RAIMUND ABRAHAM AND THE AUSTRIAN CULTURAL FORUM NEW YORK

Description

Architectural historian Kenneth Frampton called the Austrian Cultural Forum, designed by Austrian architect and theorist Raimund Abraham (1933-2010), the most spectacular modern structure built in New York since the Seagram Building and the Guggenheim Museum. With a width of just seven and a half meters and a depth of 25 meters, the 24-story tower fits perfectly into Manhattan’s 52nd Street, with its symmetrical glass fa ade. Despite or because of the exceedingly restrictive conditions of the location, Abraham succeeded in producing extraordinary stylistic elements while meeting utilitarian criteria (“my intention with the building was to resolve the extreme condition of smallness of the site, its void, its lateral compression,” he later wrote). The first publication devoted solely to this architectural marvel, Raimund Abraham & The Austrian Cultural Forum New York features contributions on a range of political, historical and aesthetic issues related to the building and its creator.