The Sydney-born solution to NYC’s paragon of inefficiency

The Seagram skyscraper in New York City is one of the most influential buildings ever built, a modernist masterpiece that has been endlessly copied since it was opened in 1958. Which is a problem because its single-glazed plate glass walls make it extraordinarily expensive to heat and cool.

“It reflects a time when using energy was a good thing,” says Ben Berwick, a Sydney-based architect. In the 1950s, oil prices were low and the Seagram’s architect, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, designed the building with disregard as to what it would cost to run. As skyscrapers go, it’s a paragon of influence and inefficiency.