197-466: The Tribune Tower is a 463-foot-tall (141 m), 36-floor neo-Gothic skyscraper located at 435 North Michigan Avenue in Chicago , Illinois, United States. The early 1920s international design competition for the tower became a historic event in 20th-century architecture. Built for Chicago Tribune owner Robert R. McCormick , since 2018 it has been converted into luxury residences and in 2023 won
394-504: A New York Times article two days later, Woolworth said that his building would rise 750 feet (230 m) to its tip. These plans called for a 30-story base and 25-story square tower above it. The 750-foot height was the absolute minimum that Woolworth would agree to, but Gilbert increased the height tp 792-foot (241 m) so the architectural proportions would fit. Renderings by illustrator Hughson Hawley , completed in April 1911, are
591-422: A revolving door and a Tudor window; it is flanked by standard doors and framed with decorations. There is a pelican above this smaller arch. Decorated revolving doors are also located at the northern and southern entrances, at Park Place and Barclay Street respectively. The Park Place and Barclay Street entrances are nearly identical, except for the arrangement of the storefronts. Both entrances are located on
788-499: A $ 250,000 contract to manufacture the terracotta. The next month, Donnelly and Ricci received the $ 11,500 contract for the terracotta work and some of the interior design work. Gilbert requested Atlantic Terra Cotta use an office next to his while they drew several hundred designs. The construction process involved hundreds of workers, and daily wages ranged from $ 1.50 for laborers (equivalent to $ 46 in 2023) to $ 4.50 for skilled workers (equivalent to $ 139 in 2023). By August 1911,
985-635: A 161-meter tower from 1890) and St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague (1844–1929). In Belgium, a 15th-century church in Ostend burned down in 1896. King Leopold II funded its replacement, the Saint Peter's and Saint Paul's Church , a cathedral-scale design which drew inspiration from the neo-Gothic Votive Church in Vienna and Cologne Cathedral. In Mechelen , the largely unfinished building drawn in 1526 as
1182-418: A 30-story base topped by a 30-story tower. Its facade is mostly clad with architectural terracotta , though the lower portions are limestone , and it features thousands of windows. The ornate lobby contains various sculptures, mosaics, and architectural touches. The structure was designed with several amenities and attractions, including a now-closed observatory on the 57th floor and a private swimming pool in
1379-615: A 30-story building rising from the site. Because of the change in plans, the organization of the Broadway-Park Place Company was rearranged. Woolworth would be the major investor in the Broadway–Park Place Company, contributing $ 1 million, and the bank would contribute the other $ 500,000. The Irving Bank would take up a 25-year lease for the ground floor, fourth floor, and basement. By September 1910, Gilbert had designed an even taller structure, with
1576-505: A 40-story tower on Park Place adjacent to a shorter 25-story annex, yielding a 550-foot (170 m)-tall building. The next month, Gilbert's design had evolved into a 45-story building roughly the height of the nearby Singer Building . This proposal called for a neo-Gothic structure with a 26-story base, topped by a square tower rising another 19 stories. After the latest design, Woolworth wrote to Gilbert in November 1910 and asked for
1773-599: A 56-page brochure outlining the building's features. Schuyler later described the Woolworth Building as the "noblest offspring" of buildings erected with steel skeletons. On completion, the Woolworth Building topped the record set by the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Tower as the world's tallest building, a distinction it held until 1929. Woolworth had purchased all of the Broadway-Park Place Company's shares from
1970-459: A Driehaus Prize for architectural preservation and adaptive reuse from Landmarks Illinois . The tower was the home of the Tribune , and the related Tribune Media , Tribune Broadcasting , and Tribune Publishing . WGN Radio (720 kHz) originated broadcasts from the building until June 18, 2018. CNN 's Chicago bureau was also located in the building. It is listed as a Chicago Landmark and
2167-578: A baronial palace and its adoption as a royal retreat from 1855 to 1858 confirmed the popularity of the style. In the United States, the first "Gothic stile" church (as opposed to churches with Gothic elements) was Trinity Church on the Green , New Haven, Connecticut. It was designed by Ithiel Town between 1812 and 1814, while he was building his Federalist-style Center Church, New Haven next to this radical new "Gothic-style" church. Its cornerstone
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#17327719064832364-401: A building which are not necessary for convenience, construction or propriety; 2nd, that all ornament should consist of enrichment of the essential construction of the building". Urging modern craftsmen to seek to emulate the style of medieval workmanship as well as reproduce its methods, Pugin sought to reinstate Gothic as the true Christian architectural style. Pugin's most notable project was
2561-459: A classic body". John Ruskin supplemented Pugin's ideas in his two influential theoretical works, The Seven Lamps of Architecture (1849) and The Stones of Venice (1853). Finding his architectural ideal in Venice , Ruskin proposed that Gothic buildings excelled above all other architecture because of the "sacrifice" of the stone-carvers in intricately decorating every stone. In this, he drew
2758-640: A competition was held to design a new façade suitable to Arnolfo di Cambio 's original structure and the fine campanile next to it. This competition was won by Emilio De Fabris , and so work on his polychrome design and panels of mosaic was begun in 1876 and completed by 1887, creating the Neo-Gothic western façade. Eastern Europe also saw much Revival construction; in addition to the Hungarian Parliament Building in Budapest,
2955-473: A comprehensive cleaning campaign of the Woolworth's facade to remove blackening caused by the city's soot and pollution. The Ehrenkrantz Group restored the building's facade between 1977 and 1981. During the renovation, much of the terracotta was replaced with concrete and Gothic ornament was removed. The building has several thousand windows: the exact number is disputed, but various sources state that
3152-409: A constantly rotating lamp at the apex of the Woolworth Building's roof. Ultimately, the builders decided to erect nitrogen lamps and reflectors above the 31st floor, and have the intensity of the lighting increase with height. In contrast to other parts of Manhattan, the bedrock beneath the site is relatively deep, descending to between 110 and 115 feet (34 and 35 m) on average. The site also has
3349-497: A contrast between the physical and spiritual satisfaction which a medieval craftsman derived from his work, and the lack of these satisfactions afforded to modern, industrialised labour. By declaring the Doge's Palace to be "the central building of the world", Ruskin argued the case for Gothic government buildings as Pugin had done for churches, though mostly only in theory. When his ideas were put into practice, Ruskin often disliked
3546-487: A famous attack; "We are told we should adopt [Gothic] because it is the Christian style, and this most impudent assertion has been accepted as sound doctrine even by earnest and intelligent Protestants; whereas it ought only to have force with those who believe that Christian truth attained its purest and most spiritual development at the period when this style of architecture constituted its corporeal form". Those rejecting
3743-696: A grand dinner on the building's 27th floor for over 900 guests, and at exactly 7:30 p.m. EST , President Woodrow Wilson pushed a button in Washington, D.C. , to turn on the building's lights. Attendees included: Francis Hopkinson Smith , who served as toastmaster; author William Winter ; businessmen Patrick Francis Murphy and Charles M. Schwab ; Rhode Island Governor Aram J. Pothier ; Judge Thomas C. T. Crain ; US Senator from Arkansas Joseph Taylor Robinson ; Ecuadorian minister Gonzalo Córdova ; New York Supreme Court Justices Charles L. Guy and Edward Everett McCall ; Commissioner of Education of
3940-447: A high water table , which is as shallow as 15 feet (4.6 m) beneath ground level. Due to the geology of the area, the building is supported on either 66 or 69 massive caissons that descend to the bedrock. The caissons range in depth from 100 to 120 feet (30 to 37 m). To give the structure a sturdy foundation, the builders used metal tubes 19 feet (5.8 m) in diameter filled with concrete. These tubes were driven into
4137-632: A howling dog (Howells) near the main entrance to commemorate the architects. The top of the tower is designed after the Tour de beurre (″butter tower″) of the Rouen Cathedral in France, which is characteristic of the Late-Gothic style, that is to say, without a spire but with a crown-shaped top. Rene Paul Chambellan contributed his sculpture talents to the buildings ornamentation, gargoyles and
