History and architecture
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 constriction in 1950-52 heralded the beginning of a new wave of American skyscraper construction and a new synthesis of modernist architectural ideals. Since the time of its completion, its crystalline forms and glazed curtain walls have attracted world attention. it has assumed a major role in the literature of modern architecture and has been widely 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 decade from an avenue of traditional masonry apartment houses to one and steel office buildings.
Lever House was the first New York real estate ventures to take advantage of a zoning provision which permitted a building to rise with no set height provided that the building covered only 25 percent of the lot. As a result, Lever House broke the tradition of "shaped tower" skyscrapers which had prevailed since the 1910s.
Sources and further reading
This history comes from the Landmarks app’s historical catalog. Names and building uses may reflect the period described.