{"id":189020,"date":"2021-10-11T11:59:51","date_gmt":"2021-10-11T15:59:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/interiordesign.net\/?post_type=id_project&p=189020"},"modified":"2022-11-22T09:52:32","modified_gmt":"2022-11-22T14:52:32","slug":"skidmore-owings-merrill-draws-on-architectural-harmony-for-the-permanent-mission-of-the-united-arab-emirates-to-the-united-nations","status":"publish","type":"id_project","link":"https:\/\/interiordesign.net\/projects\/skidmore-owings-merrill-draws-on-architectural-harmony-for-the-permanent-mission-of-the-united-arab-emirates-to-the-united-nations\/","title":{"rendered":"Skidmore, Owings & Merrill Draws on Architectural Harmony for the Permanent Mission of the United Arab Emirates to the United Nations"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
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A coffee table and sofas by Nada Debs gather on a custom rug in the entry hall of the Permanent Mission of the United Arab Emirates to the United Nations in Midtown East by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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October 11, 2021<\/p>\n\n\n

Words:\u00a0<\/span>Joseph Giovannini<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Photography:\u00a0<\/span>Dave Burk\/Skidmore, Owings & Merrill<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Skidmore, Owings & Merrill Draws on Architectural Harmony for the Permanent Mission of the United Arab Emirates to the United Nations<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Established only 50 years ago, the United Arab Emirates has, within the last two decades, emerged as a rock of geopolitical stability and a cultural magnet in the Middle East. Almost as an instrument of state policy, architecture has played a role in the UAE\u2019s development and national image. Icons such as Jean Nouvel\u2019s Louvre Abu Dhabi, Frank Gehry\u2019s Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill<\/a>\u2019s Burj Khalifa in Dubai\u2014at 162 stories, the tallest building in the world\u2014symbolize the dynamism of the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Along with its growing presence on the international cultural map, the UAE, which is about to serve again on the United Nation\u2019s Security Council, has also emerged as a rising diplomatic force in New York. In 2014, having outgrown two floors in an office building near the UN, and needing greater presence in the city\u2019s diplomatic milieu, the Permanent Mission of the United Arab Emirates to the UN held an invited competition to design a flagship home. The New York office of SOM won the competition for an infill building on a through-block site between Dag Hammarskj\u00f6ld Plaza and East 46th Street.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A monumental zigzag staircase rises at the back of the double-height entry hall.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Besides the need for privacy and security, and a program of executive suites, offices, and lecture and reception rooms, the brief called for an aspirational design requiring architectural diplomacy: elegance without ostentation and an ethos of dignity, calm, grace, and gravity. Later, the client asked that the concept also evoke New York\u2019s art deco landmarks as well as the Middle East\u2019s ubiquitous palm tree, a symbol of peace and desert culture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Diplomats now enter the mission underneath a bronze canopy cantilevered from a facade composed of long, thin, Indiana limestone mullions that climb to the top of the 10-story, 75,000-square-foot building. Recalling the tapered spines of palm leaves, the gently undulating CNC-milled mullions rise from a stone frieze at the base, itself milled with a row of stylized fronds. Using rock from quarries that supplied Rockefeller Center and the Empire State Building, the understated facade introduces visitors into the decorum of a building centered around the simple pleasures of the square, the cube, and symmetry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just beyond the reception and security desks in the entry vestibule\u2014its floor and walls surfaced in geometrically patterned Portuguese limestone\u2014visitors step into a surprise: a two-story burst of space with a cliff of stairs that zigzag upward like a switchback version of ancient Greek propylaea. Recalling the courtyard of a traditional Emirati building, this welcoming central hall with a recessed 40-foot ceiling finished in hand-gilded metal leaf, transposes traditional Arab attitudes of hospitality to Midtown East. The simple, axially organized prism has a pharaonic architectural authority, confirmed by floors and walls uniformly clad in dark, sedimented, meticulously slip-matched St. Pierre limestone. The geometry is pure, but the room feels solid, encased, and immersive. The SOM team, led by design partner Chris Cooper, materializes abstraction: There is a there here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n