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#17327719064834334-445: A marble perimeter. The pool was later drained but was restored in the mid-2010s as part of the conversion of the Woolworth Building's upper floors into residential units. At the time of construction, the Woolworth Building had over 2,000 offices. Each office had ceilings ranging from 11 to 20 feet (3.4 to 6.1 m) high. Gilbert had designed the interior to maximize the amount of usable office space, and correspondingly, minimize
4531-573: A more appreciative approach to selected medieval arts, beginning with church architecture, the tomb monuments of royal and noble personages, stained glass, and late Gothic illuminated manuscripts. Other Gothic arts, such as tapestries and metalwork, continued to be disregarded as barbaric and crude, however sentimental and nationalist associations with historical figures were as strong in this early revival as purely aesthetic concerns. German Romanticists (including philosopher and writer Goethe and architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel ), began to appreciate
4728-462: A narrow interior court for light. The base occupies the entire lot between Park Place to the north, Broadway to the east, and Barclay Street to the south. The site measures 155 feet (47 m) wide on Broadway and 200 feet (61 m) wide on both Park Place and Barclay Street. The base contains two "wings" extending westward, one each on the Park Place and Barclay Street frontages, which form
4925-604: A phone call from Woolworth one day. The architect had recently finished designing the nearby Broadway–Chambers Building and 90 West Street , whose architecture Woolworth admired. Woolworth wanted his new structure to be of similar design to the Palace of Westminster in London, which was designed in the Gothic style. At the time, Gilbert was well known for constructing modern skyscrapers with historicizing design elements. Gilbert
5122-497: A portrait of himself. The Woolworth Building contains a system of high-speed elevators capable of traveling 650 feet (200 m) or 700 feet (210 m) per minute. The Otis Elevator Company supplied the units, which consisted of express elevators that ran nonstop between selected floors, as well as local elevators that stopped at every floor between a certain range. There were 26 Otis electric elevators with gearless traction, as well as an electric-drum shuttle elevator within
5319-622: A post which was filled in 1833 by Prosper Mérimée , who became the secretary of a new Commission des Monuments Historiques in 1837. This was the Commission that instructed Eugène Viollet-le-Duc to report on the condition of the Abbey of Vézelay in 1840. Following this, Viollet le Duc set out to restore most of the symbolic buildings in France including Notre Dame de Paris, Vézelay, Carcassonne , Roquetaillade castle , Mont-Saint-Michel Abbey on its peaked coastal island, Pierrefonds , and
5516-480: A reaction against machine production and the appearance of factories also grew. Proponents of the picturesque such as Thomas Carlyle and Augustus Pugin took a critical view of industrial society and portrayed pre-industrial medieval society as a golden age. To Pugin, Gothic architecture was infused with the Christian values that had been supplanted by classicism and were being destroyed by industrialisation . Gothic Revival also took on political connotations; with
5713-480: A result of the Church Building Act of 1818. It is often said to be the first Gothic Revival church in London, and, as Charles Locke Eastlake put it: "probably the only church of its time in which the main roof was groined throughout in stone". Nonetheless, the parish was firmly low church , and the original arrangement, modified in the 1860s, was as a "preaching church" dominated by the pulpit, with
5910-519: A rough U-shape when combined with the Broadway frontage. This ensured that all offices had outside views. The U-shaped base is approximately 30 stories tall. All four elevations of the base are decorated, since the building has frontage on all sides. The tower rises an additional 30 stories above the eastern side of the base, abutting Broadway. Above the 30th floor are setbacks on the north and south elevations. There are additional setbacks along
6107-453: A small altar and wooden galleries over the nave aisle. The development of the private major metropolitan cemeteries was occurring at the same time as the movement; Sir William Tite pioneered the first cemetery in the Gothic style at West Norwood in 1837, with chapels, gates, and decorative features in the Gothic manner, attracting the interest of contemporary architects such as George Edmund Street , Barry, and William Burges . The style
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6304-564: A special train from Washington, DC. Additional congratulations were sent via letter from former President William Howard Taft , Governor of New Jersey James Fairman Fielder and United States Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels . The building was declared ready for occupancy on May 1, 1913, and Woolworth began renting the offices at a minimum rate of $ 4 per square foot ($ 43/m ). To attract tenants, Woolworth hired architecture critic Montgomery Schuyler to write
6501-467: A stained-glass skylight surrounded by the names of several nations. The skylight contains the dates 1879 and 1913, which respectively signify the years of the Woolworth Company's founding and the building's opening. The skylight is also surrounded by sculpted grotesques, which depict merchandising activities in the five-and-dime industry. Heinigke and Brown manufactured the leaded glass of
6698-576: A tall building would produce the largest income of any building globally. On January 1, 1911, the New York Times reported Woolworth was planning a 625 feet (191 m) building at a cost of $ 5 million. That month, Woolworth and Hogan acquired the final site for the project. In total, the site had cost $ 4.5 million (about $ 107 million in 2023) and measured 152 feet (46 m) on Broadway, 192.5 feet (58.7 m) on Barclay Street, and 197.83 feet (60 m) on Park Place. In
6895-422: A total cost of $ 1.65 million (about $ 39 million in 2023). Woolworth commissioned Cass Gilbert to design the new building. There are few print documents that indicate early correspondence between Woolworth and Gilbert, and news articles as late as March 1910 mentioned that no architect had been chosen. Gilbert later mentioned that he had received the commission for the Woolworth Building after getting
7092-464: A visit to the Château de Compiègne shortly after the building opened. These included a bronze bust of Napoleon , a set of French Empire-style lamps with gold figures, and an inkwell with a depiction of Napoleon on horseback. The walls of the office contained portraits of Napoleon, and gold-and-scarlet chairs were arranged around the room. At some point, Woolworth replaced the portrait of Napoleon with
7289-610: Is a 792-foot-tall (241 m) residential building and early skyscraper at 233 Broadway in the Tribeca neighborhood of Lower Manhattan in New York City , United States. Designed by Cass Gilbert , it was the tallest building in the world from 1913 to 1929, and it remains one of the nation's 100 tallest buildings as of 2024 . The Woolworth Building is bounded by Broadway and City Hall Park to its east, Park Place to its north, and Barclay Street to its south. It consists of
7486-675: Is a contributing property to the Michigan–Wacker Historic District . Its predecessor, the first "Tribune Tower", had been built in 1868. It was destroyed in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. In 1922 the Chicago Tribune hosted an international interior and exterior design competition for its new headquarters to mark its 75th anniversary, and offered $ 100,000 in prize money with a $ 50,000 first prize for "the most beautiful and distinctive office building in
7683-406: Is a replica of one commissioned by Yale University in 1899; Pratt's widow gave permission for the copy. The statue was dedicated on June 4, 1940, with an event that included musical performances and an address by Professor William Warren Sweet, attended by high school Reserve Officers' Training Corps members. It depicts Hale with wrists and ankles bound. The pedestal states that it is "Dedicated to
7880-529: Is a separate street from Broadway. Woolworth and the Irving National Exchange Bank then set up the Broadway–Park Place Company to construct and finance the proposed structure. Initially, the bank was supposed to purchase the company's stock gradually until it owned the entire company, and thus, the Woolworth Building. Irving would be able to manage the 18 floors on a 25-year lease. In addition, Irving would be able to control two of
8077-427: Is a three-story Tudor arch , surrounded on either side by two bays: one narrower than the main arch, the other wider. The five bays form a triumphal arch overhung by a balcony and stone motifs of Gothic design. The intrados of the arch contains 23 niches. The topmost niche depicts an owl; the lowest niches on both sides depict tree trunks; and the other twenty niches depict animated figures. The spandrel above
