him at the Chi-
cago Exhibition as Development Supervisor.

Skidmore and Owings formalized the partnership in 1936 and opened an office.
In 1937 they were offered a commission for alterations to the New York offices of the
American Radiator Company. However, one of the conditions of the commission was that
a partner had to be in New f ork to supervise the work. Making a decision that would
have a long-range impact on their firm, the two partners decided to open a second
office in New York City. Skidmore left Owings at the head of the Chicago office
(they had two employees) and headed for New York.
 -5-

By 1939 the partners decided that the firm would keep two non-centralized of-
fices. They also decided that their firm would design only in the "contemporary
style," and they began to hire specialists in varied disciplines to be able to take
on larger commissions. One of these specialists was John 0. Merrill, an architectural
engineer who joined the firm as a limited partner in 1939. J. Walter Severinghaus
was hired as a housing specialist and William S. Brown as an expert on modern pre-
fabricated materials. In 1938, Gordon Bunshaft was hired as a designer. His imprint
was eventually to shape the design image of S.O.M.

Skidmore explains his firm's professional goals at that time as follows:

Up until the war, most U.S. architects were trained to work only
on small plots, they left the problems of coping with large scale
projects - industrial p.l ants, airfields - to the engineer - we
felt that the architect would have to win back the role of the
creator and coordinator of big projects.21

World War II brought the firm its first truly large project. The federal government
needed an entire new town built from the ground up in the Tenr.essee hills. Called
Oak Ridg~; this was to be a secret community of 30,000 inhabitants and the seat of
the Manhattan Project. It was precisely because S.O.M. was willing and able to take
on tasks not traditionally handled by architectural firms such as site surveying and
town planning that they received this extraordinary commission. A new office was
opened in Oak Ridge and the S.O.M. staff swelled to 450 full-time employees. The
design and administrative experience gained in Oak Ridge laid the foundations for
the large private projects that would come to the firm after the war.

The firm had completed several large projects by 1950 including Manhattan House
in New York (in association with Mayer & miittlesey) the Terrace-Plaza Hotel in
Cincinnati, and the Brooklyn Veterans Hospital. However, it was the corporate h ead-
quarters for Lever Brothers Company o.n Park Avenue that was to make the reputation
of Skidmor~ Owings & Merrill. In his monograph of S.O.M. 's work, Henry-Russell
Hitchcock wrote:

The main work of S.O.M. in the 1950s and earliest 1960s has
followed the line initiated with Lever House at the opening
of the former decade; and the continued acceptability of such
work to architects and to clients, not only in America but abroa d
as well, is proved by the f requency of its emulation. "Lever
House" has become familiar term to describe the curtain-walled
slab skyscraperswhich have by now risen all over the western
world.22

The International Style was named and defined by Henry-Russell Hitchcock and
Philip Johnson in 1932. The style, an outgrowth of 19th-century architectural con-
cerns with functionalism and the post-Warld War I upheaval of Europe, was called
by Hitchcock and Johnson "unified and inclusive, not fragmentary . and contradictory ."
To the a rchitects who desi gned its "monuments of distinc tion," it was a means of
creating a modern,we ll-order ed, and enlightened world. The characteristics of the
style include: a con ception of architecture as volume rather than mass ; regularity
as the chief means of ordering design; the avoidance of applied decorations; and the
articulation of \s tructure.23
 -6-

Gordon Bunshaft, the principal designer of Lever House, was the man most
responsible for taking the European-born dictums of the International Style and
creating a new synt~esis - part functional aesthetic, part building as advertise-
ment - that was to become the new breed of American corporate architecture.

"The partners work as one big team - the others take care of job
getting, supervision, and all those headaches, and I am in charge
of design. " 2 4
- G. Bunshaft, 1961

Gordon Bunshaft was , born in Buffalo, New York, in 1909. He completed his under-
graduate and graduate studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, receiving
his Master's degree in 1935.25 Thereafter, he spent 18 months touring Europe on a
S3,000 Rotch travelling fellowship where he experienced first-hand the new European
architecture that was at that time capturing the imagination of architects all over
America.

