Seagram Building

The Seagram Building is at 375 Park Avenue, on the east side of the avenue between 52nd and 53rd streets, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City.{{Cite web |title=375 Park Avenue, 10022 |url=https://zola.planning.nyc.gov/l/lot/1/1307/1#17.95/40.758457/-73.971507 |access-date=September 7, 2020 |publisher=New York City Department of City Planning |archive-date=November 27, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201127231656/https://zola.planning.nyc.gov/l/lot/1/1307/1#17.95/40.758457/-73.971507 |url-status=live}}{{harvnb|Higgins & Quasebarth|2006|ps=.|p=3}} The building was never officially named for its original anchor tenant, Canadian conglomerate Seagram, and is legally known only by its address.{{cite magazine |last=Ruhling |first=Nancy A. |date=Mar 2005 |title=What's in a Name? |volume=24 |issue=3 |page=35 |id={{ProQuest|216487158}}|magazine=Real Estate New York}} The building is assigned its own ZIP Code, 10152; it was one of 41 buildings in Manhattan that had their own ZIP Codes {{as of|2019|lc=y}}.{{cite web | last=Brown | first=Nicole | title=Why do some buildings have their own ZIP codes? NYCurious | website=amNewYork | date=March 18, 2019 | url=https://www.amny.com/news/nyc-zip-codes-1-28558957/ | access-date=July 8, 2022 | archive-date=July 8, 2022 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220708215731/https://www.amny.com/news/nyc-zip-codes-1-28558957/ | url-status=live }} The land lot has a frontage of {{Convert|295|ft}} on 52nd Street to the south, {{Convert|200|ft}} on Park Avenue to the west, and {{Convert|302|ft}} on 53rd Street to the north.{{Cite news |last=Saarinen |first=Aline B. |date=November 25, 1954 |title=Pioneer to Design Skyscraper Here; Park Avenue Project Awarded to Van Der Rohe, Leader in Contemporary Architecture |page=31 |work=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331 |url-access=subscription |url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1954/11/25/96509602.pdf |access-date=March 14, 2021}} The site slopes down to the east.{{harvnb|Mertins|2014|ps=.|p=352}}

The 53rd Street side contains an alley about {{Convert|7|ft}} wide, facing 100 East 53rd Street; the alley allows the Seagram Building to remain symmetrical despite the site's irregular shape.{{harvnb|Higgins & Quasebarth|2006|ps=.|pp=4–5}} Other nearby buildings include 345 Park Avenue across 52nd Street to the south; 399 Park Avenue across 53rd Street to the north; Lever House diagonally across Park Avenue and 53rd Street; and the Racquet and Tennis Club Building and Park Avenue Plaza across Park Avenue to the west. In addition, 599 Lexington Avenue and the Citigroup Center, as well as the New York City Subway's Lexington Avenue/51st Street station (served by the {{NYCS trains|Lexington 51st header}}), are on Lexington Avenue less than one block to the east.{{cite web|url=https://new.mta.info/document/2641|title=Lexington Avenue—53rd Street Neighborhood Map|date=April 2018|publisher=Metropolitan Transportation Authority|access-date=December 28, 2020|archive-date=December 14, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211214184918/https://new.mta.info/document/2641|url-status=live}}

During the late 19th century, the Seagram Building's site had included the original Steinway & Sons piano factory, as well as tenements made of brick or brownstone.{{harvnb|Breiner|1989b|ps=.|pp=1–2}} The Park Avenue railroad line had run in an open cut in the middle of Park Avenue until the 1900s. The construction of Grand Central Terminal in the early 20th century covered the line, spurring development in the surrounding area, known as Terminal City.{{Cite news |date=September 14, 1930 |title=Grand Central Zone Boasts Many Connected Buildings |work=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331 |url-access=subscription |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1930/09/14/archives/grand-central-zone-boasts-many-connected-buildings-pedestrians-may.html |access-date=June 14, 2020 |archive-date=April 22, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200422193931/https://www.nytimes.com/1930/09/14/archives/grand-central-zone-boasts-many-connected-buildings-pedestrians-may.html |url-status=live}}{{cite NY1900|pages=353–354}} The adjacent stretch of Park Avenue became a wealthy neighborhood with upscale apartments, including the Montana Apartments, on the site of the piano factory. Largely commercial International Style skyscrapers replaced many of the residential structures on Park Avenue during the 1950s and 1960s.{{cite book |last=Schlichting |first=Kurt C. |title=Grand Central Terminal: Railroads, Architecture and Engineering in New York |publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press |year=2001 |isbn=978-0801865107 |pages=180–181 |author-link=Kurt C. Schlichting |oclc=51480811}}{{Cite news |last=Gray |first=Christopher |author-link=Christopher Gray (architectural historian) |date=May 14, 1989 |title=Is It Time to Redevelop Park Avenue Again? |work=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331 |url-access=limited |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/05/14/realestate/is-it-time-to-redevelop-park-avenue-again.html |url-status=live |access-date=March 15, 2021 |archive-date=April 20, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210420002305/https://www.nytimes.com/1989/05/14/realestate/is-it-time-to-redevelop-park-avenue-again.html}} These skyscrapers included the Seagram Building, Lever House, the Union Carbide Building, and the Pepsi-Cola Building.{{cite news |last=Penn |first=Stanley W. |date=February 16, 1964 |title=Glass Buildings: Is Fashion Over? |page=14 |work=The Wall Street Journal |issn=0099-9660 |id={{ProQuest|132975788}}}} When the Seagram site was assembled in the early 1950s, it contained the Montana Apartments and four smaller row houses and apartment buildings.{{harvnb|Stern|Mellins|Fishman|1995|ps=.|p=342}}{{cite news |date=March 30, 1955 |title=Seagram's Plans Glass Skyscraper: 38-Story Tower Set for Park Av. |page=6 |work=New York Herald Tribune |issn=1941-0646 |id={{ProQuest|1335609184}} }}

German-American architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe designed the Seagram Building{{Cite web |title=AD Classics: Seagram Building / Mies van der Rohe |date=May 10, 2010 |url=https://www.archdaily.com/59412/ad-classics-seagram-building-mies-van-der-rohe |access-date=May 25, 2022 |publisher=ArchDaily |archive-date=May 26, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220526040116/https://www.archdaily.com/59412/ad-classics-seagram-building-mies-van-der-rohe |url-status=live }}{{Cite aia5|page=320}} in the International Style. Philip Johnson was the co-architect and the partnership of Ely Jacques Kahn and Robert Allan Jacobs were the associate architects.{{harvnb|Breiner|1989b|p=1}}; {{harvnb|Higgins & Quasebarth|2006|p=13}}; {{harvnb|Stern|Mellins|Fishman|1995|ps=.|p=345}} Numerous consultants were involved in the building's design, including mechanical engineers Jaros, Baum & Bolles; structural engineers Severud-Elstad Krueger; electrical engineer Clifton E. Smith; lighting consultant Richard Kelly; acoustics consultant Bolt Beranek and Newman; graphics consultant Elaine Lustig; and landscape architects Charles Middeleer and Karl Linn.{{harvnb|Arts and Architecture|1960|ps=.|loc=PDF p. 15}}

Phyllis Lambert—a Bronfman family member and the daughter of Seagram CEO Samuel Bronfman, whose idea it was to develop the building—did not impose a budget on Mies.{{Cite web |date=July 3, 2013 |title=Why Green Architecture Hardly Ever Deserves the Name |url=https://www.archdaily.com/396263/why-green-architecture-hardly-ever-deserves-the-name |access-date=August 21, 2020 |website=ArchDaily |archive-date=September 28, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200928112559/https://www.archdaily.com/396263/why-green-architecture-hardly-ever-deserves-the-name |url-status=live}}{{Cite news |last=Bagli |first=Charles V. |date=October 12, 2000 |title=On Park Avenue, Another Trophy Changes Hands |work=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331 |url-access=limited |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2000/10/12/nyregion/on-park-avenue-another-trophy-changes-hands.html |access-date=August 21, 2020 |archive-date=September 11, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200911062637/https://www.nytimes.com/2000/10/12/nyregion/on-park-avenue-another-trophy-changes-hands.html |url-status=live}} Lambert said the Seagram Building was supposed to "be the crowning glory of everyone's work, his own, the contractor's, and Mies's".{{harvnb|Breiner|1989b|p=5}}; {{harvnb|Higgins & Quasebarth|2006|ps=.|p=14}} The architects used new or redesigned materials if they believed these innovations provided an improvement over existing products. The design used costly, high-quality materials, including bronze, travertine, and marble. The lavish interior, overseen by Johnson, was designed to ensure cohesion with the appearance of the facade.{{harvnb|Higgins & Quasebarth|2006|ps=.|p=15}} The Seagram Building was the first office building in the world to use extruded bronze on a facade,{{harvnb|Higgins & Quasebarth|2006|ps=.|p=11}}{{cite news |last=Peebles |first=Niles N. |date=June 10, 1956 |title=House of Seagram Here 1st to Get Bronze Sheath |page=A10 |work=New York Herald Tribune |issn=1941-0646 |id={{ProQuest|1323870278}} }} as well as the first New York City skyscraper with full-height plate glass windows.{{harvnb|Higgins & Quasebarth|2006|ps=.|p=16}}{{cite magazine |date=July 1956 |title=P/A News Survey |url=https://usmodernist.org/PA/PA-1956-07.pdf |journal=Progressive Architecture |volume=37 |issue=7 |pages=75 |access-date=March 16, 2021 |archive-date=August 7, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200807201536/https://usmodernist.org/PA/PA-1956-07.pdf |url-status=live}}

The Seagram Building occupies half the site{{harvnb|Breiner|1989b|ps=.|p=5}} and is recessed {{Convert|90|ft}} behind Park Avenue.{{harvnb|Arts and Architecture|1960|ps=.|loc=PDF p. 14}}{{harvnb|Stern|Mellins|Fishman|1995|ps=.|p=345}}{{harvnb|Architectural Forum|1958|ps=.|p=68}}{{efn|The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission and The New York Times state the slab is {{Convert|100|ft}} from Park Avenue.}} The building's main section is a 38-story high-rise slab topped by a mechanical story; it does not include any setbacks.{{harvnb|Breiner|1989b|p=7}}; {{harvnb|Higgins & Quasebarth|2006|ps=.|p=4}} The slab rises {{Convert|515|ft}} above ground.{{cite web |title=Seagram Building, New York City |url=https://skyscraperpage.com/cities/?buildingID=2386 |access-date=March 14, 2021 |website=SkyscraperPage.com |archive-date=March 1, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210301073108/http://skyscraperpage.com/cities/?buildingID=2386 |url-status=live}}{{Cite web |title=Seagram Building |url=https://www.emporis.com/buildings/115572/seagram-building-new-york-city-ny-usa |access-date=March 9, 2021 |publisher=Emporis |archive-date=January 27, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210127081111/https://www.emporis.com/buildings/115572/seagram-building-new-york-city-ny-usa |url-status=usurped}}{{efn|SkyscraperPage and Emporis cite a height of {{convert|515|ft}} while Architectural Forum and the National Park Service give a height of {{Convert|520|ft}}.}} As planned, the slab measured {{convert|95|by|145|ft}}. Along the eastern end of the slab is a narrow shaft with an emergency-exit stair, which is sometimes referred to as the "spine".{{harvnb|Higgins & Quasebarth|2006|ps=.|p=4}}{{harvnb|Mertins|2014|ps=.|p=344}} The spine, which forms part of the building's framework, contains restrooms on the sixth to tenth floor and offices above.{{harvnb|Mertins|2014|ps=.|p=348}}

There are two five-story wings east of the main slab, facing 52nd and 53rd Streets. The 10-story central section between the wings is sometimes characterized as a "bustle".{{harvnb|Mumford|1959|ps=.|p=20}} As planned, the "bustle" measured {{convert|90|by|85|ft}} while the wings measured {{convert|90|by|200|ft}}.{{Cite news |date=March 30, 1955 |title=Seagram Offices Get Final Plan; 38-story Skyscraper to Rise on Park Avenue Block at 52d and 53d Streets |page=50 |work=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331 |url-access=subscription |url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1955/03/30/93736096.pdf |access-date=March 15, 2021}} The April 1955 edition of Architectural Forum described the relative simplicity of the building's massing as "a no-setback building but a building all set back".{{cite magazine |date=April 1954 |title=Seagram's Plans Plaza Tower in New York |url=https://usmodernist.org/AF/AF-1955-04.pdf |journal=Architectural Forum |volume=102 |issue=4 |page=9 |access-date=March 16, 2021 |archive-date=August 3, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200803004522/https://usmodernist.org/AF/AF-1955-04.PDF |url-status=live}}

File:Park Avenue from 64th Street to Grand Central Terminal - panoramio (34).jpg

A pink granite plaza with pools and greenery lies on the western side of the Seagram Building.{{harvnb|Mertins|2014|ps=.|p=349}} The plaza is raised slightly above sidewalk level on Park Avenue, with three steps leading from the center of the Park Avenue frontage. A low granite retaining wall runs on either side of the flight of steps, extending around to 52nd and 53rd Streets, where they flank the building.{{harvnb|Breiner|1989b|p=7}}; {{harvnb|Higgins & Quasebarth|2006|ps=.|p=3}} There are marble caps atop the retaining walls on the side streets. At the eastern ends of the retaining walls on 52nd and 53rd Streets are granite steps from street to lobby, above which are travertine canopies. The parapets on the side streets each measure {{Convert|3.75|ft}} wide by {{Convert|180|ft}} long and are made of 40 pieces of green Italian marble.{{cite news |date=February 24, 1957 |title=Seagram Park to Have Pools, Pink Pavement |page=1C |work=New York Herald Tribune |issn=1941-0646 |id={{ProQuest|1324063846}} }}

The plaza is largely symmetrical with rectangular pools placed on the northwest and southwest corners. The southern pool contains a bronze flagpole, the only deviation from the design's symmetry. The water level of the pools is just below that of the plaza. The cluster of fountain jets at the center of either pool is not part of the original design.{{harvnb|Breiner|1989b|ps=.|p=11}} The pools measure {{Convert|46|ft}} wide by {{Convert|70|ft}} long and each contain {{Convert|60,000|gal|sp=us}} of water recirculated every two-and-a-half hours. The initial plan had been to place abstract sculptures in the plaza. Mies abandoned this when he could not find a sculptor he felt could produce work suited for the landscape.{{harvnb|Higgins & Quasebarth|2006|p=14}}; {{harvnb|Stern|Mellins|Fishman|1995|ps=.|p=345}} East of both pools are three planting beds with ivy and a gingko tree. These planting beds had contained weeping beeches before November 1959, when they were replaced with hardier gingko trees.{{Cite news |last=Devlin |first=John C. |date=October 29, 1959 |title=Park Ave. Plaza Gets New Trees; First of 6 Gingkoes Planted at Seagram Building – Woman Directs Job |page=22 |work=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331 |url-access=subscription |url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1959/10/29/82715963.pdf |access-date=March 14, 2021}}{{harvnb|Stern|Mellins|Fishman|1995|ps=.|p=346}} The plaza contains a heating system to prevent ice buildup.{{Cite news |date=December 9, 1956 |title=Ice, Snow Doomed in Seagram Plaza; Sidewalk Heating in Front of New Park Ave. Building May Also Dry Up Rain |page=317 |work=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331 |url-access=subscription |url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1956/12/09/90762416.pdf |access-date=March 16, 2021}} At the building's completion, the plaza's surface required daily vacuuming with a sweeper.{{cite news |last=Bartnett |first=Edmond J. |date=March 19, 1961 |title=Keeping a Skyscraper Clean Is a Job That Goes On Around the Clock |page=R1 |work=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331 |id={{ProQuest|115261266}} }}

From its construction, the plaza was intended not only as an urban green space but as a point of interest. Architecture critic Lewis Mumford said of the plaza: "In a few steps one is lifted out of the street so completely that one has almost the illusion of having climbed a long flight of stairs."{{harvnb|Mumford|1959|ps=.|p=21}} In its simplicity, the plaza's design was a marked contrast to the Channel Gardens in front of 30 Rockefeller Plaza, which architectural writer Robert A. M. Stern describes as being known for its festiveness.