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8274-422: Is a two-story room located to the west of the arcade. It consists of the ground level, which contains former storefronts, as well as a mezzanine level above it. The ground floor originally contained 18 storefronts. A 15-foot-wide (4.6 m) marble staircase leads westward from the arcade to a mezzanine, where the entrance to the Irving National Exchange Bank office was formerly located. The mezzanine contains
8471-512: Is also a basement storage room, known as the "bone yard", which contains replacement terracotta decorations for the facade. The basement also contains closed entrances to two New York City Subway stations. There was an entrance to the Park Place station directly adjacent to the building's north elevation, served by the 2 and 3 trains. This entrance was closed after the September 11 attacks in 2001. Another entrance led to
8668-493: Is also thought to be inspired by Saarinen's design. Other Tribune tower entries by figures like Walter Gropius , Bertram Goodhue , Walter Burley Griffin , Bruno Taut , and Adolf Loos remain intriguing suggestions of what might have been, but perhaps not as intriguing as the one surmounted by a Mount Rushmore-like head of an American Indian. These entries were originally published by the Tribune Company in 1923 under
8865-429: Is capped by a spire. The three layers of pyramids are about 62 feet (19 m), or five stories tall. An observation deck was located at the 55th floor, about 730 feet (220 m) above ground level. The deck was octagonal in plan, measuring 65 feet (20 m) across, was accessed by a glass-walled elevator. It was patronized by an estimated 300,000 visitors per year but was closed as a security measure in 1941 after
9062-473: Is most clearly seen at Culzean Castle , Ayrshire, remodelled by Adam from 1777. The eccentric landscape designer Batty Langley even attempted to "improve" Gothic forms by giving them classical proportions. A younger generation, taking Gothic architecture more seriously, provided the readership for John Britton's series Architectural Antiquities of Great Britain , which began appearing in 1807. In 1817, Thomas Rickman wrote an Attempt... to name and define
9259-923: Is planned but has not been installed as of 2018. A piece of steel recovered from the World Trade Center has been added to the wall. Tiles from the Sydney Opera House were added in 2006. Several buildings around the world make reference to the design of the Tribune Tower, most notably in Australia: the spires of the Grace Building in Sydney and the Manchester Unity Building in Melbourne . Additionally,
9456-529: Is the Basilica of Our Lady Immaculate in Guelph, Ontario . Gothic Revival architecture remained one of the most popular and long-lived of the many revival styles of architecture . Although it began to lose force and popularity after the third quarter of the 19th century in commercial, residential and industrial fields, some buildings such as churches, schools, colleges and universities were still constructed in
9653-544: The Chicago Tribune had brought back rocks and bricks from a variety of historically important sites throughout the world at the request of Colonel McCormick . Many of these fragments have been incorporated into the lowest levels of the building and are labeled with their location of origin. Stones included in the wall are from such sites as the St. Stephen's Cathedral , Trondheim Cathedral , Taj Mahal , Clementine Hall ,
9850-620: The Aesops ' Screen over the main entrance doors. Rene Chambellan worked on other projects with Raymond Hood including the American Radiator Building and Rockefeller Center in New York City. Also, among the gargoyles on the Tribune Tower is one of a frog. That piece was created by Rene Chambellan to represent himself jokingly as he is of French ancestry. Prior to the building of the Tribune Tower, correspondents for
10047-559: The Basilica of Our Lady of Hungary in Márianosztra , Hungary, whose choir (adjacent to a Baroque nave) was long considered authentically Gothic, because the 18th-century architect used medieval shapes to emphasize the continuity of the monastic community with its 14th-century founders. During the mid-18th century rise of Romanticism , an increased interest and awareness of the Middle Ages among influential connoisseurs created
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#173277190648310244-715: The Bulgarian National Revival saw the introduction of Gothic Revival elements into its vernacular ecclesiastical and residential architecture. The largest project of the Slavine School is the Lopushna Monastery cathedral (1850–1853), though later churches such as Saint George's Church, Gavril Genovo display more prominent vernacular Gothic Revival features. In Scotland, while a similar Gothic style to that used further south in England
10441-482: The City Hall station one block north, now served by the R and W trains, but this was closed in 1982 because of concerns over crime. The area in front of the former entrances was used as a bike-storage area by the 2010s. A private pool, originally intended for F. W. Woolworth, exists in the basement. Proposed as early as 1910, the pool measured 15 by 55 feet (4.6 by 16.8 m) and had
10638-612: The Connaught Building , (1913–1916), all by David Ewart . In the late 1820s, A. W. N. Pugin , still a teenager, was working for two highly visible employers, providing Gothic detailing for luxury goods. For the Royal furniture makers Morel and Seddon he provided designs for redecorations for the elderly George IV at Windsor Castle in a Gothic taste suited to the setting. For the royal silversmiths Rundell Bridge and Co. , Pugin provided designs for silver from 1828, using
10835-484: The Houses of Parliament in London, after its predecessor was largely destroyed in a fire in 1834. His part in the design consisted of two campaigns, 1836–1837 and again in 1844 and 1852, with the classicist Charles Barry as his nominal superior. Pugin provided the external decoration and the interiors, while Barry designed the symmetrical layout of the building, causing Pugin to remark, "All Grecian, Sir; Tudor details on
11032-634: The Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Tower , then the tallest building in New York City and the world. On December 20, 1910, Woolworth sent a team of surveyors to measure the Metropolitan Life Tower's height and come up with a precise measurement, so he could make his skyscraper 50 feet (15 m) taller. He then ordered Gilbert to revise the building's design to reach 710 or 712 feet (216 or 217 m), despite ongoing worries over whether
11229-508: The Palais des Papes in Avignon . When France's first prominent neo-Gothic church was built, the Basilica of Saint-Clotilde , Paris, begun in 1846 and consecrated in 1857, the architect chosen was of German extraction, Franz Christian Gau , (1790–1853); the design was significantly modified by Gau's assistant, Théodore Ballu , in the later stages, to produce the pair of flèches that crown
11426-663: The Parthenon , Hagia Sophia , Süleymaniye Mosque , Corregidor Island , Palace of Westminster , petrified wood from the Redwood National and State Parks , the Great Pyramid , The Alamo , Notre-Dame de Paris , Abraham Lincoln's Tomb , the Great Wall of China , Independence Hall , Fort Santiago , Angkor Wat , Ta Prohm , Wawel Castle , Banteay Srei , and Rouen Cathedral 's Butter Tower, which inspired
11623-489: The Pearl Harbor attack . Strongly articulated piers , which carry right to the pyramidal cap without intermediate cornices , give the building its upward thrust. This was influenced by Aus's belief that, "From an engineering point of view, no structure is beautiful where the lines of strength are not apparent." The copper roof is connected to the Woolworth Building's steel superstructure , which serves to ground
11820-551: The Scottish Borders , rebuilt from 1816 by Sir Walter Scott and paid for by the profits from his hugely successful, historical novels, exemplifies the "Regency Gothic" style. Gothic Revival also includes the reintroduction of medieval clothes and dances in historical re-enactments staged especially in the second part of the 19th century, although one of the first, the Eglinton Tournament of 1839, remains
12017-602: The picturesque character of ruins—"picturesque" becoming a new aesthetic quality—and those mellowing effects of time that the Japanese call wabi-sabi and that Horace Walpole independently admired, mildly tongue-in-cheek, as "the true rust of the Barons' wars". The "Gothick" details of Walpole's Twickenham villa, Strawberry Hill House begun in 1749, appealed to the rococo tastes of the time, and were fairly quickly followed by James Talbot at Lacock Abbey , Wiltshire. By
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#173277190648312214-659: The scroll saw and mass-produced wood moldings allowed a few of these structures to mimic the florid fenestration of the High Gothic. But, in most cases, Carpenter Gothic buildings were relatively unadorned, retaining only the basic elements of pointed-arch windows and steep gables. A well-known example of Carpenter Gothic is a house in Eldon, Iowa , that Grant Wood used for the background of his painting American Gothic . Australia, in particular in Melbourne and Sydney, saw
