Skidmore, Owings and Merrill

Shaklee Terraces, San Francisco, completed 1979 with a flush aluminum and glass facade and rounded corners.
Lever House

Skidmore, Owings and Merrill LLP (SOM) is a Chicago-based architectural and engineering firm that was formed in 1936 by Louis Skidmore and Nathaniel Owings; in 1939 they were joined by John O. Merrill. They opened their first branch in New York City, New York in 1937. SOM is one of the largest architectural firms in the world. Their primary expertise is in high-end commercial buildings, as it was SOM that led the way to the widespread use of the modern international-style or "glass box" skyscraper.

Contents

Design

Many of SOM's post-war designs have become icons of American modern architecture, including the Manhattan House (1950), designated as a New York City landmark in 2007 by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, and the Lever House (1952), also in New York City; as well as the Air Force Academy Chapel (1958) in Colorado Springs, Colorado; and the John Hancock Center (1969) and Sears Tower (1973), both in Chicago.

Although SOM was one of the first major modern American architectural firms to promote a corporate face, i.e. not specifically crediting individual architects for their buildings, many famous architects, engineers an interior designers have been associated with the various national offices.

Architects

Well-known SOM architects include: Gordon Bunshaft, Natalie de Blois, Myron Goldsmith, Bruce Graham, Gertrude Kerbis, Walter Netsch, Pietro Belluschi, Adrian Smith, Ferdinand Gottlieb and David Childs.

Engineers

The earliest amongst the many SOM engineers was John O. Merrill;[1] and Fazlur Khan, another engineer at SOM, is considered "the greatest structural engineer of the second half of the 20th century" for his constructions of the Sears Tower and John Hancock Center, and for his designs of structural systems that remain fundamental to all high-rise skyscrapers.[2]

Interior designers

Davis Allen, a pioneer in corporate interior design, had a forty-year tenure there as well.[3]

Projects

SOM has completed 10,000 projects around the nation and in more than 50 countries around the world and maintains offices in Chicago, New York City, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, London, Brussels, Hong Kong, and Shanghai.

Freedom Tower

The firm has been recently criticized for its successful bid to design the Freedom Tower, replacing the destroyed World Trade Center in Manhattan. After Daniel Libeskind won the competition for master-planning, SOM was awarded the architectural design contract for the Freedom Tower, after having withdrawn their entry in the original design competition.

Planning work

In addition to architectural services, Skidmore, Owings and Merrill has also competed in the field of large scale planning programs. An example of one important commission was as the lead design firm for the Boston Transportation Planning Review, a metropolitan wide re-design of Boston's entire transit and roadway infrastructure in the 1970s. They have recently designed the Freedom Tower in New York City and the Burj Dubai in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Notable SOM buildings

Sears Tower in Chicago.
7 World Trade Center, New York City.
Georgia-Pacific Tower, Atlanta, Georgia.
Jin Mao Building, Shanghai, China.

Buildings under construction

References

  1. ↑ FundingUniverse: SOM company history.
  2. ↑ Ali Mir (2001), Art of the Skyscraper: the Genius of Fazlur Khan, Rizzoli International Publications, ISBN 0847823709
  3. ↑ http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A05EFDF1431F930A15756C0A96F958260
  4. ↑ David W. Dunlap (20 October 1987). "J. Walter Severinghaus, 81, Former Architect". The New York Times. "J. Walter Severinghaus, an architect who played a key role in building the practice of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and such structures as One Chase Manhattan Plaza… was a partner in the New York City office of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, which he joined in 1938, when the Chicago-based firm was beginning to expand. He was made a partner in 1949."

External links