File:Park Av May 2022 44.jpg

The northern, southern, and western ends of the slab overhang the plaza and are supported by bronze-clad columns at their perimeters, forming an arcade in front of the entrance.{{cite news |last=Fowler |first=Glenn |date=September 7, 1958 |title=New Skyscrapers Are Reviving Classical Street Arcade: Purpose Unchanged, but Styling Reflects Modern Design |page=R1 |work=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331 |id={{ProQuest|114464589}} }} Each column measures {{convert|3|by|3|ft}} across and two stories tall.{{harvnb|Mertins|2014|ps=.|p=345}} The arcade's ceiling contains recessed light fixtures within a ceramic tile surface. The first-story walls behind the arcade contain full-height glass panes. Above the arcade, on the western side of the building, is a marquee made of Muntz metal, with recessed lighting. The bases of the wings on 52nd and 53rd Streets, beneath the first story, are clad in granite and contain entrances to the restaurant and bar spaces inside. The eastern portions of both wings contain garage doors, while the eastern wall of the 53rd Street wing is faced in brick. The eastern section of the 52nd Street wing has an entrance that leads to the Grill and Pool restaurant while bypassing the main lobby.{{harvnb|Breiner|Urbanelli|1989|p=9}}; {{harvnb|Higgins & Quasebarth|2006|ps=.|p=8}} A similar entrance exists on the 53rd Street wing to the Brasserie restaurant.{{harvnb|Higgins & Quasebarth|2006|ps=.|p=8}}

The curtain wall begins above the lower stories{{harvnb|Murray|2009|ps=.|p=37}} and is composed of non-structural glass walls, which are colored amber-gray. The glass panels cover about {{Convert|122000|ft2}}{{Cite news |date=July 22, 1956 |title=Synthetic Hurricane Winds Used To Test Strength of Structure |pages=1–2 |work=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331 |url-access=subscription |url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1956/07/22/306653952.pdf |access-date=March 16, 2021}} and are designed to be heat- and glare-resistant.{{harvnb|Murray|2009|ps=.|p=36}} Because the windows are sealed permanently, and the tower rises with no setbacks, the Seagram Building's window washing team could not use standard window-washing equipment. Therefore, a custom-made pneumatic scaffold was installed, with a {{Convert|27|ft|4=-wide|adj=mid}} deck that covers six columns of windows at a time.{{cite news |date=June 7, 1959 |title=Tower Gives Endless Job To Cleaners: Seagram Crew Is Always Busy |page=8C |work=New York Herald Tribune |issn=1941-0646 |id={{ProQuest|1323087206}} }} Behind each window, Mies sought to avoid irregularity when window blinds were drawn. As a result, the building uses window blinds with slats angled in 45-degree positions, allowing the blinds to be set in three positions: fully open, halfway open, or fully closed.{{harvnb|Breiner|1989b|p=7}}; {{harvnb|Higgins & Quasebarth|2006|ps=.|p=9}}{{harvnb|Architectural Forum|1958|ps=.|p=73}}

File:Seagram Building (6268045534).jpg

The facade used {{convert|1600|ST|LT t|sp=us}} of bronze,{{Cite news |date=March 2, 1956 |title=New Skyscraper on Park Avenue To Be First Sheathed in Bronze; 38-Story House of Seagram Will Use 3,200,000 Pounds of Alloy in Outer Walls Colored for Weathering |work=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331 |url-access=subscription |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1956/03/02/archives/new-skyscraper-on-park-avenue-to-be-first-sheathed-in-bronze.html |access-date=October 18, 2020 |archive-date=October 22, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201022020328/https://www.nytimes.com/1956/03/02/archives/new-skyscraper-on-park-avenue-to-be-first-sheathed-in-bronze.html |url-status=live}} manufactured by the General Bronze Corporation at its plant in Garden City, New York.{{cite news |date=September 15, 1957 |title=Metals From One Firm Vary 3 Tower Facades |page=2C |work=New York Herald Tribune |issn=1941-0646 |id={{ProQuest|1336066498}} }}
{{cite magazine |date=July 1956 |title=News Bulletins |url=https://usmodernist.org/PA/PA-1956-07.pdf |journal=Progressive Architecture |volume=37 |issue=7 |pages=75 |access-date=March 16, 2021 |archive-date=August 7, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200807201536/https://usmodernist.org/PA/PA-1956-07.pdf |url-status=live}}{{harvnb|Murray|2009|ps=.|p=31}} The glass panes are set within vertical bronze mullions made from {{Convert|4.5|by|6|in|adj=on}} extrusions of I-beams. The bronze mullions separate the facade into {{Convert|30|ft|4=-wide|adj=mid}} bays, or vertical spaces between columns; each bay contains five windows per floor. The tops and bottoms of the mullions are tapered, exposing their cross-sections. The Seagram Building's mullions are only for aesthetics and are thus susceptible to thermal expansion and contraction.{{harvnb|Murray|2009|ps=.|pp=36–37}} At the building's completion, General Bronze said the facade would need to be cleaned twice a year with soap, water, and lemon oil to prevent discoloration;{{cite news |date=March 9, 1958 |title=Bronze Building to Get 2 Beauty Baths a Year |page=R4 |work=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331 |id={{ProQuest|114458597}}}} this work could be performed using the window-washing scaffold. Spandrels, made of Muntz metal, separate the windows on each story horizontally, which gives them an appearance similar to that of copper. A sample facade section, tested in a wind tunnel in 1956, was resistant to winds of up to {{Convert|100|mph}}.

The design of the slab's facade is carried onto the wings and "bustle". The "spine" on the eastern side of the slab is clad with serpentine marble panels instead of glass because of the presence of shear walls made from concrete.{{harvnb|Mertins|2014|ps=.|pp=348–349}} The curtain-wall facade cost {{Convert|18|$/ft2}}, equivalent to {{Convert|{{formatnum:{{inflation|value=18|index=US-GDP|start_year=1958}}}}|$/ft2}} in {{Inflation/year|index=US-GDP}}. Above the 38th story is a triple-height mechanical story with a louvered screen.

The superstructure is a steel frame covered with concrete and gypsum.{{harvnb|Breiner|1989b|p=6}}; {{harvnb|Higgins & Quasebarth|2006|ps=.|p=16}} At the time, American building codes required that all structural steel be covered in a fireproof material, such as concrete, because improperly protected steel columns or beams may soften and fail in confined fires.{{cite report|last1=Hool |first1=George Albert |last2=Johnson |first2=Nathan Clarke |oclc=1161028617 |url=https://archive.org/details/handbookbuildin00johngoog |title=Handbook of Building Construction |date=1920 |publisher=McGraw Hill |pages=[https://archive.org/details/handbookbuildin00johngoog/page/n388 338]}} The concrete core shear walls rise to the 17th floor, while the diagonal core bracing, with shear trusses, extends to the 29th floor.{{cite book |last1=Al-Kodmany |first1=Kheir |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yBPA9kYZXTMC&pg=PA172 |title=The Future of the City: Tall Buildings and Urban Design |last2=Ali |first2=Mir M. |publisher=WIT Press |year=2013 |isbn=978-1845644109 |oclc=783138327 |page=172 |access-date=March 17, 2021 |archive-date=October 21, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211021131954/https://books.google.com/books?id=yBPA9kYZXTMC&pg=PA172 |url-status=live}} The structural system also includes steel columns whose centers are {{Convert|27.75|ft}} apart.{{harvnb|Breiner|1989b|ps=.|p=6}} The Seagram Building's heating and air conditioning systems are divided into two sections: a basement unit serving the 20th story and all floors below, and a roof unit serving the 21st story and all floors above.{{cite news |date=October 28, 1956 |title=Seagram Tower to Have Dual Heating System |page=2C |work=New York Herald Tribune |issn=1941-0646 |id={{ProQuest|1323882745}}}} Ducts for utilities such as electric, telephone, and closed-circuit television cables were embedded into the concrete floor slabs.

The Seagram Building has {{convert|849,014|ft2|m2}} of floor space, including three basement stories.{{harvnb|Breiner|1989a|ps=.|p=10}} Inside the building were the Four Seasons and Brasserie restaurants, originally designed by Philip Johnson.{{cite web |last=Morabito |first=Greg |date=June 23, 2015 |title=Everything's Falling to Pieces at The Seagram Building: Brasserie Leaving Along With Four Seasons |url=https://ny.eater.com/2015/6/23/8830827/everythings-falling-to-pieces-at-the-seagram-building-brasserie |access-date=March 15, 2021 |website=Eater NY |archive-date=May 5, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160505002432/http://ny.eater.com/2015/6/23/8830827/everythings-falling-to-pieces-at-the-seagram-building-brasserie |url-status=live}} The restaurant interiors were decorated with numerous artworks. These included the Seagram murals by Mark Rothko, which he claimed were intended to sicken the patrons of the Four Seasons Restaurant,{{Cite news |last=Lamster |first=Mark |date=April 3, 2013 |title=A Personal Stamp on the Skyline |work=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331 |url-access=limited |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/07/arts/design/building-seagram-phyllis-lamberts-new-architecture-book.html |url-status=live |access-date=March 17, 2021 |archive-date=February 15, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210215070854/https://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/07/arts/design/building-seagram-phyllis-lamberts-new-architecture-book.html}} as well as Pablo Picasso's painted curtain Le Tricorne, designed for the Ballets Russes in 1919.{{cite web |last=Andrews |first=Suzanna |date=September 8, 2014 |title=The Battle over the Four Seasons Restaurant's Picasso Curtain |url=https://www.vanityfair.com/style/society/2014/10/picasso-curtain-four-seasons-restaurant |access-date=March 15, 2021 |magazine=Vanity Fair |archive-date=November 2, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211102162755/https://www.vanityfair.com/style/society/2014/10/picasso-curtain-four-seasons-restaurant |url-status=live}}{{Cite news |last=Bagli |first=Charles V. |date=June 12, 2014 |title=After Much Debate, Picasso Curtain Will Be Moved From the Four Seasons |work=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/13/nyregion/after-much-debate-a-picasso-tapestry-is-headed-to-the-new-york-historical-society.html |url-status=live |access-date=March 15, 2021 |archive-date=January 2, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220102040012/https://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/13/nyregion/after-much-debate-a-picasso-tapestry-is-headed-to-the-new-york-historical-society.html}} By 2017, the building housed three restaurants owned by Major Food Group: the Pool, the Grill, and the Lobster Club.{{cite web |last=Dai |first=Serena |date=October 13, 2017 |title=What Major Food Group's Final Former Four Seasons Restaurant Will Look Like |url=https://ny.eater.com/2017/10/13/16473204/the-lobster-club-nyc-opening-design |access-date=March 13, 2021 |website=Eater NY |archive-date=February 3, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190203042915/https://ny.eater.com/2017/10/13/16473204/the-lobster-club-nyc-opening-design |url-status=live}} The Pool was merged with the Grill in 2020, though a separate event space called the Pool Lounge continues to operate.

Two of the basement levels originally contained a 150-space parking garage,{{cite news |date=June 2, 1957 |title=New Garage To Provide Ample Area: Seagram lo Limit Total to 150 Cars |page=1C |work=New York Herald Tribune |issn=1941-0646 |id={{ProQuest|1324039053}}}}{{cite web |date=October 11, 2014 |title=Seagram Building |url=https://rfr.com/properties/property/375-park-avenue/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190707155733/https://rfr.com/properties/property/375-park-avenue/ |archive-date=July 7, 2019 |access-date=March 16, 2021 |website=RFR Property Management}} connected to the lobby via its own elevator. Starting in 2019, the garage was renovated into a gym known as the Seagram Playground.{{Cite news |last=Karmin |first=Craig |date=June 30, 2020 |title=Developer Is Updating Historic Seagram Building With New Playground |work=The Wall Street Journal |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/developer-is-updating-historic-seagram-building-with-new-playground-11593518400 |url-status=live |url-access=subscription |access-date=March 17, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200813230945/https://www.wsj.com/articles/developer-is-updating-historic-seagram-building-with-new-playground-11593518400 |archive-date=August 13, 2020 |issn=0099-9660}} Covering {{Convert|23500|ft2}}{{cite web | last=Baird-Remba | first=Rebecca | title=Yes, That's a Climbing Wall. RFR's Seagram Building 'Playground' | website=Commercial Observer | date=May 2, 2023 | url=https://commercialobserver.com/2023/05/seagram-building-amenities-playground-rfr/ | access-date=December 11, 2023 | archive-date=December 11, 2023 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231211173124/https://commercialobserver.com/2023/05/seagram-building-amenities-playground-rfr/ | url-status=live }} or {{Convert|35000|ft2}}, the gym was designed in a contrasting style to the original building to attract younger employees. It contains a multipurpose basketball, pickleball, and volleyball court with a climbing wall.{{cite web |date=August 15, 2022 |title=NYC Building Adds "Playground" To Enhance Office Experience |url=https://facilityexecutive.com/2022/08/iconic-nyc-building-adds-playground-enhance-office-experience/ |access-date=December 12, 2022 |website=Facility Executive |archive-date=December 12, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221212160346/https://facilityexecutive.com/2022/08/iconic-nyc-building-adds-playground-enhance-office-experience/ |url-status=live }}{{Cite news |last=Margolies |first=Jane |date=August 10, 2022 |title=The Seagram Building's New Playground |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/08/10/nyregion/seagram-playground.html |url-access=limited |access-date=August 12, 2022 |issn=0362-4331 |archive-date=August 12, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220812042628/https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/08/10/nyregion/seagram-playground.html |url-status=live }} Next to the court was a multipurpose exercise room, a training area, a spin bike room, and an open lounge. The gym could also be used as a 150-seat theater with eight tiers of wooden bleachers, and there are two conference rooms on a mezzanine overlooking the gym. The basements also contain storage, loading platforms, and service areas for the first-floor occupants.