12411-523: The "arcade", was characterized by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) as "one of the most spectacular of the early 20th century in New York City". It consists of two perpendicular, double-height passageways with barrel-vaulted ceilings. One passageway runs between the arcade's west wing at the Woolworth Building's "staircase hall" and the east wing at Broadway. The other runs between
12608-574: The "rational" and "radical" Neoclassical style being seen as associated with republicanism and liberalism (as evidenced by its use in the United States and to a lesser extent in Republican France), the more spiritual and traditional Gothic Revival became associated with monarchism and conservatism , which was reflected by the choice of styles for the rebuilt government centres of the British parliament's Palace of Westminster in London,
12805-476: The 'Gothic florin ' was minted for circulation from 1851 to 1887. French neo-Gothic had its roots in the French medieval Gothic architecture , where it was created in the 12th century. Gothic architecture was sometimes known during the medieval period as the "Opus Francigenum", (the "French Art"). French scholar Alexandre de Laborde wrote in 1816 that "Gothic architecture has beauties of its own", which marked
13002-453: The 14th-century Anglo-French Gothic vocabulary that he would continue to favour later in designs for the new Palace of Westminster. Between 1821 and 1838 Pugin and his father published a series of volumes of architectural drawings , the first two entitled, Specimens of Gothic Architecture , and the following three, Examples of Gothic Architecture , that were to remain both in print and the standard references for Gothic Revivalists for at least
13199-663: The 16th century but instead lingered in on-going cathedral-building projects; at Oxford and Cambridge Universities, and in the construction of churches in increasingly isolated rural districts of England, France, Germany, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and in Spain. St Columb's Cathedral , in Derry , may be considered 'Gothic Survival', as it was completed in 1633 in a Perpendicular Gothic style. Similarly, Gothic architecture survived in some urban settings during
13396-630: The 1770s, thoroughly neoclassical architects such as Robert Adam and James Wyatt were prepared to provide Gothic details in drawing-rooms, libraries and chapels and, for William Beckford at Fonthill in Wiltshire, a complete romantic vision of a Gothic abbey. Some of the earliest architectural examples of the revived are found in Scotland. Inveraray Castle , constructed from 1746 for the Duke of Argyll , with design input from William Adam , displays
13593-674: The 1870s. New architectural movements, sometimes related, as in the Arts and Crafts movement , and sometimes in outright opposition, such as Modernism , gained ground, and by the 1930s the architecture of the Victorian era was generally condemned or ignored. The later 20th century saw a revival of interest, manifested in the United Kingdom by the establishment of the Victorian Society in 1958. The rise of evangelicalism in
13790-423: The 20th century. Back in Oxford, the redecoration of the dining hall at University College between 1766 and 1768 has been described as "the first major example of the Gothic Revival style in Oxford". Throughout France in the 16th and 17th centuries, churches such as St-Eustache (1532–1640, façade 1754) in Paris and Orléans Cathedral (1601–1829) continued to be built following Gothic principles (structure of
13987-462: The 24th floor, revetted in green marble in the French Empire style , is preserved in its original condition. His office included a mahogany desk with a leather top measuring 7.5 by 3.75 feet (2.29 by 1.14 m). That desk contained a hidden console with four buttons to request various members of his staff. The marble columns in the office are capped by gilded Corinthian capitals . Woolworth's reception room contained objects that were inspired by
14184-433: The 28th floor, a two-story-tall copper roof with complex tracery in the Gothic style tops the canopies. The 29th and 30th stories of the north and south wings are of similar depth to the six narrow bays on the Park Place and Barclay Street elevations but contain five bays. A small tower with three bays caps these wings. The 30th through 45th floors contain three bays on each elevation; the side bays contain two windows, while
14381-445: The 53rd floor is the top floor that can be occupied. Above the 53rd floor, the tower tapers into a pyramidal roof. The lowest four stories are clad in limestone . Above that, the exterior of the Woolworth Building was cast in limestone-colored, glazed architectural terracotta panels. F. W. Woolworth initially wanted to clad the skyscraper in granite , while Gilbert wanted to use limestone. The decision to use terracotta for
14578-439: The Broadway elevation. In addition, horizontal belt courses run above the 4th, 9th, 14th, 19th, and 24th stories. The 25th and 26th stories, above the topmost belt course, are separated by dark-bronze spandrels. The 27th floor contains a canopy of projecting terracotta ogee arches. These decorative features make the tower section "appear to merge with the atmosphere", as architectural writer Donald Reynolds described it. Above
14775-517: The Broadway–Park Place Company's seats, while Woolworth would control the other three seats and serve as that firm's president. While negotiations to create the Broadway-Park Place Company were ongoing, Woolworth and his real estate agent Edward J. Hogan purchased several parcels from the Trenor Luther Park estate and other owners. The entire footprint of the current building, a rectangular lot, had been acquired by April 15, 1910, at
14972-621: The Canadian Parliament Buildings in Ottawa and the Hungarian Parliament Building in Budapest. In English literature, the architectural Gothic Revival and classical Romanticism gave rise to the Gothic novel genre, beginning with The Castle of Otranto (1764) by Horace Walpole , and inspired a 19th-century genre of medieval poetry that stems from the pseudo- bardic poetry of " Ossian ". Poems such as " Idylls of
15169-838: The English crown. At the same time, the Great Hall of Lambeth Palace , that had been despoiled by the Puritans , was rebuilt in a mixture of Baroque and older Gothic forms, demonstrating the restitution of the Anglican Church. These two buildings can be said to herald the onset of Gothic Revival architecture, several decades before it became mainstream. Sir Christopher Wren 's Tom Tower for Christ Church , University of Oxford , consciously set out to imitate Cardinal Wolsey's architectural style. Writing to Dean Fell in 1681, he noted; "I resolved it ought to be Gothic to agree with
15366-592: The Founder's work", adding that to do otherwise would lead to "an unhandsome medley". Pevsner suggests that he succeeded "to the extent that innocent visitors never notice the difference". It was followed in 1697–1704 by the rebuilding of Collegiate Church of St Mary in Warwick as a stone-vaulted hall church , whereas the burnt church had been a basilica with timbered roofs. Also in Warwickshire , in 1729/30,
15563-591: The Gothic context of the structure overrode considerations of the current architectural mode. Similarly, in St. Salvator's Cathedral of Bruges , the timbered medieval vaults of nave and choir were replaced by "Gothic" stone vaults in 1635 resp. 1738/39. Guarino Guarini , a 17th-century Theatine monk active primarily in Turin , recognized the "Gothic order" as one of the primary systems of architecture and made use of it in his practice. Even in Central Europe of
15760-532: The Gothic style, often known as "Collegiate Gothic", which remained popular in England, Canada and in the United States until well into the early to mid-20th century. Only when new materials, like steel and glass along with concern for function in everyday working life and saving space in the cities, meaning the need to build up instead of out, began to take hold did the Gothic Revival start to disappear from popular building requests. The revived Gothic style
15957-406: The Irving National Exchange Bank by May 1914; his company held no ownership stake in the building. The bank, whose only involvement in the building was now as a tenant, agreed to lease the entire second story for $ 100,000 a year. The building contained offices for as many as 14,000 employees. By the end of 1914, the building was 70% occupied and generating over $ 1.3 million a year in rents for
16154-601: The King " by Alfred, Lord Tennyson recast specifically modern themes in medieval settings of Arthurian romance. In German literature , the Gothic Revival also had a grounding in literary fashions. Gothic architecture began at the Basilica of Saint Denis near Paris, and the Cathedral of Sens in 1140 and ended with a last flourish in the early 16th century with buildings like Henry VII's Chapel at Westminster. However, Gothic architecture did not die out completely in
16351-764: The State of New York John Huston Finley ; Collector of the Port of New York William Loeb Jr. ; naval architect Lewis Nixon ; Rear Admiral Charles Dwight Sigsbee ; Commissioner of Docks and Ferries of the City of New York R. A. C. Smith ; Colonel William Conant Church ; United States Representative from New York Herman A. Metz ; New York City Police Commissioner Rhinelander Waldo ; banker James Speyer ; former Lieutenant Governor of New York Timothy L. Woodruff ; writer Robert Sterling Yard ; Admiral Albert Gleaves ; and reportedly between 69 and 80 congressmen who arrived via
