Misplaced Pages

#852147

134-713: The Gillender Building was an early skyscraper in the Financial District of Manhattan in New York City . It stood on the northwest corner of Wall Street and Nassau Street , on a narrow strip of land measuring 26 by 73 feet (7.9 m × 22.3 m). At the time of its completion in 1897, the Gillender Building was, depending on ranking methods , the fourth- or eighth- tallest structure in New York City . The Gillender Building

268-428: A grid network and followed new city ordinances that prohibited construction in wood. These factors encouraged the building of taller properties in new innovative designs, which, like New York, saw a range of businesses and services being packed into single buildings. Especially popular in the post-fire era were "commercial blocks", several-story masonry buildings built to property lines with only one street facade that

402-533: A bank connected to Bankers Trust through common control by J. P. Morgan, acquired the Gillender Building from Helen Gillender Asinari in December 1909, paying approximately $ 1,500,000 for the 1,825-square-foot (169.5 m) property (equivalent to $ 50,867,000 in 2023), or $ 822 per foot ($ 2,700/m). This was considered a record amount for land in New York City: the previous record was for 1 Wall Street at

536-458: A base, middle section and the roof line. This tripartite design was intended both to emulate classical columns, and reflect the functions of the different parts of the skyscraper. The central court could form a simple courtyard, but many companies preferred to roof over the courtyard with glass to produce an atrium for shops and restaurants. Rents for these shops were up to five or six times that for office space, and made an important difference to

670-450: A busy businessman. At the same time, the more lavish ground floor designs would make the building stand out to passers-by and pull in the necessary business for a successful commercial building. This community also saw close collaboration between architects, specialist structural engineers, and building contractors emerge on the new skyscraper projects. Historically the industry had been dominated by individuals and small firms who combined

804-551: A classical style, such as the Mutual Life, Atlantic Mutual , and Broad Exchange Buildings , all designed by Clinton and Russell . Others broke new ground, including the Flatiron Building which opened in 1903 near Madison Square. The Chicago firm of Daniel Hudsdon Burnham designed the 307 feet (94 m) high, 21 story structure; the unusually shaped, narrow building needed particularly strong wind bracing, while

938-702: A common height: "horizontal visual unity". In the aftermath of the Exposition, many of these advocates joined with the Beaux-Arts movement to form the City Beautiful movement , proposing low-rise cities with wide boulevards, built in a classical style. These critics condemned New York's skyscrapers, Montgomery Schuyler describing how they had produced a "horribly jagged sierra" of a city skyline and complaining that no modern skyscraper had turned out to be an architectural success. Charles Lamb argued that

1072-482: A grand style. The Unity Building , for example, was reported as including "Numidian, Alps, Green and Sienna marbles ... an artistic screen of glass and bronze ... a marble balcony" alongside "Corinthian columns with finely carved capitals, gold-leaf and silver chandeliers, and silver-plated latticework" on the elevators. The aim was to project a sense of prosperity and solid financial credentials, which in turn would attract tenants willing to pay high rents. For

1206-652: A growing, vibrant center. As early as 1868, its commercial buildings were touted as being "unequalled in the East for grandeur, business, or wealth," but such claims were regarded as risible. By the 1870s, Chicago had become the main financial center for the West, but in October 1871 the Great Chicago Fire destroyed the majority of the wooden structures within the city. The city was rebuilt on large plots of land in

1340-510: A key seaport located on the small island of Manhattan , on the east coast of the U.S. As a consequence of its colonial history and city planning , New York's real estate was broken up into many small parcels of land, with few large sites. During the first half of the 19th century it became the national center of American finance, and the banks in the financial district of Manhattan competed fiercely with English institutions for international dominance. The Great Fire of 1835 destroyed most of

1474-461: A label for tall office blocks, coming into widespread use over the next decade. Unlike the tall buildings of Antiquity and the Middle Ages, which were primarily built for ceremonial and religious purposes, skyscrapers were largely targeted towards business applications. Various technological developments of the 19th century, which included such design elements as wind bracing and crucially

SECTION 10

#1732783824853

1608-502: A law to limit new buildings to a maximum of 123 feet (37 m), effectively banning the construction of skyscrapers. The cities of Philadelphia, Los Angeles and Washington D.C. similarly introduced height restriction laws to limit skyscraper construction. The decisive factor in favor of change in Chicago, however, was the economic slowdown in the early 1890s, which gave way to the financial panic of 1893 . The recession, combined with

1742-486: A major metropolis only in the mid-19th century, growing from a village of around fifty inhabitants in 1830 , to a city of 30,000 in 1850 and nearly 300,000 by 1870 . Chicago became the railroad hub for the American West and the primary trading city for the emerging territories, famous for its commercial culture. It saw itself as different from the cities on the east coast and was immensely proud of its status as

1876-402: A month, with about one-third of that time devoted to shoring and underpinning adjacent walls; building and sinking caissons; and constructing the brick piers and sealing the air chambers with concrete. The first pier was ready for the grillage on August 17, 1896. The first column was set on September 3 and the last one in the tower was placed on November 16. Advertised as fully fireproof and as

2010-492: A mute Chinese woman he kept in locked in a small room in his office on the top floor of the Gillender Building on Wall Street". The story is set in June 1910 and in October 1929, both after the Gillender Building had already been dismantled. Early skyscraper Chicago initially led the way in skyscraper design, with many constructed in the center of its financial district during the late 1880s and early 1890s. Sometimes termed

2144-561: A partnership with the mechanical arts. Their practices tended to be smaller, resembling atelier style workshops. Structural engineers in New York took longer to build up a strong professional role there, a trend reflected in the lower engineering quality of many early skyscrapers in the city. The New York style emphasized stunning height and a somewhat eclectic use of architectural features from other periods, creating an energetic, flamboyant appearance. Towers were common, making best use of

2278-535: A pattern first invented in the Oriel Chambers building in England in 1864. This allowed the average small company to rent a small amount of space using one or two offices, but held out the option for future expansion by renting additional office cubicles if required at a later date. A skyscraper office relied on natural sunlight from the windows but if necessary was dimly lit from electric desk-top lamps. By