File:Seagram Building-NewYork-4.jpg

Unlike designs in Beaux-Arts office buildings, the Seagram Building's lobby lacks a central space, instead leading visitors directly from the plaza to the elevators or restaurants.{{harvnb|Breiner|1989a|ps=.|p=6}} The lobby is designed as if it were an extension of the plaza,{{harvnb|Architectural Forum|1958|ps=.|p=72}}{{harvnb|Breiner|1989a|p=5}}; {{harvnb|Higgins & Quasebarth|2006|p=15}}; {{harvnb|Stern|Mellins|Fishman|1995|ps=.|p=345}} leading Mumford to write: "Outside and inside are simply the same."{{harvnb|Breiner|1989a|ps=.|p=5}} It is divided into three parts: a western section facing the plaza; a central section with elevators; and an eastern section facing the restaurant space.{{harvnb|Breiner|1989a|p=6}}; {{harvnb|Higgins & Quasebarth|2006|ps=.|p=5}}

The western part of the lobby has three bronze revolving doors and is interrupted by two bronze columns. The central section comprises three corridors connecting the western and eastern thirds of the lobby, within four elevator and stair enclosures,{{harvnb|Breiner|1989a|p=7}}; {{harvnb|Higgins & Quasebarth|2006|ps=.|p=5}} whose walls are clad with travertine. There are three elevators on each corridor's north and south walls—a total of eighteen elevators. The elevators abutting the northern corridor serve floors 25–38; those in the center corridor serve floors 2–10; and those in the southern corridor serve floors 10–25.{{harvnb|Anderson|1958|ps=.|p=77}} The northernmost and southernmost elevator enclosures have fire stairs exiting to the plaza, and all enclosures have mechanical spaces and service closets.{{harvnb|Higgins & Quasebarth|2006|ps=.|p=5}} The interiors of the elevator cabs contain stainless steel and bronze mesh panels, while the ceilings contain white panels that illuminate each cab.{{harvnb|Higgins & Quasebarth|2006|ps=.|p=9}} Above the elevator doors are fluorescent lights installed in the doorway soffits. The central third of the lobby contains mailboxes, a standpipe alarm box, and service doors made of bronze.{{harvnb|Breiner|1989a|ps=.|p=7}}

File:Seagram Building Floor Plan.png

The eastern section has two additional revolving doors within the northern and southern glass walls. A cross-passage connects the two sets of doors. There are service doors on the eastern wall of the cross-passage, as well as an elevator control panel, a fire station panel, and directories on the western wall. From the cross-passage, a set of travertine steps connects to the restaurant spaces that originally comprised the Four Seasons Restaurant.{{harvnb|Breiner|Urbanelli|1989|ps=.|p=6}}

Throughout the entire lobby, the {{convert|24|foot|adj=on}}-tall ceiling is made of black cement and {{Convert|1|x|1|in|adj=on}} gray glass mosaic tiles.{{harvnb|Architectural Forum|1958|ps=.|p=71}} Recessed within the lobby ceiling are lights with dimmers. The floors, walls, and columns are also clad with travertine. The exterior walls of the lobby contain bronze mullions within which the exterior glass panes are set. A horizontal bronze bar, about {{Convert|42|in|cm}} above the floor level, surrounds the exterior walls. The horizontal bronze bar was installed in the 1970s per New York state building regulations. Signs in the lobby were originally designed in a square serif font custom-made for the Seagram Building.

{{For|the original design of the Four Seasons Restaurant prior to reconfiguration|The Four Seasons Restaurant#Design}}{{Featured article}}

File:Four Season Restaurant Trees.JPG

The Grill and Pool (formerly the Four Seasons Restaurant) occupy two stories in the Seagram Building's "bustle", east of the lobby and main shaft. The upper story is just above the lobby, while the lower story is at ground level near 52nd and 53rd Streets.{{harvnb|Breiner|Urbanelli|1989|p=6}}; {{harvnb|Higgins & Quasebarth|2006|ps=.|p=5}} When they opened as separate restaurants in 2017, the Grill served mid-20th-century cuisine while the Pool largely served seafood.{{cite web |last=Peasley |first=Aaron |date=April 27, 2017 |title=Grill power: Aby Rosen's dynamic taming of the Seagram Building's restaurant space |url=https://www.wallpaper.com/travel/aby-rosens-dynamic-taming-of-the-seagram-buildings-restaurant-space |url-status=live |access-date=March 15, 2021 |website=Wallpaper |archive-date=January 24, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210124003449/https://www.wallpaper.com/travel/aby-rosens-dynamic-taming-of-the-seagram-buildings-restaurant-space}}{{cite web |last=Krader |first=Kate |date=April 20, 2017 |title=A First Look Inside New York's Most Important New Restaurant |url-access=subscription |url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2017-04-20/photos-of-the-grill-the-new-restaurant-in-the-seagram-building |access-date=March 15, 2021 |website=Bloomberg |archive-date=May 19, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210519101610/https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2017-04-20/photos-of-the-grill-the-new-restaurant-in-the-seagram-building |url-status=live}} The Grill and Pool, named after the rooms of the same name in the former Four Seasons, contains similar design features to the lobby. It has travertine walls and floors, cement ceilings with gray-glass mosaic tiles, and bronze engaged piers. The original Four Seasons had five dining rooms, preserved in the modern-day Grill and Pool restaurant.{{harvnb|Higgins & Quasebarth|2006|ps=.|pp=5–6}}{{Cite news |last=Claiborne |first=Craig |author-link=Craig Claiborne |date=July 16, 1959 |title=$4.5 Million Restaurant to Open Here; Four Seasons, Nearing Completion, Said to Be World's Costliest Seagram Building Unit Is Lavishly Decorated and Landscaped |page=33 |work=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331 |url-access=subscription |url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1959/07/16/80537494.pdf |access-date=March 16, 2021}}{{efn|Sources disagree on whether the rooms had a combined maximum capacity of 400 or 485.}} The Pool is on the north side of the first floor; the Grill is on the south side. There are two dining areas on a balcony above the Grill, as well as a balcony above the Pool.{{harvnb|Breiner|Urbanelli|1989|p=6}}; {{harvnb|Higgins & Quasebarth|2006|ps=.|p=6}} A staircase leads down from the Grill Room to a separate entrance lobby and foyer on 52nd Street.

The Grill and Pool are discrete {{Convert|60|by|90|ft|adj=on}} rooms.{{cite web |last=Stephens |first=Suzanne |date=June 24, 2016 |title=Goodbye to All That: The Four Seasons Restaurant Leaves the Seagram Building |url=https://www.architecturalrecord.com/articles/11752-goodbye-to-all-that-the-four-seasons-restaurant-leaves-the-seagram-building |access-date=March 15, 2021 |website=Architectural Record |archive-date=April 11, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210411044236/https://www.architecturalrecord.com/articles/11752-goodbye-to-all-that-the-four-seasons-restaurant-leaves-the-seagram-building |url-status=live}} Both major rooms and their auxiliary spaces have {{Convert|20|ft|m|-high|adj=mid}} ceilings with gridded off-white aluminum panels and recessed lighting. The outer walls are glass curtain walls, containing metal curtains that ripple from air released by hidden ventilating ducts.{{harvnb|Breiner|Urbanelli|1989|pp=7–8}}; {{harvnb|Higgins & Quasebarth|2006|ps=.|p=7}} Running north–south between them is a corridor, which is at the top of the stairs leading from the eastern lobby. A glass wall and bronze double doors separate the corridor from the main lobby. The corridor's north and south walls contain doors leading to vestibules outside either room.{{harvnb|Breiner|Urbanelli|1989|p=7}}; {{harvnb|Higgins & Quasebarth|2006|ps=.|p=6}} The Pool is centered around a {{Convert|20|by|20|ft|adj=on}} white marble pool.{{cite web |last=Eisenberg |first=Lee |author-link=Lee Eisenberg (author) |date=October 1, 1979 |title=America's Most Powerful Lunch |url=https://classic.esquire.com/americas-most-powerful-lunch |access-date=March 15, 2021 |website=Esquire |archive-date=June 17, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190617084121/http://classic.esquire.com/americas-most-powerful-lunch/ |url-status=live}} On the eastern side of the Pool, a staircase connects to a mezzanine on a podium slightly above the main floor.{{harvnb|Breiner|Urbanelli|1989|p=7}}; {{harvnb|Higgins & Quasebarth|2006|ps=.|p=7}} The Grill had a lounge in its northwest corner and a bar at its southwest corner.{{harvnb|Breiner|Urbanelli|1989|p=8}}; {{harvnb|Higgins & Quasebarth|2006|ps=.|p=7}} The two private dining rooms are on a balcony raised above the main Grill, accessed by separate staircases and separated from the main Grill by walnut paneled doors.{{harvnb|Breiner|Urbanelli|1989|p=8}}; {{harvnb|Higgins & Quasebarth|2006|ps=.|p=8}}

The Lobster Club is at ground level on 53rd Street, immediately below the Pool room, within the space formerly occupied by Brasserie. It serves Japanese seafood.{{cite web |last=Viladas |first=Pilar |date=December 6, 2017 |title=The Lobster Club by Peter Marino |url=https://www.architecturalrecord.com/articles/13118-the-lobster-club-by-peter-marino |access-date=March 15, 2021 |website=Architectural Record |archive-date=January 18, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210118230201/https://www.architecturalrecord.com/articles/13118-the-lobster-club-by-peter-marino |url-status=live}}{{cite web |last=Keh |first=Pei-Ru |date=November 17, 2017 |title=The Lobster Club |url=https://www.wallpaper.com/travel/the-lobster-club |access-date=March 15, 2021 |website=Wallpaper* |archive-date=January 19, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210119153118/https://www.wallpaper.com/travel/the-lobster-club |url-status=live}} Philip Johnson had designed the original interior, which was damaged in a fire and redesigned by Diller + Scofidio from 1995 to 1999.{{Cite news |last=Muschamp |first=Herbert |date=August 29, 1999 |title=Updating A Brasserie With Pizazz |work=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331 |url-access=limited |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1999/08/29/arts/art-architecture-updating-a-brasserie-with-pizazz.html |access-date=March 16, 2021 |archive-date=September 17, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170917071003/http://www.nytimes.com/1999/08/29/arts/art-architecture-updating-a-brasserie-with-pizazz.html |url-status=live}}{{cite magazine |last=Larson |first=Soren |date=March 2000 |title=The Seagram Building's Long-Lived Brasserie Starts Over with a Diller + Scofidio Redesign |journal=Architectural Record |volume=188 |issue=3 |page=29}} During a 2017 renovation, the Lobster Club was redesigned by Peter Marino.

The entrance connects to a lobby with restrooms to the east, a coat check to the west, and the dining room to the south. The main dining room is slightly above the 53rd Street lobby, reached by a set of stairs. The lobby is on the north wall of the main dining room, while kitchens and waiters' stations are on the south wall. A second dining room is reached through a doorway at the center of the west wall. A door on the south wall leads to a fire stair to the lobby. The Lobster Club's main dining room has brightly colored furniture and upholstery, 150 drip-painted concrete floor tiles by artist Laura Bergman, and three bronze-partitioned booths on the south wall. There is a bar on the eastern side of the dining room.{{cite web |last=Firshein |first=Sarah |date=January 22, 2018 |title=Peter Marino Pens the Next Chapter For an Iconic Manhattan Restaurant |url=https://www.surfacemag.com/articles/peter-marino-designs-lobster-club/ |access-date=March 15, 2021 |website=Surface.com |archive-date=January 17, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210117070125/https://www.surfacemag.com/articles/peter-marino-designs-lobster-club/ |url-status=live}} The second dining room is a private suite with white partition walls, red terrazzo flooring, and metal sculptures.

The Brasserie had seated 150 patrons. When used by Brasserie, the foyer had contained a stone wall, and a video camera displayed images of patrons entering from the street, with an LCD sign announcing every customer's entry.{{harvnb|Luna|2003|ps=.|p=215}} The main dining room had a U-shaped counter surrounded by circular tables and glass-partitioned dining alcoves.{{harvnb|Interiors|1960|ps=.|pp=94–95}} The room had wooden panels on its walls;{{harvnb|Interiors|1960|ps=.|p=94}} a set of plates designed by Picasso was mounted onto the wooden paneling. The side walls contained booths, an allusion to the original booths that Johnson had designed for the space.{{harvnb|Luna|2003|ps=.|p=217}} The west wall contained a bar on its northern section and a dining alcove on its southern section. The bar, alcove, and second dining room had carpeted floors; the main dining room had wooden floors. The ceiling was made of flat plaster with recessed lighting fixtures.{{harvnb|Higgins & Quasebarth|2006|ps=.|pp=8–9}} The rear wall of the main dining room contained a double-paned glass wall, behind which sculptures were placed.{{harvnb|Luna|2003|ps=.|p=219}} The men's and women's bathrooms used the same cast-resin sink and were decorated with hexagonal tiles.

The office stories were intended to contain executive suites. The office floors generally have a flexible plan, arranged in modules around the elevator core. The flexibility of the office stories derives from the superstructures' wide bays.{{cite news |date=October 30, 1955 |title=Seagram Office Building To Offer Variety of Space |page=4C |work=New York Herald Tribune |issn=1941-0646 |id={{ProQuest|1323299784}} }} In general, each of the second through fourth stories has about {{Convert|28000|ft2}} of rentable office space; the fifth through tenth stories, around {{Convert|18600|ft2}}; and the upper stories, around {{Convert|12000|ft2|}}.{{harvnb|Architectural Forum|1958|ps=.|p=76}}{{harvnb|Mertins|2014|ps=.|p=355}}{{efn|The total floor space on each story was slightly higher. The second through fourth stories had {{Cvt|31955|ft2}} each; the fifth through tenth stories, {{Cvt|22225|ft2}}; and the eleventh and higher stories, {{Cvt|14933|ft2}}.}} Johnson mainly oversaw the interior design; all the materials were custom-designed for the Seagram Building.{{Cite news |last=Goldberger |first=Paul |author-link=Paul Goldberger |date=November 8, 1976 |title=Seagram Building Owners Plan To Seek Landmark Designation |work=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331 |url-access=subscription |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1976/11/08/archives/seagram-building-owners-plan-to-seek-landmark-designation.html |access-date=March 16, 2021 |archive-date=July 21, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210721144521/https://www.nytimes.com/1976/11/08/archives/seagram-building-owners-plan-to-seek-landmark-designation.html |url-status=live}}

The elevator landings have green terrazzo floors, travertine walls, gray elevator-door surrounds, and gypsum ceilings. The remaining office stories used {{convert|55.5|by|55.5|in|adj=on|cm}} modules.{{harvnb|Breiner|1989b|p=6}}; {{harvnb|Higgins & Quasebarth|2006|ps=.|p=9}} The elevator doors, suite doors, and partitions were designed to rise from floor to ceiling, which made the openings appear as though they were part of the paneling. Partition panels were designed with washable materials, which became standard after they were used in the Seagram Building. Doorknobs were made of lever handles instead of round knobs.{{cite news |date=September 16, 1956 |title=Levers to Open Seagram Doors |page=1C |work=New York Herald Tribune |issn=1941-0646 |id={{ProQuest|1323542647}} }} The ceilings are acoustically tiled dropped ceilings. Each story's ceiling is surrounded by luminous tiled panels, activated by a timer,{{harvnb|Breiner|1989b|p=6}}; {{harvnb|Higgins & Quasebarth|2006|ps=.|p=15}} which are arranged in a consistent band measuring about {{Convert|11.5|ft}} wide.{{harvnb|Mertins|2014|ps=.|p=353}}{{harvnb|Architectural Forum|1958|ps=.|p=75}} The luminous panels, in turn, contain vinyl diffuser panels measuring {{convert|4|ft|3|in}} wide. The rest of each story uses indirect lighting. Air conditioning fixtures are placed only {{Convert|11|in}} above the floor slab, enabling the windows to be full-height glass walls.{{harvnb|Architectural Forum|1958|ps=.|p=74}}

The Seagram Company occupied the second through eighth stories when the building was completed. Philip Johnson, Phyllis Lambert, and J. Gordon Carr collaborated in the design of the Seagram offices.{{harvnb|Anderson|1958|ps=.|p=76}} The offices had a reception room, containing tapestries and a travertine wall with Seagram's seal. There was also an executive office with furniture designed by Mies.{{harvnb|Anderson|1958|ps=.|p=78}} The executive suites contained an oak-paneled dining room and kitchen, which could double as a conference room. On three sides of the fifth floor were offices with oak paneling, luminous ceilings, and ocher carpeting. The outer offices on the fifth story were wider than on other floors, signifying that story's function as an "important" floor.{{harvnb|Anderson|1958|ps=.|p=79}} The fourth floor contained several large spaces for meetings and receptions, including a {{convert|69|by|36|ft|adj=on|m}} assembly room that could be partitioned into three sections.{{harvnb|Anderson|1958|ps=.|p=80}} Floor-to-ceiling travertine partitions walled off the restrooms in the Seagram suites. Another feature of the Seagram suites was display lights that could retract into the ceiling when they were not being used. Architectural Forum described Seagram's offices as setting "a high standard" for subsequent tenants.