In 1937 upon his return, he joined the firm of Skidmore and Owings which had
just opened a New York office. The young firm was committed to the contemporary
style which had been given a great boost by the 1932 Museum of Modern Art exhibit,
"International Arch±tecture," organized by Henry-Russell Hitchcock and Philip Johnson,
and which was becoming known as the International Style.

Bunshaft started as a designer and rose to be the chief design force in the firm.
He became a full partner in 1946. Following Lever House, which he designed in 1949-50,
Bunshaft was involved in the design of a number of outstanding buildings, including:
Manufacturer's Hanover Bank (1953-54) on Fifth Avenue; the Union Carbide Building
(1960) on Park Avenue; the U.S. Air Force Academy (1959) in Colorado Springs; the
Connecticut General Life Insurance Building (1955) in Bloomfield, Connecticut; the
Chase Manhattan Bank Headquarters (1960) in downtown Manhattan; and No. 140 Broadway
(196 7).

Most influential in shaping Bunshaft's design aesthetic were the teachings and
works of Walter Gropius and L1idwig Mies van der Rohe. Bunshaft 's aim like that of
Walter Gropius was to promote the International Style in its fully mature, formalized
and universal form. The excellence attained by his buildings is often compared to
the work of Mies van der Rohe. Bunshaft disliked regional influence on architecture,
striving instead for the normative, formal, and technically oriented architecture most
rigidly espoused by the Bauhaus (led by Gropius in 1918-28 and Mies in 1930-33).
Pragmatic utilitarianism and the industrial aesthetic became the driving force behind
Bunshaft's designs. In an interview that appeared in Architectural Review, (May 1957),
Bunshaft stated:

To a much greater degree than any other country, the United States
is a steel and production line economy. It follows logically that
its architecture has become industrialized: the basic materials in
which it works, steel, aluminum, glass, plastics, all come from the
production line ... It is to S.O.M. 's credit that we have taken prefab-
rication and made a design asset of it.26

The Design of Lever House

The original program for the Lever Brothers headquarters called for a structure
containing 290,000 square feet of floor area to acc ommodate approximately 1200
employees.27 In addition to the executive and administrative offices, the building
 -7-

was to contain an employees': dining room and lounge, an auditorium, the usual comple-
ment of reception areas and support facilities, and an underground garage. The
Lever Brothers Company did not wish to include additional office space to rent out
to other concerns, nor was it interested in sharing the new company symbol with
commercial ground floor tenants.28

Responding to the client's atypical program, the architects at Skidmore, Owings &
Merrill produced a unique and innovative building which became a new model for the
New York office skyscraper. Instead of the traditional lobby and commercial areas
at the ground floor, Lever House was planned with O.pen colonnaded space flowing directly
off the sidewalks with a planted courtyard open to the sky. Only about 30 percent
of the ground floor is indoor space, the bulk of which is enclosed and defined
solely by panels of glass. This glassed-in reception area also serves as an art
gallery. Tucked away towards the rear of the site are the elevator banks and a small
auditorium. The second floor, which hovers over the entire site, originally contained
the dining room. It takes the form of a horizontal sla~ which is ~rapped around an
open central courtyard. The glass facades of this slab continue the line of the
street wall set up by the neighboring buildings on Park Avenue and on the side streets.
The ground floor columns which support the second floor are recessed behind the plane
of the facade. In this way the slab achieves a more weightless appearance, and the
column foundations can remain clear of the underground retaining walls built to accommo-
date the raili oad tracks beneath Park Avenue. An integral part of the design of the
open courtyard is the paving which echoes on a different plane the rhythm of the
columns. Above the second floor, the tower rises to ,ac~~w,wodate 19 office floors and
three additional floors of mechanical equipment .( for a total of 24 s tories).