16548-513: The Tribune Tower was completed in 1925 and reached a height of 462 feet (141 m) above ground. The ornate buttresses surrounding the peak of the tower are especially visible when the tower is lit at night. As was the case with most of Hood's projects, the sculptures and decorations were made by the American artist Rene Paul Chambellan . The tower features carved images of Robin Hood (Hood) and
16745-588: The United States, Collegiate Gothic was a late and literal resurgence of the English Gothic Revival, adapted for American college and university campuses. The term "Collegiate Gothic" originated from American architect Alexander Jackson Davis 's handwritten description of his own "English Collegiate Gothic Mansion" of 1853 for the Harrals of Bridgeport. By the 1890s, the movement was known as "Collegiate Gothic". The firm of Cope & Stewardson
16942-443: The Woolworth Building contains an unused bank vault, restaurant, and barbershop. The bank vault was initially intended to be used for safe-deposit boxes, though it was used by the Irving National Exchange Bank in practice. In 1931, Irving moved some $ 3 billion of deposits to a vault in its new headquarters at 1 Wall Street , and the Woolworth Building's vault was converted into a storage area for maintenance workers. There
17139-413: The Woolworth Building has 2,843, 4,400, or 5,000 windows. Windows were included for lighting and comfort; because the Woolworth Building was built before air conditioning became common, every office is within 10 feet (3.0 m) of a window. Most of the windows are the same size, and each story is the same height. Some of the Woolworth Building's windows are set within arch-shaped openings. Most of
17336-510: The Woolworth Building in the neo-Gothic style . The building resembles European Gothic cathedrals; Reverend S. Parkes Cadman dubbed it "The Cathedral of Commerce" in a booklet published in 1916. F. W. Woolworth , who had devised the idea for the Woolworth Building, had proposed using the Victoria Tower as a model for the building; he reportedly also admired the design of Palace of Westminster . Gilbert, by contrast, disliked
17533-429: The Woolworth Building's steel superstructure was relatively thin, which enabled Gilbert to maximize the building's interior area. Engineers Gunvald Aus and Kort Berle designed the steel frame. Each column carries a load of 24 short tons per square foot (2.3 MPa ), supporting the building's overall weight of 233,000 short tons (208,000 long tons). Where the columns of the superstructure did not match up with
17730-533: The Woolworth Company (later Venator Group ) continued to own the Woolworth Building for most of the 20th century. The structure was sold to the Witkoff Group in 1998. The top 30 floors were sold to a developer in 2012 and converted into residences. Office and commercial tenants use the rest of the building. The Woolworth Building has been a National Historic Landmark since 1966, and a New York City designated landmark since 1983. Cass Gilbert designed
17927-429: The additional height would be worth the increased cost. In order to fit the larger base that a taller tower necessitated, Woolworth bought the remainder of the frontage on Broadway between Park Place and Barclay Street. He also purchased two lots to the west, one on Park Place and one on Barclay Street; these lots would not be developed, but would retain their low-rise buildings and preserve the proposed tower's views. Such
18124-555: The amount of space taken up by the elevator shafts. The usable-space consideration affected the placement of the columns in the wings, as the columns in the main tower were positioned around the elevator shafts and facade piers. Each of the lowest 30 stories had 31 offices, of which ten faced the light court, eight faced Park Place, eight faced Barclay Street, and five faced Broadway. Above the 30th-story setback, each story had 14 offices. For reasons that are unknown, floor numbers 42, 48, and 52 are skipped. Woolworth's private office on
18321-882: The architects of One Atlantic Center located in the Midtown section of Atlanta were influenced by the building which is most evident in the shaft of the building as well as the base. On April 11, 2006, the McCormick Tribune Freedom Museum opened, occupying two stories of the building, including the previous location of high-end gift store Hammacher Schlemmer . The museum closed this location on March 1, 2009, and redirected its efforts to become an online museum. Tribune Tower has participated in Chicago Architecture Foundation 's event Open House Chicago every year, starting in 2011. This annual opportunity allows visitors to tour
18518-512: The basement. F. W. Woolworth , the founder of a brand of popular five-and-ten-cent stores , conceived the skyscraper as a headquarters for his company. Woolworth planned the skyscraper jointly with the Irving Trust , which also agreed to use the structure as its headquarters. The Woolworth Building had originally been planned as a 12- to 16-story commercial building but underwent several revisions during its planning process. Its final height
18715-464: The beginning of the Gothic Revival in France. Starting in 1828, Alexandre Brogniart, the director of the Sèvres porcelain manufactory , produced fired enamel paintings on large panes of plate glass, for King Louis-Philippe 's Chapelle royale de Dreux , an important early French commission in Gothic taste, preceded mainly by some Gothic features in a few jardins paysagers . The French Gothic Revival
18912-577: The best example anywhere of Victorian Gothic collegiate architecture". The movement continued into the 20th century, with Cope & Stewardson's campus for Washington University in St. Louis (1900–1909), Charles Donagh Maginnis 's buildings at Boston College (1910s) (including Gasson Hall ), Ralph Adams Cram 's design for the Princeton University Graduate College (1913), and James Gamble Rogers ' reconstruction of
19109-524: The building from their foundries in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh; manufacturing took over 45 weeks. The first above-ground steel had been erected by October 1911, and installation of the building's terracotta began on February 1, 1912. The building rose at the rate of 1 + 1 ⁄ 2 stories a week and the steelworkers set a speed record for assembling 1,153 tons of steel in six consecutive eight-hour days. By February 18, 1912, work on
19306-429: The building's spandrels , or triangles between the top corners of the window and the top of the arch, have golden Gothic tracery against a bright blue backdrop. On the 25th, 39th, and 40th stories, the spandrels consist of iconography found in the royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom . Gold-on-blue tracery is also found on the 26th, 27th, and 42nd floors. On the part of the base facing Broadway, as well as
19503-415: The building's construction, are placed where the arcade and the mezzanine intersect. These ornaments include Gilbert with a model of the building, Aus taking a girder's measurements, and Woolworth holding nickels and dimes. Two ceiling murals by C. Paul Jennewein , titled Labor and Commerce , are located above the mezzanine where it crosses the south and north wings, respectively. The staircase hall
19700-410: The building's foundations were completed ahead of the target date of September 15; construction of the skyscraper's steel frame began August 15. The steel beams and girders used in the framework weighed so much that, to prevent the streets from caving in, a group of surveyors examined them on the route along which the beams would be transported. The American Bridge Company provided steel for
19897-533: The building's frame and structural elements. The company was paid $ 300,000 for their oversight and management work, despite Woolworth's attempts to get the company to do the job for free due to the prestige of the project. The first potential tenants began applying for space in the building in May 1911, before work had even started. On June 12, 1911, the Atlantic Terra Cotta Company received
20094-580: The building's height to be increased to 620 feet (190 m), which was 8 feet (2.4 m) taller than the Singer Building, Lower Manhattan's tallest building. Woolworth was inspired by his travels in Europe, where he would constantly be asked about the Singer Building. He decided that housing his company in an even taller building would provide invaluable advertising for the F. W. Woolworth Company and make it renowned worldwide. This design, unveiled to
20291-427: The building's main contractor Thompson-Starrett Company , said of Woolworth, "Beyond a doubt his ego was a thing of extraordinary size; whoever tried to find a reason for his tall building and did not take that fact into account would reach a false conclusion." Even after the revised height was unveiled, Woolworth still yearned to make the building even taller as it was now close to the 700-foot (210 m) height of
20488-494: The building, but the developers stated that they had a contractual agreement to buy the sign for one dollar. Col. Robert R. McCormick's former iconic office on the 24th floor will be turned into offices. In the former parking lot for Tribune Tower, there are plans to build Tribune Tower East , a super-tall skyscraper that would become the city's second-tallest. The building's plaza has a bronze sculpture by Bela Pratt depicting Nathan Hale , commissioned by McCormick in 1940. It
