Lever House, the 390 Park Ave. masterpiece that first brought curtain wall design to New York’s shopping district in 1952, is back in business after a two-year closure and $100 million renovation .
Owners Brookfield and WatermanCLARK’s project is not a routine restoration, but rather a revelation to those who have passed by thousands of times and never knew what was behind the light green window panes.
Our first look inside last week was an exciting surprise. The iconic 260,000-square-foot tower’s tiny office floors (each just 11,000 square feet on all but one of the 21 floors above a three-story podium) are windows into “Mad Men”-era Manhattan.
Its orientation perpendicular to Park Avenue and its deep setbacks from East 53rd and 54th Streets on the north and south sides provide a diorama of mid-20th century International Style design.
It is known that Lever House was built much smaller than zoning allowed.
It’s a pygmy amid the million-square-foot towers of Park Avenue.
But as the Landmarks Preservation Commission put it, Lever House “signaled the transformation of the style from one associated with an idealistic European social movement to one symbolizing corporate America.”
Light streaming in from three sides brings iconic surroundings to life for office workers who are never far from the windows, including the Seagram Building, the Racquet and Tennis Club and the newly opened 425 Park Avenue.
John Maher, CBRE’s leasing agent, said he was as surprised as we were by the lightbox effect of the office floors.
“I hadn’t been in for almost 40 years,” he said, because the building was always totally or mostly rented.
For all its architectural fame, Lever House had a troubled history.
Former Mayor Ed Koch and preservationists narrowly saved it from demolition to build a larger tower before it was designated a protected landmark in 1982.
After Unilever, parent of Lever Brothers, moved most of its offices to Connecticut in 1997, there were frequent changes in ownership and tenants, of which Alcoa was the largest.
By then, most of the building’s exterior panels, glass and steel, were badly deteriorated.
Aby Rosen’s RFR Realty, which purchased the property in 1997, restored the facade a few years later and opened a restaurant for the first time.
But comprehensive redevelopment didn’t begin until Brookfield and WatermanCLARK took over in 2020 and the few remaining tenants moved out the following year.
Among the changes made by the new owners in collaboration with the original architect SOM, they restored the exterior pavement of the plaza and the terrazzo floors of the lobby; introduced a diffused lighting system to improve brightness and energy efficiency; and installed new mechanical systems. Stainless steel columns and plaster ceilings were restored.
A collection of sculptures by Ellsworth Kelly was installed as the building’s first public art presentation.
The convector units of the 1950s were replaced with a state-of-the-art dedicated outside air system (DOAS). AND
Placing the convectors added two feet of space on each side of each floor and an additional foot of ceiling height.
An expansive third-floor Lever Club, designed by Marmol Radziner, includes an elegant central bar, dining rooms and 15,000 square feet of outdoor garden terraces that were originally used by Lever Brothers staff.
Food and beverage service is provided by Sant Ambroeus Hospitality, which operates the Italian restaurant Casa Lever on the ground floor.
Maher said three leases have already been signed with unnamed tenants, including the one for the largest second floor, at 35,000 square feet, before official marketing begins.
He declined to discuss rents, but outside brokerage sources said the “asking” starts at $200 per square foot.
Tenants will likely be financial companies such as hedge funds and private equity that need small, luxurious facilities and perhaps consumer products companies.
Maher said: “What is amazing is the prescient vision of the original Lever company to design a building in the 1950s in the spirit of what everyone is trying to do today: integrated services, air and light for all.”
He said the goal of the redevelopment was to enhance the existing property with “a holistic, fully integrated design to move from a wonderful 1950s office building to one for the modern era. “We are very proud of the history but more excited about the future.”