The tower, only 53 feet wide, is a vertical slab set perpendicular to the aven.u e.
The elevator and service core for the tower is located at the rear of the slab at the
western edge(see photo) and forms a solid masonry wall. The .other three facades as
well as- the "returns" on the rear wall of tlie property are entirely glazed and give
the building a crystalline and volumetric quality. Since the outline of the tower
covers only 25 percent of the total lot area, it was not required to have setbacks.

The structural system of the building is a standard steel frame which supports
reinforced concrete floors. This type of structural system is not new, and tradition-
ally was enclosed by a stone and brick non-bearing wall that incorporated architectu-
ral motifs and visual devices to articulate window and door surrounds, and to express
vertical and horizontal divisions. Typically, such a building looked solid and classi-
cal with a base, middle, and top. Often, very tall buildings would incorporate several
lower floors faced in rusticated masonry to convey the feeling that the building
rested on solid foundations although the masonry on the lower floors carried no more
load than the masonry on the penthouse. The modernists felt that this · traditional
masonry vocabulary was no longer acceptable for a steel-framed building, and the
newer style attempted to exploit the intrinsic qualities of the steel cage and of
pre-fabricated materials.

Lever House is a prime example of this aesthetic. The exterior walls of Lever
House were designed as a grid of stainless steel mullions, anchored to the structu-
ral skeleton at every floor level. These mullions hold in place large and small
panels of fixed glass. The large panels (the windows) are green-tinted, heat absorb-
ing transparent glass, and the small panels aretjn ted wired-glass spandrels sheathing
the floor slabs behind. The technical aspects of the building 's curtain wall were
untested and therefore cif an experimental nature. Over the years panels have cracked
and broken and have been replaced by glass of two slightly different shades. The
smaller, blue-green panels run in double bands beneath the transparent panels. These
panels provide a horizontal couterpoint to the thin gleaming vertical muJJions.
Behind the spandrels the mechanical systems provided the building with heat ing and
air conditioning .
 -8-

Since all of Lever House's glass is fixed, the mechanical systems must provide
all ventilation and cooling. This is accomplished through a system of forced air
ducts connected to grilles on the interior sills of each glass panel and also
running above the dropped ceilings on every level. The hermetic sealing of the
building was considered quite a plus at the time.29 The fixed glass walls were
not only economical to build, but they were also supposed to redu~e air conditioning
and heating costs, and keep the interior grime-anddust-free . However, since fixed
windows can only be cleaned from the outside, the architects designed a special
window cleaning gondola that could be lowered from the roof and which moved on a
miniature railroad track behind the parapet. Nothing caught the attention of New
Yorkers at first quite as much as this mechanism. Every contemporary account of
the building gave a detailed description of the mechine. Lewis Mumford, writing
in the New Yorker, comments:

For a company whosemain products are soap and detergents, that

little handicap of the sealed windows is a heaven-sent opportunity,
for what could better dramatize ' its business than a squad of cleaners
operating in their chario-t, like the deus ex machina of Greek tragedy,
and capturing the eye of the passerby as they performed their daily
duties? This perfect bit of symbolism alan~ almost justifies the
all glass facade.30

Since the curtain wall is carried in front of the structural columns it completely
masks the structure of the building, except at night when the interior is lit. Then,
the columns appear as rhythmic verticals at every fifth mullion, and each level be-
comes a hovering horizontal ribbon of light. Like all glass-clad buildings, Lever
House completely changes in _appearance at night. The window walls lose their re-
flectivity and become totally transparent while the spandrels become totally opaque
(see photo). At night, the International Style dictum that buildings should contain
volume rather than create mass is most vividly apparent in Lever House.