2412-486: A planned build became known. The properties at the front of the site would typically be bought first, so if news broke of the skyscraper then those owning property at the back of the plot would have little choice but to sell anyway. The funding for skyscraper developments was normally lent by banks, insurance companies, or raised through bonds sold through a specialised bond house, with the latter becoming increasingly popular after World War I. Efforts were made to improve

2546-416: A record for the period. Improved windbracing techniques were introduced. The use of pneumatic caissons in skyscraper foundations grew more advanced; in the construction of the 1908 Manhattan Municipal Building they were successfully sunk 144 feet (44 m) below the surface, with specially conditioned workers operating in shifts with constant medical support. New technologies were also introduced within

2680-399: A small factory to visitors, and ultimately expanded to employ 180 staff. The resulting Chicago school produced large, solid-looking skyscrapers, built with a common appearance and to a common height. The result was usually a box-like palazzo , illuminated with a large light court, ideally, if space allowed, in the center. The outside of the building was commonly divided into three parts:

2814-468: A thick wire mesh over the respective streets to protect people from falling debris. Inside, elevator shafts were converted into garbage chutes for the torn partitions and exterior masonry scrap. Openings about 10 feet (3.0 m) square were cut through the floors of all stories above the fourth, allowing demolition contractors to deposit garbage. Demolition of the Stevens Building commenced in

SECTION 20

#1732783824853

2948-442: A very high proportion of usable – and thus rentable – floor space, with a great deal of light and a flexible floor plan that could be subdivided for different tenants. Up-to-date fittings were installed to encourage a high-class of tenants, including the world's fastest elevators, safety features, and a swimming pool. Gilbert adopted the Beaux-Arts style, using accented terracotta and glass to emphasis vertical lines, elegantly echoing

3082-640: A wave of new skyscraper projects in New York and Chicago. New York City's 1916 Zoning Resolution helped shape the Art Deco or " set-back " style of skyscrapers, leading to structures that focused on volume and striking silhouettes, often richly decorated. Skyscraper heights continued to grow, with the Chrysler and the Empire State Buildings each claiming new records, reaching 1,046 feet (319 m) and 1,250 feet (380 m) respectively. With

3216-626: Is a waste". Monadnock Block , the tallest load-bearing brick building ever constructed, is an example of such a strict approach. By the 1890s, Chicago architects were producing a solution to this problem, creating a new architectural style, often termed the "Chicago school of architecture". The school included architects such as Louis Sullivan and Dankmar Adler , Jenney, John Root , and William Holabird and Martin Roche , whose designs combined architectural aesthetic theory with practical commercial sense. They favoured placing rich, ornate designs on

3350-542: Is academic disagreement over which building should be considered the first skyscraper. Identifying the first "true skyscraper" is not straightforward, and various candidates exist depending on the criteria applied. George Post's New York Equitable Life Building of 1870, for example, was the first tall office building to use the elevator, while his Produce Exchange building of 1884 made substantial structural advances in metal frame design. The Home Insurance Building in Chicago, opened in 1885, is, however, most often labeled

3484-601: Is considered "a notable example" of its period along with the demolished Central National Bank Building (designed by William Birkmire in 1897) and the still-extant American Surety Building (designed by Bruce Price in 1894–1896). The New York Times erroneously called the Gillender Building the "highest office structure in the world"; the Manhattan Life Insurance Building (1894) was taller at 348 feet (106 m). The Gillender Building's rentable area (30,000 sq ft [2,800 m])

3618-428: Is not a matter of art, but of business. A building must pay, or there will be no investor ready with the money to meet its cost. This is at once the curse and the glory of American architecture." George Hill echoed the theme, condemning unnecessary features on the basis that "every cubic foot that is used for purely ornamental purposes beyond that needed to express its use and to make it harmonize with others of its class,

3752-554: Is the site of a final scene in Jed Rubenfeld 's The Interpretation of Murder , a 2006 novel reconstructing Sigmund Freud 's 1909 visit to New York. The narrator and Nora Acton (linked to Freud's case study of Dora ) meet for the last time in the Gillender cupola, watch the New York skyline, well aware that the building will be soon torn down. In M. K. Hobson 's Hotel Astarte , The Warlock "had his fingernails polished by

3886-485: The Flatiron were followed by the 612-foot (187 m) tall Singer Tower , the 700-foot (210 m) Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Tower , and the 792-foot (241 m) Woolworth Building . Though these skyscrapers were commercial successes, criticism mounted as they broke up the ordered city skyline and plunged neighboring streets and buildings into perpetual shadow. Combined with an economic downturn, this led to

4020-481: The McAdoo Tunnel , who himself claimed experience in demolishing 900 buildings. The steelwork demolition contract was sublet to Charles M. Seacomb. Initially, Volk subscribed to complete the job in 35 days and pay a $ 500 penalty for each day delayed, though the schedule was later extended to 45 days. Demolition was preceded with erection of a massive timber canopy over the sidewalks on Nassau and Wall Streets, and

4154-549: The Monadnock Building , combined elements of both the newer and older styles, but generally Chicago rapidly adopted steel structures as a flexible and effective way to produce a range of tall buildings. Structural engineers specializing in the steel frame design began to establish practices in Chicago. There was a boom in skyscraper construction in Chicago from 1888 onwards. By 1893, Chicago had built 12 skyscrapers between 16 and 20 stories tall, tightly clustered in

Gillender Building - Misplaced Pages Continue

4288-649: The Railway Exchange , the Peoples Gas and the Illinois Continental and Commercial Bank Buildings were each substantial, quarter-block wide palazzo cubes of common height, their facades divided into a classical tripartite design, and sporting classical columns and other features. Despite the apparent uniformity of design, individual buildings varied considerably in the detail of their designs in effort to express their particular identities,

4422-1272: The Wainwright Building , Wilder Building , and Guaranty Building . Early examples on the West Coast include the Old Chronicle Building and the Call Building in San Francisco , as well as the Luzon Building in Tacoma, Washington . Early skyscrapers outside the United States include the APA Building (1889) in Melbourne , Australia, the Ryōunkaku (1890) in Tokyo , Japan and the Witte Huis (1898) in Rotterdam ,

4556-462: The introduction of zoning restraints in New York in 1916. In the interwar years , skyscrapers spread to nearly all major U.S. cities, while in total of around 100 were built in some other Western countries (like Argentina, Brazil, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain, United Kingdom etc.) and the Asian countries (China, Japan). The economic boom of the 1920s and extensive real estate speculation encouraged