20685-529: The buildings, application of tracery) with some little changes like the use of round arches instead of pointed arches and the application of some Classical details, until the arrival of Baroque architecture. In Bologna , in 1646, the Baroque architect Carlo Rainaldi constructed Gothic vaults (completed 1658) for the Basilica of San Petronio in Bologna, which had been under construction since 1390; there,
20882-439: The caissons, they were cantilevered above on plate girders between two adjoining caissons. These girders are extremely large; one such girder measures 8 feet (2.4 m) deep, 6.75 feet (2 m) wide, and 23 feet (7.0 m) long. For the wind bracing, the entire Woolworth Building was considered as a vertical cantilever, and correspondingly large girders and columns were used in the construction. Continuous portal bracing
21079-680: The campus of Yale University (1920s). Charles Klauder 's Gothic Revival skyscraper on the University of Pittsburgh 's campus, the Cathedral of Learning (1926) exhibited Gothic stylings both inside and out, while using modern technologies to make the building taller. Carpenter Gothic houses and small churches became common in North America and other places in the late 19th century. These structures adapted Gothic elements such as pointed arches, steep gables, and towers to traditional American light-frame construction . The invention of
21276-405: The center bay contains three windows. The 46th through 53rd floors also have three bays on each elevation, but the side bays only contain one window. At the 45th- and 50th-story setbacks, there are turrets at each corner of the tower. The northeast corner turret concealed a smokestack. There is a pyramidal roof above the 53rd floor, as well as four ornamental tourelles at the four corners of
21473-521: The combined banks' headquarters to the F. W. Woolworth Company's new headquarters. Having received a commitment from the banks, Woolworth acquired a corner site on Broadway and Park Place in Lower Manhattan , opposite City Hall . Woolworth briefly considered purchasing a plot at West Broadway and Reade Street several blocks north. He decided against it because of the prestige that a Broadway address provided; despite its name, West Broadway
21670-748: The command of his clients; Government House, Melbourne is Italianate . His banking house for the English, Scottish and Australian Bank in Melbourne has been described as "the Australian masterpiece of neo-Gothic". This claim has also been made for Edmund Blacket 's MacLaurin Hall at the University of Sydney , which sits in the quadrangle complex described as "arguably the most important group of Gothic and Tudor Revival style architecture in Australia". Woolworth Building The Woolworth Building
21867-417: The comparison to religious imagery. The architect ultimately used 15th- and 16th-century Gothic ornament on the Woolworth Building, along with a complementary color scheme. Though the building's steel frame was uncommon to neo-Gothic structures, its facade emphasizes vertical design elements, similarly to other neo-Gothic buildings. The Woolworth Building was designed to be 420 feet (130 m) high but
22064-549: The competition and the building are held by the Ryerson & Burnham Libraries at the Art Institute of Chicago . By 1922 the neo-Gothic skyscraper had become an established design tactic, with the first important so-called "American Perpendicular Style" at Cass Gilbert 's Woolworth Building of 1913. This was a late example, perhaps the last important example, and criticized for its perceived historicism. Construction on
22261-775: The construction of a new Foreign Office in Whitehall saw the decision to award first place to a Gothic design by George Gilbert Scott overturned by the Prime Minister, Lord Palmerston , who successfully demanded a building in the Italianate style. In England, the Church of England was undergoing a revival of Anglo-Catholic and ritualist ideology in the form of the Oxford Movement , and it became desirable to build large numbers of new churches to cater for
22458-474: The construction of large numbers of Gothic Revival buildings. William Wardell (1823–1899) was among the country's most prolific architects; born and trained in England, after emigrating his most notable Australian designs include St Patrick's Cathedral, Melbourne and St John's College and St Mary's Cathedral in Sydney. In common with many other 19th century architects, Wardell could deploy different styles at
22655-418: The details and beauty of the building's design, as well as the entrepreneur's enthusiasm for the project. Such was the scale of the building that, for several years, Gilbert's sense of scale was "destroyed [...] because of the unprecedented attuning of detail to, for these days, such an excessive height". In September 1910, wrecking crews demolished the five-and-six-story structures which previously occupied
22852-514: The domestic Gothic style architecture which preceded it seem primitive and old-fashioned". There are many examples of Gothic Revival architecture in Canada . The first major structure was Notre-Dame Basilica in Montreal, Quebec , which was designed in 1824. The capital, Ottawa, Ontario , was predominantly a 19th-century creation in the Gothic Revival style. The Parliament Hill buildings were
23049-475: The earliest days of the revival. In some cases, cast iron enabled something like a perfection of medieval design. It was only with Ruskin and the archaeological Gothic's demand for historical truth that iron, whether it was visible or not, was deemed improper for a Gothic building. Ultimately, the utility of iron won out: "substituting a cast iron shaft for a granite, marble or stone column is not bad, but one must agree that it cannot be considered as an innovation, as
23246-579: The eastern sides of their respective elevations, lining up with the tower above them, and contain a wide arch flanked by two narrower arches. The three entrances feed into the arcaded lobby. The building's Park Place entrance contained a stair to the New York City Subway 's Park Place station, served by the 2 and 3 trains, inside the westernmost bay of the building entrance. The facade contains vertical piers , which protrude diagonally. There are six such piers on
23443-515: The eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries saw in England a reaction in the high church movement which sought to emphasise the continuity between the established church and the pre- Reformation Catholic church. Architecture, in the form of the Gothic Revival, became one of the main weapons in the high church's armoury. The Gothic Revival was also paralleled and supported by " medievalism ", which had its roots in antiquarian concerns with survivals and curiosities. As " industrialisation " progressed,
23640-555: The equivalent of an 80-story building. It remained the tallest building in the world until 40 Wall Street and the Chrysler Building , both in New York City, were constructed in 1929–1930. The building is assigned its own ZIP Code , 10279; it was one of 41 buildings in Manhattan that had their own ZIP Codes as of 2019 . The building's tower, flush with the main frontage on Broadway, joins an office block base with
23837-490: The estimated cost, at just under one million dollars, together with the sheer scale of the plans, thoroughly alarmed the College Trustees and only one-sixth of the plan was executed, the present Long Walk , with Francis H. Kimball acting as local, supervising, architect, and Frederick Law Olmsted laying out the grounds. Hitchcock considers the result, "perhaps the most satisfactory of all of [Burges's] works and
24034-484: The fabric of the church. St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Troy, New York, was constructed in 1827–1828 as an exact copy of Town's design for Trinity Church, New Haven, but using local stone; due to changes in the original, St. Paul's is closer to Town's original design than Trinity itself. In the 1830s, architects began to copy specific English Gothic and Gothic Revival Churches, and these "'mature Gothic Revival' buildings made
24231-458: The facade was based on both aesthetic and functional concerns. Terracotta was not only fireproof but also, in Gilbert's mind, a purely ornamental addition clarifying the Woolworth Building's steel construction. Each panel was of a slightly different color, creating a polychrome effect. The facade appeared to have a uniform tone, but the upper floors were actually darker and more dense . Behind
24428-435: The first half of the 19th century , mostly in England. Increasingly serious and learned admirers sought to revive medieval Gothic architecture , intending to complement or even supersede the neoclassical styles prevalent at the time. Gothic Revival draws upon features of medieval examples, including decorative patterns, finials , lancet windows , and hood moulds . By the middle of the 19th century, Gothic Revival had become