After the 1933 repeal of Prohibition in the United States, Seagram Distiller's CEO Samuel Bronfman began planning a large Manhattan headquarters, though this plan was not executed for almost two decades.{{harvnb|Breiner|1989b|p=2}}. Bronfman decided the headquarters should be situated somewhere on Park Avenue between 50th and 59th Streets, which was becoming a commercial area.{{harvnb|Breiner|1989b|p=4}}.

File:Park Av May 2022 42.jpgIn 1951, the company bought a {{convert|50950|ft2|adj=on}} lot on the eastern side of Park Avenue between 52nd and 53rd Street, across from Lever House, for $4 million (equivalent to ${{Inflation|index=US-GDP|value=4|start_year=1951|fmt=c}} million in {{inflation/year|US-GDP}}{{inflation/fn|group=lower-alpha|US-GDP}}).{{harvnb|Breiner|1989b|p=4}}; {{harvnb|Higgins & Quasebarth|2006|p=11}}. Bronfman sought to develop a structure that would be considered an "important building". He wanted the building to be completed by 1957, coinciding with the company's centenary.{{harvnb|Mertins|2014|p=340}}.{{harvnb|Stern|Stuart|2006|p=225|ps=.}} According to Philip Johnson, the earlier Lever House had set an example for the construction of what became the Seagram Building.{{Cite news |last=La Rosa |first=Paul |date=February 25, 1983 |title=Jackie O beats the drum for Lever House |pages=199 |work=New York Daily News |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/73694935/jackie-o-beats-the-drum-for-lever-house/ |url-status=live |access-date=March 17, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211021131945/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/73694935/jackie-o-beats-the-drum-for-lever-house/ |archive-date=October 21, 2021 |via=newspapers.com}} Ely Jacques Kahn sent a letter and a brochure to Bronfman in July 1951, requesting an interview with him. The next month, prominent lawyer Alfred L. Rose wrote a letter to Bronfman endorsing Kahn and Jacob's work.{{harvnb|Stern|Stuart|2006|p=224|ps=.}} Kahn, working with several rental agents, sketched numerous diagrams for the massing of a hypothetical tower on the site, which they called "Operation Skytop". The only extant diagram, labeled as "scheme 2", depicted a bulky tower rising from several shallow setbacks.

Bronfman met with Charles Luckman, the former president of Lever Brothers soap company, in June 1954. Bronfman told Luckman that he intended to build a 35-story office tower topped by an imported English castle. In July 1954, Seagram announced it would build a 34-story tower designed by Luckman and William Pereira, his partner in the firm Pereira & Luckman. The structure was projected to cost $15 million (equivalent to ${{Inflation|index=US-GDP|value=15|start_year=1954|fmt=c}} million in {{inflation/year|US-GDP}}{{inflation/fn|group=lower-alpha|US-GDP}}).{{cite news |last=Morahan |first=John M. |date=July 13, 1954 |title=Seagram to Spend 15 Million For New Park Ave. Building |page=1 |work=New York Herald Tribune |issn=1941-0646 |id={{ProQuest|1322386413}} }}{{harvnb|Higgins & Quasebarth|2006|pp=11–12}}; {{harvnb|Stern|Mellins|Fishman|1995|p=342}}. Luckman, who had overseen the development of Lever House, said he was "very happy to come back to Park Avenue for a repeat performance".{{cite magazine |date=August 28, 1954 |title=The Talk of the Town: Repeat Performance |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1954/08/28 |volume=30 |pages=15–17 |access-date=March 15, 2021 |magazine=The New Yorker |archive-date=September 19, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200919200338/https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1954/08/28 |url-status=live}} Seagram's building, as originally planned, would have contained a four-story base of marble and bronze topped by a 30-story metal-and-glass shaft.{{cite news |date=July 13, 1954 |title=Seagram-Distillers Plans $15 Million New York Building |page=6 |work=The Wall Street Journal |id={{ProQuest|132117796}} |issn=0099-9660}}{{Cite news |date=July 13, 1954 |title=Park Ave. To Get New Skyscraper; Seagrams Plans a Gleaming 34-story Headquarters – Voisin to Lose Home |page=25 |work=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331 |url-access=subscription |url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1954/07/13/84125750.pdf |access-date=March 15, 2021}} The design would have provided for an auditorium, film screening room, display rooms, and executive offices, as well as interior garden courts. Pereira & Luckman filed plans for the tower with the New York City Department of Buildings (DOB) the same month.{{Cite news |date=July 21, 1954 |title=Seagram Plan Filed: Sketches Submitted for Big Building on Park Avenue |page=39 |work=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331 |url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1954/07/21/84127736.pdf |url-access=subscription |access-date=March 15, 2021}}

Pereira & Luckman's design attracted negative criticism when it was announced. According to the August 1954 edition of Architectural Forum, critics likened the building's appearance to an "enormous cigarette lighter" and "big trophy".{{cite magazine |date=August 1954 |title=Seagram plans a monument |url=https://usmodernist.org/AF/AF-1954-08.pdf |journal=Architectural Forum |volume=101 |issue=8 |pages=52 |access-date=March 16, 2021 |archive-date=May 7, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210507045434/https://usmodernist.org/AF/AF-1954-08.pdf |url-status=live}}{{harvnb|Breiner|1989b|p=4}}; {{harvnb|Higgins & Quasebarth|2006|p=12}}; {{harvnb|Stern|Mellins|Fishman|1995|p=342}}. Lambert, Bronfman's 27-year-old daughter, was living in Paris when she saw a rendering of Pereira & Luckman's plan in the New York Herald Tribune{{'s}} Paris edition. Recounting the incident, Lambert said she had been "boiling with fury" at the proposal.{{cite magazine |date=March 3, 1958 |title=Monument in Bronze |pages=52, 53, 55 |volume=71 |issue=9 |magazine=Time |url=https://content.time.com/time/magazine/0,9263,7601580303,00.html |access-date=March 15, 2021 |url-status=live |archive-date=December 1, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201201094514/http://content.time.com/time/magazine/0,9263,7601580303,00.html}} Lambert wrote a letter to her father that August, arguing that any new headquarters should be a "contribution" to the city in addition to serving as a symbol of Seagram.{{cite news |last=Tait |first=Jack |date=November 25, 1954 |title=Modern Design Will Prevail In New Seagrams' Building |page=17 |work=New York Herald Tribune |issn=1941-0646 |id={{ProQuest|1322562890}} }} In a 2013 book recalling the building's development, Lambert wrote, "This letter starts with one word repeated very emphatically...NO NO NO NO NO."{{cite web |last=Belogolovsky |first=Vladimir |date=February 16, 2024 |title=Phyllis Lambert talks about the Seagram Building |url=https://www.archpaper.com/2024/02/65-years-seagram-building-phyllis-lambert-mies-van-der-rohe-commission/ |access-date=February 26, 2024 |website=The Architect's Newspaper |archive-date=February 25, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240225204036/https://www.archpaper.com/2024/02/65-years-seagram-building-phyllis-lambert-mies-van-der-rohe-commission |url-status=live }} To palliate his daughter, Bronfman offered to allow Lambert to select the marble that would be used on the building's ground floor, an offer that she flatly refused.

At his friend Lou Crandall's suggestion, Bronfman relented, allowing his daughter to find an alternate architect. Pereira & Luckman's design was still publicly marketed as a "preliminary model" but, as Interiors{{'s}} managing editor Olga Gueft said, media reports suggested the original plan "had been dumped overboard".{{cite magazine |first=Olga |last=Gueft |journal=Interiors |title=The Race to Design |date=January 1955 |page=51 |volume=114 |issue=1}} Lambert became heavily involved with the design{{cite book |last1=Schulze |first1=Franz |last2=Windhorst |first2=Edward |title=Mies van der Rohe: A Critical Biography, New and Revised Edition |date=November 1, 2012 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0-226-75602-8 |pages=329–330|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CO05VeT5_Q0C&q=seagram |access-date=January 10, 2024 |language=en |quote=The question I asked everybody about the Seagram project when I met them was "Who do you think ought to do the building?" So Mies was the only person who was really generous.}} and acquainted herself with Johnson, who was then the departmental director of architecture and design at the Museum of Modern Art. Following his recommendation, Lambert examined several leading modernist architects and conducted several interviews.{{harvnb|Mertins|2014|p=340}}; {{harvnb|Higgins & Quasebarth|2006|p=12}}; {{harvnb|Stern|Mellins|Fishman|1995|p=344}}.{{efn|According to architectural writer Robert A. M. Stern, the architects considered by Lambert included "Walter Gropius, Marcel Breuer, George Howe, William Lescaze, Eero Saarinen, Louis Kahn, Frank Lloyd Wright, Minoru Yamasaki, I. M. Pei, Le Corbusier, and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe". Lambert recalled in 2024 that she had also come up of a list of architects who "could but shouldn't", including Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, who she thought were "not inventive".}} Lambert selected Mies van der Rohe to design the building in November 1954; she described Mies's buildings, such as 860–880 Lake Shore Drive in Chicago, as "sublimely urban".{{harvnb|Mertins|2014|p=341}}. Bronfman, having approved Mies's selection, designated his daughter as the building's planning director. Lambert received an annual salary of $20,000 from this position. Because Mies was not a licensed architect in New York state, Johnson was selected as a co-architect. At the time, Johnson had never designed a skyscraper before, so Crandall convinced Bronfman to hire Kahn and Jacobs as associate architects.

Mies, who had never designed a project in New York City, wished to design a simple slab. He was dissatisfied with the setbacks in most skyscrapers designed after the passage of the 1916 Zoning Resolution.{{harvnb|Higgins & Quasebarth|2006|p=14}}. Mies considered three alternatives for a slab behind a large plaza, with a facade divided into multiple bays. One plan called for a square tower; the second plan called for a 3-by-7-bay rectangle with three bays on Park Avenue; and the third plan called for a 5-by-3-bay rectangle with five bays facing Park Avenue. He created several scale models for the proposed structure.{{harvnb|Stern|Mellins|Fishman|1995|pp=344–345}}. Ultimately, Mies selected the third plan, which Lambert praised. After the architects were selected, Seagram purchased some {{Convert|9000|ft2}} of adjacent land for $900,000 (equivalent to ${{Inflation|index=US-GDP|value=0.9|start_year=1954|fmt=c}} million in {{inflation/year|US-GDP}}{{inflation/fn|group=lower-alpha|US-GDP}}). The land acquisition allowed the building to be set back from Park Avenue while complying with the 1916 Zoning Resolution, and it allowed passersby to see it from the street. Lambert recalled that Bronfman had only one requirement for Mies: that the tower not be placed on stilts.

File:Seagrams, Park Ave. LOC gsc.5a24906.jpg

Mies filed updated plans with the DOB in March 1955; the structure was projected to cost $20 million (equivalent to ${{Inflation|index=US-GDP|value=20|start_year=1955|fmt=c}} million in {{inflation/year|US-GDP}}{{inflation/fn|group=lower-alpha|US-GDP}}). The DOB records listed Mies's plans as a modification to Pereira & Luckman's original plans, rather than completely new ones.{{harvnb|Breiner|1989b||p=10}}. At the time, 20 of 250 existing tenants on the site had left. The April 1955 issue of The New York Times described the proposed tower as one of several on Park Avenue that "add up in sum to a boom".{{Cite news |date=April 7, 1955 |title=A New $30,000,000 Building |page=26 |work=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331 |url-access=subscription |url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1955/04/07/93800675.pdf |access-date=March 16, 2021}} Upon Bronfman's suggestion, the architects specified that the tower would be made of bronze and glass. Kahn had sketched an alternative design for the Seagram Building, which called for a significantly different massing than the one Mies had proposed. Lambert disapproved of the alternative plan, saying that Kahn was "undermining Mies's decisions", and Kahn ultimately acquiesced to using Mies's design.{{harvnb|Stern|Stuart|2006|pp=225, 227|ps=.}}

Demolition of existing buildings on the site began in September 1955{{harvnb|Stern|Stuart|2006|p=227|ps=.}}{{cite news |last=Bradley |first=John A. |date=September 25, 1955 |title=Wreckers Start on Seagram Site: Park Avenue Blockfront Offices Scheduled to Be Ready in 1957 |page=R1 |work=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331 |id={{ProQuest|113222330}}}}{{cite news |date=September 22, 1955 |title=Clearing the Way for Newest Skyscraper |page=A2 |work=New York Herald Tribune |issn=1941-0646 |id={{ProQuest|1325617925}}}} and was completed in March 1956. Mies moved to a nearby apartment to oversee the Seagram Building's development, and he applied for membership in the American Institute of Architects (AIA)'s New York division, but was rejected in December 1955. He took the AIA rejection as an affront and moved back to Chicago, placing Johnson in full control of the building's design. Kahn wrote in his diary that the project had encountered delays in April 1956. When Mies received a license to practice architecture in New York, he rejoined the project that June.

