Figure 2 - Site Analysis
The structure used new construction methodology, chosen to achieve the simplistic form of the building brought on by CIAM concepts. The Seagram Building came to be known as one of the first modular office buildings due to its unique gridding system. CIAM PRINCIPLES One of the main design features that Mies concentrates on when designing the Seagram Building were his principles in simplicity in form. This building was built during a time period where architecture was changing to a more modern stance. New York emerged as a leading city of the world financially, commercially, and culturally after the WWII. It was a central place of growth in the United Sates and North America. It took on new developments and new concepts of urban design.Being a practicing architect in the mid 20th century, Mies was exposed to CIAM ideas that had grown out in 1928 3. Along side Walter Gropius and Le Corbusier, all three of them were regarded as the masters in modern architecture. The CIAM movement brought on an ideology where modern architecture is to represent today, as Gothic and Classical architecture was able to represent their time during their era. Mies’s simplistic thinking was influenced
Figure 3 - Interior lobby view looking out to the plaza
by designs and art movements of the time; he adopted theoretical ideas and applied it to architecture and planning. He gave value to simple rectilinear forms, clean lines, pure colors, and extension in space, believing that every small element plays a role in conveying a unified simple expression4. Mies’s viewpoint on setting better change to urban planning overlapped CIAM concepts of the same nature, as the
CIAM movement was founded due to the same reasons. CIAM AND THE SEAGRAM BUILDING Mies’s vision on architecture and urban design came to be known as an abstraction of some sort in relation to previous design concepts. The Seagram Building became one of his most famous buildings that conveyed simplistic CIAM concepts; it conducted 143