Seagram Building

Seagram Building
The Seagram Building as viewed from across Park Avenue
General information
Type	Office
Architectural style	International Style
Location	375 Park Avenue, Manhattan, New York 10152, United States
Coordinates	40°45′31″N 73°58′20″W / 40.75861°N 73.97222°W / 40.75861; -73.97222 (Seagram Building)
Completed	1958; 66 years ago (1958)
Opened	May 22, 1958; 66 years ago (1958-05-22)
Owner	Aby Rosen
Height
Roof	516 ft (157 m)
Top floor	465 ft (142 m)
Technical details
Floor count	38
Floor area	849,014 sq ft (78,876.0 m2)
Design and construction
Architect(s)	Ludwig Mies van der Rohe; Philip Johnson
Engineer	Jaros, Baum & Bolles (MEP)
Structural engineer	Severud Associates
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Designated	February 24, 2006
Reference no.	06000056[1]
New York State Register of Historic Places
Designated	December 14, 2005
Reference no.	06101.010696
New York City Landmark
Designated	October 3, 1989[2][3]
Reference no.	1664[4]
Designated entity	Facade
New York City Landmark
Designated	October 3, 1989[2][3]
Reference no.	1665[5]
Designated entity	Interior: Lobby
New York City Landmark
Designated	October 3, 1989[2][3]
Reference no.	1666[6]
Designated entity	Interior: Four Seasons Restaurant

The Seagram Building is a skyscraper at 375 Park Avenue, between 52nd and 53rd Streets, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe along with Philip Johnson, Ely Jacques Kahn, and Robert Allan Jacobs, the high-rise tower is 515 feet (157 m) tall with 38 stories. The International Style building, completed in 1958, initially served as the headquarters of the Seagram Company, a Canadian distiller.

Phyllis Lambert, daughter of Seagram CEO Samuel Bronfman, heavily influenced the Seagram Building's design, an example of the functionalist aesthetic and a prominent instance of corporate modern architecture. A glass curtain wall with vertical mullions of bronze and horizontal spandrels made of Muntz metal form the building's exterior. On Park Avenue is a pink-granite public plaza with two fountains. Behind the plaza is a tall elevator lobby with a similar design to the plaza. The lowest stories originally contained the Four Seasons Restaurant, which was replaced in 2017 with the Grill and Pool restaurants, and the Brasserie restaurant, which was superseded in 1995 by the Lobster Club. On the upper stories are modular office spaces.

Seagram revealed plans for the building in July 1954, when it announced construction of its headquarters on the up-and-coming commercial strip of Park Avenue. After Lambert objected to Pereira & Luckman's original design, Mies was selected as the architect that November. The building's construction began in late 1955 and finished in 1958, although the official certificate of occupancy was not granted until 1959. The Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America (TIAA) purchased the building in 1979, and it remained Seagram's headquarters until 2001. TIAA sold the building in 2000 to Aby Rosen's RFR Holding LLC, which has continued to operate the structure.

Upon opening, the Seagram Building was widely praised for its architecture. Described in The New York Times as one of "New York's most copied buildings", the Seagram Building has inspired the designs of other structures around the world. Within New York City, the Seagram Building helped influence the 1961 Zoning Resolution, a zoning ordinance that allowed developers to construct additional floor area in exchange for including plazas outside their buildings. In 1989, the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the Seagram Building's exterior, lobby, and The Four Seasons Restaurant as official city landmarks. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2006.