Gordon Bunshaft

Architect Gordon Bunshaft (1909-1990) was a critical figure in the adaptation of the classic International Style to the needs of  post-war  American corporations and institutions.  As a partner in the firm of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, which he joined in 1937, Bunshaft involved many artists in his projects, and he is responsible for bringing Isamu Noguchi some of the sculptor's most important commissions.  Their initial project together was an unrealized garden for Lever House on Park Avenue in New York City, the first and perhaps the finest example of Bunshaft's  corporate modernism.  Among the other Noguchi works commissioned by Bunshaft were gardens and courts at the Connecticut General Life Insurance Company (Bloomfield, Conn., 1956-57), sunken gardens at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library  (Yale University, 1960-64) and Chase Manhattan Bank Plaza (NYC, 1961-64), two gardens at the IBM Headquarters (Armonk, NY, 1964)  and Red Cube at 140 Broadway (NYC, 1968).  In addition to his corporate buildings, Gordon Bunshaft designed a number of museums and libraries, including an addition to the Albright-Knox Art Gallery (Buffalo, NY, 1962), the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library (Austin, TX, 1971)  and the Hirshhorn Museum (Washington, DC, 1974).

Noguchi on Connecticut General Life Insurance Co.   |  Noguchi on Sunken Garden at Beinecke Rare Book Library   |  Noguchi on Sunken Garden at Chase Manhattan Bank Plaza  |  Noguchi on IBM gardens