4690-555: The palazzo style made popular in the previous decade. Chicago had hosted the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893, a massive international event which had excited interest in the themes of classical architecture and well-designed city landscapes. Chicago also had extensive discussions in 1909 about the potential for designing large parts of the city, the Burnham Plan of Chicago . The resulting skyscrapers reflected these debates:

4824-644: The 1830s and spread to U.S. factories and hotels by the 1840s. Elevators using hoist ropes, however, could only function effectively in low-rise buildings, and this limitation encouraged the introduction of the hydraulic elevator in 1870, even though early models contained dangerous design flaws. By 1876 these problems had been resolved, providing a solution for servicing the early skyscrapers. New environmental technologies in heating, lighting, ventilation and sanitation were also critical to creating taller buildings that were attractive to work in. Central heating could not be easily extended to serve larger buildings; in

4958-424: The 1850s, a system using low-pressure steam and steam-operated fans became adopted in the construction of the later skyscrapers. Many U.S. buildings were lit by gas , but this carried safety risks and was difficult to install in taller buildings. As an alternative, electric lights were installed from 1878 onwards, powered by basement generators. Ventilation was also a challenge, as smoke drifting into offices from

5092-581: The 1880s, bringing these ideals and standards with them. Applying contemporary Beaux-Arts standards to early skyscrapers, however, was not straightforward. The buildings that the Beaux-Arts movement influenced were typically much shorter and broader than any skyscraper, as it was difficult to accurately reproduce the style in a tall, narrow building. Skyscrapers were also primarily commercial buildings, and economics as well as aesthetics had to play an important part in their design. The architectural writer Barr Ferree noted in 1893 that "current American architecture

5226-489: The 1890s, with female employees becoming more common. The percentage of female clerical workers in Chicago, for example, increased from 11 percent in 1880 to 21 percent by 1890, reaching 30 percent by 1900. Various moral concerns were raised about men and women mixing in such offices, which were characterized as being masculine spaces, full of tobacco smoke and profanity and therefore unsuitable for women. The new female workers typically worked as typists or stenographers , using

5360-570: The American architectural profession. The construction of the Woolworth Building was announced in 1910 by Frank Woolworth , who wanted to create the largest income-producing property in the U.S. The project grew, and Woolworth finally opted for a 55-story, 792-foot (241 m) high skyscraper, the latest tallest building in the world, at a cost of $ 13.5 million ($ 5.1 billion in 2010 terms). Architect Cass Gilbert designs included

5494-478: The Chicago Board of Trade spent 20 percent of its rental revenue on service staff, employing 41 people, including janitors, elevator operators, engineers, and an electrician. With this collection of services and facilities, skyscrapers of the period were often referred to as small cities in their own right. Opposition to Chicago's skyscrapers began to grow during the late 1880s and early 1890s. Even before

Gillender Building - Misplaced Pages Continue

5628-806: The Financial District. The Bankers Trust Company joined the process after the Bank of Montreal , the Fourth National Bank , and the Germania Life Insurance Company acquired their properties on Wall and Nassau Streets. Bankers Trust, which was established in 1902, had been a tenant at the Gillender Building for six years and their choice of site was motivated by its location near the New York Stock Exchange . The company, with J. P. Morgan on

5762-583: The Gillender Building to Augustus Teophilus Gillender, principal partner in a law firm, but Gillender Asinari disputed this version, saying that "Mr. Augustus T. Gillender never has had, nor has he now, the slightest interest in the property." The construction contract was awarded to the Charles T. Willis Company, while Hecla Iron Works , Atlas Cement Company, and the Okonite Company of Passaic were principal suppliers. The foundations were constructed in

5896-521: The Masons' private suites and meeting halls, some able to hold up to 1,300 people. At the top was a roof garden and observation gallery. The Freemasons were competing with their local rivals the Odd Fellows , who intended to build a much higher skyscraper, 556 feet (169 m) tall, that they announced would be the tallest building in the world. Newspapers picked up the story, circulating facts about

6030-690: The Netherlands. The architects of early skyscrapers faced a number of challenges. The most fashionable architectural style in the late 19th century was the French Beaux-Arts movement, sometimes termed the Italian Renaissance style, which applied Classical aesthetic principles to modern buildings. American architects trained in the Beaux-Arts style at the Parisian Académie des Beaux-Arts began to return home in

6164-573: The Peoples Gas Building using texture and the Railway Exchange Building's white terracotta, for example. The process of building skyscrapers became more sophisticated, starting with the acquisition of the real estate needed for the site. Brokers working on commission would secretly acquire the individual lots of land required for a project, operating under a variety of names to avoid having the price increase once

6298-636: The Woolworth Building had around 600 different tenants in 1913, for example; a typical tenant might rent four or five office units in a skyscraper. Skyscrapers, particularly those in New York, attracted considerable comment, much of it negative. On his return to New York, writer Henry James condemned the buildings in The American Scene as simply "giants of the mere market", "mercenary monsters" doomed to be torn down in turn as other, even larger, buildings took their place. In Chicago

6432-588: The altitude record of 12,120 feet (3,690 m). He was the son of Colonel Henry Albertson Van Zo Post and Caroline Burnet McLean. On January 25, 1907, he married Grace Woodman Phillips (1887–1971). After his death, she married Francis Cogswell in 1916. He served in the 25th infantry , and the 1st Aero Squadron . He died in San Diego, California in an air crash. He was buried in Section 3 of Arlington National Cemetery , near other early aviators and also near

6566-434: The base, the upper two floors, and the cupola. Massive cornices above the second and third floors visually separated the base from the shaft that rose until the fourteenth floor. Starting from the ninth floor, it gradually re-acquired ornaments and arched windows as if in anticipation of the ornate Italian Baroque cupola above. Copper was used to cover the dome and cornices. The Gillender Building attracted attention due to

6700-439: The beginning of April 1910, and that of the Gillender Building commenced on April 29, 1910. Material from the building was preserved as much as possible for reuse. The windows, doors, trim, interior fittings, and pipes were carefully removed, the window openings boarded up, and the floorboards removed and preserved as secondhand lumber. The copper sheeting and terracotta backing were carefully removed with steel derricks, leaving only