Critical Evaluation

Since its unveiling, the design of the Lever Brothers headquarters on Park Avenue
has received worldwide notice. The design, in the form of a model, was first seen
in an exhibit of S.O.M.'s work put on by the Museum of Modern Art in the fall of 1950.
The New York Times architectural critic Aline B. Louchheim reviewed the exhibit in
an article titled "Architecture Of and For Our Day" (October 24, 1950);

The most inventive, handsome and remarkable of the firm's

buildings is that for Lever Brothers.
"We were fortunate in having clients who were aware of
advertising and prestige, they wanted more than an office
building, they wanted a civic monument!'
The archi tects met the challenge with skill and daring and the
foundations are now being dug for the building ... 31

Upon its completion, Lever House was widely discussed by the contemporary press.
It was not the tallest building in the city nor the most expensive but it was an
evocative and optimistic expression of its time; one that captured the hearts of
architects and laymen alike by embodying their dreams of a glistening future.
 -9-

However, not everyone was won over by this glistening expression. Frank Lloyd
Wright was perhaps foremost among the building's detractors. In a lecture delivered
to the American Institute of Architects in 1952, shortly after that organization
had conferred its first h O.nor award on Lever House, Wright described the building
as "a box on sticks."32 He considered the International Style a form of classicism
that set the art of building back several hundred years. He further condemned the
architectural profession of the time for "merely taking things on the surface and
passing them around on the surface without getting down to the bottom and inner mean-
ing o ~ the spirit of architecture."33 Wright's own brilliantly individualistic
approach to design was at complete odds with the formalistic dictums of the Inter-
national Style. A comparison of Lever House and the Guggenheim Museum (designed in
1946, built in 1956-59) demonstrates the philosophical distance between Wright and
Bunshaft in the 1950s.

Most of the initial press coverage was extremel y positive and concentrated on
the building's modernistic nature ~hich was a ccurately perceived as trend-setting.

New York, city of superlatives extended an official welcome today

to its newest wonder, a house of glass. This 24 story $6,000,000
building of tomorrow .•. (is) designed for most efficient employee
operation. The glass and stainless steel structure is literally
a monument to the company's public relations.34
(New York Journal American, April 29, 1952)

Although its well known that New Yorkers will stare at anything,
ifs seldom that they get goggle-eyed with amazement. But they
did just that today when Lever House, the gleaming glass and
stainless steel skyscraper had its unveiling. The building •••
was described lyrically by Mayor Impellitteri as: "The building of
tomorrow which promises to set the pattern for the city of tomorrow."35
(New York World Telegram, April 29, 1952)

Architecture critic Aline B. Louchheim, who had reviewed the design of the build-
ing prior to its construction,wrote in the April 27, 1952 edition of The New York
Times:
Lever House is beautiful as well as functional; it uses the
visual possibilities of disciplined, formal architecture for
emotional appeal. Vitruvius's famous requirements for good
architecture - commodity, firmness, and delight - are magnifi-
cently fulfilled.36

Among others commenting on the innovative nature of Lever House was British
art historian Nikolaus Pevsner in an interview appearing in The New York Times:

Mr. Pevsner made a brief visit to the United States to attend the
recent conference on design at Aspen, Colorado. He was especially
enthusiastic about New York's Lever House.
'~The fact that such an extraordinary building was commissioned
from a firm rather than an individual genius" he said, "is different
from the Continent. Moreover, it really develops the Rockefeller
Center idea of giving a skyscraper sufficient space around it. I
see this as the beginning of something. "3 7,
(The New York Times, June 14, 1952)
 -10-

The innovative use of an open ground floor level with a public courtyard was
one of the most popular features of the building upon its completion. The review
of Lever House in the June 1952 Architectural Record noted:

The openness of the ground floor (where much of the area is garden
and pedestrian .walks with only the essentials enclosed in glass) is
also somewhat monumental, if not in expression certainly in its fun-
damental , regard for the citizens of New York. In this aspect, the
entire structure is thoughtful, pleasant, and a decided advance over
the average speculative building.38

As the years passed it became clear that tever House has introduced a new
chapter in the history of American urbanism and architecture. Ada Louise Huxtable
addressed these forces of change in an article in The New York Times on December 15,
1957:

As the old buildings disappear radical new ones rise immediately

in their place, and the pattern of progress becomes clear: business
palaces replace private palaces; soap aristocracy replaces social
aristocracy; sleek towers of steel~framed b).ue, green, or gray-tinted
glass give the avenue a glamourous and glittering new look .
... The staples of our civilization- soap, whiskey and chemicals-
have identified themselves with advanced architectural design and
their monuments march up the avenue in a proud parade.39

