70 Pine Street

70 Pine Street is a 66 story, 952 foot (290 m) tall building in Lower Manhattan in New York City. The official address is 70 Pine Street, New York, NY 10270 and is also bordered by Cedar Street and Pearl Street. It was completed in 1932 by the Cities Service Company for the oil and gas baron Henry Latham Doherty. This was during the New York skyscraper race, which accounts for its gothic-like spire-topped appearance, a popular architectural style at that time. When completed it was the third tallest building in the world, after only the Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building. It was the last skyscraper to be built in Lower Manhattan prior to World War II. It was the tallest building in Downtown Manhattan until the 1970s when the World Trade Center was completed. Upon the 9/11 Attacks, it regained the status of the tallest downtown building. It is currently the sixth tallest in New York City, after One World Trade Center, the Empire State Building, the Bank of America Tower, the Chrysler Building, and the New York Times Building, and the 17th tallest in the United States. As of 2012, it was the 73rd tallest building in the world. The building is usually referred to simply as American International. It was previously owned by Cities Service Company and called the Cities Service Building; Cities Service sold it to the American International Group (AIG) when moving company headquarters to Tulsa, Oklahoma. It was owned by AIG and used for that company's world headquarters but sold in 2009.
One of the most famous themes of the limestone-clad tower is a mountain with a snow cap. The building features an open air platform with an enclosed glass observatory above it on the 66th Floor, offering a higher view of downtown than from any building. This observatory, which was once public, is now accessible only to executives and employees of AIG. The tower was originally and famously built with double-decker elevators that served two floors at a time to provide sufficient vertical service for the narrow tower and its limited elevator shafts. Soon afterwards, these elevators were removed because of their low popularity; however, the Citigroup Center adopted this same idea in the 1970s.
After AIG's financial struggles in 2008, 70 Pine St was eventually sold to developer Youngwoo & Associates in 2009. Plans include leasing the lower floors as office space and converting the upper floor to luxury condominiums. The building was designated a New York City Landmark and Interior Landmark in June 2011.

Equitable Building

The Equitable Building is a 38-story office building in New York City, located at 120 Broadway in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan. A landmark engineering achievement as a skyscraper, it was designed by Ernest R. Graham and completed in 1915. The controversy surrounding its construction contributed to the adoption of the first modern building and zoning restrictions on vertical structures in Manhattan. Although it is now dwarfed by taller buildings in its vicinity, it still retains a distinctive identity in its surroundings on Lower Broadway. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1978.
The building was constructed as the headquarters of The Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States. The site had previously been intended in 1906 for a 62-story tower designed by Daniel H. Burnham, but the project had been postponed. When the Equitable's previous headquarters were destroyed by fire in 1912, the site was chosen as the location of its new headquarters. It was originally intended to be 40 stories high, but it was reduced by four floors on the advice of consulting engineer Charles Knox, who determined the lower height as being optimal for its elevators.
Opponents of the buildings were outraged at the unprecedented volume of the building, which cast a 7 acre (28,000 m²) shadow on the surrounding streets, casting a permanent shadow on the Singer Building up to its 27th floor, the City Investing Building up to its 24th floor, and completely cutting off sunshine to at least three other buildings shorter than 21 stories. Many New Yorkers reasoned that further construction of buildings like it would turn Manhattan into an unpleasant and dark maze of streets. In response, the city adopted the 1916 Zoning Resolution which limited the height and required setbacks for new buildings to allow the penetration of sunlight to street level. Specifically, new buildings were afterwards required to withdraw progressively at a defined angle from the street as they rose, in order to preserve sunlight and the open atmosphere in their surroundings. As a consequence of the new restrictions, the building remained the largest office building by floor area in the world until the construction of Chicago's Merchandise Mart in 1930.
The effort to place restrictions on land use in New York City led to the Standard State Zoning Enabling Act, a key piece of legislation in the history of zoning. The act became the blueprint for zoning in the rest of the country, and was accepted almost without change by most states.
In March 1942, a seven-inch shell struck the 37th floor of the building but caused little damage and no injuries. The shell was one of eight fired by an anti-aircraft battery near the East River by mistake. The other rounds all fell harmlessly into the river.

Description
The building is in the neoclassical style, rising 538 ft (164 m) with a total floor area of 1,849,394 square feet (176,000 m²), giving a floor area ratio of 30. Upon its completion, the building was the largest (in total floor area) in the world. It rises as a single tower with the appearance of two separate identical towers standing side by side, connected by a wing for the whole height of the building, such that it appears in the shape of the letter "H" when viewed from above. A striking feature of the building by modern standards is that it has no setback from the street beyond the depth of the sidewalk, rising vertically for all its floors.
The building has a through-block entrance lobby with a pink marble floor, sand-colored marble walls and a vaulted, coffered ceiling. It has approximately 5,000 windows. It once housed the exclusive Bankers Club on its top three floors. The white marble of the building is Yule marble, quarried in Marble, Colorado and which is also the source used for the Tomb of the Unknowns and the Lincoln Memorial.
The building occupies the entire block, and is bordered by Broadway to the West, Cedar Street to the North, Nassau Street to the East, and Pine Street to the South.

Hearst Towe

The six-story base of the headquarters building was commissioned by the founder, William Randolph Hearst and awarded to the architect Joseph Urban. The building was completed in 1928 at a cost of $2 million and contained 40,000 square feet (3,700 m2). The original cast stone facade has been preserved in the new design as a designated Landmark site. Originally built as the base for a proposed skyscraper, the construction of the tower was postponed due to the Great Depression. The new tower addition was completed nearly seventy years later, and 10,000 Hearst employees moved in on 26 June 2006.
The tower – designed by the architect Norman Foster, structurally engineered by WSP Cantor Seinuk, and constructed by Turner construction – is 46 stories tall, standing 182 meters (597 ft) with 80,000 square metres (860,000 sq ft) of office space. The uncommon triangular framing pattern (also known as a diagrid) required 9,500 metric tons (10,480 tons) of structural steel – reportedly about 20% less than a conventional steel frame. Hearst Tower was the first skyscraper to break ground in New York City after September 11, 2001. The building received the 2006 Emporis Skyscraper Award. citing it as the best skyscraper in the world completed that year.
Hearst Tower is the first "green" high rise office building completed in New York City, with a number of environmental considerations built into the plan. The floor of the atrium is paved with heat conductive limestone. Polyethylene tubing is embedded under the floor and filled with circulating water for cooling in the summer and heating in the winter. Rain collected on the roof is stored in a tank in the basement for use in the cooling system, to irrigate plants and for the water sculpture in the main lobby. 85% of the building's structural steel contains recycled material. Overall, the building has been designed to use 26% less energy than the minimum requirements for the city of New York, and earned a gold designation from the United States Green Building Council’s LEED certification program, becoming New York City's first LEED Gold skyscraper.
The atrium features escalators which run through a 3-story water sculpture titled Icefall, a wide waterfall built with thousands of glass panels, which cools and humidifies the lobby air. The water element is complemented by a 70-foot-tall (21 m) fresco painting titled Riverlines by artist Richard Long.

