Lever House, designed by Gordon Bunshaft of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill and located at 390 Park Avenue in New York City, is a seminal glass-box skyscraper built in the International style according to the design principles of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. Completed in 1952, it was the first curtain wall skyscraper in New York City, although not the first in the United States. The 307-foot-tall (94 m) building features an innovative courtyard and public space.
The construction of Lever House marked a transition point for Park Avenue in the Midtown Manhattan district, changing from a boulevard of masonry apartment buildings to one of glass towers as other corporations adopted the International Style for new headquarters. In 1961 the building was copied as the Terminal Sud of Paris-Orly and in 1965 as the highrise of the Europa-Center in Berlin.
The building was designated a New York City landmark in 1982 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.
Read more about Lever House: History, Public Art Space
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For ‘tis the capital of the finest nation,
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“Work has to be done.
Postmen like doctors go from house to house.”
—Philip Larkin (1922–1986)