Architecture has always fascinated me because, when done elegantly, it’s how people and art interact in everyday life. I say this because for 10 years or so, I worked in a landmark skyscraper, the Seagram Building at 357 Park Avenue, Manhattan, designed by the modern master, Mies van der Rohe. Except for The Four Seasons restaurant and the offices the Bronfmans occupied, it could be tatty inside. For a brief time, however, I was granted a coveted and posh corner three window office facing Park Avenue by my Seagram masters, which turned out to be the apogee* of all my corporate dwellings. This was in grim contrast to a GE cubicle I shared with another fellow in Danbury, Connecticut, a time on which I choose not to concentrate. Often this affinity for architecture got personal. Most every work day at Seagram, I’d whoosh down the Four Seasons for lunch and have a brief chat with Philip Cortelyou Johnson, who had a minor role in designing the Seagram Building. Know what else?
© 2024 John Oliver
Substack is the home for great culture