Arts & Culture
Glass Curtain Walls and the Architecture of Transparency
Quick fact
The first fully glass-curtain-walled skyscraper in the US, the Lever House in New York (1952), used a sealant-based curtain wall that made the building appear to float, and it was so influential that it triggered a global wave of glass office towers.
Why this is interesting
You are standing in front of a modern office tower—its face is almost pure glass. Why did architects decide that buildings should look like giant mirrors, and did that choice actually make them more open?