Construction of the superstructure began in May 1956, with the first major steel column installed at the beginning of the next month.{{cite news |date=June 3, 1956 |title=New Tower on Park Ave. Sets Record in Timing: Big Seagram Project Meets 'Target Dates' Precise Scheduling Is Unusual on Major Job |page=1C |work=New York Herald Tribune |issn=1941-0646 |id={{ProQuest|1323861879}} }} Seven hundred workers fitted over 5,000 individual pieces of steelwork together, which weighed in aggregate {{Convert|25|e6lb|sp=us}}.{{cite news |date=December 23, 1956 |title=Workers Finish Frame For Seagram Building |page=12C |work=New York Herald Tribune |issn=1941-0646 |id={{ProQuest|1324034198}} }} Because of a no-idling rule implemented in Midtown Manhattan, some truckers were ticketed while delivering steel beams to the work site, prompting them to strike temporarily until the rule was changed to allow deliveries.{{Cite news |date=June 9, 1956 |title=Wiley Modifying No-standing Rule; Provides for Steel Delivery on 52d and 53d Streets for New Park Ave. Building |page=19 |work=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331 |url-access=subscription |url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1956/06/09/84700150.pdf |access-date=March 16, 2021}}{{cite news |last=Lewis |first=Milton |date=June 9, 1956 |title=Seagram Bldg. Allowed Trucks Delivering Steel: Wiley Changes Traffic Test Rules In Drivers' Walkout Over Tickets |page=A1 |work=New York Herald Tribune |issn=1941-0646 |id={{ProQuest|1327601364}} }}{{Cite news |last1=Mulligan |first1=Arthur |last2=Kline |first2=Sidney |date=June 8, 1956 |title=Wiley Speedup Slows 20 Million Skyscraper |page=327 |work=New York Daily News |via=newspapers.com |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/73619880/ |url-status=live |access-date=March 16, 2021 |archive-date=October 21, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211021132011/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/73619880/wiley-speedup-slows-20-million/}} The steelwork's construction involved bolting steel beams, rather than riveting them, to reduce noise; this work received an official "Quiet City Award" from the city. During construction, Lambert acted as the director of planning. She convinced the builders to carry through Mies's original design, including minor details such as the brick bonding, which was hidden from view. The superstructure was topped out during December 1956,{{Cite news |last=Berger |first=Meyer |date=December 10, 1956 |title=About New York; Seagram Building Will Be Topped-Off This Week — N.Y.U. Regains Lost Doorknobs |page=45 |work=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331 |url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1956/12/10/105221276.pdf |url-access=subscription |access-date=March 16, 2021}} The building's bronze and glass facade was installed starting in September 1956 and was completed in April 1957.{{cite news |date=April 19, 1957 |title=Complete Facade Of Seagram Bldg. |page=A7 |work=New York Herald Tribune |issn=1941-0646 |id={{ProQuest|1327613455}} }} According to Kahn's diary, the architects discussed "violent changes" to the building's cost and design in July 1957, though these changes were not implemented.

The Seagram Company moved into its offices in December 1957,{{harvnb|Breiner|1989b|p=7}}; {{harvnb|Higgins & Quasebarth|2006|p=15}}. and the Department of Buildings granted a temporary certificate of occupancy the next year.{{harvnb|Breiner|1989b|p=7}}. The Seagram Building officially opened on May 22, 1958, with the Seagram Company leasing the office space that it did not occupy. The Department of Buildings granted a permanent occupancy certificate in 1959. Including the $5 million land purchases, the project was estimated to cost $43 million, or about {{Convert|50|$/ft2}}.{{harvnb|Architectural Forum|1958|pp=76–77}}. The construction cost per square foot was about twice that of similar buildings in the city. Seagram vice president Arthur S. Margolin said in a 1989 interview that the building had cost approximately $40 million.

File:Four-seasons-ny.jpg

By July 1958, ninety percent of the Seagram Building's space was rented. Tenants were willing to pay {{Convert|7|to|8.30|$/ft2}} for space on the upper floors, compared to an average of about {{Convert|5|to|5.25|$/ft2}} for ordinary new buildings. In the building's first year of operation, the office space was expected to earn about a 13 percent return on investment.{{harvnb|Architectural Forum|1958|p=77}}. Cushman & Wakefield was hired as the rental agency. Among the initial occupants were "a number of industrial and service corporations" involved in manufacturing,{{cite news |date=June 17, 1957 |title=Big Firms Lease Park Ave. Space |page=B1 |work=New York Herald Tribune |issn=1941-0646 |id={{ProQuest|1327615353}} }} as well as Bethlehem Steel{{Cite news |date=June 30, 1958 |title=Bethlehem Steel Leases 2 Floors; Takes Space in the Seagram Building on Park Ave |page=35 |work=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331 |url-access=subscription |url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1958/06/30/91394801.pdf |access-date=March 16, 2021}} and Maruzen Oil.{{Cite news |date=August 25, 1958 |title=Offices Leased by Oil Company; Space Is Taken in Seagram Building by Japanese |page=33 |work=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331 |url-access=subscription |url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1958/08/25/79459166.pdf |access-date=March 16, 2021}} The building also housed Goodson-Todman Productions;{{Cite news |date=February 5, 1958 |title=Floor Is Leased in New Building: Producers of TV Programs Get Space at 375 Park |page=45 |work=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331 |url-access=subscription |url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1958/02/05/82209272.pdf |access-date=March 16, 2021}} the sales headquarters of Eagle Pencil;{{Cite news |date=November 4, 1957 |title=Office Is Leased by Eagle Pencil; Seagram Building to House Sales Headquarters – 57th St. Space in Deal |page=60 |work=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331 |url-access=subscription |url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1957/11/04/90848878.pdf |access-date=March 16, 2021}} an industrial designer;{{Cite news |date=March 12, 1958 |title=Designers Take Park Ave. Lease: Becker & Becker to Move to Seagram Building – Deal at 666 Fifth Avenue |page=53 |work=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331 |url-access=subscription |url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1958/03/12/89062996.pdf |access-date=March 16, 2021}} a property manager; an art producer;{{Cite news |date=August 29, 1957 |title=Space Is Leased in New Building; 2 More Concerns to Move to Seagram Structure at Park Ave. And 52d St. |page=42 |work=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331 |url-access=subscription |url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1957/08/29/84757620.pdf |access-date=March 16, 2021}} a direct-mail advertising company;{{Cite news |date=December 19, 1957 |title=Floor Lease Taken in Seagram Building |page=57 |work=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331 |url-access=subscription |url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1957/12/19/85012435.pdf |access-date=March 16, 2021}} and various other commercial tenants.{{Cite news |date=January 13, 1958 |title=Five Rent Space in 375 Park Ave.: Law Firm and Commercial Enterprises Are Moving to Seagram Building |page=41 |work=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331 |url-access=subscription |url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1958/01/13/83387379.pdf |access-date=March 16, 2021}} Restaurant Associates took ground-level space for the Four Seasons and Brasserie restaurants, which opened in 1959. Ultimately, the Seagram Building's luxuriously designed spaces had 115 tenants, which were drawn partly because of Mies's international stature.{{harvnb|Breiner|1989b|pp=6–7}}. By 1961, there was a waiting list for space in the Seagram Building.{{Cite web |last=Cuniff |first=John |date=November 12, 1961 |title=A New Glitter for Park Avenue |via=newspapers.com |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/73695448/ |url-status=live |access-date=March 16, 2021 |website=The News and Observer |page=44 |archive-date=October 21, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211021131925/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/73695448/a-new-glitter-for-park-avenue/}}

In its early years, the Seagram Building and its plaza were used for displays and exhibitions. For instance, in 1958, the building held an art show to celebrate the 13th anniversary of the United Nations.{{Cite news |last=Knox |first=Sanka |date=October 29, 1958 |title=Global Art Show Opens Here Today; 40 Nations Represented in Tribute to U. N. Planned by Philanthropy Unit |page=37 |work=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331 |url-access=subscription |url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1958/10/29/82215211.pdf |access-date=March 16, 2021}}{{cite news |date=October 30, 1958 |title=40-Nation U. N. Art Exhibit Opens |page=A4 |work=New York Herald Tribune |issn=1941-0646 |id={{ProQuest|1326251632}} }} A sculptured head from the Mesoamerican Olmec civilization was displayed in the plaza in 1965.{{Cite news |last=Phillips |first=McCandlish |date=May 19, 1965 |title=Out of Mexico's Past to Park Ave.; Olmec Head to Be on View 2 Weeks |page=49 |work=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331 |url-access=subscription |url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1965/05/19/97202169.pdf |access-date=March 16, 2021}} The World Monuments Fund displayed a moai head in the Seagram Building's plaza in 1968{{Cite news |last=Glueck |first=Grace |date=October 22, 1968 |title=5-Ton Head From Easter Island Is Put on a Pedestal |page=49 |work=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331 |url-access=subscription |url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1968/10/22/76895992.pdf |access-date=March 15, 2021}} to draw attention to the artifacts on Easter Island, which were seen as endangered.{{cite book |last1=Mulloy |first1=W.T. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yHrjAAAAMAAJ |title=The Easter Island Bulletins of William Mulloy |publisher=World Monuments Fund |year=1995 |isbn=978-1880636046 |oclc=45480253 |series=Easter Island Foundation Series |page=9 |access-date=March 16, 2021 |archive-date=October 21, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211021131926/https://books.google.com/books?id=yHrjAAAAMAAJ |url-status=live}}{{harvnb|Stern|Mellins|Fishman|1995|p=348}}. Atmospheres and Environment XII, an environmental steel sculpture by Louise Nevelson, was installed at the Seagram Building's plaza in 1971.{{Cite news |last=Gent |first=George |date=January 27, 1971 |title=Park Ave. Gets a Nevelson Sculpture |work=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331 |url-access=subscription |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1971/01/27/archives/park-ave-gets-a-nevelson-sculpture.html |url-status=live |access-date=March 16, 2021 |archive-date=October 21, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211021131927/https://www.nytimes.com/1971/01/27/archives/park-ave-gets-a-nevelson-sculpture.html}} Other sculptures or artworks erected in the Seagram Building and plaza included Barnett Newman's sculpture Broken Obelisk, displayed in 1967, as well as Jean Dubuffet's sculpture Milord la Chimarre, displayed in 1974.

In 1963, the New York City government gave the Seagram Company an award for the building's "notable contribution" to the city and raised the company's property taxes.{{Cite news |last=Spiegel |first=Irving |date=October 3, 1963 |title='Salute to Fall' Honors Seagram; City Beauty Award Given Building Whose Tax Rose |page=32 |work=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331 |url-access=subscription |url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1963/10/03/89964721.pdf |access-date=March 16, 2021}} The recalculated tax assessment of $21 million was based on the potential value if the building were to be demolished, whereas Seagram fought to keep the assessment at $17 million, based on the rental income it earned.{{harvnb|Stern|Mellins|Fishman|1995|p=351}}.{{harvnb|Breiner|1989b|p=8}}; {{harvnb|Higgins & Quasebarth|2006|pp=17–18}}.{{harvnb|Stern|Mellins|Fishman|1995|pp=350–351}}. The higher tax assessment was upheld by the New York Court of Appeals,{{Cite news |date=June 11, 1964 |title=Seagram Building Denied Tax Credit By Appeals Court |work=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331 |url-access=subscription |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1964/06/11/archives/seagram-building-denied-tax-credit-by-appeals-court.html |url-status=live |access-date=March 16, 2021 |archive-date=October 21, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211021131927/https://www.nytimes.com/1964/06/11/archives/seagram-building-denied-tax-credit-by-appeals-court.html}} a decision the Regional Plan Association criticized as potentially destroying "the hope of great commercial architecture in New York State".{{Cite news |date=June 13, 1964 |title=A Blow to Beauty Seen in Tax Ruling On Seagram Tower |work=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331 |url-access=subscription |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1964/06/13/archives/a-blow-to-beauty-seen-in-tax-ruling-on-seagram-tower.html |url-status=live |access-date=March 16, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190803103248/https://www.nytimes.com/1964/06/13/archives/a-blow-to-beauty-seen-in-tax-ruling-on-seagram-tower.html |archive-date=August 3, 2019}}{{harvnb|Higgins & Quasebarth|2006|p=18}}. Architectural writer Ada Louise Huxtable called the tax a beginning of the city's "architectural annihilation", saying the higher tax assessment was a "special method of taxing architectural excellence".{{Cite news |last=Huxtable |first=Ada Louise |author-link=Ada Louise Huxtable |date=May 26, 1963 |title=Another Chapter in 'How to Kill a City' |page=107 |work=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331 |url-access=subscription |url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1963/05/26/356808602.pdf |access-date=March 17, 2021}} There was still high demand for office space in Midtown Manhattan, despite a myriad of new development in the area. For example, when real estate investment firm Realty Equities moved its headquarters to the Seagram Building in 1968, another company immediately offered to sublet Realty's space at a much higher price.{{cite news |date=March 7, 1968 |title=Expansion Bottleneck: New York City Office-Tower Building Boom Fails to Satisfy Companies' Soaring Needs |page=32 |work=The Wall Street Journal |id={{ProQuest|133317144}} |issn=0099-9660}}

The Seagram Company eventually found its own headquarters' rent to be too high, giving up half of its {{Convert|150,000|ft2}} in the building and moving approximately 600 of its 983 employees elsewhere in 1972.{{cite magazine |date=April 1972 |title=The Rent Was Too High |url=https://usmodernist.org/AF/AF-1972-04.pdf |journal=Architectural Forum |volume=136 |issue=4 |page=22 |access-date=March 17, 2021 |archive-date=July 11, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210711173420/https://usmodernist.org/AF/AF-1972-04.pdf |url-status=live}}{{cite news |date=February 24, 1972 |title=Seagram Building Rent Is Found Too Steep By a Tenant—Seagram: Firm Will Move 600 of Its 983 Employes From New York's Swank Park Avenue Tower |page=15 |work=The Wall Street Journal |id={{ProQuest|133667835}} |issn=0099-9660}}{{Cite news |last=Horsley |first=Carter B. |date=April 15, 1972 |title=Seagram Quitting Half of Space On Park Ave. for a 3d Ave. Site |work=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331 |url-access=subscription |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1972/04/15/archives/seagram-quitting-half-of-space-on-park-ave-for-a-3d-ave-site.html |url-status=live |access-date=March 16, 2021 |archive-date=October 21, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211021132022/https://www.nytimes.com/1972/04/15/archives/seagram-quitting-half-of-space-on-park-ave-for-a-3d-ave-site.html}} In a letter to mayor John Lindsay, Seagram officials attributed the relocation in part because of the high tax assessment on the Seagram Building. In 1971, building management conducted what city officials believed was the first voluntary fire drill at a New York City office building.{{Cite news |last=Markham |first=James M. |date=July 16, 1971 |title=2,500 Walk to the Street in the First Fire Drill in a Skyscraper Here |work=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331 |url-access=subscription |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1971/07/16/archives/2500-walk-to-the-street-in-the-first-fire-drill-in-a-skyscraper.html |url-status=live |access-date=March 16, 2021 |archive-date=October 21, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211021131946/https://www.nytimes.com/1971/07/16/archives/2500-walk-to-the-street-in-the-first-fire-drill-in-a-skyscraper.html}}{{Cite news |last=Modzelewski |first=Joseph |date=July 16, 1971 |title=Scraper Fire Drill Downs Them Fast |pages=234 |work=New York Daily News |via=newspapers.com |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/73629233/scraper-fire-drill-downs-them-fast/ |url-status=live |access-date=March 16, 2021 |archive-date=October 21, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211021131946/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/73629233/scraper-fire-drill-downs-them-fast/}} During the 1970s, Seagram received several offers for the building from potential buyers, and the company contemplated selling it and leasing back its own space. File:Seagram Building, New York City. LOC gsc.5a31150.jpg

