Lever House

New York City
  • Facts
Height 93.6 m / 307 ft
Floors 21
Official Name
The current legal building name.

Lever House

Other Names
Other names the building has commonly been known as, including former names, common informal names, local names, etc.

Lever Building

Type
CTBUH collects data on two major types of tall structures: 'Buildings' and 'Telecommunications / Observation Towers.' A 'Building' is a structure where at least 50% of the height is occupied by usable floor area. A 'Telecommunications / Observation Tower' is a structure where less than 50% of the structure's height is occupied by usable floor area. Only 'Buildings' are eligible for the CTBUH 'Tallest Buildings' lists.

Building

Status
Completed
Architecturally Topped Out
Structurally Topped Out
Under Construction
Proposed
On Hold
Never Completed
Vision
Competition Entry
Canceled
Proposed Renovation
Under Renovation
Renovated
Under Demolition
Demolished

Completed

Completion

1952

Country
The CTBUH follows the United Nations's definition of Country, and thus uses the lists and codes established by that organization.

United States

City
The CTBUH follows the United Nations's definition of City, and thus uses the lists and codes established by that organization.

New York City

Address

390 Park Avenue

Function
A single-function tall building is defined as one where 85% or more of its usable floor area is dedicated to a single usage. Thus a building with 90% office floor area would be said to be an "office" building, irrespective of other minor functions it may also contain.

A mixed-use tall building contains two or more functions (or uses), where each of the functions occupy a significant proportion of the tower's total space. Support areas such as car parks and mechanical plant space do not constitute mixed-use functions. Functions are denoted on CTBUH "Tallest Building" lists in descending order, e.g., "hotel/office" indicates hotel function above office function.

office

Structural Material
Steel
Both the main vertical/lateral structural elements and the floor spanning systems are constructed from steel. Note that a building of steel construction with a floor system of concrete planks or concrete slab on top of steel beams is still considered a “steel” structure as the concrete elements are not acting as the primary structure.

Reinforced Concrete
Both the main vertical/lateral structural elements and the floor spanning systems are constructed from concrete which has been cast in place and utilizes steel reinforcement bars.

Precast Concrete
Both the main vertical/lateral structural elements and the floor spanning system are constructed from steel reinforced concrete which has been precast as individual components and assembled together on-site.

Mixed-Structure
Utilizes distinct systems (e.g. steel, concrete, timber), one on top of the other. For example, a steel/concrete indicates a steel structural system located on top of a concrete structural system, with the opposite true of concrete/steel.

Composite
A combination of materials (e.g. steel, concrete, timber) are used together in the main structural elements. Examples include buildings which utilize: steel columns with a floor system of reinforced concrete beams; a steel frame system with a concrete core; concrete-encased steel columns; concrete-filled steel tubes; etc. Where known, the CTBUH database breaks out the materials used in a composite building’s core, columns, and floor spanning separately.

steel

Height
Architectural
Height is measured from the level of the lowest, significant, open-air, pedestrian entrance to the architectural top of the building, including spires, but not including antennae, signage, flag poles or other functional-technical equipment. This measurement is the most widely utilized and is employed to define the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) rankings of the "World's Tallest Buildings."

93.6 m / 307 ft

To Tip
Height is measured from the level of the lowest, significant, open-air, pedestrian entrance to the highest point of the building, irrespective of material or function of the highest element (i.e., including antennae, flagpoles, signage and other functional-technical equipment).
93.6 m / 307 ft
Floors Above Ground
The number of floors above ground should include the ground floor level and be the number of main floors above ground, including any significant mezzanine floors and major mechanical plant floors. Mechanical mezzanines should not be included if they have a significantly smaller floor area than the major floors below. Similarly, mechanical penthouses or plant rooms protruding above the general roof area should not be counted. Note: CTBUH floor counts may differ from published accounts, as it is common in some regions of the world for certain floor levels not to be included (e.g., the level 4, 14, 24, etc. in Hong Kong).

21

# of Elevators
Number of Elevators refers to the total number of elevator cars (not shafts) contained within a particular building (including public, private and freight elevators).

6

Tower GFA
Tower GFA refers to the total gross floor area within the tower footprint, not including adjoining podiums, connected buildings or other towers within the development.

