The UN Secretariat building was designed by an international team of architects (most notably Le Corbusier and Oscar Niemeyer) and completed in 1950. It was the first important "International Style" modernist skyscraper in New York - exemplified here here by a simple, unadorned rectangle with reflective glass curtain walls on either side.
Glass box office buildings became almost cliche in mid-century NYC, but the UN remains unusual in being set apart in the skyline, uncrowded by neighbors.
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Matt Blaze
In response to this postI have mixed feelings about Le Corbusier's architecture (to say nothing of his urban planning philosophy - he clearly influenced Robert Moses), but I think the UN Secretariat building was one of his successes.
An aside: If you look at the full resolution version (downloadable on flickr), you can see the HF amateur radio antenna on the roof. Nerds are everywhere, even/especially at the UN. There's also a family taking a group picture on the street in front.
@mattblaze Speaking of, Robert Moses secured the land for the U.N. building. It was a dicey thing. In an alternate universe close to ours, the U.N. building is in Boston
by Misuse Case ;
@mattblaze we visit my in-laws in Chandigarh every year and that is about Le Corbusier as it gets.
https://chandigarh.gov.in/know-chandigarh/general-information#:~:text=Le%20Corbusier%20conceived%20the%20master,cultural%20and%20educational%20institutions
by Ian Brown :verified: ;
@mattblaze I watched a movie couple nights ago - Mister 880 - with a scene at the interim UN building in Flushing Meadows. The movie only showed a few interior scenes so I looked up the exterior. Totally generic Euro-bureau-palace, like the League of Nations but smaller. So that's what the current building was reacting to.
by Jef Poskanzer :batman: ;
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Michael Richardson
In response to this post@mattblaze Took me three tries not to read "Oscar Meyer" (as in weiner). [Yes, I'm that immature]. But then I started to wonder if "hotdog architecture" is a thing.
@mcr314 That would be Googie, I'd think.
by Matt Blaze ;
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