Reyner Banham, writing in 1962, characterizes Lever House:

It gave architectural expression to an age just as the age

was being born, and while the age lasted, or its standards
persisted, Lever House was an uncontrollable success, imitated
and sometimes understood all over the Americanized world, and
one of the sights of New York.40

On the occasion of Lever House's twenty-fifth anniversary, Paul Goldberger re-

viewed the contributions of the building from a perspective afforded by a quarter o f
a century. The article, "Lever House has a Birthday," appeared in The New York Times
on April 28, 1977:

Lever House is still by any measure, one of New York's pre-eminent

landmarks. It has been surpaseed in quality on Park Avenue by only
one other building- Mies van der Rohe and Philip Johnson's Seagram
Building - and there are few commercial towers anywhere in the city
that match it either in historical influence or in its visual quality.
Its influence has not been altogether benign, however. Lever's
scooping out of a block of space on Park Avenue damaged the celebrated
"street wall" of the avenue, setting a precedent for other buildings
around town. And its sealed glass windows, the architect's pride back
in 1952, are more of an anachronism than an asset in these energy-con-
scious days.
But these are quibbles. The building represents a commitment both
to New York and the idea of architecture that is rare; its birthday
is something that should be celebrated not only by Lever Brothers,
but by the entire city.41
 -11-

One of the truly extraordinary aspects of Lever House is the place it has at-
tained in the literature of architecture. Indeed, it is rare to find a history
of contemporary architecture after 1952 that does not include a reference to and
an illustration of the building . An evening view of Lever House even graces the
cover of The Encyclopedia of Modern Architecture (Harry N. Abrams Publishers, 1964).
The building is almost universally viewed by historians as a milestone in American
architectural development. It marked the turning point, for better ot worse, of
the Modern Movement from the European avant-garde to corporate America. Charles
Jencks writes in his book Modern Movements in Architecture (1973):

In the 1950s the International Style reached a sort of penultimate

development and acceptance with the final working out of the curtain
wall. In essence, the curtain wall is a non-supportive skin made up
of window mullions and infill panels which is cantilevered from a f rame
structure. It starts its final development with the Lever Building
on Park Avenue in New York City.42

R. Furneaux Jordan states in his book A Concise History of Western Architecture

(1971):

Second only to Mies van der Rohe one must place the large American
firm of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill; with big offices in many cities
this firm is a phenomenon that would have astounded all earlier cen-
turies. In 1952 one of the partners of the firm, Gordon Bunshaft,
gave to New York in the Lever Building its then most distinguished
high-rise building; it has clarity of design and it incorporates a
small but charming court which set a ~recedent that may lift New York
to a new level among world capitals.4

Less optimistic about the trends that the Lever Hous e set, Leland M. Roth writes
in his book A Concise History of American Architecture (1980):

Following the war, corporate clients sought to fix their public images
through building and in the process gave architects like Mies, Johnson,
and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill opportunities to realize ... the technically
pure architecture they had been advancing for twenty years. In the hands
of Mies and his colleagues, this became an exercise in abstract beauty . . . .
LButf architecture became a package in which the ambiguities and comple~i­
ties of modern institutions were ruthlessly wrapped in sleek, monotonous
continuities. It became reductive and exclusive , eliminating untidy
functions to conform to a vision of society as the architects thought
it ought to be , rather than according to the way it was ...
The first of these corporate images in New York was Lever House ...
the product of an office that quickly became a leading force in American
architecture.44 ·
~ --.
In American Buildings and Their Architects (val. 3), William H. Jordy writes that
.i Lever House "established a new standard for office buildings after the war," and de-
I scribed the plaza as "the first such civic-minded gesture of consequence by private
enterprise in New York since Rockefeller Center."45

