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High Modern: 1960

July 8, 1960. "New York City views. Seagram Building plaza, from 400 Park Avenue roof." Large-format negative by Gottscho-Schleisner. View full size.

July 8, 1960. "New York City views. Seagram Building plaza, from 400 Park Avenue roof." Large-format negative by Gottscho-Schleisner. View full size.

 

On Shorpy:
Today’s Top 5

He must be there somewhere

Trying to spot Don Draper in this shot.

Lever House

The iconic modernist office building, Lever House at 390 Park, shows a corner of itself on the right hand side. Precursor to (by 6 years) and companion of the Seagram Building, Lever's innovative design provided a more usable plaza and a more graciously sized mass but was always overshadowed by its stiff neighbor, aptly named Seagram. (And it was designed by American Gordon Bunshaft rather than a guy named Ludwig.)

Documentary

I remember this plaza from the documentary The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces where the film examined the use of the plaza and urban spaces by humans.

Fin Land

Ah those wonderful, massive rear fenders of the 50's and 60's.

Car spotting

In row by the curb:

1960 Oldsmobile, Two Tone something, 57 Mercury, Foreign something, 57 Chevy Convertible, 57 Ford, 59 Ford.

Those are the easy ones, someone else will have to do the rest.

The third "mystery car"

Appears to me to be a Simca Vedette, a pretty rare piece in the U.S. even in those Euro-car-loving days. French auto imports were mainly Citroen D-Series, Peugeots and various Renaults. Simcas were quite thin on the ground.

The parked Austin-Healey appears to have whitewall tires, were were a short-lived affectation on sports cars.

Clown Prince of Baseball

Washington Senator pitcher and coach, Al Schacht, served up steaks and the requisite "trimmings" for many years at the location shown. As a kid, I ate there a few times with my parents, and remember being fascinated by the menus, really two-dimensional baseballs. Several hints dropped during the waiter's presence failed to get me one, however.

The Four Seasons Restaurant

Is one of the most beautiful and famous dining places in New York City. With a bubbling white pool and four seasonally-changing trees at each corner, the Pool Room is breathtakingly beautiful. The Pool Room features The Four Seasons' signature shimmering chain curtains and a collection of furnishings and tablewear that are part of the Museum of Modern Art's permanent collection. There are currently highly controversial plans for making changes to this iconic room.

[Actually the plan is to kick the restaurant out when its lease expires next year. - Dave]

British invasion!

Amidst the all-American dinosaurs roaming the Summer streets of Gotham on that fine day we spy at least two "Englishmen in New York". An Austin-Healy 3000 roadster, and (I believe) a Hillman Minx.

There's a third one just entering frame from the left that I can't I.D. -- anyone else?

Thorndale

This one has a North by Northwest feel to it.

Steak Dinner $1.95

Al Schacht played pro baseball for only three years, pitching for the Senators from 1919 to 1921, but he coached third base for over a dozen years, first for Washington and then for the Red Sox. Being a funny guy, he went into comedy as a solo act and entertained the troops during the war. He opened his restaurant after the war. The menus were round, like big baseballs.

Influential

High modern, indeed. It was designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, with lobby and some interiors by Philip Johnson, two of the biggest names in modernism. Mies incorporated as many modernist features as he could - little or no ornamentation, the steel structure within reflected by the exterior bronze beams, glass curtain walls, even down to ensuring uniformity in the window shades (down, up or halfway, nothing else). For good or ill, it influenced the design of hundreds of glass box skyscrapers around the world.

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