The Seagram Building is a skyscraper at 375 Park Avenue, between 52nd and 53rd Streets, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe along with Philip Johnson, Ely Jacques Kahn, and Robert Allan Jacobs, the high-rise tower is 515 feet (157 m) tall with 38 stories. The International Style building, completed in 1958, initially served as the headquarters of the Seagram Company, a Canadian distiller.
The Seagram Building as viewed from across Park Avenue
Plaza as seen from Park Avenue, looking southeast
View of the columns at the lobby's northwestern corner
The main slab viewed from across Park Avenue and 52nd Street
A skyscraper is a tall continuously habitable building having multiple floors. Modern sources define skyscrapers as being at least 100 meters (330 ft) or 150 meters (490 ft) in height, though there is no universally accepted definition, other than being very tall high-rise buildings. Historically, the term first referred to buildings with between 10 and 20 stories when these types of buildings began to be constructed in the 1880s. Skyscrapers may host offices, hotels, residential spaces, and retail spaces.
Completed in 2009, the Burj Khalifa, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates is currently[update] the tallest building in the world, with a height of 829.8 meters (2,722 ft). The setbacks at various heights are a typical skyscraper feature.
By some measures, what came to be known as a "skyscraper" first appeared in Chicago with the 1885 completion of the world's first largely steel-frame structure, the Home Insurance Building. It was demolished in 1931.
Built in 1864, Oriel Chambers in Liverpool is the world's first metal framed glass curtain walled building. The stone mullions are decorative.
Wainwright Building (1891) in St. Louis