Skidmore, Owings & Merrill has announced the completion of a recent restoration project that’s meant to breathe new life into their historic Lever House design in Manhattan.

The scope of their work entailed the creation of a new lobby, ground-level public plaza, installation of an entirely new modernized building system, and 15,000-square-foot Lever Club hospitality suite in addition to redesigned interior spaces from Marmol Radziner. 

The brief called for repairs affecting the material character of the building (terrazzo flooring, refinished exterior columns, and a glass mosaic tile wall) and fixes to water-damaged ceilings. Reed Hilderbrand has also contributed a comprehensive new landscape program for the building that connects the plaza area to third-floor terraces. Costs for the project were around $100 million.

“This renovation brings Lever House into the 21st century,” SOM Partner Chris Cooper said in a statement. “With completely updated plaza and outdoor spaces, a fully restored lobby, and brand new mechanical systems throughout the building that improve its energy efficiency, we’ve modernized this midcentury icon to its original splendor, to make it, once again, Park Avenue’s premier boutique office building.”

Considered to be an icon of the late International Style, the design from SOM’s Gordan Bunshaft and Natalie de Blois was completed in 1952 as the national headquarters of the family-owned American soap brand. Its design, a 22-story glass curtain and steel cladding vertical slab hovering above a two-story base, was received as the forerunner of a new wave of American office designs at midcentury. 

Reyner Banham wrote that it “gave architectural expression to an age just as the age was being born.” Its realization preceded the Union Carbide building, which was located six blocks away at 270 Park Avenue before being demolished in 2021 in favor of Foster + Partners' forthcoming scheme for JP Morgan Chase.

The renovations were aimed at achieving LEED Gold and WELL Platinum certification targets. SOM Partner Ken Lewis said finally: “The project is a primary example of how we can extend the life, vitality, and sustainability of our existing buildings — which ultimately is the most sustainable thing we can do as a culture.”