STRUCTURAL GLASS FACADES - USC School of Architecture

In the same manner, Mies van der Rohe’s visionary
Model of the Glass Skyscraper Project, 1922, laid bare
the potential for an entire new architecture of high-rise
steel and glass structures, although the glass technology
necessary to realize the vision would not be available for
another half century. Along the way came the
development of the curtain wall as a high-rise cladding
system and such milestones as the Seagram Building,
New York, 1954-8, and 860 Lake Shore Drive, Chicago,
1948-51, both by Mies van der Rohe, and the Lever
House, New York, 1951-2, by Skidmore Owings and
Figure 1.9 Maquesse Glass
Skyscraper, Mies van der Rohe,
1922 (Glass skyscraper n.d.).
Merrill. The age of the glass and steel tower had arrived.
Figure 1.10 860-880 Lakeshore Drive, Mies van
der Rohe, 1951 (City of Chicago 1951).
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