Skidmore,Owings and Merrill

8/8/2019 Skidmore,Owings and Merrill

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SKIDMORE,OWINGS AND

MERRILL

Submitted byMathew Adam

Roll No : 26

S6 b:arch


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SKIDMORE,OWINGS AND MERRILL

Skidmore, Owings and Merrill LLP (SOM) is a

Chicago-based architectural and engineering firm that

was formed in 1936. They opened their first branch inNew York City, New York in 1937. SOM is one of the

largest architectural firms in the world. Their primary

expertise is in high-end commercial buildings, as it was

SOM that led the way to the widespread use of themodern international-style or "glass box" skyscraper.


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Bunshaft was a modernist whose

early influences included Mies

van der Rohe and Le Corbusier.

His best-known design is the

LeverHouse, built as a corporate

headquarters for the soapcompany Lever Brothers.

He became a partner in the New

York office of the young firm

Skidmore, Owings and Merrill in

1949 He received the Pritzker Prize in

1988,


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It is the second curtain wall

skyscraper in New York City, after

the Secretariat Building at the

United NationsH

eadquarters. Thebuilding features an innovative

courtyard and public space

LEVERHOUSE

NEW YORK

Lever House, designed by Gordon Bunshaft

of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill and located

at 390 Park Avenue in New York City,

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DESIGN

The LeverHouse was built in 1951-1952 to be the American headquarters

of the British soap company Lever Brothers.

The building featured a glimmering 24-story blue-green heat-resistant glass

and stainless steel curtain-wall. The curtain-wall was designed to reduce

the cost of operating and maintaining the property. Its curtain-wall is

completely sealed with no operating windows

The ground floor contained no tenants. Instead, it featured an open plaza

with garden and pedestrian walkways. Only a small portion of the ground

floor was enclosed in glass and marble.

The ground floor featured space for displays and waiting visitors, a

demonstration kitchen and an auditorium

The second and largest floor contained the employees' lounge, medical

suite, and general office facilities.


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On the third floor was the

employees' cafeteria and

terrace.

The offices of LeverBrothers and its subsidiaries

occupied the remaining

floors with the executive

penthouse on the 21st floor.

The top three stories

contained most of the

property's mechanical space


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Sears Tower

Chicago Height (struct.) - 442 m1,[451 ft]


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Until Taipei 101 was topped outin 2004, the Sears Tower held

title to the world's highest roofand highest occupied floor.

The two antennae on the roofgive the tower the highest "tipheight" of any skyscraper in theworld.

The structure is formed from 9bundled square tubes, each 75feet wide with no columnsbetween the core and perimeter.Two of the tubes are 50 floorshigh, two are 66 floors, three

are 90, and two are 108. World's tallest building from

1974 - 1996; surpassed byPetronas Tower 1 in KualaLumpur, Malaysia.


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Olympic Tower

51-storey building in Midtown

Manhattan, in New York City.

Built in 1976, it contains 225

condominium apartments and

more than 250,000 square feet(23,000 m) of office space and

retail space.

It was the first skyscraper to

combine shops, offices and

owner-occupied luxury

apartments in the same building


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Beinecke Rare Book and

Manuscript Library The building, designed by architect Gordon Bunshaft, of the firm ofSkidmore, Owings, and Merrill, is the largest building in the world reservedexclusively for the preservation of rare books and manuscripts.

It is built at the center of the University, in Hewitt Quadrangle, which is morecommonly referred to as "Beinecke Plaza".

EXTERIOPR VIEWS


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A six-story above-ground towerof book stacks is surrounded by a

windowless rectangular building

with walls made of a translucent

Danby marble, which transmit

subdued lighting and provide

protection from direct light.

Three floors of stacks extend

underHewitt Quadrangle.

The sculptures in the sunken

courtyard are by Isamu Noguchi

and are said to represent time (thepyramid), sun (the circle), and

chance (the cube).

The library also contains an

exhibition hall


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Planning work

In addition to architectural services, Skidmore, Owings andMerrill has also competed in the field of large scale planning

programs. An example of one important commission was asthe lead design firm for the Boston Transportation PlanningReview, a metropolitan wide re-design of Boston's entire

transit and roadway infrastructure in the 1970s. Boston Transportation Planning Review (BTPR) is a

transportation planning program for metropolitan Boston,United States which was responsible for analyzing and re-designing the entire area-wide transit and highway system inthe 1970s.

They have recently designed the Freedom Tower in New YorkCity and the Burj Dubai in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.


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OTHER IMPORTANT BUILDINGS INCLUDE

United States Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs, Colorado, United

States, 1958

One Chase Manhattan Plaza, Financial District, Manhattan, New York,

United States, 1961.[1]

Tour Telus (CIL House), Montreal, Quebec, Canada, 1962

Autzen Stadium, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon, 1967

City Center Square, Kansas City, Missouri, United States 1977

John Hancock Center, Chicago, Illinois, United States, 1969

Regenstein Library, Chicago, Illinois, United States, 1970 One HSBC Center, Buffalo, New York, United States, 1971

WeyerhaeuserHeadquarters, Tacoma, Washington, United States, 1971

Hajj Terminal, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, 1972

Documents

Skidmore,Owings and Merrill