Finally, in The City Observed: Manhatta~Paul Goldberger characterizes Lever

House: 'This ranks with McGraw-Hill, The Daily News, and Seagram in terms of in-
fluence - it is a . building that really did help make an era. 1 '4 6
 -12-

Conclusion

In 1982, Lever House still serves as the New York offices of Lever Brothers
Company. The window washing gondola still climbs up and down the glass facades.
Certain changes have taken place to the building since 1952, the most obvious being
the addition of a geometric mural on the side wall of the adjoining building which
faces the Lever House c our t y ard, and the r e p lacement of a pproximatel y 30 percen t of the
glass spandrel panels throughout the tower. The award-winning mural painted by
Robert Wiegaud and titled'~everage," was commissioned by Lever Brothers Company in
1970. Its purpose was to enhance the view from the third floor roof garden.47 The
new replacement glass spandrels done in two types of glass which are -'somewhat darker
in shade and more opaque than the original do not detract from the building's glis-
tening, crisp and modernisti~ character. Among interior changes, the second floor
restaurant and employees' lounge have been turned into a computer center and the
first floor auditorium into a conference room.

The important public spaces have remained unchanged. Both the ground floor
gallery and the unenclosed courtyard look and function as had been originally in-
tended by the architect. The gallery hosts exhibitions, contains two small glass
showcases for the company's products and f unctions as the buildings entrance. The
courtyard with its plantings provides sunlit greenery among the hard edges of Park
Avenue. The courtyard pavement with its light and dark terrazzo remains intact,
although the sidewalk pavement has been patched with concrete in several places.

Lever House retains a special place in American architecture as the most

famous corporate expression of the modern International Style in postwar America.
Its innovative design and mechanical features set important precedents for the
design of American office buildings. Of particular interest are the building's
crystalline and volumetric qualities emphasized by the glass curtain walls as
they turn corners, visually float above the base, create outdoor space, and wrap
around interior volume. Lever House spawned a host of imitators D-ut has been rarely
equalled. It remains outstanding for its spatial clarity, scale, and beauty of fo rm.

Report prepared by
Alex Herrera
Landmarks Preservationist

Edited by
Marjorie Pearson
Director of Research

Typed by
Barbara Sklar
 FOOTNOTES

1. Leland M. Roth, A Concise History of American Architecture. (New York: Harper &
Row,Publishers,l980) p. 278.

2. Aline B. Louchheim, "Architecture Of And For Our Day," New York Times, October 24,
1950.

3. Charles Wilson, The History of Unilever, Vol. I. (New York, Frederick A. Praeger,
Inc., 1954), p. 229.

4. See Mervyn E. Macartney, "Hr. i.Lever and Port Sunlight," Architectural Review: Town
Planning and Housing Supplement, 28 (July 1910), 43-46.

5. Wilson, Vol. 3 (1968), p. 35.

6. Wilson, Vol. l)P· 228.

7. Ibid., p. 230.

8. Aline B. Louchheim, "Newest Building in the Newest Style," New York Times , April 27,
1952.

9. "Lever Brothers New Research Center in Edgewater, N.J." Architectural Record, 113
(April 1953), 179-183.

10. Map of Farms in New York, 1815 (New York: E. Robinson, 1887), plate 10.

11. William D. Middleton, Grand Central (San Marino, Ca.: Golden West Books, 1977), p. 32.

12. Ibid., p. 33.

13. Ibid.

14. Ibid.

15. Atlas of the City of New York, (New York : E. Robinson, 1885), plate 18.

16. New York City, Department of Buildings, Manhattan, Demolition Permit for Lots 31
through 42~, Block 1289, (1936).

17. New York City Department of Buildings, Manhattan, Demolition Permit f or Lots 36, 43
and 44, Block 1289, (1950). In a complicated real estate transaction, the Estate of
Robert W. Goelet retained title to the land, leasing the property to Lever Brothers.
After the building was constructed, Lever Brothers sold the building to the Metropo-
litan Life Insurance Company which then leased it back to Lever Brothers. Lever
Brothers surrendered its leas e to the land which was in turn leased to Metropolitan
Life. See New York County, Of fice of the Register, Libe r Deeds 4645, pages 369
and 378, Libe r Deeds 4804, pages 100- 112.

