In advance of United Nations Day on October 24 in 2020 and the UN’s 75th anniversary, Evangelos Kotsioris, curatorial assistant in the Department of Architecture and Design discussed the innovations and imperfections in the curtain wall facade of the UN Secretariat Building.
Niemeyer’s slender Secretariat Building has become the iconic symbol of the United Nations; the slender office tower’s green glass and Vermont Marble shimmer in the sunlight and the water of the East River that while even though permanent in structure appears as an ever changing entity that is constantly adapting to the atmospheric conditions and the surrounding context.
It’s modern, international style aesthetic was an intentional decision by Niemeyer and the rest of the collaborating architects as a way in which to symbolize change that embodies a sense of “newness” that sheds light on the optimistic future of the world’s nations working together as one collective body rather than the disparate warring units of the past.
Video by The Museum of Modern Art
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