24625-480: The first official materials that reflect this final height. Gilbert had to reconcile both Woolworth's and Pierson's strict requirements for the design of the structure. The architect's notes describe late-night conversations that he had with both men. The current design of the lobby, with its arcade, reflected these conflicting pressures. Sometimes, Gilbert also faced practical conundrums, such as Woolworth's requirement that there be "many windows so divided that all of
24822-429: The general construction company. George A. Fuller 's Fuller Company was well experienced and had practically invented skyscraper construction, but Louis Horowitz's Thompson-Starrett Company was local to New York; despite being newer, Horowitz had worked for Fuller before, and thus had a similar knowledge base. On April 20, 1911, Thompson-Starrett won the contract with a guaranteed construction price of $ 4,308,500 for
25019-404: The ground with a pneumatic caisson process to anchor the foundations to the bedrock. Because the slope of the bedrock was so sharp, steps had to be carved into the rock before the caissons could be sunk into the ground. The caissons were both round and rectangular, with the rectangular caissons located mainly on the southern and western lot lines. The caissons are irregularly distributed across
25216-402: The growing population, and cemeteries for their hygienic burials. This found ready exponents in the universities, where the ecclesiological movement was forming. Its proponents believed that Gothic was the only style appropriate for a parish church, and favoured a particular era of Gothic architecture – the " decorated ". The Cambridge Camden Society , through its journal The Ecclesiologist ,
25413-450: The hot-water plant, the fire-protection system, the communal restrooms, the offices with restrooms, the basement swimming pool, and the basement restaurant. There are water tanks on the 14th, 27th, 28th, 50th, and 53rd floors. Although the water is obtained from the New York City water supply system , much of it is filtered and reused. A dedicated water system, separate from the city's, was proposed during construction, but workers abandoned
25610-700: The incorporation of turrets. The architectural historian John Gifford writes that the castellations were the "symbolic assertion of the still quasi-feudal power [the duke] exercised over the inhabitants within his heritable jurisdictions". Most buildings were still largely in the established Palladian style, but some houses incorporated external features of the Scots baronial style. Robert Adam's houses in this style include Mellerstain and Wedderburn in Berwickshire and Seton Castle in East Lothian, but it
25807-436: The initial estimates of US$ 5 million for the shorter versions of the skyscraper (equivalent to $ 154,000,000 in 2023). This was divided into $ 5 million for the land, $ 1 million for the foundation, and $ 7 million for the structure. Woolworth provided $ 5 million, while investors provided the remainder, and financing was completed by August 1911. The building opened on April 24, 1913. Woolworth held
26004-476: The interior of the building for free. The Chicago Tribune , the building's main tenant since it opened, moved out in June 2018, in order for the building to be converted to condos. The conversion of the building is set to cost more than $ 500 million. The conversion has run into some legal troubles regarding the sign: the Chicago Tribune contends that the sign is their intellectual property, so it can not remain on
26201-447: The introduction of a new principle. Replacing a stone or wooden lintel by an iron breastsummer is very good". He strongly opposed illusion, however: reacting against the casing of a cast iron pillar in stone, he wrote; "il faut que la pierre paraisse bien être de la pierre; le fer, du fer; le bois, du bois" (stone must appear to be stone; iron, iron; wood, wood). The arguments against modern construction materials began to collapse in
26398-492: The island of Skyros in Greece covers the lobby. Edward F. Caldwell & Co. provided the interior lights for the lobby and hallways. Patterned glass mosaics that contain blue, green, and gold tiling with red accents decorate the ceilings. There are other Gothic-style decorations in the lobby, including on the cornice and the bronze fittings. Twelve plaster brackets , which carry grotesques depicting major figures in
26595-399: The late 17th and 18th centuries, where Baroque dominated, some architects used elements of the Gothic style. The most important example is Jan Santini Aichel , whose Pilgrimage Church of Saint John of Nepomuk in Žďár nad Sázavou , Czech Republic, represents a peculiar and creative synthesis of Baroque and Gothic. An example of another and less striking use of the Gothic style in the time is
26792-544: The later 17th century, as shown in Oxford and Cambridge , where some additions and repairs to Gothic buildings were considered to be more in keeping with the style of the original structures than contemporary Baroque . In contrast, Dromore Cathedral , built in 1660/1661, immediately after the end of the Protectorate , revived Early English forms, demonstrating the restitution of the monarchy and claiming Ireland for
26989-447: The later 20th century rehabilitation of Victorian architecture and the objects with which they decorated their buildings. In 1847, eight thousand British crown coins were minted in proof condition with the design using an ornate reverse in keeping with the revived style. Considered by collectors to be particularly beautiful, they are known as 'Gothic crowns'. The design was repeated in 1853, again in proof. A similar two shilling coin,
27186-404: The left side of the arch depicts Mercury , classical god of commerce, while that above the right side depicts Ceres , classical goddess of agriculture. Above all of this is an ogee arch with more niches, as well as two carvings of owls hovering above a "W" monogram. There are salamanders within niches on either side of the main entrance. Inside the triumphal arch, there is a smaller arch with
27383-402: The link between Gothic and Catholicism looked to adopt it solely for its aesthetic romantic qualities, to combine it with other styles, or look to northern European Brick Gothic for a more plain appearance; or in some instances all three of these, as at the non-denominational Abney Park Cemetery in east London, designed by William Hosking FSA in 1840. France had lagged slightly in entering
27580-419: The lobby were designed by Tiffany Studios . The patterns on the doors have been described as " arabesque tracery patterns in etched steel set off against a gold-plated background". The entrepreneur F. W. Woolworth immigrated to the U.S. in 1886 and became successful because of his " Five-and-Dime " (5- and 10-cent stores). He began planning a new headquarters for the F. W. Woolworth Company in 1910. Around
27777-470: The mezzanine ceiling, as well as the barrel vault of the lobby. There is a smaller space west of the staircase hall with a one-story-high ceiling. This room contains a coffered ceiling with a blue-green background. The crossbeams contain Roman portrait heads, while the cornice contains generic sculpted grotesques. The lobby also contains a set of German chimes designed by Harry Yerkes . The basement of
27974-693: The mid-19th and early 20th centuries. The importance of the Cologne completion project in German-speaking lands has been explored by Michael J. Lewis, "The Politics of the German Gothic Revival: August Reichensperger" . Reichensperger was himself in no doubt as to the cathedral's central position in Germanic culture; "Cologne Cathedral is German to the core, it is a national monument in the fullest sense of
28171-772: The mid-19th century as great prefabricated structures such as the glass and iron Crystal Palace and the glazed courtyard of the Oxford University Museum of Natural History were erected, which appeared to embody Gothic principles. Between 1863 and 1872 Viollet-le-Duc published his Entretiens sur l'architecture , a set of daring designs for buildings that combined iron and masonry. Though these projects were never realised, they influenced several generations of designers and architects, notably Antoni Gaudí in Spain and, in England, Benjamin Bucknall , Viollet's foremost English follower and translator, whose masterpiece
28368-627: The most famous. During the Bourbon Restoration in France (1814–1830) and the Louis-Philippe period (1830–1848), Gothic Revival motifs start to appear, together with revivals of the Renaissance and of Rococo . During these two periods, the vogue for medieval things led craftsmen to adopt Gothic decorative motifs in their work, such as bell turrets , lancet arches, trefoils , Gothic tracery and rose windows . This style
28565-450: The nation, if it is possible, love for the national architecture", implying that "Gothic" is France's national heritage. In Germany, with the completion of Cologne Cathedral in the 1880s, at the time its summit was the world's tallest building, the cathedral was seen as the height of Gothic architecture. Other major completions of Gothic cathedrals were of Regensburger Dom (with twin spires completed from 1869 to 1872), Ulm Münster (with
28762-457: The nave and aisles of the church of St Nicholas at Alcester were rebuilt by Edward and Thomas Woodward, the exterior in Gothic forms but with a Neoclassical interior. At the same time, 1722–1746, Nicholas Hawksmoor added the west towers to Westminster Abbey , which made him a pioneer of Gothic Revival completions of medieval buildings, which from the late 19th century were increasingly disapproved of, although work in this style continued into