Lipstick Building

The Lipstick Building (also known as 53rd at Third) is a 453 foot (138 meters) tall skyscraper located at 885 Third Avenue, between East 53rd Street and 54th Street, across from the Citigroup Center in Manhattan, New York City, United States. It was completed in 1986 and has 34 floors. The building was designed by John Burgee Architects with Philip Johnson. The building receives its name from its shape and color, which resemble a tube of lipstick.

Description
At three levels, blocks of the Lipstick Building recede as part of Manhattan's zoning regulation in which the building is required to recede within its spatial envelope, to increase the availability of light to street level. The result is a form that looks as though it could retract telescopically. The shape, which is unusual in comparison to surrounding buildings, uses less space at the base than a regular skyscraper of quadrilateral footprint would use. This provides more room for the high numbers of pedestrians who travel via Third Avenue.
At the base, the building stands on columns which act as an entrance for a vast post-modern hall. They are two stories high and separate the street from the nine-meter high lobby. Because the elevators and emergency staircases are located to the rear of the building, this area is "hollow".
The exterior of the building is a continuous wall of red enameled Imperial granite and steel. The ribbon windows are surrounded by gray frames. In between each floor is a small line of red which is taken from the red color of lipstick. The curvature of the building allows light to reflect off the surface at different places.

Time Warner Center

The Time Warner Center is a pair of interconnected mixed-use skyscrapers developed by AREA Property Partners (formerly known as Apollo Real Estate Advisors) and The Related Companies in New York City. Its design, by David Childs of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, consists of two 750 ft (229 m) twin towers bridged by a multi-story atrium containing upscale retail shops. Construction began in November 2000, following the demolition of the New York Coliseum, and a topping-out ceremony was held on February 27, 2003. The property had the highest-listed market value in New York City, $1.1 billion, in 2006.
Originally constructed as the AOL Time Warner Center, the building encircles the western side of Columbus Circle and straddles the border between Midtown and the Upper West Side. The total floor area of 260,000 m² (2.8 million ft²) is divided between offices (notably the offices of Time Warner Inc. and an R&D Center for VMware), residential condominiums, and the Mandarin Oriental, New York hotel. The Shops at Columbus Circle is an upscale shopping mall located in a curving arcade at the base of the building, with a large Whole Foods Market grocery store in the basement. The complex is also home to a 1,200 seat theater for Jazz at Lincoln Center as well as CNN studios, from where Anderson Cooper 360° and Piers Morgan Tonight among other shows, are broadcast live. CNN's Jeanne Moos, known for her offbeat "man on the street" reporting, frequently accosts her interview subjects just outside the building. In 2005, Jazz at Lincoln Center announced a partnership with XM Satellite Radio which gave XM studio space at Frederick P. Rose Hall to broadcast both daily jazz programming and special events such as an Artist Confidential show featuring Carlos Santana. As of August 2011, Jazz at Lincoln Center's The Allen Room is the former recording studio for Anderson Cooper's daytime talk show, Anderson. Anderson recorded there for only 1 season. It is now recorded at the CBS Broadcast Center in Studio 42 where the now defunct The Nate Berkus Show filmed.

Design and construction
Construction was delayed for nearly 15 years after Mortimer Zuckerman's Boston Properties initially won a bidding contest to buy the property from the Coliseum's owners, the Metropolitan Transit Authority. Boston proposed to build two 63-story buildings to be designed by Moshe Safdie on the 4.5-acre (18,000 m2) Coliseum site in 1985. Unsuccessful competitors for the site included Donald Trump who proposed building a 137-story, 1600-foot (488 m) high building which would have been the world's tallest at the time.
Boston's winning bid was $455 million for the site. It was to be the headquarters of Salomon Brothers. The building ran into intense opposition (including most prominently Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis) who were concerned it would cast a shadow on Central Park. In 1988 a court ruled that the building violated the city's own zoning ordinances. At about the same time, Salomon Brothers backed out.
A renegotiated deal called for the building to be 52 stories with Boston paying a lower price of $357 million for the site. David Childs was tapped to redesign the building.
The building still languished until 2000 when the Coliseum was finally demolished. The Center, which now has 55 floors, markets it as an 80-story building.
The Time Warner Center was the first major building to be completed in Manhattan after the September 11, 2001 attacks, although it was already under construction in 2001. While some New Yorkers noted the uncanny resemblance of the Time Warner Center to the fallen Twin Towers, the building's developer disclaimed to the press any intentional similarity.
The Sunshine Group was in charge of marketing the building. Sandie N. Tillotson bought the top floor of the then uncompleted north tower for $30 million shortly after the September 11 Attacks. It was a record for a condominium at the time. That sale would be eclipsed in 2003 when Mexican financier David Martinez paid $54.7 million for a penthouse condo, then a record for New York residential sales.
The building has several street addresses, including 10 Columbus Circle for offices, 25 Columbus Circle for the south tower that was named "One Central Park" and 80 Columbus Circle for The Residences at Mandarin Oriental. The address One Central Park West, meanwhile, belongs to the Trump International Hotel and Tower across the street, which is owned by Donald Trump. Upon the completion of the Time Warner Center, Trump made a "little joke" at the Time Warner Center’s expense by hanging a large sign on his building gloating, "Your views aren’t so great, are they? We have the real Central Park views and address."

40 Wall Street

Now known as The Trump Building, the magnificent structure at 40 Wall Street was once in a race to be the Tallest Building in the World.
In 1928, developer George Ohrstrom began amassing parcels of land so that he could realize his dream of building the world's tallest skyscraper. This commercial building was to be the headquarters for the Bank of Manhattan Trust Company and would be designed by H. Craig Severance, whose former partner William Van Alen was - at the same time - working on plans for the famed Chrysler Building.
Demolition and foundation-laying began in late 1929, taking just three weeks to complete - an astounding feat in itself. Motivated by the need to trump the Chrysler Building, workers completed the entire steel frame of the 72-story building in just 93 days and finished the project by May 1930, about a year after construction began.
For a brief time, Severance and partner Yasuo Matsui thought their building was the tallest in the world, until Van Alen revealed plans for the needle-like spire atop the Chrysler Building, instead making that building the tallest.

