The lever house’s ‘exterior skin’ is one of the most magnificent buildings that we had stumbled upon in this class. The subject that stood out the most to me was relief of the facade between the lower level, and the tower; right where the outdoor space is located, for the users of the building. The attempt at separating the building uses through this slight setback of elevation had been stuck in my mind, and the urge to implement it into my current design class has been strong. Not only is this a fantastic spectacle of exhibiting an attenuate cantilever; but its a fantastic way to compose a high rise building. Knowing that this was during the times that architects were trying to rationalize the massing of high rise buildings, I’m rather fond of the Lever House for how the design was approached.
The Lever house is confronted by the Seagram Building, and to a bystander, I don’t think one would be able to pick apart all of the minute details that set these cor-rivals apart. Yes, they do differ in color palettes; The green glass and almost white curtain wall mullions of the Lever House are quite opposite on the color spectrum from the orange tinted glass and matte black mullions of the Seagram building; but those aren’t the only differences. stepping closer, you realize that the Lever house is not on center; it is off balance from the columns. In the meanwhile, every single detail, up to the position of the interior light at the Seagram buildings are exactly on point and symmetrical.
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