The document discusses the renovation and adaptive reuse of the Manufacturers Hanover Trust Company building located at 510 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. When it was originally constructed in 1954, the building featured a bold, modern design with transparent glass facades, cantilevered floors, and an open vault area at street level, representing an innovative approach for bank architecture at the time by opening up the traditionally closed-off interior. The document includes a link to the project page on SOM's website about the recent renovation and conversion of the building for continued commercial use.

1. A question of style
Proficiency Expert Unit 8

2. In what ways has your taste changed
as you grew older in the way of ...
music
food
clothes
leisure activities
the people you spend time with?

3. Think of a space in your city that
you would transform into
something else.

4. Is it better to preserve and protect
older buildings, to convert them
for modern uses or to replace
them with something new and
more suitable?

5. When Manufacturers Hanover Trust Company opened a Manhattan
branch location at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 43rd Street in 1954,
the building ushered in a bold new era of bank architecture.
SOM’s design dematerialized the bank’s walls with transparent glass
facades, cantilevered floors, luminous ceilings, and a street-level
vault. These elements symbolically opened a cloistered world more
commonly housed behind masonry walls.
http://www.som.com/projects/510_fifth_avenue_renovation_and_adaptive_reuse

10. What do you think of the gilded
screen Golden Arbour by artist
Harry Bertoia being used as a
background to lumberjack-style
shirts?