About the Building
Even though 40 Wall Street lost its title as the Tallest Building in the World, it did indeed become known as "The Crown Jewel of Wall Street", and has long dominated the skyline in Manhattan's Financial District. Its pyramid-shaped crown and gothic spire are easy to spot from various locations in New York and New Jersey.
40 Wall Street's beautiful bronze doors, topped by the sculpture "Oceanus", make for a grand entrance into the ornate interior, which includes a bank boardroom modeled after the Signer's Room inPhiladelphia's Independence Hall, and a magnificent two-story marble banking hall with world-renowned murals by Ezra Winter, whose work is featured in Rockefeller Center and many other NYC locales. The building became known for its 70th floor observatory and its 43 high-speed elevators.

A New Owner

After many years of struggle and low occupancy rates, caused in the early days by the Depression and World War II, the building switched owners several times and was even at one time owned by Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos.
In 1995, Donald Trump purchased 40 Wall Street and completed millions of dollars in renovations. He had hoped to make it half-residential/half-commercial, but the building remains entirely commercial. Trump attempted to sell the building in 2003, but there were no takers that could match his asking price of $400 million.

American Radiator Building

In 1924, this stunning black-and-gold building added new character to New York's Bryant Park area.

Something Different
For Raymond Hood, what started out as a small job designing
radiator covers became so much more. When the American Radiator and Standard Sanitary Company decided to build a new showroom and office building on 40th Street near Fifth Avenue, the company turned to the man who had been creating their radiator covers and asked him to come up with a design for their new headquarters. Just a few months prior, Hood had become instantly famous for his unique winning design for the Chicago Tribune building and American Radiator was just one of many companies that pursued his talents.

Hood didn't let them down. The result was a 23-story, free standing mid-block office tower that was like nothing else in the Bryant Parkneighborhood... or in all of NYC, for that matter. Hood's design, which called for a black brick exterior, was far different from the stodgy brownstones that were prevalent in the area. Hood explained that he chose the black brickwork to "lessen the visual contrast between the walls and the windows and give the tower an effect of solidity and massiveness". The result was stunning.
The tower is neo-Gothic as is the magnificent bronze and marble entryway. Other aspects of the building are more akin to Art Deco, a style that would take the world by storm by the middle of the 1920s. Gilded terra cotta ornaments crown the tower. The four-story base features bronze plating and black granite. Bronze carved allegories sit at the top of the base.
Inside, the lobby was decorated with mirrors and black marble. The basement once held a large showroom, where the latest in boilers and furnaces were displayed to the buying public.
The American Radiator Building was officially declared a New York City Landmark in 1974. It was later sold to the American Standard Company and then a Japanese firm called Clio Biz. In the 1990s, British Architect David Chipperfield transformed the building into the Bryant Park Hotel, a charming boutique establishment.

Chanin Building

One of New York's most stunning Art Deco buildings, the Chanin Building uses a number of different materials in many inventive ways.
Centrally located on East 42nd Street near the Grand Central Terminal, the
Chanin Building was constructed between 1927 and 1929 for noted developer Irwin Chanin by Sloan and Robertson architectural firm. One of the tallest buildings of its time, it contains 56 floors and stretches to a towering 680 feet.

Irwin S. Chanin
The Chanin Building was seen by some as an example of the American Dream. A mere 20 years before the completion of this massive skyscraper, the developer, Irwin S. Chanin, an engineer who had worked on the construction of New York's subway, decided to get into the construction business. With only 200$ and some additional funding he started building small houses in Brooklyn. Soon he would expand into the construction of hotels, theaters and apartment buildings, amassing a fortune in the process.
Irwin Chanin himself saw the Chanin building as an 'architectural beauty wedded to business efficiency' and advertised the skyscraper in brochures as an icon of progress.

The Building
Typical of New York skyscrapers of its era and in conformance with old NY zoning laws, the building is set back from its limestone base in a series of narrow setbacks that extend for the first 30 or so floors.
 The soaring tower is made of buff-brick and terra cotta with limestone buttresses at the base and crown. The façade introduced the use of colored glass, stone, and metal on the exterior of New York's tall buildings.

The Crown
The Chanin Building is topped by a distinct art-deco style crown, consisting of a set of buttresses. At night, the top was reverse-lit by floodlights, creating a magnificent illuminated pattern, visible forty-five miles - more than 70km - away.

Decoration
While the tower is a wonderful addition to the skyline, the Chanin Building's most wonderful contribution to architecture is its lovely ornamentation, both inside and out. On the exterior, a band of terra cotta features graceful leaf-like forms that are simply lovely. Also, a beautiful bronze frieze at street level depicts what seems to be the beginnings of the theory of evolution.
Angular zigzag patterns overlaid with curving flower petals are also found over the storefronts.

Interior

The two lobbies inside the building are equally as spectacular. Chanin designed them with the assistance of artists Jacques Delamarre and René Chambellan, the latter well-known for his architectural sculpture pieces. It is said that Chanin wanted to portray the opportunities available in New York, including to people like him. One lobby is dedicated to "intellectual" pursuits while the other demonstrates "physical" pursuits, both decorated with plaster figures that are rather cubist in style.
The ornate elevator doors from the main lobby sport a goose motif and once led to the top floor, where Chanin's office was located behind a set of bronze gates that were said to represent the greatness of the city. Beyond the gates, Chanin's office was also decorated with beautiful Art Deco ornamentation.
There was also an open air observation deck on the 54th floor and an ornate movie theater on the 50th, neither of which is still open.

Chrysler Building

At the beginning of the 20th century, the race for the tallest building in the world started and the Chrysler Building was the first building to top the then tallest structure, the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
New York would keep the tallest building in the world until 1974, when the Sears Tower was built in Chicago.

A race for the tallest building
For Walter P. Chrysler, from the car manufacturer, building the tallest building in the world was a status symbol. The Chrysler building was in a race with the Bank of Manhattan (now40 Wall Street) for obtaining the title of tallest building in the world. It looked like the Bank of Manhattan would win the race, with an expected height of 282 meter (927ft) against around 230 meter for the Chrysler building. But the spire of the Chrysler building was constructed in secret inside the tower.
Just one week after the Bank of Manhattan had reached its top, the spire of the Chrysler building was put in place, making it 318 meter (1045ft) high, thus beating the Bank of Manhattan as the tallest building in the world. It would not keep this title for long: one year later the Empire State Building was erected.

