| Sumario: | SOME of the most pervasive myths of modern architecture surround the Seagram Building, the emblem of standardization - manifested by the extruded shaft of the tower, the applied bronze I-beams that are stand-ins for the structural steel frame encased in concrete within, and the urban stance of the building, an autonomous prismatic object set back on a spare granite plaza. Mies's masterpiece is not emblamatic of modern standardization but is a bespoke artifact, and that comes at a high cost: it was the most expensive office building ever constructed at the time, and now Moe is calculating the environmental and social costs. Kiel Moe's critical assessment of this Modernist icon reads it through the lenses of material ecologies and environmental load.
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