18. Henry-Russell Hitchcock and Ernst Danz, Architecture of Skidmore 1 0wings & Merrill
(New York: Frederick A. Praeger Publishers, 1963) pp. 7-8.

-13-
 -14-

19. Ibid., p. 8.

20. See"'Ihe Architects From Skid's Row," Fortune, 57 (January 1958), 137-140, 210-215.

21. Ibid.

22. Architecture of Skidmore,Owings & Merrill, p . 8.

23. See Henry-Russell Hitchcock and Philip Johnson, The International Style (reprint,
New York: N.W. Norton & Co., Inc. 1966), especially "Introduction: The Idea of
Style," pp;-17-21.

24. 't;enetrix: Personal Contributions to American Architecture," Architectural Review,

121 (May 1957), 358.

25. See Fortune, 57 (January 1958), 137-140, 210-215.

26. Architectural Review, 121 (May 1957), 358.

27. "Lever House Complete," Architectural Forum, 96 (June 1952), 101-111.

28. Louchheim, New York Times, April 27, 1952.

29. "Lever House, New York: Glass and Steel Walls," Architectural Record, 111 (June 1952)
130-135.

30. See Lewis Mumford, "The Sky Line: House of Glass," New Yorker, August 9, 1952,
pp. 48-50.

31. Louchheim, New York Times, October 24, 1950.

32. "Frank Lloyd Wright ridicules architectural schools as waste," New York Times,
June 26, 1952.

33. I bi d.

34. "Lever Building Opens Today," New York Journal-American, April 29, 1952, p. 32.

35. "New Lever Glass House Dazzles New Yorkers," New York World-Telegram and Sun,
April 29, 1952.

36. Louchheim, New York Times, April 27, 1952.

37. "U.S. Architecture praised by Briton," New York Times, June 26, 1952.

38. See Architectural Record, 111 (June 1952), 130-135.

39. See Ada Louise Huxtable, "Park Avenue School of Architec ture," New York Times
Magazine,December 15, 1957, pp. 30- 31, 54-56.

40. Reyner Banham, Age of the Masters: A Personal View of Modern Architecture (1962;
reprint 1st U.S. edition, New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1975), p. 114.
 --15-

41. Paul Goldberger, "Lever House has a Birthday," New York Times, April 28, 1977.

42. Charles Jencks, Modern Movements in Architecture (Garden City, New York: Anchor
Press, 1973), p. 41.

43. R. Furneaux Jordan, A Concise History of Western Architecture (London: Harcourt,

Brace, & World, Inc. 1971), p. 332.

44. Leland M. Roth, A Concise History of American Architecture (New York: Harper & Row,
1980~ pp. 277-278.

45. William H. Jordy, American Buildings and Their Architects~ Vol. 4 (Garden City,
New York: Anchor Books, 1976), p. 255.

46. Paul Goldberger, The City Observed: Manhattan (New York: Vintage Books, 1979) p. 156.

47. Lever Brothers received the Business and Arts Award for this mural as the first
such painting in midtown Manhattan and the first in New York City commiS.sioned by
a major corporation.
 FINDINGS AND DESIGNATION

On the basis of a careful consideration of the history, the architecture and

other features of this building, the Landmarks Preservation Commission finds that
Lever House has a special character, special historical and aesthetic interest and
value as part of the development, heritage, and cultural characteristics of New
York City.

