Flatiron Building
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| Flatiron [Fuller] Building | |
Flatiron Building, 2004 |
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| Information | |
|---|---|
| Location | 175 Fifth Avenue New York City |
| Coordinates | |
| Status | Complete |
| Use | Office building |
| Height | |
| Top floor | 285 feet (87 m) |
| Technical details | |
| Floor count | 22 |
| Companies | |
| Architect | Daniel Burnham John Wellborn Root |
| Flatiron Building | |
|---|---|
| (U.S. National Historic Landmark) | |
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| Built/Founded: | 1902 |
| Architectural style(s): | Renaissance, Skyscraper |
| Designated as NHL: | June 29, 1989 |
| Added to NRHP: | November 20, 1979 |
| NRHP Reference#: | 79001603[1] |
The Flatiron Building, which when constructed was called the Fuller Building, was one of the tallest buildings in New York City upon its completion in 1902. The building, at 175 Fifth Avenue in the borough of Manhattan, sits on a triangular island block at 23rd Street, Fifth Avenue, and Broadway, anchoring the south (downtown) end of Madison Square.
The neighborhood around the building is called the Flatiron District after its signature building.
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[edit] Architecture
The Flatiron Building was designed by Chicago's Daniel Burnham in the Beaux-Arts style. Like a classical Greek column, its limestone and glazed terra-cotta façade is separated into three parts horizontally. Since it was one of the first buildings to use a steel skeleton, the building could be constructed to 285 feet (87 m), which would have been very difficult with other construction methods of that time.
The initial design by Daniel Burnham shows a similar design to the one constructed, but with a far more elaborate crown with numerous setbacks near the pinnacle. A clock face can also be seen. However, this was later removed from the design.
At the rounded tip, the triangular tower is only 6.5 feet (2 meters) wide. The 22-story building, with a height of 285 ft (87 meters), is often considered the oldest surviving skyscraper in Manhattan, though in fact the Park Row Building (1899) is both older and taller.
New York's Flatiron Building is not the first building of its type. It is the third building in the flatiron shape, with the first being the Gooderham Building of Toronto, built in 1892, and the second in Atlanta in 1897. Both of the earlier buildings are smaller than their New York counterpart.
[edit] Impact
I found myself agape, admiring a skyscraper — the prow of the Flatiron Building, to be particular, ploughing up through the traffic of Broadway and Fifth Avenue in the late-afternoon light. – H.G. Wells (1906)
The building, which took its name from the shape forced on it by the triangular lot it was built on[2] – the Flatiron block, so called because it was shaped like a clothes iron – was officially named the Fuller Building after George A. Fuller, founder of the company that financed its construction two years after his death.[3] Locals took an immediate interest in the building, placing bets on how far the debris would spread when the wind knocked it down. The building is also said to have helped coin the phrase "23 skidoo", from what cops would shout at men who tried to get glimpses of women's dresses being blown up by the winds swirling around the building due to the complex geography of the area.[4]
[edit] The Flatiron Building today
Today the Flatiron Building is frequently seen on television commercials and documentaries as an easily recognizable symbol of the city.[5] It is shown in the opening credits of The Late Show With David Letterman, and was used as the Daily Bugle building in the Spider-Man films. It is a popular spot for tourist photographs and a National Historic Landmark since 1989[6][7][8], but it is also a functioning office building which is currently in the process of being taken over as the headquarters of publishing companies held by Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck of Stuttgart, Germany under the umbrella name of Macmillan, including St. Martin's Press, Tor/Forge, Picador and Henry Holt and Company. [9] Macmillan is renovating some floors, and their website comments that:
The Flatiron’s interior is known for having its strangely-shaped offices with walls that cut through at an angle on their way to the skyscraper’s famous point. These “point” offices are the most coveted and feature amazing northern views that look directly upon another famous Manhattan landmark, the Empire State Building.[9]
During a 2005 restoration of the Flatiron Building an illegal 15 story vertical advertising banner covered the facade of the building. The advertisement elicited protests from many New York City residents, prompting the Buildings Department of the City of New York to step in and force the building's owners to remove the advertisement.[10]
The Flatiron Building was featured on the non-fiction television program Big, Bigger, Biggest, shown in the UK and on the Science Channel in the United States.
[edit] Gallery
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[edit] See also
[edit] References
[edit] Notes
- ^ National Register Information System. National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service (2007-01-23).
- ^ "New Building on the Flatiron" New York Times (3 March 3 1901), page 8: "the famous 'flatiron' block"
- ^ "Flatiron Structure to be Called the Fuller Building", New York Times (9 August 1902) page 3.
- ^ Andrew S. Dolkart. "The Architecture and Development of New York City: The Birth of the Skyscraper - Romantic Symbols", Columbia University, accessed May 15, 2007. "It is at a triangular site where Broadway and Fifth Avenue—the two most important streets of New York—meet at Madison Square, and because of the juxtaposition of the streets and the park across the street, there was a wind-tunnel effect here. In the early twentieth century, men would hang out on the corner here on Twenty-third Street and watch the wind blowing women's dresses up so that they could catch a little bit of ankle. This entered into popular culture and there are hundreds of postcards and illustrations of women with their dresses blowing up in front of the Flatiron Building. And it supposedly is where the slang expression "23 skidoo" comes from because the police would come and give the voyeurs the 23 skidoo to tell them to get out of the area."
- ^ The use of the Flatiron as a visual icon for New York City increased significantly in the wake of the destruction of the World Trade Center in the 9-11 attack.
- ^ Flatiron Building. National Historic Landmark summary listing. National Park Service (2007-09-12).
- ^ " Flatiron Building". National Register of Historic Places Registration. National Park Service (1989-02-09).
- ^ Flatiron Building--Accompanying photos, exterior, from 1979. National Register of Historic Places Inventory. National Park Service (1989-02-09).
- ^ a b Macmillan: About
- ^ NY Times article. New York Times (2005-04-08).
[edit] Bibliography
- Skyscrapers, Antonino Terranova, White Star Publishers, 2003 (ISBN-8880952307)
[edit] External links
- Images of the Flatiron Building nyc-architecture.com
- Air visit of "Flatiron and its district" in photographs
- High-resolution photograph taken in 1910.
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