6834-624: The board, grew rapidly and intended to land itself permanently in the "vortex of America's financial life". In July 1909, Bankers Trust signed a long-term lease agreement with the Sampson family, owners of the Stevens Building; the company preferred leasing over purchasing due to the high price of land on Wall Street. Located on the same block as the Gillender Building, the L-shaped, seven-story Stevens Building wrapped around it and possessed far longer facades on both Wall and Nassau Streets. Initially,

SECTION 50

#1732783824853

6968-456: The brickwork. By May 2, the cupola was dismantled completely and most of the cupola masonry was removed, exposing its steel skeleton. The Times said that Volk "strode over busted balustrades like an admiral on his bridge, barking through a megaphone at his crew." The steel had gone down to the thirteenth-story ceiling by May 13. By the end of May, most of the Stevens Building was torn down; the Gillender Building's masonry walls were removed down to

7102-464: The building's frame upon its demolition, said that "the quality of paint and the application of the same were decidedly inferior", and fireproofing was provided mostly by the terracotta cladding. Inside, the Gillender Building contained a plumbing system serving "26 water closets, 17 water basins, 12 wash basins and 5 slop sinks". The receiving tank was relatively small with a capacity of only 500 U.S. gallons (1,900 L; 420 imp gal). During

7236-464: The buildings. Fast Otis elevators, powered by electricity rather than steam-driven hydraulics, began to be installed in skyscrapers, with Ellithorpe safety air cushions protecting the passengers in the case of failure. Lighting improved, with the recommended levels in 1916 being around twice the level of the 1890s. Nonetheless, skyscrapers still relied primarily on natural sunlight, which required installing large windows and having tall ceilings to allow

7370-476: The center of the financial district. Chicago's skyscrapers, however, were constrained by the contemporary limits of steel-frame design and the muddy sub-soil in the city, which together limited most of its skyscrapers to around 16 or 17 stories. Chicago's skyscrapers rapidly became tourist destinations for the views of the wider city they provided from their upper floors and as attractive sites in their own right. Tourists were advised to hire cabs for street tours of

7504-657: The city and in the world, following the Pabst Hotel in Times Square (demolished 1902). It had cost Bankers Trust $ 50,000 plus $ 500 for advance completion; the contractor also received all the scrap, valued at $ 25,000. The granite slabs from the Gillender Building were recycled into tombstones of the Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn . The Bankers Trust Company Building, now known as 14 Wall Street ,

7638-473: The combination of the environmental pollution and skyscrapers meant that, as Charles Warner complained, "one can scarcely see across the streets on a damp day, and the huge buildings loom up in the black sky in ghostly dimness". Wider artistic sentiments varied. Many, like Alfred Stieglitz , harboured mixed feelings over New York's skyscrapers, reflected in his famous 1903 portrait of the Flatiron Building , and his 1910 work Old and New New York that contrasts

7772-416: The components of a column (namely a base, shaft, and capital ). The bulk of the tower rose to 219 feet (67 m) without setbacks, and a three-story cupola formed the capital, reaching 273 feet (83 m). The lowest two stories of the capital covered a smaller area than the bulk of the building, though the top story comprised a dome and pinnacle. Expensive decoration was limited to the three floors of

7906-550: The construction of new skyscrapers taller than 150 feet (46 m), leaving the development of taller buildings to New York. A new wave of skyscraper construction emerged in the first decade of the 20th century. The demand for new office space to hold the expanding workforce of white-collar staff in the U.S. continued to grow. Engineering developments made it easier to build and live in yet taller buildings. Chicago built new skyscrapers in its existing style, while New York experimented further with tower design. Iconic buildings such as

8040-639: The construction of the American Surety Building , a twenty-story, 303-foot (92 m) high-steel development that broke Chicago's height record. From then on, New York thoroughly embraced skeleton frame construction. In particular, New York newspaper companies adopted the skyscraper, building several along Park Row , sometimes termed "Newspaper Row", in the 1880s and 1890s. A few early skyscrapers were also constructed in Baltimore, Boston, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Rochester, and Buffalo, such as

8174-537: The corner with Broadway, the land under which had sold for $ 558.65 per foot ($ 1,832.8/m). Negotiations had progressed since April 1909 and the sale was virtually closed in November. On January 2, 1910, the press reported that the Manhattan Trust had resold the building to Bankers Trust, which had completed land acquisition for its large corner property. By April 1910, the final cash price paid to Manhattan Trust

SECTION 60

#1732783824853

8308-574: The de Peysters and the Bayards. In 1773, de Peyster sold the corner lot to the Verplanck family for less than $ 1,500; the Verplanck mansion later housed Wall Street banks. The second New York City Hall, later renamed Federal Hall , was erected in 1700 and torn down in 1816. It occupied the eastern side of present-day Nassau Street, on the site of the present-day Federal Hall National Memorial. Though Nassau Street historically curved around City Hall, it

8442-460: The decade before World War I . The city's elevated train network was operating by 1910, allowing more workers to come into downtown. In 1910 alone 1,500,000 square feet (140,000 m ) of new offices were opened and by the end of the decade, Chicago had the second largest number of headquarters offices in the U.S. Chicago architectural firms such as Daniel H. Burnham and then Graham, Anderson, Probst & White continued to design skyscrapers in

8576-508: The deep bedrock on the site required particularly deep foundations. The tower was faced in dark brick and followed the Beaux-Arts style used by the rest of the complex, with a galleried lobby fitted out in Italian marble. When it opened in 1908, it had 41 stories and was 612 feet (187 m) tall; visitors paid $ 0.50 ($ 14 in 2020 terms) each to use the observation area at the top of the building. The Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Tower

8710-480: The designs of the early skyscrapers, instead embracing the international style; many older skyscrapers were redesigned to suit contemporary tastes or even demolished—such as the Singer Tower, once the world's tallest skyscraper. Tall structures have been built in some form or another for millennia. Egypt's Great Pyramid of Giza , built in the 26th century BC at a height of 481 feet (147 m), would remain

8844-494: The development of the skyscraper, some criticized large buildings in Chicago for dominating churches and private houses, and this sentiment strengthened. Critics complained that the concentration of tall buildings in the center of the city was causing huge congestion, and each new skyscraper was also burning additional coal to power its facilities, together consuming a total of over one million tons each year, leaving smoke and stagnant air hanging over Chicago. Many were concerned over