Art Deco
The Chrysler building is one of the last skyscrapers in the Art Deco style. The gargoyles depict Chrysler car ornaments and the spire is modeled on a radiator grille. Since it was restored in 1996 it glitters again like it must have in the 1930s.
And the building's Art Deco interior is even more magnificent than its exterior. The marble floors and many Art Deco patterns such as on the stylish elevator doors make the Chrysler Building one of New York's most beautiful office towers.

Popularity
The building's design by architect William van Alen was largely dismissed by contemporary architecture critics, who claimed the spire's design was kitsch and the tower nothing more than a folly.
But ever since its construction the popularity of the building has grown constantly, both among New Yorkers and architecture critics. It is now regarded as one of America's greatest buildings, and the Chrysler Building is often on the cover of architectural books and magazines.

Chrysler Building

At the beginning of the 20th century, the race for the tallest building in the world started and the Chrysler Building was the first building to top the then tallest structure, the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

New York would keep the tallest building in the world until 1974, when the Sears Tower was built in Chicago.

A race for the tallest building
For Walter P. Chrysler, from the car manufacturer, building the tallest building in the world was a status symbol. The Chrysler building was in a race with the Bank of Manhattan (now40 Wall Street) for obtaining the title of tallest building in the world. It looked like the Bank of Manhattan would win the race, with an expected height of 282 meter (927ft) against around 230 meter for the Chrysler building. But the spire of the Chrysler building was constructed in secret inside the tower.
Just one week after the Bank of Manhattan had reached its top, the spire of the Chrysler building was put in place, making it 318 meter (1045ft) high, thus beating the Bank of Manhattan as the tallest building in the world. It would not keep this title for long: one year later the Empire State Building was erected.

Art Deco
The Chrysler building is one of the last skyscrapers in the Art Deco style. The gargoyles depict Chrysler car ornaments and the spire is modeled on a radiator grille. Since it was restored in 1996 it glitters again like it must have in the 1930s.
And the building's Art Deco interior is even more magnificent than its exterior. The marble floors and many Art Deco patterns such as on the stylish elevator doors make the Chrysler Building one of New York's most beautiful office towers.

Citigroup Center

At 915ft / 279m, the aluminum and reflective glass clad tower known as the Citigroup Center is one of the tallest building in Midtown Manhattan. But what really makes this skyscraper stand out are the triangular rooftop and the four massive 114ft (35m) columns on which the building seems to float.

The Plot

Those columns were the result of an agreement between Citibank and the St. Peter's Lutheran Church. The church owned a valuable property in Midtown, occupying one third of a city block on Lexington Avenue and 54th street. In the 1960s the church faced financial problems and wanted to sell its property.

At the same time Citibank, which was located just across the street, was looking to expand. Thus the church sold its property to Citibank, but only on the condition that the bank would build a new church replacing their 1904 Gothic Revival church. The two parties also agreed that the new St. Peter's church had to be a distinctive building, not incorporated in the office tower.

A Building on Pillars

As a result, the architects faced a problem: they needed to build an office tower on the block while at the same time providing enough space at the base for the construction of a church building. The solution was raising the building on four tall columns and a supporting core. The columns were placed at the center of each side rather than at the corners. This way, the design opened enough space in the northwest corner for the new St. Peter's Church.

After the purchase of the property of the St. Peter's church, five more years were needed for Citibank to buy the rest of the block. The purchases were done by different companies since property prices would rise dramatically if the owners found out a large bank planned to develop the site. Construction of the tower started in 1972 by Hugh Stubbins & Associates, assisted by Emery Roth & Sons. The skyscraper opened in 1977 as the Citibank Center. With the company's expansion, the building was first renamed Citicorp Center and later Citigroup Center.

The Advent of Postmodernism

The Citigroup Center was the first tower in Manhattan that parted with the then prevalent Internationalist Style. Instead of a flat top, the designers gave the building a distinctive angled roof line. The original plans to construct setback penthouses on the roof were abandoned due to zoning restrictions. It was then intended as a solar panel, but never used as such. The rooftop now houses the building's mechanical equipment, including a computer controlled tuned mass damper. This 400 ton block of concrete slides on a thin layer of oil. The inertia of the damper reduces the swaying of the building by up to 40%.

The construction of the Citigroup Center revitalized the area and several office towers were built in its vicinity. The most notable of these is probably Philips Johnson's nearby postmodern Lipstick Building.

The Plaza

The Citigroup Center includes a large sunken plaza and a 7 story atrium at the base of the tower with three stories of restaurants and shops. The plaza and atrium are directly accessible from one of New York's busiest subway stations.

Daily News Building

The Construction
Located on 42nd Street, the Daily News Building was constructed in 1929-1930 for the newspaper
of the same name, owned by Joseph Patterson.
Journalist/publisher Patterson chose architect Raymond Hood for the job. Hood had designed the magnificentChicago Tribune building, which was owned by Patterson's grandfather, Joseph Medill.
The 37-story Art Deco building, which stands 476 feet tall (145m), is best recognized by its vertical strips of windows separated with red and black brick patterned spandrels (the portion of wall between the top of one window and the window sill above it). White brickwork forms the separating vertical piers. (While most buildings of the time were being constructed with limestone,
Hood decided it was too expensive so favored brick instead.)
The tops of the window stripes are decorated with ornamental spandrels extending all the way to the top of the building. At that point, they're sloped inward and split by a narrow pier.
The top of the building is flat; unusual for buildings of its time. However, the level top served as an inspiration for many skyscrapers that followed.
The main entrance is particularly indicative of the Art Deco style, with an ornate bas relief over that entrance featuring images of office workers underneath a sunburst.
Visitors will notice that the ten-story base of the building is larger than what is above.
The building was designed that way in order to accommodate the newspaper's large presses on the lower floors.
An addition to the Daily News Building was made in the late 1950s by architects Harrison and Abramowitz, including a five-story wing for the newspaper's enhanced printing plant and an 18-story wing to the east, which provided more office space. The newspaper moved out of the building in 1994 and the landmark skyscraper is now known as the News Building.

The Interior
Probably even more famous than the building's exterior is the giant globe that sits in its lobby. When the building first opened, it was one of the city's prime tourist attractions. The rotating globe sits in the middle of a domed room that's decorated with black glass. The map is updated as necessary. Clocks and thermometers line the walls near the globe, providing visitors with info about cities throughout the world.

Empire State Building

More than any other building in the world, the Empire State Building represents the ambition of humans to build towers that reach for the skies. It probably is New York's best known building and is prominent on many postcards.

