{"id":2747,"date":"2013-04-08T20:20:31","date_gmt":"2013-04-09T01:20:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.marklamster.com\/?p=2747"},"modified":"2013-04-08T20:20:31","modified_gmt":"2013-04-09T01:20:31","slug":"the-seagram-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.marklamster.com\/?p=2747","title":{"rendered":"The Seagram Story"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.marklamster.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/personalstamp.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.marklamster.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/personalstamp.png\" alt=\"personalstamp\" title=\"personalstamp\" width=\"450\" height=\"519\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-2748\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.marklamster.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/personalstamp.png 450w, https:\/\/www.marklamster.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/personalstamp-260x300.png 260w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>My favorite postwar building in New York? There are only two options: the <a href=\"http:\/\/observatory.designobserver.com\/feature\/staggered-profiles\/20788\/\">Whitney<\/a>, Marcel Breuer&#8217;s inverted ziggurat on Madison Avenue, and the Seagram Building, the Mies-Johnson masterwork on Park. Both possess a rare combination of modern austerity and generous, almost playful humanity. I write about Phyllis Lambert and the making of the Seagram Building in this Sunday&#8217;s New York Times:<\/p>\n<p><em>Though it now seems an implacable and timeless monument, a bronzed monolith standing resolutely behind its well-proportioned plaza, the tower\u2019s existence was by no means ordained. In June 1953 Ms. Lambert was a 26-year-old recently divorced sculptor living in Paris, a self-imposed exile from her native Montreal and from her domineering father.<\/p>\n<p>It was then that she reeled off a missive to her father, a response to his own letter outlining plans for a New York skyscraper. She was not impressed with the undistinguished modern box his architects proposed and let him know: \u201cThis letter starts with one word repeated very emphatically,\u201d she wrote, \u201cNO NO NO NO NO.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Seven more pages followed, in which Ms. Lambert alternately scolded, cajoled and lectured her father on architectural history and civic responsibility. There was \u201cnothing whatsoever commendable\u201d in the proposed design, she wrote. \u201cYou must put up a building which expresses the best of the society in which you live, and at the same time your hopes for the betterment of this society.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Check it <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2013\/04\/07\/arts\/design\/building-seagram-phyllis-lamberts-new-architecture-book.html?pagewanted=all\">out<\/a>, along with a follow up on <a href=\"http:\/\/observatory.designobserver.com\/marklamster\/feature\/the-story-of-seagram\/37807\/\">Design Observer<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My favorite postwar building in New York? There are only two options: the Whitney, Marcel Breuer&#8217;s inverted ziggurat on Madison Avenue, and the Seagram Building, the Mies-Johnson masterwork on Park. Both possess a rare combination of modern austerity and generous, almost playful humanity. I write about Phyllis Lambert and the making of the Seagram Building &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.marklamster.com\/?p=2747\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">The Seagram Story<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marklamster.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marklamster.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marklamster.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marklamster.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marklamster.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2747"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.marklamster.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2747\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marklamster.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marklamster.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marklamster.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}