8978-450: The disproportion of its height and footprint. The new structure occupied about 26 by 73 feet (7.9 m × 22.3 m), ruling out efficient space plans. Quicksand under the site required use of foundations driven by yellow-pine caissons . These caissons consumed the underground space that could be otherwise used by bank vaults or retail storage, further reducing the building's value. There were three caissons, each extending across

9112-574: The drafts by Trowbridge & Livingston to build a 39-story tower that, when announced, would be New York City's third tallest building after the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Tower and the Singer Building . At the time, the Gillender Building was the tallest building ever demolished voluntarily . The contract to demolish the Gillender Building was awarded to Jacob Volk, known for his work on

9246-465: The early 19th century, and major breakthroughs came with the work of architect Peter Wight in the 1860s. Spurred on by the catastrophic fires in Chicago in 1871 and Boston in 1872 , his findings were turned into a wide variety of patented fireproofing products during the 1870s. Taller, heavier buildings such as skyscrapers also required stronger foundations than smaller buildings. Earlier buildings had typically rested their foundations on rubble, which

9380-404: The entire width of the building site. The caissons contained air chambers, above which were placed steel foundation grillages composed of 20 I-beams , and then a series of brick piers laid atop Portland cement. Sheet piles were then driven around the three caissons to make rectangular enclosures. There was a small cellar under the building, reaching 29 feet 8 inches (9.04 m) below

9514-595: The facade was richly textured and incorporated stylistic features more common in Chicago. A critical and popular success, the Flatiron was likened to the Parthenon of Ancient Greece and became a New York icon. The construction of the Singer Tower was announced by the company in 1906, who intended to produce the tallest skyscraper in the world. The company already had several low-rise buildings in New York that

9648-481: The first floor. Structurally, the building contained a fully wind-braced steel frame with masonry infill. The floors were made of hollow-tile concrete arches. while the interior partitions were made of cement mortar around wire lath. The superstructure consisted of a steel cage with twelve columns: four extending to the top of the 17th story, and eight to the top of the 19th story. The outermost two pairs of columns carried 650 short tons (580 long tons; 590 t) each;

9782-481: The first skyscraper because of its innovative use of structural steel in a metal frame design. The Home Insurance Building was a 138-foot (42 m) tall, 10-story skyscraper designed by William Le Baron Jenney , who had been trained as an engineer in France and was a leading architect in Chicago. Jenney's design was unusual in that it incorporated structural steel into the building's internal metal frame alongside

9916-488: The foundations were built by Stephens & O'Rourke (later the O'Rourke Engineering Construction Company). In addition, Maryland Steel and the Pencoyd Bridge Company provided the steel, which was erected by Post and McCord. The Gillender Building cost $ 500,000 to construct. The Gillender Building belonged to "a series of elegant towers in various classical modes erected in New York in the 1890s", and

10050-504: The foundations were complete. The deeper the foundations needed to be, the greater the challenge. Special water-tight boxes called caissons were invented to deal with this problem in England in 1830 and adopted in the U.S. during the 1850s and 1860s. The development of the elevator was also essential to the emergence of the early skyscrapers, as office buildings taller than around six stories would have been impractical without them. Powered elevators were first installed in England during

10184-418: The frantic building of the previous few years, meant that Chicago suddenly had a significant surplus of office space, threatening occupancy levels and rents. Regulation was introduced by the city council to control the problem in 1892, with support from the real estate industry who hoped to slow the construction of additional office space and shore up their diminishing profit margins. The height of new buildings

10318-512: The front of prominent magazines such as Scientific American , as well as on the sides of corn flake boxes, coffee packets, and cars. The tower was loosely modeled on the Venetian St Mark's Campanile , and featured extensive Early Renaissance-style detailing, with the more modern additions of huge clock faces, electric floodlights for night-time illumination, and an observation deck at the top. The design won critical acclaim within

10452-479: The growing steel frame of the emerging Vanderbilt Hotel with the old low-rise blocks of the street below. Poets also wrote about the issues, the early Modernist Sadakichi Hartmann describing how "from the city's stir and madd'ning roar" the Flatiron's "monstrous shape soars in massive flight". Artists such as Alvin Coburn and John Marin experimented with producing portraits of New York's skyscrapers, capturing

10586-440: The height of buildings, but in practice low-rise buildings were the norm, at least until 1865, with the tallest buildings being the city's churches. New York's population tripled between 1840 and 1870, and property values soared, increasing by more than 90 percent between 1860 and 1875. Further west, the city of Chicago became the other major site in the development of early skyscrapers. In contrast to New York, Chicago emerged as

10720-434: The hospital. The New York Times described the demolition thus: The famous Gillender Building, which when erected twelve years ago on the northwest corner of Nassau and Wall Streets was called the tallest skyscraper in the world, its tower rising some 300 feet above the streets, has gone the way of other landmarks The work was timed so that the deconstruction of the steel frame was no more than two stories behind that of

10854-431: The income from a property. Chicago skyscraper windows were also a feature of the style; these were large, fixed windows flanked by smaller sash windows on either side, which provided access to sunlight and adequate ventilation. Sometimes these protruded from the building to form a slight bay. Although the exterior of the Chicago skyscrapers buildings were relatively plain, the entrance ways and lobbies were fitted out in

10988-402: The land to Dongan, and Dongan resold it in 1689 to Abraham de Peyster and Nicholas Bayard. Both de Peyster and Bayard served as Mayors of New York . The first known building on the Gillender Building's site, a sugar house , was built by Samuel Bayard. In 1718, most of the present-day block was sold to a church congregation, while the corner lot, cut into narrow strips, remained in possession of

11122-401: The late 1890s, Helen L. Gillender Asinari was the owner of a six-story office building on the corner of Wall and Nassau Streets, having inherited ownership of the land from her grandfather George Lovett, who had purchased the site in 1849. In 1896, Gillender Asinari decided to replace it with a 300-foot (91 m) tall tower, capitalizing on a tenfold increase in land value. At the time, the land

