Singer Building
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| Singer Building | |
 Singer Building was the world's tallest building from 1908 to 1909.* |
|
| Preceded by | Park Row Building |
| Surpassed by | Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Tower |
| Information | |
|---|---|
| Location | New York City, USA |
| Status | Destroyed |
| Constructed | 1908 |
| Destroyed | 1968 |
| Technical Details | |
| Floor count | 47 |
| * Fully habitable, self-supported, from main entrance to rooftop; see world's tallest structures for other listings. | |
The Singer Building at Liberty Street and Broadway in Manhattan, New York was an office building completed in 1908 as the headquarters of the Singer Manufacturing Company.
The building's architect, Ernest Flagg, was a supporter of height limitations and restrictive zoning, and showed his solution to tall building crowding with the Singer's set-back design. The 12-story base of the building filled an entire blockfront, while the tower above was very narrow.
At 612 feet (186.5 m) above grade, the Singer Building was the tallest building in the world from its completion until the completion in 1909 of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Tower on Madison Avenue in Manhattan. It was the first modern building after the Eiffel Tower (which took the title away from the Great Pyramid of Giza when constructed in 1889) to hold the record for world's tallest and also was the first secular building to hold this honor: all previous holders of the position of world's tallest were religious structures, whether European cathedrals or, for the previous 3,800 years, the Great Pyramid of Khufu.
The building was demolished in 1968 as it was functionally obsolete. The tower floors were squares only 65 feet (19.5 meters) on a side. It remained the tallest occupied building ever destroyed until September 11, 2001 collapse of the nearby World Trade Center. It is still currently the tallest building ever legally demolished. It is also thought to have been the tallest free-standing structure ever demolished until the destruction of the Avala TV Tower on April 29, 1999.
Today One Liberty Plaza occupies the site.
[edit] External links
| Preceded by Park Row Building |
Tallest Building in New York City 1908—1909 |
Succeeded by Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Tower |