The Commission further finds that, among its important qualities, Lever House
was among the first, as well as the most famous, corporate expressions of the modern
International Style in postwar America; that designed by the firm of Skidmore,
Owings & Merrill, it established the reputation of the firm and its chief designer,
Gordon Bunshaft; that the design with its vt:J.i tical and horizontal volumes faced with
shimmering blue-green glass held in place by stainless steel mullions and its open
courtyard emphasizes the crystalline and geometric qualities of the structure, thus
exemplifying basic tenets of the International Style; that Lever Hous e was built on
Park Avenue at a time when the section north of Grand Gentral Terminal was still ..
residential and set · the trend for a bu:rrst of commercial del:lelopment; that Lever House,
built to serve as the New York headquarters of Lever Brothers Company, the noted
manufacturer of soap, detergent and other household products,created a striking and
successful image for the compan~ , providing encouragement for many other American
Corporations to redress their own architectural images; that Lever House with its
emphasis on volume and surface rather than mass as in older masonry buildings set
important precedents for the design of American office buildings, many of which were
carried out by Skidmore,Owings & Merrill; that it is widely recognized as a key
monument in the evolution of the International Style and has assumed an important
role in the literature of modern architecture; and that Lever House remains out-
standing for its spatial clarity, scale, and beauty of form.

Acc ordingly, pursuant to the prov1s1ons of Chapter 21 (formerly Chapter 63)

of the Charter of the City of New York and Chapter 8-A of the Administrative Code of
the City of New York, the Landmarks Preservation Commission designates as a Landmark
Lever House, 390 Park Avenue, Borough of Manhattan, and designates Tax Map Block 1289,
Lot 36, Borough of Manhattan, as its Landmarks Site.

-16-
 BIBLIOGRPAHY

"The Architects from 'Skid's Row'." Fortune, 57 (January 1958), 137-140, 210-215.

Banham, Reyn er. Age of the Masters: A Personal View of Modern Architecture. 1962.
Reprint 1st U.S. edition. New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1975.

Encyclopedia of Modern Architecture. New York: Harry N. Abrams Publishers, Inc.,1964.

"Genetrix: Personal Contributions to Modern Architecture." Architectural Review, 121

(May 1957), 358.

Golderger, Paul M. The City Observed: Manhattan. New York: Vintage Books, 1979 .

------------------- . "Lever House has a Birthday." New York Times, April 28, 1977.

Hitchcock, Henry-Russell. Architecture: Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. New York:

Penguin Books, 1971.

Hitchcock, Henry Russell, and Danz, Ernst. Architecture of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill.
New York~ , Frederick A. Praeger Publishers, 1963.

Hitchcock, Henry-Russell, and Johnson, Philip. The International Style. Reprint

edition. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., Inc. 1966.

Huxtable, Ada Louise. "Park Avenue School of Architecture." New York Times Magazine,
December 15, 1957, pp. 30-31, 54-56 .

---------------------. "The Skyscraper Style." New York Times, April 14, 1974, p. 59.

Jencks, Charles. Modern Movements in Architecture. Garden City, New York: Anchor
Press, 1973.

Jordon, R. Furneaux. A Concise History of Western Architecture. London: Harcourt,

Brace & World, Inc., 1971.

Jordy, William H. American Buildings and Their Architects. Vol. 4. Garden City,
New York: Anchor Books, 1976.

"Lever House Complete." Architectural Forum, 96 (June 1952), 101-111.

"Lever House, New York: Glass and Steel Walls." Architectural Record, 111 (June 1952),
130-135.

Louchheim, Aline B. "Architecture Of and For Our Day." New York Times, October 24,
1950.

"Newest Building in the Newest Style." New York Times, April 27,
--~~~-----------·
1952.

Middleton, William D. Grand Central. San Marino, California: Golden West Books, 1977.

Mumford, Lewis, "The Skyline: House of Glas·s." New Yorker, August 9, 1952, pp. 48-50.

-17-
 -18-

Roth, Leland M. A Concise His.tory of American Architecture. New York: Harper & Row
Publishers, 1980.

Wilson, Charles. The History of Unilever. Vols. 1 and 3. New York: Frederick A.
Praeger, Inc., 1954 and 1968.
I
4'
,
~~--------~--~-~--·------~--~~.a
t

Western end of Lever House

Tower showing elevator
core and window washing
mechanism
Section through
curtain wall cous ic. ceiling
I column
1--..,'
t-- '6"
I