Gerald Luss, whose subtle designs for Manhattan high-rise workplaces and plush layouts for residential interiors helped outline the look referred to as midcentury fashionable — significantly his plan for the Time-Life workplaces, which was so true to its period that it offered the mannequin for the units of “Mad Males” — died on April 1 at his residence in Manhattan. He was 98.
His spouse, Susan Luss, confirmed the demise.
Mr. Luss skilled as an architect, and whereas he constructed just one notable construction — his personal hillside residence in Ossining, N.Y. — his inside designs went far past the mere placement of tables and chairs.
For the Time-Life offices, at 1271 Avenue of the Americas in Midtown Manhattan, he introduced order to what may need been chaos, given the glass-and-steel tower’s large wide-open flooring.
Utilizing what he referred to as the plenum system, he divided the ground right into a grid, with every three-by-four-foot module serviced by electrical energy, hearth management and lighting. Light-weight partitions could possibly be simply reconfigured utilizing the grids.
His inside, nevertheless, was no hyper-rationalist cage. He embellished the partitions with murals by artists like Josef Albers and Fritz Glarner. Even the lowliest clerk might stroll alongside wealthy plush carpets or gaze down on the Avenue of the Americas (Sixth Avenue to most New Yorkers) like a royal.
