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Flatiron Building
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| 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 Fuller Building, better known as the Flatiron 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, facing Madison Square.
Contents |
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.
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 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" or scram, from what cops would shout at men who tried to get glimpses of women's dresses being blown up by the winds created by the triangular building.[4]
At the rounded tip, the triangular tower is only 6.5 feet (2 meters) wide. The 22-story Flatiron 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.
Today the Flatiron is a popular spot for tourist photographs, a National Historic Landmark since 1989[5],[6],[7], and a functioning office building, currently home to several book publishers, most of them under the umbrella of Holtzbrinck Publishers. It was also used as the Daily Bugle building in the Spider-Man films. It is shown in the opening credits of The Late Show With David Letterman as an easily recognizable symbol of the city. The surrounding area of Manhattan is named the Flatiron District for its signature building.
- ^ National Register Information System. National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service (2007-01-23).
- ^ New York Times item New Building on the Flatiron ("the famous 'flatiron' block"), March 3, 1901, page 8.
- ^ New York Times article Flatiron Structure to be Called the Fuller Building, August 9, 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."
- ^ Flatiron Building. National Historic Landmark summary listing. National Park Service (2007-09-12).
- ^ ["Flatiron Building", by Carolyn PittsPDF (864 KiB) National Register of Historic Places Registration]. National Park Service (1989-02-09).
- ^ [Flatiron Building--Accompanying photos, exterior, from 1979.PDF (439 KiB) National Register of Historic Places Inventory]. National Park Service (1989-02-09).
- Skyscrapers, Antonino Terranova, White Star Publishers, 2003 (ISBN-8880952307)
- Gallery of photographs emporis.com
- 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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NRHP: Manhattan • Brooklyn • Queens • Staten Island • Bronx • • • NHL: New York State |