Seagram had decided to retain ownership of the building by 1976, saying that the building brought publicity to the company.{{harvnb|Stern|Mellins|Fishman|1995|pp=351–352}}. The same year, Bronfman's son and Seagram's president Edgar Bronfman Sr. asked the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) to grant city-landmark status to the building.{{cite magazine |date=December 1976 |title=News in Brief |url=https://usmodernist.org/AR/AR-1976-12.pdf |journal=Architectural Record |volume=160 |issue=12 |page=33 |access-date=March 17, 2021 |archive-date=July 19, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200719150631/https://usmodernist.org/AR/AR-1976-12.pdf |url-status=live}} The move surprised mayor Abraham Beame, since the city's landlords typically attempted to prevent their buildings from being listed as landmarks. The LPC ultimately did not hold a hearing for the Seagram Building. LPC rules specified that individual New York City landmarks be at least 30 years old at the time of their designation; the building had been completed only 18 years earlier.{{harvnb|Stern|Mellins|Fishman|1995|p=352}}. Bronfman proposed that the LPC allow designations of buildings less than 30 years old if their owners supported landmark status, but no action was taken on the proposal.{{Cite news |last=Thomas |first=Robert McG. Jr. |date=June 1, 1979 |title=Seagram to Sell Building For $85.5 Million to Fund |work=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331 |url-access=subscription |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1979/06/01/archives/seagram-to-sell-building-for-855-million-to-fund-name-never-affixed.html |access-date=March 16, 2021 |archive-date=October 21, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211021131952/https://www.nytimes.com/1979/06/01/archives/seagram-to-sell-building-for-855-million-to-fund-name-never-affixed.html |url-status=live}}

In February 1979, Seagram offered the tower for sale at $75 million. In the absence of official landmark status, the company mandated that the new owner preserve the exterior and public spaces in their original condition. This was enforced by what was known as an Article 26 restriction, which protected the exterior, public interiors, and any other interior space within {{Convert|16|ft}} of the facade. The new owner was obligated to keep the building for at least fifteen years, and would have to take over the high land-assessment taxes.{{Cite news |last=Thomas |first=Robert McG. Jr. |date=February 26, 1979 |title=Seagram Tower Offered for Sale At $75 Million |work=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331 |url-access=subscription |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1979/02/26/archives/seagram-tower-offered-for-sale-at-75-million-conditions-would.html |url-status=live |access-date=March 16, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211021131953/https://www.nytimes.com/1979/02/26/archives/seagram-tower-offered-for-sale-at-75-million-conditions-would.html |archive-date=October 21, 2021}} Seagram sold the building to the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association (TIAA) for $85.5 million in June 1979, leasing some space back from them.{{Cite news |date=June 1, 1979 |title=Seagram Building goes for $85.5M |pages=14 |work=New York Daily News |via=newspapers.com |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/73629366/seagram-building-goes-for-855m/ |url-status=live |access-date=March 16, 2021 |archive-date=October 21, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211021132022/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/73629366/seagram-building-goes-for-855m/}} This fee included $70.5 million for the structure and $15 million for the underlying land.{{Cite news |last=Dunlap |first=David W. |author-link=David W. Dunlap |date=April 21, 1988 |title=Seagram Landmark Move Is Backed |work=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331 |url-access=limited |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/04/21/nyregion/seagram-landmark-move-is-backed.html |access-date=August 21, 2020 |url-status=live |archive-date=August 31, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200831124137/https://www.nytimes.com/1988/04/21/nyregion/seagram-landmark-move-is-backed.html}} As part of the sale, the building retained the "Seagram" name, although it was only identified on signage by its address. For decades after the sale, Lambert continued to be involved with the Seagram Building's operation.

The TIAA, like the Seagram Company, supported landmark status for the building. In early 1988, just over thirty years after the Seagram Building had been completed, the TIAA filed documentation with the LPC requesting that the Seagram Building's exterior, lobby, and plaza be considered for landmark status.{{cite news |last=Selvin |first=Barbara W. |date=October 4, 1989 |title=Lofty Landmark Status Seagram Building And Four Seasons make historic docket |work=Newsday |pages=47, [https://www.newspapers.com/clip/80635938/seagram-landmark/ 50] |id={{ProQuest|278218861}} |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/80635880/lofty-landmark-status/ |via=newspapers.com |access-date=March 17, 2021|archive-date=July 12, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210712134433/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/80635880/lofty-landmark-status/|url-status=live}}{{Cite news |last=Shepard |first=Joan |date=May 13, 1988 |title=Modern Masterpiece |pages=68 |work=New York Daily News |via=newspapers.com |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/73695160/modern-masterpiece/ |url-status=live |access-date=March 17, 2021 |archive-date=October 21, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211021132017/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/73695160/modern-masterpiece/}} The Four Seasons' operators also separately endorsed landmark designation for their restaurant's interior in the Seagram Building.{{Cite news |last=Dunlap |first=David W. |author-link=David W. Dunlap |date=May 9, 1988 |title=Weighing Four Seasons as Landmark |work=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331 |url-access=limited |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/05/09/nyregion/weighing-four-seasons-as-landmark.html |url-status=live |access-date=March 16, 2021 |archive-date=May 24, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170524231318/http://www.nytimes.com/1988/05/09/nyregion/weighing-four-seasons-as-landmark.html}} On October 3, 1989, the LPC designated the Seagram Building's exterior, the lobby, and the Four Seasons Restaurant as landmarks. The Four Seasons was only the second restaurant interior in the city to be designated a landmark, after Gage and Tollner in Brooklyn.{{Cite news |last=Dunlap |first=David W. |author-link=David W. Dunlap |date=October 4, 1989 |title=Four Seasons Is Designated A Landmark |work=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331 |url-access=limited |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/10/04/nyregion/four-seasons-is-designated-a-landmark.html |access-date=March 16, 2021 |archive-date=September 20, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200920121304/https://www.nytimes.com/1989/10/04/nyregion/four-seasons-is-designated-a-landmark.html |url-status=live}} The New York City Board of Estimate ratified all three designations in January 1990.{{Cite news|last=Buder|first=Leonard|date=January 26, 1990|title=Approval Given To Four Seasons As a Landmark|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1990/01/26/nyregion/approval-given-to-four-seasons-as-a-landmark.html|access-date=July 20, 2022|issn=0362-4331|url-access=limited|archive-date=July 20, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220720180739/https://www.nytimes.com/1990/01/26/nyregion/approval-given-to-four-seasons-as-a-landmark.html|url-status=live}} While the TIAA had strongly supported the exterior and lobby landmark designations, it sued the LPC in 1990 to have the designation for the Four Seasons removed. The TIAA argued that the restaurant was personal property and that the designation would force the restaurant to continue operating even if the owners wished to close it.{{Cite news |last=Dunlap |first=David W. |author-link=David W. Dunlap |date=February 4, 1990 |title=Building Owner Fights Landmark at 4 Seasons |work=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331 |url-access=limited |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1990/02/04/nyregion/building-owner-fights-landmark-at-4-seasons.html |url-status=live |access-date=March 16, 2021 |archive-date=May 25, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150525191453/http://www.nytimes.com/1990/02/04/nyregion/building-owner-fights-landmark-at-4-seasons.html}} The state's Court of Appeals upheld the designation in 1993.{{Cite news |date=October 24, 1993 |title=Postings: The Four Seasons; A Landmark Upheld |work=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331 |url-access=limited |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1993/10/24/realestate/postings-the-four-seasons-a-landmark-upheld.html |access-date=March 16, 2021 |archive-date=May 26, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150526094325/http://www.nytimes.com/1993/10/24/realestate/postings-the-four-seasons-a-landmark-upheld.html |url-status=live}} The Brasserie, not covered in any of the landmark designations, was renovated in 1999 after being damaged by a fire in 1995.

Real estate investor Aby Rosen entered a contract in October 2000 to purchase a majority ownership stake in the building for $375 million,{{cite magazine |last=Croghan |first=Lore |date=October 23, 2000 |title=Citigroup Center goes on block |volume=16 |issue=43 |page=1 |id={{ProQuest|219151100}}|journal=Crain's New York Business}} completing his purchase that December.{{cite journal |date=December 15, 2000 |title=TIAA Sells Seagram Building to RFR Holding |id={{ProQuest|450266819}}|website=Commercial Real Estate Direct}} At the time, 99.5 percent of the building's space was occupied, but only six original tenants remained. The following year, the Seagram Company moved its headquarters out of the building. Rosen's RFR Holding retained ownership of the Seagram Building.{{Cite news |last=Williams |first=Alex |date=May 29, 2013 |title=Making His Life the Party |work=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331 |url-access=limited |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/30/fashion/aby-rosen-is-the-life-of-the-party.html |access-date=August 21, 2020 |archive-date=January 25, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210125032840/https://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/30/fashion/aby-rosen-is-the-life-of-the-party.html |url-status=live}} Meanwhile, French media conglomerate Vivendi, which acquired the Seagram Company in 2000, started selling off the building's art in 2003 to raise money.{{Cite news |last=Vogel |first=Carol |date=February 11, 2003 |title=Vivendi Picks Auction Houses To Sell Seagram Building Art |work=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331 |url-access=limited |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/11/business/the-media-business-vivendi-picks-auction-houses-to-sell-seagram-building-art.html |url-status=live |access-date=March 17, 2021 |archive-date=February 27, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210227000734/https://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/11/business/the-media-business-vivendi-picks-auction-houses-to-sell-seagram-building-art.html}}{{Cite magazine |date=December 23, 2002 |title=Art: The Seagram building collection on the block? |magazine=Maclean's |volume=115 |issue=51 |pages=14 |id={{ProQuest|218502765}} }} RFR received the LPC's permission in 2005 to transfer unused development rights at the Seagram Building site to a neighboring building. In exchange, the Seagram Building's owners would be required to keep the facade in near-original condition.{{Cite news |last=Lueck |first=Thomas J. |date=November 25, 2005 |title=In Deal for New Tower, Protection for Old One |work=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331 |url-access=limited |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/25/nyregion/in-deal-for-new-tower-protection-for-old-one.html |url-status=live |access-date=March 17, 2021 |archive-date=May 29, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150529193100/http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/25/nyregion/in-deal-for-new-tower-protection-for-old-one.html}}

The Seagram Building was nominated for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) on January 12, 2006,{{harvnb|Higgins & Quasebarth|2006|p=92}}. and was added to the NRHP on February 24, 2006.{{cite web |date=2006 |title=National Register of Historic Places 2006 Weekly Lists |url=https://www.nps.gov/subjects/nationalregister/upload/weekly-list-2006-national-register-of-historic-places.pdf |access-date=March 8, 2021 |publisher=National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service |page=78 |archive-date=March 25, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210325200236/https://www.nps.gov/subjects/nationalregister/upload/weekly-list-2006-national-register-of-historic-places.pdf |url-status=live}} RFR obtained full ownership of the Seagram Building in 2013, when it purchased a 14 percent stake from Harry Lis.{{Cite news |date=May 14, 2013 |title=Plots & Ploys: Taking Seagram |work=The Wall Street Journal |url=https://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324031404578483510836259682.html |access-date=March 17, 2021|url-access=subscription|issn=0099-9660|archive-date=September 30, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130930000717/http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324031404578483510836259682.html |url-status=live}}{{cite web |date=May 15, 2013 |title=Aby Rosen's RFR takes full ownership of Seagram Building |first=Hitem |last=Samtami |url-access=limited |url=https://therealdeal.com/2013/05/15/aby-rosens-rfr-takes-full-ownership-of-seagram-building/ |access-date=March 17, 2021 |website=The Real Deal New York |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201125233302/https://therealdeal.com/2013/05/15/aby-rosens-rfr-takes-full-ownership-of-seagram-building/ |archive-date=November 25, 2020 |url-status=live}} In 2015, RFR decided to terminate Four Seasons' and the Brasserie's leases ahead of schedule, and the restaurants were closed.{{cite web |date=June 23, 2015 |title=Brasserie is out at Aby Rosen's Seagram building |url-access=limited |url=https://therealdeal.com/2015/06/23/brasserie-is-out-at-rosens-seagram-building/ |access-date=March 15, 2021 |website=The Real Deal New York |archive-date=November 29, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201129193517/https://therealdeal.com/2015/06/23/brasserie-is-out-at-rosens-seagram-building/ |url-status=live}} RFR proposed changes to the Four Seasons' interior, including removing the glass wall between the Grill Room and Pool Room, as well as converting the wine cellar to restrooms.{{Cite news |last=Pogrebin |first=Robin |date=May 6, 2015 |title=Proposed Design Changes to the Four Seasons Prompt an Outcry |work=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331 |url-access=limited |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/07/arts/design/proposed-design-changes-to-the-four-seasons-prompt-an-outcry.html |access-date=March 14, 2021 |archive-date=December 10, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201210211233/https://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/07/arts/design/proposed-design-changes-to-the-four-seasons-prompt-an-outcry.html |url-status=live}} The LPC rejected RFR's proposal to change the interior of The Four Seasons Restaurant, except for a carpet replacement, which the commission allowed.{{Cite news |last=Pogrebin |first=Robin |date=May 20, 2015 |title=Landmarks Commission Rejects Plan to Change Interior of Four Seasons |work=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331 |url-access=limited |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/20/nyregion/landmarks-panel-rejects-changes-to-four-seasons-restaurant.html |access-date=March 14, 2021 |archive-date=January 26, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210126095701/http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/20/nyregion/landmarks-panel-rejects-changes-to-four-seasons-restaurant.html |url-status=live}} Annabelle Selldorf restored the physical structure while William Georgis oversaw the interior design.

