Lever Home, the 390 Park Ave. masterpiece that first introduced curtain-wall design to industrial New York in 1952, is again in enterprise after a two-year closure and $100 million redevelopment.
The undertaking by house owners Brookfield and WatermanCLARK is not any routine restoration, however a revelation to those that’ve walked by a thousand instances and by no means knew what lay behind the sunshine green-tinted window panes.
Our first look inside final week was an exhilarating shock. The landmarked, 260,000 square-feet tower’s diminutive workplace flooring — every a mere 11,000 sq. ft on all however one in all 21 flooring above a three-floor podium — are home windows on “Mad Males”-era Manhattan.
Its perpendicular orientation to Park Avenue and deep setbacks from East 53rd and 54th streets on the north and south sides present a diorama of mid-20th Century, Worldwide-Type design.
Lever Home was famously constructed a lot smaller than zoning allowed.
It’s a pygmy amidst Park Avenue’s million-square foot towers.
However because the Landmarks Preservation Fee put it, Lever Home “signaled the transformation of the type from one related to an idealistic European social motion into one symbolizing company America.”
Mild flooding in on three sides brings the enduring environment to life for workplace staff who’re by no means removed from home windows — together with the Seagram Constructing, the Racquet and Tennis Membership and just-opened 425 Park Avenue.
CBRE’s John Maher, the leasing agent, stated he was as stunned as we had been by the workplace flooring’ light-box impact.
“I hadn’t been inside for nearly 40 years,” he stated, as a result of the constructing was all the time absolutely or principally leased.
For all its architectural acclaim, Lever Home had a troubled historical past.
Former Mayor Ed Koch and preservationists narrowly saved it from demolition for a bigger tower earlier than it was designated a protected landmark in 1982.
After Lever Brothers guardian Unilever moved most of its workplaces to Connecticut in 1997, there have been frequent modifications in possession and tenants, of which Alcoa was the biggest.
By then, most of the constructing’s exterior spandrel panels, glass and metal had been badly decayed.
Aby Rosen’s RFR Realty, which purchased the leasehold in 1997, restored the facade a couple of years later and launched a restaurant for the primary time.
However complete redevelopment didn’t begin till Brookfield and WatermanCLARK took management in 2020 and the few remaining tenants moved out the subsequent yr.
Amongst modifications the brand new house owners made in collaboration with unique architect SOM, they restored the skin plaza paving and foyer terrazzo flooring; launched a subtle lighting system to enhance brightness and power effectivity; and put in new mechanical methods. Stainless-steel columns and plaster ceilings had been restored.
An Ellsworth Kelly sculpture assortment was put in because the constructing’s first public artwork presentation.
Convector items from the 1950s had been changed with a state-of-the-art devoted out of doors air system (DOAS). Y
anking the convectors added two ft of flooring area on both facet of every flooring and an extra foot of ceiling peak.
An expansive third-floor Lever Membership, designed by Marmol Radziner, features a fashionable central bar, eating rooms and 15,000 sq. ft of landscaped out of doors terraces that had been initially utilized by Lever Brothers employees.
Meals and beverage service is supplied by Sant Ambroeus Hospitality which operates Italian restaurant Casa Lever on the bottom flooring.
Maher stated that three leases with unidentified tenants have already been signed, together with on the bigger, 35,000 square-foot second flooring, earlier than official advertising and marketing begins.
He declined to debate rents however outdoors brokerage sources stated the “ask” begins at $200 per sq. foot.
Tenants will seemingly be monetary corporations reminiscent of hedge funds and personal fairness needing small, jewel-box services and maybe shopper merchandise firms.
Maher stated, “What’s wonderful is the prescient view of the unique Lever firm to design a constructing within the 1950s with the spirit of what all people’s attempting to do right now — built-in facilities and air and light-weight for everybody.”
He stated that the redevelopment purpose was to reinforce the prevailing property with “absolutely built-in, holistic design to vary from a beautiful 1950s workplace constructing to at least one for the trendy age. We’re very happy with the historical past however extra excited for the longer term.”