Gordon Bunshaft and Natalie de Blois of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill
Main contractor
George A. Fuller Company
Website
leverhousenyc.com
Lever House
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
New York State Register of Historic Places
New York City Landmark No. 1277
Built
1950–1952
Architectural style
International Style
NRHP reference No.
83004078[1]
NYSRHP No.
06101.001710[2]
NYCL No.
1277
Significant dates
Added to NRHP
October 2, 1983
Designated NYSRHP
August 11, 1983[2]
Designated NYCL
November 9, 1982[3]
Lever House is a 307-foot-tall (94 m) office building at 390 Park Avenue in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Constructed from 1950 to 1952, the building was designed by Gordon Bunshaft and Natalie de Blois of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) in the International Style, a 20th-century modern architectural style. It was originally the headquarters of soap company Lever Brothers, a subsidiary of Unilever. Lever House was the second skyscraper in New York City with a glass curtain wall, after the United Nations Secretariat Building.
The building has 21 office stories topped by a triple-height mechanical section. At the ground story is a courtyard and public space, with the second story overhanging the plaza on a set of columns. The remaining stories are designed as a slab occupying the northern one-quarter of the site. The slab design was chosen because it conformed with the city's 1916 Zoning Resolution while avoiding the use of setbacks. There is about 260,000 square feet (24,000 m2) of interior space in Lever House, making it much smaller than comparable office buildings in Midtown Manhattan.
The construction of Lever House changed Park Avenue in Midtown from an avenue with masonry apartment buildings to one with International-style office buildings. Several other structures worldwide copied the building's design. Lever House was intended solely for Lever Brothers' use, and its small size had prompted proposals to redevelop the site with a larger skyscraper. The building was nearly demolished in the 1980s, when Fisher Brothers proposed a 40-story tower on the site; afterward, it was narrowly approved as a New York City designated landmark in 1982 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places the next year. In 1997, Unilever relocated most of its offices out of Lever House, and Aby Rosen's RFR Realty took over the building. After SOM renovated the building between 2000 and 2001, Lever House was used as a standard office building with multiple tenants. SOM conducted another renovation in the early 2020s.
^Cite error: The named reference nris was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ ab"Cultural Resource Information System (CRIS)". New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. November 7, 2014. Retrieved July 20, 2023.
^Cite error: The named reference NYCL p. 1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
LeverHouse is a 307-foot-tall (94 m) office building at 390 Park Avenue in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Constructed from 1950...
Lever Brothers was a British manufacturing company founded in 1885 by two brothers: William Hesketh Lever, 1st Viscount Leverhulme (1851–1925), and James...
headquarters were located in Backbay Reclamation, Mumbai at the LeverHouse, where it was housed for more than 46 years. The Hindustan Unilever Research Centre...
Sir Norman Foster. The LeverHouse Art Collection is a collection of works commissioned by Rosen for display at the LeverHouse. It is curated by Richard...
Johnny Lever (born John Prakash Rao Janumala; 14 August 1957) is an Indian actor and popular comedian who is known for his works in Hindi cinema. He is...
remained with it for more than 40 years. His notable buildings include LeverHouse in New York, the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University...
Brands Predecessors Lever Brothers Margarine Unie W. H. Burford & Sons Places Colworth HouseLever Brothers Factory LeverHouse Lipton Institute of Tea...
founded on 2 September 1929 following the merger of British soap maker Lever Brothers and Dutch margarine producer Margarine Unie. It is headquartered...
Kate Somerville Korea Glow – skin care range (Indonesia) Lakmé cosmetics Lever 2000 soap (Elida Beauty) Lifebuoy – rubbing alcohol (Philippines)/soap Liril...
Brands Predecessors Lever Brothers Margarine Unie W. H. Burford & Sons Places Colworth HouseLever Brothers Factory LeverHouse Lipton Institute of Tea...
Brands Predecessors Lever Brothers Margarine Unie W. H. Burford & Sons Places Colworth HouseLever Brothers Factory LeverHouse Lipton Institute of Tea...
Sachs' Bronze Collection was shown at the Public art space in Manhattan's LeverHouse, as well as in the Baldwin Gallery in Aspen, Colorado, and the Trocadéro...
high and has 15 floors. The building was influenced by New York City's LeverHouse (1951-2). The twenty years following the second world war saw an extraordinary...
site to build the London headquarters of his soap manufacturing company Lever Brothers, which became Unilever in 1930. Construction did not commence until...
built by Lever Brothers to accommodate workers in its soap factory (now part of Unilever); work commenced in 1888. The name is derived from Lever Brothers'...
Brands Predecessors Lever Brothers Margarine Unie W. H. Burford & Sons Places Colworth HouseLever Brothers Factory LeverHouse Lipton Institute of Tea...
Brands Predecessors Lever Brothers Margarine Unie W. H. Burford & Sons Places Colworth HouseLever Brothers Factory LeverHouse Lipton Institute of Tea...
Street to the south; 399 Park Avenue across 53rd Street to the north; LeverHouse diagonally across Park Avenue and 53rd Street; and the Racquet and Tennis...
Margarine Unie operated until 1930 when it merged with the British company Lever Brothers, to form the multinational Unilever. In 2017 Unilever spun its...
Brands Predecessors Lever Brothers Margarine Unie W. H. Burford & Sons Places Colworth HouseLever Brothers Factory LeverHouse Lipton Institute of Tea...
(major depressive disorder)". Mayo Clinic. Retrieved 1 September 2016. House, Arthur (17 June 2021). "Marketing Marmite: how an advertising agency started...
Global Information