The Grill and the Pool were opened within the former Four Seasons space in mid-2017.{{Cite news |last=Fabricant |first=Florence |date=July 3, 2017 |title=The Pool, a Seafood Restaurant in the Former Four Seasons, to Open July 19 |work=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331 |url-access=limited |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/03/dining/the-pool-four-seasons-seafood-midtown.html |url-status=live |access-date=March 15, 2021 |archive-date=November 9, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201109032948/https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/03/dining/the-pool-four-seasons-seafood-midtown.html}} That year, architect Peter Marino designed the Lobster Club within the former Brasserie space in the basement. In addition, the facade was restored in 2016, and RFR spent $400,000 to install waterproofing on the fountains and $250,000 to renovate the plaza benches. RFR was also planning to change the underground garage, which did not have landmark status.{{Cite news |last=Dunlap |first=David W. |author-link=David W. Dunlap |date=July 18, 2016 |title=What Stays As Seagram Building Loses Four Seasons |work=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331 |url-access=limited |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/19/nyregion/at-the-seagram-building-the-past-is-still-very-present.html |access-date=March 17, 2021 |archive-date=January 17, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210117153345/https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/19/nyregion/at-the-seagram-building-the-past-is-still-very-present.html |url-status=live}} Initially, RFR did not seek the LPC's permission to change the landmark-designated Four Seasons interior, only requesting permission in late 2017 after the renovations were completed.{{cite web |last=Tuder |first=Stefanie |date=October 17, 2017 |title=A Look at What Was Illegally Changed at Former Four Seasons |url=https://ny.eater.com/2017/10/17/16488906/major-food-group-four-seasons-landmark-changes |access-date=March 15, 2021 |website=Eater NY |archive-date=July 7, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190707172007/https://ny.eater.com/2017/10/17/16488906/major-food-group-four-seasons-landmark-changes |url-status=live}}{{Cite news |last=Wells |first=Pete |date=October 17, 2017 |title=The Pool Strives to Deal With Its Famous Dining Room |work=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331 |url-access=limited |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/17/dining/the-pool-review.html |url-status=live |access-date=March 15, 2021 |archive-date=March 16, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210316203444/https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/17/dining/the-pool-review.html}} The LPC retroactively approved the renovations nearly two years later, with some modifications.{{cite web |last=Plitt |first=Amy |date=July 16, 2019 |title=LPC approves contested changes to the former Four Seasons restaurant |url=https://ny.curbed.com/2019/7/16/20695825/four-seasons-major-food-group-the-pool-lpc-changes |access-date=March 15, 2021 |website=Curbed NY |archive-date=February 25, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210225234059/https://ny.curbed.com/2019/7/16/20695825/four-seasons-major-food-group-the-pool-lpc-changes |url-status=live}} To conform to the plans that the LPC had approved, the Pool's lounge room was closed in December 2019 for a one-month renovation.{{cite web |last=Warerkar |first=Tanay |date=January 7, 2020 |title=Major Food Group's Pool Lounge Is Closed for Renovations to Meet Landmark Requirements |url=https://ny.eater.com/2020/1/7/21051697/pool-lounge-four-seasons-renovation-major-food |access-date=March 15, 2021 |website=Eater NY |archive-date=January 8, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200108002231/https://ny.eater.com/2020/1/7/21051697/pool-lounge-four-seasons-renovation-major-food |url-status=live}} The next month, the Grill took over the Pool because of higher demand for cuisine in the Grill.{{cite web |last=Warerkar |first=Tanay |date=January 8, 2020 |title=Major Food Group's the Grill Has Taken Over Its Seafood Sibling the Pool |url=https://ny.eater.com/2020/1/8/21055670/major-food-group-pool-grill-four-seasons-nyc |access-date=March 15, 2021 |website=Eater NY |archive-date=July 16, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200716160941/https://ny.eater.com/2020/1/8/21055670/major-food-group-pool-grill-four-seasons-nyc |url-status=live}}

Rosen announced in mid-2020 that he would renovate much of the garage into the Seagram Playground, a communal workers' space and gym, over the following one and a half years.{{cite web |date=July 1, 2020 |title=Aby Rosen Adding Gym to Seagram Building |url-access=limited |url=https://therealdeal.com/2020/07/01/aby-rosen-to-build-sprawling-gym-in-seagram-building/ |access-date=March 17, 2021 |website=The Real Deal New York |archive-date=December 4, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201204184407/https://therealdeal.com/2020/07/01/aby-rosen-to-build-sprawling-gym-in-seagram-building/ |url-status=live}} The communal space was announced as a way to attract tenants in light of the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City, as well as the departure of Wells Fargo, a major tenant.{{cite web |last=Karmin |first=Craig |date=June 30, 2020 |title=Developer Is Updating Historic Seagram Building With New Playground |url=https://www.mansionglobal.com/articles/developer-is-updating-historic-seagram-building-with-new-playground-140758 |access-date=March 16, 2021 |website=Mansion Global |archive-date=July 30, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200730042034/https://www.mansionglobal.com/articles/developer-is-updating-historic-seagram-building-with-new-playground-140758 |url-status=live}} The Seagram Playground was completed in August 2022 for $25 million; at the time, 80 percent of the space in the building was occupied. Curbed wrote that the Seagram Playground was one of several large investments that Rosen had made in "prime midtown real estate at a time when it hasn't exactly bounced back" from the pandemic.{{cite web | last=Read | first=Bridget | title=What Happened to the Gramercy Park Hotel? | website=Curbed | date=October 7, 2022 | url=https://www.curbed.com/2022/10/gramercy-park-hotel-lawsuit-pandemic.html | access-date=November 3, 2022 | archive-date=November 3, 2022 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221103165508/https://www.curbed.com/2022/10/gramercy-park-hotel-lawsuit-pandemic.html | url-status=live }} The building was almost fully occupied by the end of 2022, after firms such as Blue Owl Capital and Clayton, Dubilier & Rice signed or renewed their leases.{{cite news |date=September 17, 2022 |title=Asset manager leases 137,660 s/f at Seagram Building |url=https://rew-online.com/asset-manager-leases-137660-s-f-at-seagram-building/ |access-date=December 12, 2022 |website=Real Estate Weekly |archive-date=December 12, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221212160346/https://rew-online.com/asset-manager-leases-137660-s-f-at-seagram-building/ |url-status=live }}

Rosen and his partner Michael Fuchs sought to refinance the Seagram Building by early 2023, as a $783 million commercial mortgage-backed security loan on the building was expected to mature at the end of the year;{{cite web | last=Coen | first=Andrew | title=RFR Seeks $1B Refi for Seagram Building, $100M in Pref Equity Also Due | website=Commercial Observer | date=February 14, 2023 | url=https://commercialobserver.com/2023/02/rfr-1b-refi-seagram-building-100m-pref-equity-also-due/ | access-date=March 29, 2023}}{{cite web | last=Cifuentes | first=Kevin | title=RFR Seeks $1B Refi at Seagram Building | website=The Real Deal | date=February 15, 2023 | url=https://therealdeal.com/new-york/2023/02/15/rfr-seeks-1b-refi-of-seagram-building/ | access-date=March 29, 2023 | archive-date=March 29, 2023 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230329131941/https://therealdeal.com/new-york/2023/02/15/rfr-seeks-1b-refi-of-seagram-building/ | url-status=live }} the loan was extended that May.{{cite web | last=Bockmann | first=Rich | title=Aby Rosen Gets Extension on Seagram Building Refinance | website=The Real Deal | date=May 10, 2023 | url=https://therealdeal.com/new-york/2023/05/10/aby-rosen-gets-extension-on-1b-seagram-building-refi/ | access-date=August 16, 2023 | archive-date=August 16, 2023 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230816231812/https://therealdeal.com/new-york/2023/05/10/aby-rosen-gets-extension-on-1b-seagram-building-refi/ | url-status=live }} Rosen refinanced the building for $1.1 billion in December 2023{{cite web | last=Hallum | first=Mark | title=RFR Seals $1.1B Refi for 375 Park Avenue | website=Commercial Observer | date=December 18, 2023 | url=https://commercialobserver.com/2023/12/rfr-seals-1-1b-refi-for-375-park-avenue/ | access-date=February 26, 2024 | archive-date=February 26, 2024 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240226170248/https://commercialobserver.com/2023/12/rfr-seals-1-1b-refi-for-375-park-avenue/ | url-status=live }}{{cite web | title=Aby Rosen Gets $1.1B Refi for RFR's Seagram Building | website=The Real Deal | date=December 19, 2023 | url=https://therealdeal.com/new-york/2023/12/19/aby-rosen-gets-1-1b-refi-for-rfrs-seagram-building/ | access-date=February 26, 2024 | archive-date=February 26, 2024 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240226155531/https://therealdeal.com/new-york/2023/12/19/aby-rosen-gets-1-1b-refi-for-rfrs-seagram-building/ | url-status=live }} and renewed leases for more than {{convert|100000|ft2}} of space during that year.{{cite web | title=Aby Rosen Building Leasing Momentum at Seagram Building | website=The Real Deal | date=February 26, 2024 | url=https://therealdeal.com/new-york/2024/02/26/aby-rosen-building-leasing-momentum-at-seagram-building/ | access-date=February 26, 2024 | archive-date=February 26, 2024 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240226155418/https://therealdeal.com/new-york/2024/02/26/aby-rosen-building-leasing-momentum-at-seagram-building/ | url-status=live }} In February 2025, Rosen refinanced the building again, obtaining a $1.2 million commercial mortgage-backed security loan from a syndicate led by Morgan Stanley.{{cite web |last=Elstein |first=Aaron |date=February 13, 2025 |title=RFR nears $1.2 billion Seagram Building refinancing |url=https://www.crainsnewyork.com/real-estate/rfr-closes-refinancing-new-yorks-seagram-building |access-date=February 15, 2025 |website=Crain's New York Business}}{{cite web |last=Carpenter |first=Scott |date=February 12, 2025 |title=Seagram Building In New York City Is Being Refinanced In $1.2 Billion Bond Deal |url-access=subscription |url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-02-12/nyc-s-seagram-building-being-refinanced-via-1-2-billion-cmbs |access-date=February 15, 2025 |website=Bloomberg }}

File:Park Av May 2022 37.jpg

When the Seagram Building was completed, Lewis Mumford described the structure as a "Rolls-Royce" of buildings{{harvnb|Mumford|1959|p=19}}. and wrote that "it has the aesthetic impact that only a unified work of art carried through without paltry compromises can have".{{harvnb|Breiner|1989b|p=8}}. In 1957, Thomas W. Ennis of The New York Times wrote the building was "one of the most notable of Manhattan's post-war buildings" and characterized its design as the high point of Mies's career.{{Cite news |last=Ennis |first=Thomas W. |date=November 10, 1957 |title=Building Is Designer's Testament; Seagram Building Marks Apex Of Mies van der Rohe's Career |pages=313, 320 |work=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331 |url-access=subscription |url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1957/11/10/90853549.pdf |access-date=March 16, 2021}} Similarly, Progressive Architecture described the Seagram Building as "probably the most heralded new building in the U.S." in 1958.{{cite magazine |date=July 1958 |title=Seagram House Formally Opened |url=https://usmodernist.org/PA/PA-1958-07.pdf |journal=Progressive Architecture |volume=39 |issue=7 |pages=41 |access-date=March 16, 2021 |archive-date=August 8, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200808080157/https://usmodernist.org/PA/PA-1958-07.pdf |url-status=live}} According to Architectural Forum in 1958, "Seagram challenges accepted skyscraper practice all the way down the line."{{harvnb|Architectural Forum|1958|p=67}}. At a meeting of the Italian Cultural Institute the following year, architect Gino Pollini said the Seagram Building was "a masterpiece of functional and esthetic architecture".{{Cite news |last=Benjamin |first=Philip |date=March 14, 1959 |title=City Wins Bravos on Architecture: Milanese Architects Single Out the Seagram Building for Functional Design |page=47 |work=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331 |url-access=subscription |url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1959/03/14/89161414.pdf |access-date=March 16, 2021}}

Critical acclaim for the Seagram Building continued. Eight years after the building opened, Ada Louise Huxtable wrote that it was "dignified, sumptuous, severe, sophisticated, cool, consummately elegant architecture".{{Cite news |last=Huxtable |first=Ada Louise |author-link=Ada Louise Huxtable |date=February 6, 1966 |title=Architecture; Mies: Lessons From the Master Popinjays Purity and Power A Genuine Vernacular |page=24 |work=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331 |url-access=subscription |url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1966/02/06/121497414.pdf |access-date=March 16, 2021}} The New York Times Magazine described the lobby in 1975 as one of "The Ten Best Lobbies in New York".{{harvnb|Breiner|1989a|p=7}}; {{harvnb|Higgins & Quasebarth|2006|p=15}}. In 1981, architectural writer G. E. Kidder Smith found the building and its features to be "in toto incomparable".{{harvnb|Breiner|1989b|p=8}}; {{harvnb|Higgins & Quasebarth|2006|p=19}}. According to Jerold Kayden, who wrote about the building in 2000, the Seagram Building "remains the city's quintessential International Style masterpiece of 'tower in the park' architecture".{{harvnb|Higgins & Quasebarth|2006|p=19}}.{{harvnb|Kayden|The New York City Department of City Planning|The Municipal Art Society of New York|2000|p=144}}. Ricardo Scofidio of Diller Scofidio + Renfro said the construction of the Seagram Building "was the first time you really realized that architecture brought something to the city that didn't exist". In 2001, architecture critic Herbert Muschamp referred to it as "the Building of Two Millenniums," writing that it encompassed "everything essential in Western architecture".{{harvnb|Beam|2020|pp=247–248|ps=.}}

While the public and architectural critics generally appreciated the Seagram Building, there were also comments about the design's drawbacks. Stern stated that there were negative remarks about the plaza's "austerity" and the exterior's lack of purity. Stern cited architect Louis Kahn, who believed the rear "spine" took away from the purity of the slab, though Kahn also said the hidden wind bracing made the building appear like "a beautiful bronze lady in hidden corsets".{{Cite book |last=Scully |first=Vincent |title=Louis I. Kahn. |date=1962 |publisher=G. Braziller |pages=27 |oclc=518151}} While Mumford largely praised the design, he found the plaza's pools and fountains to be a "gross defect" in what was otherwise a "masterpiece". Italian architecture writers Manfredo Tafuri and Francesco Dal Co, in their 1976 book Modern Architecture, wrote that the Seagram Building stood "aloof from the city" and saw the juxtaposition as a symbol of absence.{{cite book |last1=Tafuri |first1=Manfredo |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SbtPAAAAMAAJ |title=Modern Architecture |last2=Dal Co |first2=Francesco |publisher=Electa/Rizzoli |year=1976 |isbn=978-0847807611 |series=History of world architecture |page=340 |volume=1 |oclc=14002169 |access-date=March 17, 2021 |url-status=live |archive-date=October 21, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211021131932/https://books.google.com/books?id=SbtPAAAAMAAJ}}{{harvnb|Stern|Mellins|Fishman|1995|p=347}}. Architect Frank Lloyd Wright dismissed the building as "a whisky bottle on a playing card."