11256-557: The main windows, making it most efficient to build skyscrapers with as much premium office space as possible, even if this cost slightly more to construct in the first instance. As a result, a standard pattern for office units in both New York and Chicago emerged, with either a single rectangular office adjoining an exterior wall, or a T-shaped design, with a reception room giving way to two windowed offices, separated by glass partitions. Skyscrapers usually took on large numbers of relatively small companies as their tenants. A skyscraper such as

11390-417: The material from the building was saved. At the time, the Gillender Building was the tallest building ever demolished voluntarily . The Gillender Building stood on the northwest corner of Wall Street and Nassau Street , on a narrow strip measuring 26 feet (7.9 m) on Wall Street and 73 feet (22 m) on Nassau Street. The 39-story Bankers Trust tower at 14 Wall Street , built in 1911, occupies both

11524-491: The most modern tower on the market, the Gillender Building was occupied by financial firms through its short lifetime and was perceived as economically obsolete from the start. There were no notable incidents other than two lightning strikes in its spire in July 1897 and May 1900; the latter "sent splinters flying in every direction" without casualties. In 1909, financial institutions began rapidly expanding their properties within

11658-414: The next four columns, 750 short tons (670 long tons; 680 t); and the innermost four columns, 950 short tons (850 long tons; 860 t). The 12 columns would carry a total load of 9,000 short tons (8,000 long tons; 8,200 t). The columns were braced both horizontally and diagonally. The steel was coated with three layers of paint: one at the steel shop and two more on-site. One observer, writing about

11792-544: The offices of the Broadway Journal on this site from 1844 until 1845. From 1849 until December 1909, the lot remained in the hands of a single family. Adjacent lots were owned by the Sampson family since 1840, and this property was developed into the Stevens Building in 1880. The Gillender Building was designed by Charles I. Berg and Edward H. Clark. It was erected under the supervision of consulting engineer Henry Post and general contractor Charles T. Wills, while

11926-509: The old financial buildings, and in their place a wide variety of new buildings were erected and demolished in quick succession during the 1840s and 1850s; traveler Philip Hone suggested that the entire city was being rebuilt every decade. Most buildings adopted the Italian Renaissance inspired palazzo -style of architecture popular in England, and rose no more than five or six stories. New York did not have any restrictions on

12060-521: The onset of the Great Depression , the real estate market collapsed, and new builds stuttered to a halt, ending this era of skyscraper construction. Popular and academic culture embraced the skyscraper through films, photography, literature, and ballet, seeing the buildings as either positive symbols of modernity and science, or alternatively examples of the ills of modern life and society. Skyscraper projects after World War II typically rejected

12194-464: The outside of skyscrapers at the ground level and simpler, plainer ornamentation on the upper levels, with strong vertical lines. The roofs of their skyscrapers typically formed a comprehensible outline and structure when seen at a distance as part of the city skyline. The intent was to draw the observer's eye upwards, celebrating what Sullivan termed the "lofty" nature of the skyscraper, but not wasting resources on intricate detailing unlikely to appeal to

12328-508: The positive and negative aspects of the modern structures. In 1908 artist Harry Pettit produced a romantic interpretation of a future New York, filled with giant skyscrapers supporting aerial bridges and receiving dirigibles from around the globe. Amongst the architectural community, the Exposition in Chicago inspired many Americans to champion planning cities that had a unified design, in which each building had unique features but elegantly complemented its neighbours, typically by being built to

12462-500: The press reported that Bankers Trust planned to build a 16-story office building wrapping around the Gillender Building, with the two bottom floors outfitted to be "one of the finest banking rooms in the city". Later, it was disclosed that the trust had been negotiating purchase of the Gillender Building since April 1909; the deal would have consolidated enough land for a new tower, with a roughly square footprint measuring about 100 by 100 feet (30 by 30 m). The Manhattan Trust Company,

12596-495: The processes for erecting skyscrapers, largely through the work of general contractors such as Louis Horowitz and Frank Gilbreth , who in turn drew on recent work by efficiency specialist Frederick Taylor . Time schedules were devised for all the work to be undertaken, with costs carefully monitored and reports produced each day. The results were demonstrated on the Woolworth Building construction project, where 1,153 tonnes (1,153,000 kg) of steel were assembled in only six days,

12730-528: The products of the Chicago school of architecture , these skyscrapers attempted to balance aesthetic concerns with practical commercial design, producing large, square palazzo -styled buildings hosting shops and restaurants on the ground level and containing rentable offices on the upper floors. In contrast, New York's skyscrapers were frequently narrower towers which, more eclectic in style, were often criticized for their lack of elegance. In 1892, Chicago banned

12864-413: The recently invented typewriter , which grew in number in U.S. offices from 146 in 1879 to 65,000 by 1890. Skyscrapers provided a wide range of in-house services for their tenants, including shops, restaurants, barbers, tobacconists, newsagents, tailors, professional specialists and libraries. Skyscrapers also employed a substantial number of service staff to maintain and support them; a building such as

12998-427: The recovery was well underway, with new construction in New York returning to the pace of 1871, and the economic upturn making the construction of taller buildings an attractive financial option again, establishing many of the preconditions for the development of the skyscraper. The emergence of skyscrapers was made possible by technological improvements during the middle of the 19th century. One of these developments

13132-544: The relatively small plots of land in New York. Some New York skyscrapers emulated the tripartite style of Chicago, but others broke their exterior down into many different layers, each with its own style. Proponents argued that this reintroduced a sense of human proportion to these tall buildings; critics felt that the results were confusing and ungainly. Early skyscrapers were mainly made up of small office cubicles, commonly only 12 feet (3.7 m) across, which were placed adjacent to one another along long corridors, following

13266-529: The risk of a major fire breaking out and spreading, uncontrolled, from building to building. Chicago was not alone in having concerns over the growth of the skyscraper. In Boston, the Fiske and the Ames Buildings were built in the late 1880s, 183 ft (56 m) and 190 feet (58 m) tall respectively, but protests by local civic campaigners and the real estate industry resulted in the city passing

13400-435: The roles of architect and engineer, but this broke down in Chicago during the period, being replaced by a partnership between specialist architects who focused on the appearance of the skyscraper, and specialist engineers who focused on the structures that enabled it to be built. Chicago architectural firms grew to be large, hierarchical and with numerous specialist staff; the D. H. Burnham & Company , for example, felt like