The Empire State Building also features in many films, but the film that made it even more famous then it already was, was the classic King Kong in 1933. Even today, though the building has been stripped from its title of the world's tallest building, it is a symbol of New York itself visited by 2 million people each year.

8th World Wonder
At the time when it was built in the early 1930s on Fifth Avenue, the Empire State Building broke all records and was dubbed 'the 8th world wonder'.
The building had 64 elevators (now 73) and was constructed in only 1 year and 45 days. The skyscraper towered over the neighborhood with its height of 381 meter (1250 ft). As the Empire State Building was one of the last skyscrapers built before the Great Depression hit the real estate market, it wouldn't be topped until 1972, when the twinWorld Trade Towers dethroned the Empire State Building as the world's tallest building.

Construction
The Empire State Building is built on a full city block. Much of it was occupied by the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, which opened in November 1897 as the city's largest hotel with 1050 rooms. It was one the most prestigious in New York and attracted an upper-class clientele. At the end of the 1920s however, the grand and plush design of the hotel had gone out of style and Waldorf-Astoria decided to build a new, larger hotel uptown.
After the site was cleared, construction started March 17, 1930. Thanks to an efficient design and standardized work - similar to an assembly line - the building would rise at an average of about four and a half floors a week, faster than any other skyscraper at the time. The building was officially inaugurated on May 1, 1931 in the presence of governor Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Design
The Empire State Building was designed by William Frederick Lamb of the architectural firm of Shreve, Lamb, and Harmon. Lamb, influenced by Raymond Hood's Daily News building, came up with a fairly simple design, defined by requirements such as the budget, time limit and New York City's 1916 zoning law. The building would have a classical composition of a 5 story base, a large tower with setbacks (required by the city's zoning law) and a monumental spire. The limestone facade had little or no ornamentation.
What makes the design so great is that for all its simplicity and sheer bulk it has a perfect composition and massing, giving the building a certain grandeur.

Spire
The building is topped by an enormous spire. It was designed as a mooring mast and would enable dirigibles such as zeppelins to anchor at the top of the building so that passengers could embark or disembark. This proved to be very unpractical however due to the instability of zeppelins and after the Hindenburg disaster in 1937 the idea was shelved.

Great Depression
The Empire State Building was one of the last skyscrapers completed in New York before the Great Depression hit the real estate market. Demolition of the existing building at the site started just weeks before the stock market crash of 1929. After 1933 - with the construction of Rockefeller Center - no tall skyscraper would be built in the city for almost two decades.
As a consequence the Empire State Building held its title of the world's tallest building for more than 40 years. But the Great Depression also caused a collapse in the demand for office space. The owners had such a difficult time leasing office space that the building became known as the 'Empty State Building'. It would take until the end of the 1940s before the real estate market was fully recovered and in the early 1950s the Empire State Building even became the most profitable building in New York City.

Observatory
You can visit the Empire State Building's observatory on the 86th floor from where you have a magnificent view over the city of New York.
The Empire State Building is situated south of Midtown, away from the skyscraper clusters in midtown and in the financial district downtown, so this is one of the few places in Manhattan where you have an open 360 degrees view. For the best view of the Empire State Building however, you better go to Rockefeller Center's observatory.

Flatiron Building

The Flatiron Building was constructed between 1901 and 1903 at the intersection of Broadway and 5th Avenue, at the time one of the most prominent sites. It is located near Madison Square at the end of the Ladies' Mile, one of Manhattan's most important shopping districts at the turn of the 19th century.

Not the tallest
The Flatiron Building was designed by Chicago's Daniel Burnham as a steel-frame skyscraper clad in white terra-cotta. At 21 stories and 307 ft (93 meter), it was one of the city's tallest buildings. It was not - as is often incorrectly thought - the tallest building in the world or even the tallest building in New York (these titles belonged to thePark Row building, built in 1899), but its singular shape and prominent location soon made it one of New York City's most famous landmarks.
The building probably featured on more postcards than any other contemporary building. Even the whole area, the Flatiron district, was named after the building. Originally the Flatiron building featured an observatory on the top floor, but taller buildings have taken over this function. It is still however a popular tourist attraction, and one of the most photographed landmarks in New York.

A Flatiron
Built as the headquarters of the Fuller Construction company, the skyscraper was meant to be named Fuller Building. But the building was soon dubbed 'Flatiron' after its unusual shape, caused by the triangular plot. Even though the plot is a right triangle while a clothing iron is an isosceles triangle, the name stuck and the building was officially renamed Flatiron Building. The Fuller company built another Fuller Building in 1929.

Burnham's Folly
The Flatiron Building was given another nickname: 'Burnham's Folly'. Many people at the time thought Daniel Burnham's triangular design combined with the building's exceptional height would not withstand strong winds. Some were even speculating how far the building's debris would spread after falling over. Last time I checked the building was still standing.

Rockefeller Center

Rockefeller Center, originally known as Radio City is a complex of buildings developed in the midst of the Great Depression. Initially the complex consisted of 14 buildings, the 70 story RCA building being the tallest.
Metropolitan Opera

The area where the Rockefeller Center is located was originally planned as the new location for theMetropolitan Opera. At the time the area, situated between 48th and 51st streets and Fifth and Sixth avenues was a red-light district owned byColumbia University. John D. Rockefeller Jr. leased the area on behalf of the Metropolitan Opera, also referred to as 'the Met'.
The design of the complex was created by the American architect Benjamin Wistar Morris. His plan, influenced by the Grand Central Terminal Complex included a landscaped garden and a monumental Opera House as well as tall office towers, shops and terraces. The buildings would be connected by an series of bridges and walkways.
However, the stock market crash of 1929 caused the Met to abandone the ambitious project. Rockefeller then launched a plan for a corporate complex to house the new radio and television corporations. Radio City was born.

Radio City
One of the first buildings completed was the RCA building, which served as the headquarters of the Radio Corporation of America. The tower, clad in Indiana limestone, is at 70 stories and 256 meter / 850 ft the tallest of the complex. Its design by Raymond Hood - also known from the American Radiator Building in New York, the formerMcGraw-Hill building in New York and the Tribune Tower in Chicago - was the basis for all future buildings at the Rockefeller.
To lure tenants during the Depression, all efforts were made to ensure efficient use of the available floor space. Thanks to the setbacks each office was assured of natural light. Other assets were fast elevators, air-conditioning and excellent underground connections to the subway.
The RCA building is now also known as 30 Rockefeller Plaza or GE Building.

