IAC Building

GALLERY

Rather than parodying the architectural style of the surrounding buildings, he plays against them, drawing them into a bigger urban composition. The sail-like curves of the west facade seem to be braced against the roar of the passing cars. The blockier forms in back lock the composition into the lower brick buildings that extend to the east.”

The IAC Building holds mainly offices, yet the lobby can be visited and it is actually frequently used for press events and the launching of products or even fashion shows, like the presentation of the Spanish brand DelPozo’s Fall 2015 collection on February 2015.

It is worth visiting both the inside and outside of the IAC Building because although and much like all the work Gehry has done, it caused polemic, yet its elegant beauty was something everyone agreed on. Besides, Chelsea deserves a walk through it and the IAC is a compulsory stop on it.

The Building, inaugurated in 2007, is often compared to an ice construction because of the smoothness of the façade developed as a curtain wall covered in glass, being the first building by Ghery to be fully constructed by glass on its exterior. Tested in laboratories before its setting in the façade, the glass panels have a white colour because of the setting that includes dotted ceramic patterns, which was an initiative of Diller himself, following the original material plan that Gehry had.

Nicolai Ouroussoff wrote a critic on the building for The New York Times in where he defined the architectonical structure of the building, opposing it to the style of the Chelsea neighbourhood in a very interesting reflexion. In the article, Ouroussoff stated that “Mr. Gehry’s structure (…) looks best when approached from a distance. Glimpsed between Chelsea’s weathered brick buildings, its strangely chiseled forms reflect the surrounding sky, so that its surfaces can seem to be dissolving. As you circle to the north, however, its forms become more symmetrical and sharp-edged, evoking rows of overlapping sails or knifelike pleats. Viewed from the south, the forms appear more blocky. This constantly changing character imbues the building’s exterior with an enigmatic beauty. And it reflects Mr. Gehry’s subtle understanding of context."

After decades of exploring the deconstructivist style that made him famous, Frank Gehry finally got the first architectonical work in the city of New York in 2004, for which he created probably his most restrained building in his creative career both as a reflection of his maturity as a designer and as a way to fit better in the architectonical style of New York City that during that time was more “prejudiced” towards modern constructions. The IAC Building was meant to be the headquarters for Barry Diller’s media Empire IAC (InterActiveCopr) and, at the same time, as a tool for the modernization of the Chelsea district and its conversion into a more glamourous zone, to which also contributed Richard Meier’s three residential buildings or Jean Nouvel’s residential tower right next to the IAC Building.