Chairman’s Award 2002
May 21
Le Circque 2000
The Landmarks Conservancy honored Aby J. Rosen with its 2002 Chairman’s Award. Mr. Rosen is one of the co-founders, along with his partner Michael Fuchs, of RFR Holding LLC. The company recently stewarded the spectacular renovation of Lever House.
When Lever House was completed in 1952, it marked a turning point in commercial architecture. It was the first glass-walled International style office building in the US. Its distinctive facade of blue-green glass and stainless steel mullions seemed to shimmer during the day and became a glowing beacon at night.
Business Week declared that Lever House had “gone a long way toward making a work of art out of office space”. In 1992 the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designated Lever House an official landmark, but by then its early brilliance had faded. The original glass facade had deteriorated and water had seeped behind the stainless steel mullions, causing rust and corrosion of the carbon steel around the spandrel glass panels. By the mid-1990s only one percent of the original glass remained.
RFR Holding acquired Lever House in 1998 and undertook a restoration project that began in 2000. The restoration included replacing the deteriorated steel subframe, the rusted mullions and caps, and all the glass panes. The results have set the bar at an unprecedented level for restoring modern landmarks.
RFR Holding LLC also owns three individual landmarks (Lever House; the Seagram Building; and the Goelet Building, or Swiss Center, on Fifth Avenue) and a building on Sixth Avenue in the Ladies Mile Historic District. Mr. Rosen has purchased another landmarked building on East 73rd Street from the Lycee Francais; which he plans to restore.
Honoree:
- Aby J. Rosen