Top of the Rock - the Observation Deck

The Rockefeller Center features an observation deck atop the GE Building with panoramic views of Central Park and the Empire State Building. When the former RCA building opened in 1933 it featured a roof terrace designed as the deck of an ocean liner. Ventilation pipes were shaped as a ship's chimneys and visitors could relax in deck chairs. The observation deck remained open until 1986. By then the number of visitors had dropped while costs increased. At the same time the expansion of the popular Rainbow Room restaurant on the 65th floor cut off the elevator access to the roof, leading to the deck's closure.
Fortunately the observation deck reopened again in November 2005, finally giving the nearby Empire State Building's observatory some competition. After a renovation of some 75 million dollars, the art-deco style observation deck, promoted as the 'Top of the Rock' can be visited once again; only the deck chairs have disappeared.
A separate entrance at West 50th Street leads to the elevators. In the elevator, important historic events since 1933 are projected on the elevator's transparent roof.
There are in total three levels open to the public, including the roof terrace. The first is on the 67th floor and is completely covered. The observation deck on the 69th floor has glass windshields while the 70th floor is completely open to the elements, offering visitors a fabulous 360 degree view.

Lower Plaza
By 1940 Radio City, which became known as Rockefeller Center consisted of 14 buildings, located around a central sunken plaza, the Lower Plaza. From the plaza you have a nice view of the sculpture of Prometheus and the GE building.
Ever since 1933, the famous annual Christmas tree lighting ceremony, which marks the unofficial start of New York's holiday season, has taken place here. The enormous tree, decorated with thousands of lights is installed in the area behind the Prometheus Statue. Around the same time, the sunken plaza is converted into a popular outdoor ice skating rink.
The plaza is connected to Fifth Avenue via a pedestrian street decorated with statues and flowers. This street is known as the Channel Gardens. The Channel Gardens are flanked by two six-story buildings with landscaped rooftops, the British Empire Building and La Maison Française. Another important building in the Rockefeller Center is the Radio City Music Hall. When built, it was the largest indoor theater in the world with a seating capacity of around 6000. Guided tours give you the opportunity to catch a glimpse of the spectacular Art Deco interior.

A City in the City
Rockefeller Center - known as a 'city in the city' - is an exceptional example of civic planning. All buildings share a common design style, Art Deco, and are connected to each other via an underground concourse, the Catacombs. The complex is nevertheless well integrated in the city of New York, especially along Fifth Avenue. In 1959 and the early seventies, Rockefeller Center was extended with 5 additional buildings along sixth Avenue.

Lever House

At only 302 ft, the Lever House is a small building by Manhattan standards, but the glass-walled skyscraper marked a turning point in American office architecture.

A Squeaky Clean Building

The Lever House was constructed in 1952 as the new headquarters for the Lever Brothers Company, the biggest manufacturers of soap and detergents.

They commissioned Skidmore, Owings and Merrill to build a modern, clean and American building. Gordon Brunshaft, the leading architect, based its design on earlier ideas from European modernist architects such as Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier, but it was the first time their radical ideas were implemented in a corporate office tower.

An Innovative Design

Gordon Brunshaft made the tower a slab with its narrow side towards the street. The slab is counter-posed to a horizontal slab which floats on a series of columns. The horizontal mezzanine is cut out in the center, creating a central courtyard. Due to its inefficient use of the available space (only 25 percent of the surface is used for the tower), the suburban-style layout has not been copied much, but its curtain glass office tower became the de facto standard for modern office buildings in the United States.

Copycats

The fact that the tower now seems like just one of so many office towers shows how much it has been copied. When it was built in 1952 it was the first glass-walled building amid the masonry structures of residential Park Avenue. It was soon followed by many other modern office buildings, among them Mies van der Rohe's Seagram Buildingdiagonally across the street.

A Modern Historic Landmark

In recognition of its historical importance, the Lever House was designated an official landmark in 1992. The building was renovated in 1998 by SOM and - appropriately for the headquarters of a soap company - is again as squeaky clean as ever.

PanAm Building

The Metlife building, still known by many as the Pan Am Building is probably the one skyscraper most New Yorkers would like to see demolished.

A Blocked View
The main reasons for the dislike of the New Yorkers for this building are the blocking of the view on Park Avenue and the massive structure, which has often been criticized as 'cheap quality' or 'monumental bad architecture'. On the other hand the structural concept of the building is very intriguing and its sheer massiveness symbolizes New York as a huge compact city. Due to its location though, the building completely blocks the view on Park Avenue and the - much more appraised - New York Central building (Helmsley Building), which dates from 1929.

History
In 1958, the joint owners of the area located between the Grand Central Terminal and the New York Central Building - the New York Central Railways and the New Haven Railways - decided to develop the area.
Emery Roth & Sons were chosen as the architects for the Grand Central City as the project was called. Their first plan, which would not have blocked the view on Park Avenue, was considered too modest by Erwin Wolfson, the constructor. Richard Roth then consulted Walter Gropius and Pietro Belluschi, two of the most renowned architects of their time, who decided to completely review the plan and create an octagonal building.
The original north-south alignment was replaced by an east-west alignment, thus blocking the view on Park Avenue. Gropius also planned to have the New York Central building torn down to create a park next to the tower.

Design
The design is inspired by a never built project from Le Corbusier and by the slender Pirelli Tower in Milan (Gio Ponti and Pier Luigi Nervi, 1959). It consisted of a tower of 49 stories resting on a 10 story base. The exterior is covered with concrete panels to strengthen the building visually. The 246 meter / 808ft tall building was completed in 1963 and incorporates an immense 390,700 m2 office space.

Metlife Building
Originally the project was called Grand Central City, but was renamed in 1960 after its main tenant, the Pan American Airways. In 1981 the building was sold to Metlife insurance company for $400 million and is since called Metlife Building.

MetLife Tower

For four years the tallest building in the world (1909-1913), the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Building still stands as a reminder of the opulence of early twentieth century New York City.

MetLife
Located on posh Madison Avenue at 23rd Street, the original MetLife headquarters was a rather modest building, constructed in 1893. The company, who had made its fortune selling insurance to immigrant wage workers who had much to lose if they were injured or died on-the-job, had become the largest and most successful insurance company in American by the early years of the new century.
To match their new status, the president of the company, John Rogers Hegeman, hired architect Napoleon LeBrun and Sons in 1907 to design a magnificent marble office tower to rival the other large skyscrapers that had begun springing up in Manhattan just a few years prior. Hegeman wanted the building to be the world's tallest.

The MetLife Tower Building
The tower addition was set atop the northwest portion of the existing building atMadison Square. The fifty-story tower, which stands approximately 700 feet (213m) tall, can be described as classical in nature, with a standard base, shaft and capital, ending in a pyramidal spire, cupola and lantern. LeBrun, at the request of Hegeman, modeled the tower after the St Mark's Campanile in Venice.
There are 4 four-story clocks mounted on the tower, one on each side. They are Italian Renaissance in style, with the time pieces encircled in wreaths and flowers.

