Building Assaf (formerly Murr) (Horse Shoe)

Notes

The Murr Building is mostly known as the “Horse-Shoe Building” in reference to the coffee-restaurant that occupied the ground floor for many years.
Built in 1957, it is the first curtain-wall in the country, a few years only after the Lever House (1952) designed in New York City by Gordon Bunshaft for Skidmore Owings and Merrill.
The glass façade was executed with extruded aluminum members. Bands of clear glass alternate with bands of colored glass at slab level. The drawings reveal the “bricolage” that was necessary to produce such a feat in a country with low-tech building industry. The firm designed also an extension of the building in the rear that was never implemented.
The plan layout is straightforward, circulation being at the back and serving uninterruptedly the 38m x 9m open slabs that face the street and receive the northern light. Aluminum is also used in the cladding of the circular columns on the ground floor.
 

Sources

brochure

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