13534-445: The seventh floor and steel skeleton was down to the eleventh floor. The demolition allowed observers the opportunity to look at the steel structure, and architectural historians Sarah Landau and Carl Condit characterized the opportunity as "the only useful aspect of the Gillender's demolition". By June 12, all that remained of the Gillender Building was a single level of its steel frame visible above protective scaffolding. Demolition

13668-490: The site of the Gillender Building and the adjoining seven-story Stevens Building at 12-14 Wall Street. Surrounding lots to the north and west were incorporated as part of an annex to 14 Wall Street, built between 1931 and 1933. In the 17th century, the area north of Wall Street was occupied by John Damen's farm; Damen sold the land in 1685 to captain John Knight, an officer of Thomas Dongan 's administration. Knight resold

13802-632: The size of the Temple and making comparison to historical buildings such as the Capitol or the Statue of Liberty . The Odd Fellows project failed, but the Masonic Temple capitalized on the publicity, being declared the "tallest commercial building in the world". In comparison, New York trailed behind Chicago, having only four buildings over 16 stories tall by 1893. Part of the delay was caused by

13936-457: The skyscraper impinged on the rights of the rest of the city by destroying the collective appearance of an urban area. Some architects, such as Charles McKim and Stanford White refused to work on such projects altogether. Henry Post Henry Burnet Post (June 15, 1885 – February 9, 1914) was a first lieutenant in the US Army and a pioneer aviator who was killed in a crash. He set

14070-474: The skyscrapers – by lying back in the cab, they would be able to safely take in the tops of the tall buildings. The Masonic Temple was the most prominent of these skyscrapers. Built by the Freemasons of Chicago in 1892, at a time when the Masons was a fast-growing social community, the lavish 302-foot (92 m) tall skyscraper had 19 stories, the bottom ten holding shops and the higher levels containing

14204-475: The slowness of the city authorities to authorize metal-frame construction techniques; it was not until 1889 that they relented and allowed Bradford Gilbert to construct the Tower Building , an 11-story iron-framed skyscraper. This encouraged the building of more skyscrapers in New York, although the city remained cautious about the technology for some years. Finally, in 1895 a breakthrough was made with

14338-495: The standards of the day, these offices were very modern, with radiators, air vents, and the latest fixtures and fittings, and modern communication systems, including telephone and pneumatic tubes were often installed. As a result, many businesses chose to move out of their older, low-rise offices in Chicago to take up tenancy in the new skyscrapers, which were felt to be more convenient and healthier. The first skyscrapers were mainly occupied by male workers, but this changed during

14472-417: The steel frame standing. Most of the steel in the Gillender Building was found to be relatively free of oxidation, with a few exception, as the frame was protected by the exterior terracotta cladding. Two hundred and fifty men were involved in the demolition project during the daytime, and a hundred during the night. Of these, two Italian workers were injured by falling girders, one of whom subsequently died in

14606-412: The streets and the fumes from the gas lighting made air quality a major health issue. A steam-driven, forced-draft ventilation system was invented in 1860 and became widely used in taller buildings by the 1870s, overcoming much of the problem. Improvements in iron piping permitted running hot and cold water and sanitation facilities to be installed throughout taller buildings for the first time. There

14740-537: The structural frame underneath and incorporating 15th and 16th century Flamboyant Gothic -styled features. It was capped by a gilded tower that blended into the sky behind it to produce an illusion of even greater height. The building was illuminated with floodlights at night, topped with red and white flashing lights. It was famously dubbed the "Cathedral of Commerce", rather to Gilbert's displeasure as he had attempted to avoid copying ecclesiastical architecture. Meanwhile, Chicago's skyscraper industry also boomed during

14874-424: The sunlight to penetrate the back of the offices; an office deeper than 28 feet (8.5 m) was not considered a practical design. One of the reasons for the increase in the numbers of skyscrapers during this period was the growth in demand for office workers. In part this demand was fuelled by many U.S. firms becoming larger and more complex, and white-collar sectors such as insurance and banking grew in scale. It

15008-466: The tallest structure on Earth for a millennia until it was surpassed in the Middle Ages. The term "skyscraper" was first used in the 1780s to describe a particularly tall horse, before later being applied to, among other things, the sail at the top of a ship's mast , tall hats and bonnets, tall men, and a ball that was hit high into the air. In the 1880s it began to be applied to buildings, first in 1883 to describe large public monuments and then in 1889 as

15142-476: The tenants, such surroundings were good for their own business credibility and affirmed their own social status as professionals. New York faced similar architectural challenges, but in comparison to Chicago, skyscraper architects worked less closely with engineers and other specialists, and instead held strong backgrounds in the Beaux Arts movement and perceived their role to be primarily artistic rather than

15276-441: The tower would be incorporated into and planned to rent out the bottom half of the tower to tenants to subsidize their use of the upper half. The skyscraper was designed by Ernest Flagg , a Beaux-Arts advocate and noted critic of existing skyscrapers, who justified taking on the project as a way of generating support for skyscraper reform. The design was technically challenging: the tall, narrow tower needed special wind bracing, and

15410-438: The traditional wrought iron. This frame took the weight of the floors of the building and helped to support the weight of the external walls as well, proving an important step towards creating the genuine non-structural curtain walls that became a feature of later skyscrapers. The design was not perfect – some of the weight was still carried by masonry walls, and the metal frame was bolted, rather than riveted , together – but it

15544-465: The upcoming demolition of the Gillender Building "as the first time when such a high-class office building representing the best type of fire-proof construction" would be torn down and "one of the largest building operations ever undertaken in New York". The Engineering News-Record said that "the case is the more notable because the Gillender Building is of unusual proportions, being very narrow and for its width exceptionally high." Bankers Trust publicized

15678-572: The use of an iron-framed skeleton , further differentiated skyscrapers from earlier tall secular buildings, such as those in the Old Town of Edinburgh . Development of these skyscrapers was concentrated in the American cities of New York and Chicago , but was not entirely exclusive to them; precursors of the form exist in Europe, especially the United Kingdom. The Ditherington Flax Mill