The North Building
The building that's now known as MetLife's North Building was originally designed to be a skyscraper in its grandest sense; reaching high into the sky in a mountainous sort of shape.
However, when the Depression of 1929 hit the U.S., plans for the 100-story building were halted and what was left was actually the base of the skyscraper, 30-stories tall.
Nonetheless, this Art Deco-style building, finally completed in 1950, is quite attractive. The North Building is clad in Alabama limestone with accents done in marble. The lobbies, also done in marble, are magnificent.

Renovations
In the 1960s, in a move that many architectural experts deemed scandalous, MetLife replaced the marble portions of the tower with limestone. Sadly, much of the original Renaissance ornamentation was removed.
In 1999, the building underwent another period of renovation. According to Building Conservation Associates, the cupola was re-gilded with 23.75-carat Italian gold leaf, and the cracked Tuckahoe marble facades were replaced, as were damaged white and turquoise tiles on the clock faces. New and improved lighting systems were installed to make it easier to light the building in holiday colors when appropriate.

Manhattan Municipal Building

One of the largest government buildings in the world, the Municipal Building in downtown Manhattan is a magnificent structure worthy of its "City Landmark" designation.

History of the Municipal Building
By the 1880s, the city of New York was growing in leaps and bounds. The population had increased to more than a million residents and the government was outgrowing its offices. The mayor, Franklin Edson, recognized the need for more space for government offices and was reluctant to add onto the original City Hallbuilding.
Instead, between the years of 1888 and 1907, the city organized a series of competitions to choose designs for several new structures, including the municipal building. A member of the well-known firm of McKim, Mead, and White was the winner and plans began for the construction of the current Municipal Building.
By the time the foundation was laid in 1908, the population of New York City numbered more than 4.5 million and McKim, Mead, and White recognized the need for a large, stately building. The Municipal Building, the firm's first skyscraper, was soon recognized as one of the grandest and most ornate buildings in the city.

About the Building
The Manhattan Municipal Building was designed in the Roman, Italian Renaissance and Classical styles. The center tower soars 15 stories above the lower part of the building, which stands 25-stories tall.
On top of the central tower is a 20-foot (6 m) tall statue known as "Civic Fame", fashioned by sculptor Adolph Weinman. In addition to this statue, visitors will see various types of sculpture and relief covering portions of the building. Each represents the City of New York and Civic Service. In addition, Weinman designed the shields that were used in the elevators, on the molding above the colonnade and on the false colonnade above the 22nd floor.
The Municipal Building was completed in 1915 and by the following year, all the offices were full. Since that time, the building has been the sight of two major renovations, most recently in 1993.
Today, the magnificent Municipal Building is home to the Department of Citywide Administrative Services and several other city services. The mayor of New York also keeps his office in this building.
The Municipal Building has also earned fame as the place where approximately 30,000 New Yorkers are married each year in civil ceremonies that last about 4 minutes.

Park Row Building

New York City's magnificent Park Row Building was built around the turn of the 20th century and was - for 9 years - the tallest building in the world.

The skyscraper is one of several surviving late nineteenth-century office towers situated on the street that became known as Newspaper Row, the busy center of newspaper publishing in New York City from the 1840s to the 1920s.

The World's Tallest

It's hard to believe that the 391-foot (119m), 30-story building long known as the Park Row Building once held the honor that now belongs to gigantic buildings like the Sears Tower in Chicagoor the Empire State Building in New York. But in 1899, when the building was completed, it was indeed the tallest anywhere.

The Beaux Arts Park Row Building was originally built as a speculative office building, commissioned by investor William Mills Ivins, and contained 950 offices and accommodated about 4,000 workers. The owners combined 7 different lots in order to achieve the size they desired for this building.

Architecture

The façade of the building is divided horizontally and fashioned from limestone and brick. Balconies and ornamental ledges grace several floors. On the top sits two domes that were originally intended as observatories and served as such for several decades. On top of each of those domes sits another copper dome, these being the building's most distinguishing features. Four life-sized sculpted figures set on overscaled brackets project from the fourth floor in the front of the building.

The Park Row Building remains in use as a commercial office building and is still often photographed and considered one of the most distinct buildings in the New York City skyline.

Seagram Building

Built as the corporate headquarters for Canadian distillers Joseph E. Seagram and Sons, the innovative Seagram Building set the stage for the design of New York skyscrapers for many years to come.
Situated on New York's famed Park Avenue between 52nd and 53rd Street, the Seagram Building was a pioneer in its time. Designed by well-known German architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe in collaboration with American Philip Johnson, this building was to become a model for the next 40 years of NYC skyscrapers.

Architecture
Most skyscrapers in the 1950s and prior had a decorated facade built around a structural frame. However, van der Rohe was hoping for a different look. He wanted the building's structural elements to be visible. Unfortunately, building codes forbid that, demanding that all structural steel be covered with some sort of fireproofing material, usually concrete.
So, instead, the architect used non-structural, bronze-toned I-beams to suggest structure to those viewing the 38-story, 516-foot (157m) skyscraper from the outside. These beams are visible from the outside of the building, and run vertically like mullions in the large glass windows.
Mies van der Rohe was also quite concerned that the building look uniform to those viewing it from the outside. Because of that, he only installed window blinds that sat at three levels: fully open, half open, and fully closed - allowing for a more consistent look.

Masterpiece
The Seagram building fulfilled Mies van der Rohe's functional architecture philosophy of 'less is more'. It is considered by many, including van der Rohe himself, as his masterpiece.

An Expensive Building
Seagram spared no expense in the building of this particular skyscraper. It is said that 3.2 million pounds of bronze was used in its construction and the liberal use of materials like marble and travertine also caused building costs to escalate. It was the most expensive skyscraper of its time, costing a total of $41 million including the $5 million cost of the building parcel.

The Plaza
One of the innovations of the Seagram building was the addition of its open granite plaza in front of the skyscraper which was a different way of tackling the zoning regulations of 1916. The plaza became a popular gathering place during the Seagram Building's early years. Because of that, New York City passed a zoning resolution in 1961 in an attempt to entice builders to install "privately owned public spaces" like the one at the Seagram's Building. However, the resolution never saw much success.

Trump Tower

Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue epitomizes the glamour of the 1980s. The building is just one of many Trump real estate holdings in New York City.