26,967 m² / 290,270 ft²

Construction Schedule
1950

Construction Start

1952

Completed

Owner
Current
Brookfield Properties
Architect
Design

Usually involved in the front end design, with a "typical" condition being that of a leadership role through either Schematic Design or Design Development, and then a monitoring role through the CD and CA phases.
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP
MEP Engineer
Design

The Design Engineer is usually involved in the front end design, typically taking the leadership role in the Schematic Design and Design Development, and then a monitoring role through the CD and CA phases.
Jaros, Baum & Bolles

Retrofit Companies Involved

Developer
Brookfield Properties
Architect
Design

Usually involved in the front end design, with a "typical" condition being that of a leadership role through either Schematic Design or Design Development, and then a monitoring role through the CD and CA phases.
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP
Owner
Current
Brookfield Properties; WatermanCLARK
Past
Lever Brothers Company; RFR Realty LLC
Developer
Lever Brothers Company
Architect
Design

Usually involved in the front end design, with a "typical" condition being that of a leadership role through either Schematic Design or Design Development, and then a monitoring role through the CD and CA phases.
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP
MEP Engineer
Design

The Design Engineer is usually involved in the front end design, typically taking the leadership role in the Schematic Design and Design Development, and then a monitoring role through the CD and CA phases.
Jaros, Baum & Bolles

Retrofit Companies Involved

Developer
Brookfield Properties; WatermanCLARK
Architect
Design

Usually involved in the front end design, with a "typical" condition being that of a leadership role through either Schematic Design or Design Development, and then a monitoring role through the CD and CA phases.
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP

CTBUH Initiatives

Student Research Funding Winner

16 August 2016 - CTBUH Research

Videos

26 October 2015 | New York City

The Fifth Façade: Designing Nature into the City

New York’s most iconic buildings, the early 20th-Century high rises, were designed as aspirational symbols of urban life with carefully sculpted forms that mediate between...

Research

25 June 2020

Curtain Wall Façades on the New Generation of Supertall Buildings Present and Future Directions

Sae Hwang Oh, Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture

Beginning in the late 19th century, construction of skyscrapers spread throughout Chicago, New York City, and then the world as demand of space in buildings...

See more

Global News

28 January 2022

New York City Office Set for US$100M Redevelopment

Nearly two years after Brookfield Properties and WatermanClark took control of the Lever House at 390 Park Avenue, the developers are ready to put their...

See more

Research

25 June 2020

Curtain Wall Façades on the New Generation of Supertall Buildings Present and Future Directions

Sae Hwang Oh, Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture

Beginning in the late 19th century, construction of skyscrapers spread throughout Chicago, New York City, and then the world as demand of space in buildings...

05 February 2018

Reconstruction as Research: Digital Modeling of Key Postwar Skyscrapers

Saranya Panchaseelan, Shawn Barron & Thomas Leslie, Iowa State University; Paolo Orlando, substance architecture

The 2016 CTBUH Student Research Funding Program, kindly sponsored by Underwriters Laboratories, allowed researchers to use digital reconstructions from extant drawings and publications to research...

08 August 2017

Ten Significant Tall Buildings, and the Significant Women Behind Them

Leading Women in Tall Buildings

Recently, there has been a growing and overdue recognition in the architecture discipline that women are under-represented, not just in terms of leadership positions held,...

26 October 2015

The Fifth Façade: Designing Nature into the City

Rick Cook & Jared Gilbert, COOKFOX Architects

New York’s most iconic buildings, the early 20th-Century high rises, were designed as aspirational symbols of urban life with carefully sculpted forms that mediate between...

04 September 2009

Five Energy Generations of Tall Buildings: An Historical Analysis of Energy Consumption in High-Rise Buildings.

Philip Oldfield, University of Nottingham; Dario Trabucco, Universita IUAV di Venezia; Antony Wood, CTBUH

Whilst there have been numerous categorisations of high-rise buildings according to their function, architectural style, height or structural strategy, historically little work has been undertaken...

Global News

28 January 2022

New York City Office Set for US$100M Redevelopment

Nearly two years after Brookfield Properties and WatermanClark took control of the Lever House at 390 Park Avenue, the developers are ready to put their...

03 April 2019

Houston Medical Tower Gets New Life

Houston’s newest high-profile hotel project is a win for preservationists, and an unlikely but fortuitous outcome for a once-acclaimed modernist building, which until recently was...

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