The Fifth Avenue Association called the Seagram Building the best edifice constructed on Park Avenue between 1956 and 1957.{{cite news |last=Lyman |first=Richard B. |date=June 29, 1958 |title=Three Buildings Share 5th Av. Design Awards: Tishman, CIT, Seagram Get Two Citations |page=1C |work=New York Herald-Tribune |id={{ProQuest|1323973317}} }} The city government gave the Seagram Company an award in 1963 for the building's positive impact on the city's beauty. The Board of Trade awarded its 1965 architecture prize to the building, citing its plaza, form, and material.{{harvnb|Higgins & Quasebarth|2006|p=17}}.{{Cite news |last=Shepard |first=Richard F. |date=May 17, 1965 |title=Board of Trade Giving Awards For Commerce's Role in Arts |page=46 |work=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331 |url-access=subscription |url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1965/05/17/101547402.pdf |access-date=March 17, 2021}} The following year, the Municipal Art Society (MAS) gave a bronze plaque to the building, recognizing it as a "modern landmark".{{cite news |date=May 27, 1966 |title=Arts Society Honors Noted Works Here |page=14 |work=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331 |id={{ProQuest|117204444}} }} Philip Johnson received the city's Bronze Medallion for the Seagram Building's design in 1979. Simultaneously, the AIA's New York division gave the Seagram Company a special citation recognizing the company's "most elegant contribution to the art of architecture and the care with which it is maintained".{{Cite news |last=Moritz |first=Owen |date=April 25, 1978 |title=Getting High on a Building |page=300 |work=New York Daily News |via=newspapers.com |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/73619642/ |url-status=live |access-date=March 16, 2021 |archive-date=October 21, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211021132019/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/73619642/getting-high-on-a-building/}}

A 1977 poll of American-architecture experts ranked the Seagram Building as the fifth-best structure in the U.S.,{{cite news |last=Conroy |first=Sara Booth |date=25 Jul 1976 |title='The Proudest Achievements of American Architecture': Form and Function A Poll of the 'Proudest Achievements of American Architecture' |newspaper=The Washington Post |page=121 |issn=0190-8286 |id={{ProQuest|146559854}} }}{{Cite news |last=McFeatters |first=Ann |date=1976-07-23 |title=Architects, critics favor buildings at U of Virginia |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-albuquerque-tribune-architects-crit/160773417/ |access-date=2024-12-12 |work=The Albuquerque Tribune |pages=11}} while a 1982 poll of Architecture: the AIA journal readers ranked the Seagram Building as the second-best.{{cite news |last=Gapp |first=Paul |date=23 May 1982 |title=Architecture: Falling Water Rises to the Top of the AIA's 'Best' List |work=Chicago Tribune |page=G16 |issn=1085-6706 |id={{ProQuest|172714490}}}} The AIA further recognized the Seagram Building in 1984 with a Twenty-five Year Award for its "ability to stand to the test of time".{{cite web |date=August 4, 2003 |title=In Praise of the Classics: The AIA Twenty-five Year Award |url=https://info.aia.org/aiarchitect/thisweek03/tw0801/0801_25year.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181204032232/http://info.aia.org/aiarchitect/thisweek03/tw0801/0801_25year.htm |archive-date=December 4, 2018 |access-date=March 20, 2021 |website=AIArchitect}} In a survey of 170 AIA fellows the next year, the building was ranked second on a list of the "most successful examples of architectural design".{{Cite news |last=Hampson |first=Rick |date=30 May 1986 |title=The Architects' Choice; Wright's 'fallingwater' Leads List of Top 10 Us Buildings |work=Boston Globe |page=2 |id={{ProQuest|294325413}}}}

File:270 Park Avenue.JPG, which was inspired by the design of the Seagram Building]]

The Seagram Building's plaza was popular immediately when the building opened, being frequented by both office workers and tourists.{{Cite news |date=July 26, 1958 |title=Footsore Here Find Oasis at Seagram Building Plaza |page=12 |work=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331 |url-access=subscription |url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1958/07/26/79457548.pdf |access-date=March 16, 2021}} In 1971, the plaza was the setting of a planning study by sociologist William H. Whyte, whose film Social Life of Small Urban Spaces, produced with the Municipal Art Society of New York (MAS), records the daily patterns of people socializing around the plaza.{{cite web |last=Berg |first=Nate |date=October 3, 2011 |title=Classic Documentary on Public Space Now Available Online |url-access=subscription |url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2011-10-03/classic-documentary-on-public-space-now-available-online |access-date=March 14, 2021 |website=Bloomberg }} Whyte praised the plaza as allowing a sense of choice, in that patrons could lie down or sit on the ledges or steps, despite their relatively plain design.{{cite magazine |last=Whyte |first=William H. |author-link=William H. Whyte |date=July 15, 1974 |title=The Best Street Life in the World |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hukCAAAAMBAJ |magazine=New York |pages=31 |access-date=March 17, 2021 |archive-date=October 21, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211021131955/https://books.google.com/books?id=hukCAAAAMBAJ |url-status=live}}

The plaza's presence helped influence the 1961 Zoning Resolution, a zoning ordinance that allowed New York City developers to increase their edifices' maximum floor areas in exchange for adding open space in front of their buildings. This was in sharp contrast to the "wedding cake" model of the 1916 Zoning Resolution, which had required setbacks at regular intervals.{{harvnb|Breiner|1989b|p=8}}; {{harvnb|Higgins & Quasebarth|2006|p=17}}.{{harvnb|Kayden|The New York City Department of City Planning|The Municipal Art Society of New York|2000|p=10}}. Even before the 1961 zoning codes had been implemented, some New York City buildings followed the Seagram's model of a slab behind a plaza, such as the Time–Life Building at 1271 Avenue of the Americas, the former Union Carbide Building at 270 Park Avenue, and the One Chase Manhattan Plaza building at 28 Liberty Street. {{convert|20|acre|ha|spell=In}} of plazas were built in New York City in the decade after the zoning-code revision.

Paul Goldberger wrote in The New York Times in 1976 that the Seagram Building was one of "New York's most copied buildings", its design having been copied in several structures internationally. According to William H. Jordy, these structures included 270 Park Avenue and the Inland Steel Building.{{cite book |last=Jordy |first=William |title=American Buildings and Their Architects: the Impact of European Modernism in the Mid-twentieth Century |publisher=Anchor Press/Doubleday |year=1976 |isbn=978-0385057042 |volume=5 |pages=159, 276 |oclc=15986676}} Mies reused the building's design for towers in Pittsburgh, Chicago, and Toronto, and a replica of the Seagram Building was constructed at the New York-New York Hotel and Casino in Paradise, Nevada.{{Cite news|author-link=Paul Goldberger|last=Goldberger|first=Paul|date=January 15, 1997|title=New York-New York, It's a Las Vegas Town|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url-access=limited|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1997/01/15/nyregion/new-york-new-york-it-s-a-las-vegas-town.html|access-date=August 18, 2022|issn=0362-4331|archive-date=June 9, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130609231254/https://www.nytimes.com/1997/01/15/nyregion/new-york-new-york-it-s-a-las-vegas-town.html|url-status=live}}{{cite news | title=New York Looms Large in Las Vegas | work=Chicago Tribune | date=January 3, 1997 | url-access=limited | url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1997-01-03-9701040154-story.html | access-date=August 19, 2022 | issn=1085-6706 | archive-date=March 22, 2022 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220322165733/https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1997-01-03-9701040154-story.html | url-status=live }} According to writer E. C. Relph, the design was "widely {{As written|plagiari|sed}} in various {{As written|col|ours}} and shapes by other architects", though Relph considered some of the other towers to be "devoid of interesting copies".{{cite book |last=Relph |first=E.C. |author-link=Edward Relph |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cWLtWKEnq3EC&pg=PA193 |title=The Modern Urban Landscape: 1880 to the Present |publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press |year=1987 |isbn=978-0801835605 |oclc=15630880 |page=193 |access-date=July 4, 2021 |archive-date=October 21, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211021131936/https://books.google.com/books?id=cWLtWKEnq3EC&pg=PA193 |url-status=live}}

In mid-2005, the Skyscraper Museum in Lower Manhattan asked 100 architects, builders, critics, engineers, historians, and scholars, among others, to choose their 10 favorites among 25 of the city's towers. The Seagram Building came in second place behind the Chrysler Building, with 76 respondents placing it on their ballots.{{cite news |last=Dunlap |first=David W. |author-link=David W. Dunlap |date=September 1, 2005 |title=In a City of Skyscrapers, Which Is the Mightiest of the High? Experts Say It's No Contest |newspaper=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331 |url-access=limited |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/01/nyregion/in-city-of-skyscrapers-which-is-the-mightiest-of-the-high.html |url-status=live |access-date=March 17, 2021 |archive-date=March 5, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210305165641/https://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/01/nyregion/in-city-of-skyscrapers-which-is-the-mightiest-of-the-high.html}}

{{Clear}}

{{portal|Architecture|New York City|NRHP}}

• List of New York City Designated Landmarks in Manhattan from 14th to 59th Streets
• National Register of Historic Places listings in Manhattan from 14th to 59th Streets

{{Notelist}}

{{Reflist}}

{{refbegin|30em}}

• {{Cite magazine |last=Anderson |first=John |date=Dec 1958 |title=Seagram Building: Interiors in Keeping With a Masterpiece |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_interiors_1958-12_118_5/page/n75/mode/2up |magazine=Interiors |volume=118 |issue=5 |url-access=registration }}
• {{Cite book |last=Beam |first=Alex |author1-link=Alex Beam |title=Broken Glass: Mies van der Rohe, Edith Farnsworth, and the Fight Over a Modernist Masterpiece |date=2020 |publisher=Random House |isbn=978-0399592713 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=J-8kEAAAQBAJ |oclc=1104860779 |access-date=April 15, 2022 |archive-date=May 31, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220531153238/https://books.google.com/books?id=J-8kEAAAQBAJ |url-status=live }}
• {{Cite magazine |last= |first= |date=Dec 1960 |title=The Brasserie, in the Seagram Building, New York |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_interiors_1960-12_120_5/page/9/mode/2up |magazine=Interiors |volume=120 |issue=5 |ref={{harvid|Interiors|1960}} |url-access=registration }}
• {{cite report |date=October 3, 1989 |title=Seagram Building, First Floor Interior |first=David M. |last=Breiner |url=http://s-media.nyc.gov/agencies/lpc/lp/1665.pdf |publisher=New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission |ref={{harvid|Breiner|1989a}} |access-date=March 13, 2021 |archive-date=February 25, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210225224414/http://s-media.nyc.gov/agencies/lpc/lp/1665.pdf |url-status=live }}
• {{cite report |date=October 3, 1989 |title=Seagram Building, Including the Plaza |first=David M. |last=Breiner |url=http://s-media.nyc.gov/agencies/lpc/lp/1664.pdf |publisher=New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission |ref={{harvid|Breiner|1989b}} |access-date=March 8, 2018 |archive-date=December 26, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161226204449/http://s-media.nyc.gov/agencies/lpc/lp/1664.pdf |url-status=live }}
• {{cite report |date=October 3, 1989 |title=Four Seasons Restaurant |url=http://s-media.nyc.gov/agencies/lpc/lp/1666.pdf |first1=David M. |last1=Breiner |first2=Elisa |last2=Urbanelli |publisher=New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission |access-date=March 13, 2021 |archive-date=June 6, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210606022126/http://s-media.nyc.gov/agencies/lpc/lp/1666.pdf |url-status=live }}
• {{cite report |author=Higgins & Quasebarth |date=February 24, 2006 |title=The Seagram Building |url=https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NY/06000056.pdf |publisher=National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service |access-date=March 13, 2021 |archive-date=August 29, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210829012530/https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NY/06000056.pdf |url-status=live }}
• {{cite book |last=Kayden |first=Jerold S. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OpeNSAfYASoC&pg=PA9 |title=Privately Owned Public Space: The New York City Experience |author2=The New York City Department of City Planning |author2-link=New York City Department of City Planning |author3=The Municipal Art Society of New York |author3-link=The Municipal Art Society of New York |publisher=Wiley |year=2000 |isbn=978-0471362579 |oclc=43657162 }}
• {{cite book |last=Lambert |first=Phyllis |author-link=Phyllis Lambert |url=https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300167672/building-seagram |title=Building Seagram |publisher=Yale University Press |year=2013 |isbn=978-0300167672 |oclc=813392773 |ref=none |access-date=June 1, 2020 |archive-date=August 6, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200806223639/https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300167672/building-seagram |url-status=live }}
• {{cite book |last=Luna |first=Ian |title=New New York: Architecture of a City |publisher=Rizzoli |year=2003 |isbn=978-0-8478-2621-6 |oclc=972013228}}
• {{cite book |last=Marshall |first=Bruce |title=Building New York: The Rise and Rise of the Greatest City on Earth |publisher=Universe |year=2005 |isbn=978-0789313621 |oclc=61915976 |ref=none}}
• {{cite book |last=Mertins |first=Detlef |title=Mies |publisher=Phaidon Press |year=2014 |isbn=978-0714839622 |oclc=872051711}}
• {{cite magazine |last=Mumford |first=Lewis |author-link=Lewis Mumford |date=January 1959 |title=The Lesson of the Master |url=https://usmodernist.org/AJ/AJ-1959-01.pdf |journal=Journal of the AIA |volume=31 |pages=19–23 |access-date=March 16, 2021 |archive-date=May 3, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210503040547/https://usmodernist.org/AJ/AJ-1959-01.pdf |url-status=live }}
• {{cite book |last=Murray |first=Scott |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JnXEA76XkrwC&pg=PA31 |title=Contemporary Curtain Wall Architecture |publisher=Princeton Architectural Press |year=2009 |isbn=978-1568987972 |oclc=769114565 }}
• {{cite magazine |date=January 1960 |title=The Seagram Building |url=http://www.artsandarchitecture.com/issues/pdf01/1960_01.pdf |journal=Arts and Architecture |volume=17 |ref={{harvid|Arts and Architecture|1960}} |access-date=March 16, 2021 |archive-date=May 26, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220526061402/http://www.artsandarchitecture.com/issues/pdf01/1960_01.pdf |url-status=live }}
• {{cite magazine |date=July 1958 |title=Seagram's Bronze Tower |url=https://usmodernist.org/AF/AF-1958-07.pdf |journal=Architectural Forum |volume=109 |issue=7 |ref={{harvid|Architectural Forum|1958}} |access-date=March 16, 2021 |archive-date=July 21, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210721144522/https://usmodernist.org/AF/AF-1958-07.pdf |url-status=live }}
• {{cite book | url=https://archive.org/details/elyjacqueskahnar0000ster | last1=Stern | first1=Jewel | last2=Stuart | first2=John A. | title=Ely Jacques Kahn, Architect: Beaux-arts to Modernism in New York | publisher=Norton | year=2006 | isbn=978-0-393-73114-9 | url-access=registration }}
• {{Cite book|last1=Stern|first1=Robert A. M.|author-link=Robert A. M. Stern|last2=Mellins|first2=Thomas |last3=Fishman|first3=David|title=New York 1960: Architecture and Urbanism Between the Second World War and the Bicentennial |date=1995|publisher=Monacelli Press|isbn=1885254024|oclc=32159240|url=https://archive.org/details/newyork1960archi0000ster}}
• {{cite book |last=Stoller |first=Ezra |author-link=Ezra Stoller |title=The Seagram Building |publisher=Princeton Architectural Press |year=1999 |isbn=978-1568982014 |oclc=41540284 |ref=none}}
• {{cite book |last=Wolfe |first=Tom |author-link=Tom Wolfe |title=From Bauhaus to Our House |publisher=Farrar Straus Giroux |year=1981 |isbn=978-0374158927 |oclc=7734777 |ref=none}}

{{refend}}

{{Commons category|Seagram Building}}

• {{official website|https://seagram375park.com/}}

{{Midtown North, Manhattan}}

{{Park Avenue}}

{{Ludwig Mies van der Rohe}}

{{National Register of Historic Places in New York}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:1950s architecture in the United States

Category:1958 establishments in New York City

Category:Ludwig Mies van der Rohe buildings

Category:Midtown Manhattan

Category:Modernist architecture in New York City

Category:New York City Designated Landmarks in Manhattan

Category:New York City interior landmarks

Category:Office buildings completed in 1958

Category:Office buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Manhattan

Category:New York State Register of Historic Places in New York County

Category:Park Avenue

Category:Philip Johnson buildings

Category:Seagram

Category:Skyscraper office buildings in Manhattan