Trump Tower, located on Fifth Avenue near 56th Street in themidtown section of Manhattan, is a 58-story structure that was built in 1983. The tower was designed by Der Scutt of the architectural firm of Swanke, Hayden, and Connell. Scutt has designed a number of buildings in NYC, but Trump Tower has been his most notable.

The Building
Trump Tower stands 664 feet (more than 200m) tall. It is a reinforced concrete, shear-wall/core design, similar to Trump World Tower, built much later and completed in 2001.
A concrete hat-truss at the top of the building ties exterior columns with the concrete core, increasing resistance against lateral forces such as wind and minor earthquakes.
The building's exterior is clad in dark reflective glass with setbacks beginning near of the base of the building. The setbacks provide more corner spaces and wider views of the city.

Air Rights
Trump and his architect had to come up with some innovative ideas in order for the city to allow such a tall building to be constructed on such a small space. Trump bought the "air rights" to the Tiffany's store which sits beside the tower, constructed a through-block arcade to the neighboringIBM building, and dubbed the atrium "public space", which eased some of the restrictive codes. Making this a mixed-use building also helped alleviate some problems with building codes.

The Atrium
The Trump Building is best known for its lavish atrium, six stories high. Most prominent is the illuminated cascading waterfall, which sits directly across from the entrance. The walls are covered with pink marble and the widespread use of brass and mirrors is apparent as soon as one enters the lobby area.
The atrium is built as a vertical shopping center, in which visitors are guided along escalators and walkways which lead to balconies that open up to specialty shops.

Trump Tower is the domain of the rich and famous. Trump himself lives in the penthouse and many wealthy New Yorkers occupy the other residential units. The retail area at the atrium, however, is open to the general public and can be enjoyed by all who can afford to shop there.

Waldorf Astoria

Granted official New York City Landmark status in 1993, the magnificent Waldorf-Astoria Hotel has been beckoning guests to come and enjoy the opulence of the Big Apple since 1931.

The Hotel and its History
The current Waldorf-Astoria, which sits on poshPark Avenue between East 49th and 50th Streets, wasn't the first hotel to bear that name. The original hotel (at Fifth Avenue and 33rd) was actually created by a merger of two separate hotels, built by cousins William Waldorf Astor and John Jacob Astor IV. Each had erected their own luxury hotel in the early 1890s, adjacent to one another. In 1897, the two buildings were joined by a corridor, thus the "=" symbol in the new official name of the hotel - The Waldorf=Astoria.
The Astor cousins' hotels were demolished in 1929 to make way for the engineering marvel known as the Empire State Building. Eager to stay in the hospitality business,the cousins chose the present Park Avenue site for their next endeavor.
At its opening in October 1931, in the middle of the Great Depression, the hotel was the largest and tallest in the world, occupying an entire city block. U.S. President Herbert Hoover even delivered a radio broadcast commemorating the opening of the hotel and congratulating its owners.

Architecture
The Waldorf-Astoria is one of the most magnificent Art Deco masterpieces in the world. The base of the hotel is of granite facing and the upper façade is clad in brick and limestone.
The main building consisted of 20 floors while the two towers soar to 47 stories, about 190 meters (approximately 625 feet) high. Bronze-clad cupolas sit atop the towers.
Built at a cost of $42 million, the 2,200 rooms of the hotel were (and are) opulent and expensive. The multiple lobbies in the building are decorated with intricate murals and mosaics. A $200 million renovation completed in the late 1990s unveiled yet more lost art deco treasures, now occupying their rightful places throughout the hotel.
The hotel's Starlight Room, known as a gathering place for the rich and famous in the 1930s and 1940s, boasted a retractable roof. The main ballroom is four stories high and can be adjoined with other smaller ballrooms to accommodate up to 6,000 guests.

Famous Firsts
The Waldorf-Astoria prides itself on its famous firsts. For example, it was the first hotel to offer room service and to abolish the "ladies' entrance". It was also the first to have assistant managers canvassing the lobbies, offering help to guests, and was the first hotel to offer permanent living spaces in its suites. As a matter of fact, a number of celebrities and three American five-star generals have called the Waldorf-Astoria home.

Woolworth Building

The Woolworth building, known as the 'Cathedral of Commerce', was the tallest tower in the world when built in 1913.

Frank Winfield Woolworth, the owner of the '5 and dime' Woolworth retail chain admired the gothic buildings in Europe, in particular theHouses of Parliament in London. 

When he needed a new office building for the headquarters of his company, he asked Cass Gilbert to build a gothic tower with plenty of windows. Gilbert, who had studied in Europe, designed a U-shaped skyscraper with a steel frame and gothic ornamentation.

World's Tallest Building

Constructed in 1913, the tower reaches a height of 241,2m (793.5ft). Until the completion of theBank of Manhattan tower and Chrysler building in 1930, the Woolworth building was the tallest building in the world. The tower has a 3 story stone base, 52 stories clad in terra-cotta and a 3 story roof topped with the crowning pinnacle. An observation deck at the 58th story attracted about 100,000 visitors each year, but it was closed in 1945.

Cathedral of Commerce

The building became an instant landmark, due both to the then very impressive height, and because of its gothic ornamentation. This gave it the nickname 'Cathedral of Commerce'.  

The height caused several challenges at the time: it was the first building to have its own steam turbines and it had the fastest elevators (30 in total). The tower was built to withstand a wind pressure of 200 mph (322 km/h). Special kinds of scaffolding were used to minimize the danger for the construction workers.

Neo-Gothic Ornaments

The Woolworth building is best known for its neo-gothic style and decorations: The main entrance at Broadway resembles European Cathedral entrances. It is decorated with many symbols, like salamanders (symbol for the transmutation of iron and clay into steel and terra-cotta) and owls (symbol for wisdom). Two empty niches flank the entrance: one was supposed to hold a statue of F.W. Woolworth, but it was never realized.

Interior

The interior of the building is one of the most sumptuous in New York. Woolworth's private office was modeled and furnished after Napoleon's Palace in Compiègne. 

The lobby is covered with marble and features a stained glass ceiling.

Inside the lobby are carved caricatures of men involved in the construction of the building. One of them is a sculpture of Cass Gilbert, holding a model of the Woolworth Building, and another one features Frank Woolworth paying for his building in coins. This refers to the way F.W. Woolworth actually payed for the building: instead of taking a mortgage, he preferred paying the $13,5 million in cash. The building was sold in 1998 for $126,5 million.

The Woolworth Building Today

Both for its exterior and interior, the Woolworth building is even today one of the most remarkable buildings in New York City. Many buildings have surpassed it in height, but not in splendor.