15812-477: Was adjusted to $ 1,250,000; in exchange for the $ 250,000 difference, the Manhattan Trust retained long-term lease rights for the ground floor "and some other space in the building". Contemporaries agreed that the Manhattan Trust and Bankers Trust acted in accord and that the latter targeted the Gillender Building from the start. Bankers Trust absorbed Manhattan Trust Company in February 1912. The press anticipated

15946-515: Was adorned in such styles as Italianate, Classical Revival, and English Gothic. Such blocks, which were very flexible in their use, had already been prolific before the fire, and early post-fire reconstruction differed from the old styles downtown only in scale. The construction of taller buildings during the 1870s was hindered by the financial Panic of 1873 and the ensuing economic depression, which lasted until around 1879. Construction slowed, and property values slumped. By 1880, however,

16080-495: Was also driven by changing technology. The typewriter was joined in the office by the adding machine , the telephone and filing cabinets, all adding to the demand for office space and requiring increasingly specialised workers. Tenants and rental income were essential to the financial success of any skyscraper, as even the largest skyscrapers and those founded by prominent companies rented out much of their office space. Owners could charge significantly more for office space close to

16214-458: Was built in Shropshire in 1797 as the world's first iron-framed building, and as such has been referred to as "the father of the skyscraper." Early skyscrapers emerged in the United States as a result of economic growth, the financial organization of American businesses, and the intensive use of land. New York City was one of the centers of early skyscraper construction and had a history as

16348-535: Was clearly a significant advance in tall building construction. The approach quickly caught on in Chicago. In 1889 the Tacoma Building replaced the bolted metal design with a stronger riveted approach, and Chicago's Chamber of Commerce Building introduced interior light courts to the structural design of skyscrapers. The 1890 Rand McNally Building became the first entirely self-supporting, steel-framed skyscraper. Some buildings, such as The Rookery and

16482-451: Was completed in 1912, becoming the tallest banking building in the world. The bank occupied only the three lower floors; its main operations were housed elsewhere in less expensive offices. In 1931, Bankers Trust acquired and demolished the adjacent Hanover, Astor, and Pine Street Buildings, and replaced them with an annex to the original Bankers Trust Building. The annex was completed in 1933, tripling its rentable area. The Gillender Building

16616-531: Was designed by Charles I. Berg and Edward H. Clark, and rose 273 feet (83 m) with 20 stories, comprising 17 floors in the main body and three floors in a cupola . The building contained a fully wind-braced steel frame with masonry infill, and included twelve columns atop three caisson foundations . On its completion, it was praised as an engineering novelty. It attracted attention for its disproportionate height and its low total rentable area of only about 30,000 square feet (2,800 m). The Gillender Building

16750-545: Was extensively described in engineering journals and was initially used to build warehouses. Using these metal frames for taller buildings, however, meant exposing them to increased wind pressure . As a consequence, protective wind bracing had to be introduced, enabled by the work of Augustin-Jean Fresnel who produced equations for calculating the loads and moments on larger buildings. Metal-framed buildings were also vulnerable to fire and required special fireproofing . French engineers had made advances in this area in

16884-427: Was in turn laid down on the soft top layer of the ground called the overburden . As buildings became taller and heavier, the overburden could not support their weight, and foundations increasingly needed to rest directly on the bedrock below. In both New York and Chicago this required digging down a considerable distance through soft soil and often below the water table , risking the hole filling up with water before

17018-434: Was limited to 150 feet (46 m), with lower height levels on narrower streets, effectively curtailing the construction of any taller skyscrapers. The early years of the 20th century saw a range of technically sophisticated, architecturally confident skyscrapers built in New York; academics Sarah Landau and Carl Condit term this "the first great age" of skyscraper building. Some were relatively conservative buildings in

17152-501: Was occupied by financial firms through its uneventful 13-year existence and was perceived as economically obsolete from the start. In 1909, financial institutions began rapidly expanding their properties within the Financial District, and that December, the building was sold to Bankers Trust for a then-record price of $ 822 per square foot ($ 8,850/m). The Gillender Building was demolished between April and June 1910 to make way for Bankers Trust's 39-story tower at 14 Wall Street , and much of

17286-511: Was officially completed June 16, 1910, one day ahead of schedule, although work on its underground foundations did not commence until a month later. One journal reported that "...all previous records for rapid work were surpassed" and that "every vestige of [the Gillender Building] had disappeared" by the time work was completed. Another said that the Gillender Building was "only the second high modern building to be taken down", both in

17420-450: Was on par with Manhattan 's 1897 average for pre-skyscraper buildings (26,300 sq ft [2,440 m]) and lower than the area of adjacent six-story Stevens Building. The disproportion was made more evident in 1903, when the marginally taller Hanover National Bank Building was built on an adjacent lot, dwarfing the slender Gillender Building. The Gillender Building's articulation consisted of three horizontal sections similar to

17554-408: Was opened in 1909, the culmination of a long building project by N. LeBrun and Sons to hold Metropolitan Life's growing headquarters staff, 2,800 strong by 1909. At 700 feet (210 m) high and with 50 stories, it became the world's new tallest building. Metropolitan Life intended the skyscraper to promote the company's image, and the building was surrounded by publicity. The tower was featured on

17688-513: Was straightened after the demolition of the second City Hall. The street's early route was retained in the placement of the corner buildings (including the Gillender Building but not 14 Wall Street), which were set back from the street, providing a sidewalk that was wider than usual. In 1816, the corner lot was owned by Charles Gardner, who sold the property the next year for $ 11,200; it was further resold in 1835 for $ 47,500 and in 1849 for $ 55,000. Charles Frederick Briggs and Edgar Allan Poe operated

17822-459: Was the iron framed building. Masonry buildings supported their internal floors through their walls, but the taller the building, the thicker the walls had to become, particularly at the base. In the 1860s, French engineers experimented with using built-up plate girders made of wrought iron to construct buildings supported by internal metal frames. These frames were stronger than traditional masonry and permitted much thinner walls. The methodology

17956-517: Was worth $ 625,000 (equivalent to $ 19,696,000 in 2023). The building was most likely named after Helen's father, millionaire tobacco merchant Eccles Gillender (1810–1877). According to media, Gillender Asinari had hurried to build the new tower prior to the anticipated enactment of new, stricter building codes , which led to the shortcomings of the building's design, even though the regulations did not come into effect until 1916. An alternative version presented by Joseph Korom attributes construction of

#852147