December 23 – 1111 Lincoln Road

1111 Lincoln Road is an office, retail space, residential building and a parking garage all under one roof. The building is situated at the corner of Lincoln Road and Alton Road in the South Beach section of Miami Beach, Florida. It is a perfect location with Lincoln Road being one of the busiest shopping destinations in Miami Beach. 1111 Lincoln Road was designed by Herzog & de Meuron and Jacques Herzog has described the building as a reinterpretation of the essence of Tropical Modernism. The building was completed in 2010.

December 16 – Sydney Opera House

In 1956 an international design competition was held for the Sydney Opera House. From the 233 submitted entries, representing architects from 32 countries, the Danish architect Jørn Utzon was announced the winner receiving 5,000 Australian pounds for his design. Legend has it that Utzon’s design was rescued by Finnish-American architect and designer Eero Saarinen from a pile of rejected entries.

The construction was expected to take four years and cost $7 million. Instead it took 14 years, involving 10,000 construction workers and ended up costing a then whopping $102 million. It finally opened it’s doors to the public on 20 October 1973.

The building comprises multiple performance venues, which together host well over 1,500 performances annually (on a regular year) and is visited by more than 1.2 million people. As one of the most popular visitor attractions in Australia, the site is visited by more than 10.9 million people annually.

December 8 – Seagram Building

The Canadian distiller the Seagram Company announced plans for its new headquarters in 1954 designed by Periera & Gluckman. The plans were however rejected after Phyllis Lambert’s objection. She was the director of planning and the daughter of Seagram’s owner Samuel Bronfman. Her masterstroke was to choose Ludwig Mies van Der Rohe as the architect instead with Philip Johnson designing the interiors.

The Seagram Building sits on 375 Park Avenue, between East 52nd and 53rd Streets in Midtown Manhattan, New York City and stands 515 feet (157 m) tall with 38 stories. The construction began in 1955 and was completed in 1958.

When designing the Seagram Building, Mies van der Rohe made a bold move to create a pink granite plaza in front of the building. Complete with two large fountains the plaza leads into the floor to ceiling glass lobby that erases the boarder between interior and exterior.

The Seagram Building was used as a model for several neighboring buildings and is still today a great example of the International Style New York skyscraper.

Until 2019 the Seagram Building housed the iconic restaurant the Four Seasons with its two separate sections the Grill Room and the Pool Room, both designed by Philip Johnson.

1111 Lincoln Road

1111 Lincoln Road is an office, retail space, and parking garage all under one roof at the corner of Lincoln Road and Alton Road in the South Beach section of Miami Beach, Florida.

Designed by Herzog & de Meuron. It was completed in 2010.

Seagram Building

Illustration one of New York City’s most iconic buildings. Made by the architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and completed in 1958.