Gordon Bunshaft

Gordon Bunshaft 1909-90, American architect, b. Buffalo, N.Y. As chief designer for the architectural firm of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill , Bunshaft was responsible for Lever House, New York City's first glass curtain-wall skyscraper (1952), which has been widely imitated. Among his other works are the Manufacturers Trust Company building on Fifth Ave. at 43d St. in Manhattan, New York City; a complex of buildings near Hartford for the Connecticut General Life Insurance Company; the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo; and the Banque Lambert, Brussels (1965).

Bunshaft, Gordon (1909–90). American architect. In 1937 he joined Skidmore, Owings, & Merrill, and, influenced by European International Modernism (especially the work of Gropius), introduced that style to the firm. He became a partner in 1949, and made his name with Lever House, NYC (1950–2), which, with its prefabricated aluminium and plate-glass curtain-walls, was the precedent for a huge number of high-rise buildings in America and throughout the world. Among other SOM buildings credited to Bunshaft the Chase Manhattan Bank, NYC (1960–2), Banque Lambert, Brussels (1961–6), the extension to the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY (1960–2), the L. B. Johnson Library and S. W. Richardson Hall, University of Texas, Austin, TX (1969–71), and National Commercial Bank, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia (1977–84), may be cited.

Bibliography

Architectural Review, cxxxix/829 (Mar. 1966), 193–200;
Kalman (1994);
Krinsky (1988);
Jane Turner (1996)