28959-678: The neo-Gothic scene, but produced a major figure in the revival in Eugène Viollet-le-Duc . As well as a powerful and influential theorist, Viollet-le-Duc was a leading architect whose genius lay in restoration. He believed in restoring buildings to a state of completion that they would not have known even when they were first built, theories he applied to his restorations of the walled city of Carcassonne , and to Notre-Dame and Sainte Chapelle in Paris. In this respect he differed from his English counterpart Ruskin, as he often replaced
29156-651: The next century. In Contrasts: or, a Parallel between the Noble Edifices of the Middle Ages, and similar Buildings of the Present Day (1836), Pugin expressed his admiration not only for medieval art but for the whole medieval ethos, suggesting that Gothic architecture was the product of a purer society. In The True Principles of Pointed or Christian Architecture (1841), he set out his "two great rules of design: 1st, that there should be no features about
29353-505: The north wing at Park Place and the south wing at Barclay Street. A mezzanine crosses the arcade's north and south wings. Where the passageways intersect, there is a domed ceiling. The dome contains pendentives that may have been patterned after those of the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia . The walls of this intersection vault are laid out in an octagonal shape, with mailboxes at the four intercardinal directions . Veined marble from
29550-408: The north, south, and west elevations on the 45th and 50th floors. The 30th through 45th floors measure 84 by 86 feet (26 by 26 m); the 46th through 50th floors, 69 by 71 feet (21 by 22 m); and the 51st through 53rd floors, 69 by 61 feet (21 by 19 m). The tower has a square plan below the 50th-story setback and an octagonal plan above. Though the structure is physically 60 stories tall,
29747-454: The offices should be well lighted", and so that tenants could erect partitions to fit their needs. Gilbert wrote this "naturally prevented any broad wall space". Woolworth commented at length on each of the dozens of drawings that Gilbert drew up. Woolworth and Gilbert sometimes clashed during the design process, especially because of the constantly changing designs and the architect's fees. Nevertheless, Gilbert commended Woolworth's devotion to
29944-589: The plan after unsuccessfully digging 1,500 feet (460 m) into Manhattan's bedrock. The Woolworth Building was the first structure to have its own power plant with four Corliss steam engine generators totaling a capacity of 1,500 kilowatt-hours (5.4 × 10 mJ); the plant could support 50,000 people. The building also had a dedicated heating plant with six boilers with a capacity of 2,500 horsepower (1,900 kW). The boilers were fed from subterranean coal bunkers capable of holding over 2,000 tons of anthracite coal . The ornate, cruciform lobby, known as
30141-510: The pre-eminent architectural style in the Western world , only to begin to fall out of fashion in the 1880s and early 1890s. The Gothic Revival movement's roots are intertwined with philosophical movements associated with Catholicism and a re-awakening of high church or Anglo-Catholic belief concerned by the growth of religious nonconformism. The "Anglo-Catholic" tradition of religious belief and style became known for its intrinsic appeal in
30338-606: The preeminent example, of which the original library survives today (after the rest was destroyed by fire in 1916). Their example was followed elsewhere in the city and outlying areas, showing how popular the Gothic Revival movement had become. Other examples of Canadian Gothic Revival architecture in Ottawa are the Victoria Memorial Museum , (1905–1908), the Royal Canadian Mint , (1905–1908), and
30535-557: The principles of sound construction can be so well carried out". The illustrated catalogue for the Great Exhibition of 1851 is replete with Gothic detail, from lacemaking and carpet designs to heavy machinery. Nikolaus Pevsner's volume on the exhibits at the Great Exhibition, High Victorian Design published in 1951, was an important contribution to the academic study of Victorian taste and an early indicator of
30732-404: The public the same month, was a 45-story tower rising 625 feet (191 m), sitting on a lot by 105 by 197 feet (32 by 60 m). Referring to the revised plans, Woolworth said, "I do not want a mere building. I want something that will be an ornament to the city." He later said that he wanted visitors to brag that they had visited the world's tallest building. Louis J. Horowitz, president of
30929-401: The reserve officers of America" and the statue's base has Hale's famous quote "I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country." Gothic Revival architecture Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic ) is an architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in
31126-485: The result, although he supported many architects, such as Thomas Newenham Deane and Benjamin Woodward , and was reputed to have designed some of the corbel decorations for that pair's Oxford University Museum of Natural History . A major clash between the Gothic and Classical styles in relation to governmental offices occurred less than a decade after the publication of The Stones of Venice . A public competition for
31323-500: The roof electrically. The Gothic detailing concentrated at the highly visible crown is over-scaled, and the building's silhouette could be made out from several miles away. Gilbert's choice of the Gothic style was described as "an expression of the verticality of the tower form", and as Gilbert himself later wrote, the style was "light, graceful, delicate and flame-like". Gilbert considered several proposals for exterior lighting, including four powerful searchlights atop nearby buildings and
31520-486: The same time, Woolworth's friend Lewis Pierson was having difficulty getting shareholder approval for the merger of his Irving National Bank and the rival New York Exchange Bank . Woolworth, who was looking for funding, mentioned his plans for the building at a lunch with Pierson. Woolworth offered to acquire shares in New York Exchange Bank and vote in favor of the merger if Pierson agreed to move
31717-664: The seat of the Great Council of The Netherlands , was not actually built until the early 20th century, although it closely followed Rombout II Keldermans 's Brabantine Gothic design, and became the 'new' north wing of the City Hall. In Florence , the Duomo 's temporary façade erected for the Medici-House of Lorraine nuptials in 1588–1589, was dismantled, and the west end of the cathedral stood bare again until 1864, when
31914-656: The sequence of Gothic styles in English ecclesiastical architecture, "a text-book for the architectural student". Its long antique title is descriptive: Attempt to discriminate the styles of English architecture from the Conquest to the Reformation; preceded by a sketch of the Grecian and Roman orders, with notices of nearly five hundred English buildings . The categories he used were Norman , Early English , Decorated , and Perpendicular . It went through numerous editions,
32111-441: The shape of the building. In 1999, during a celebration of the 30th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission, Buzz Aldrin presented a rock brought from the Moon , which was displayed in a window in the Tribune gift store (it could not be added to the wall, as NASA owns a large majority of the Apollo Moon rocks, and this one was merely on loan to the Tribune). The rock was removed in 2011 due to an outdated display. A new rock display
32308-503: The site, being more densely concentrated at the northeastern corner. This is because the building was originally planned to occupy a smaller site at the corner of Broadway and Park Place; when the site was enlarged, the caissons that had already been installed were left in place. The two basement levels, descending 55 feet (17 m), are constructed of reinforced concrete. Whereas many earlier buildings had been constructed with load-bearing walls , which by necessity were extremely thick,
32505-451: The site. Construction officially began on November 4, 1910, with excavation by the Foundation Company, using a contract negotiated personally by Frank Woolworth. The start of construction instantly raised the site's value from $ 2.25 million to $ 3.2 million. The contract of over $ 1 million was described as the largest contract for foundation construction ever awarded in the world. It took months for Woolworth to decide upon
32702-410: The steel frame had reached the building's 18th floor. By April 6, 1912, the steel frame had reached the top of the base at the 30th floor and work then began on constructing the tower of the Woolworth Building. Steel reached the 47th floor by May 30 and the official topping out ceremony took place two weeks ahead of schedule on July 1, 1912, as the last rivet was driven into the summit of
32899-531: The terracotta panels were brick walls; the terracotta pieces are attached to the brick walls by metal rods and hangers. The Atlantic Terra Cotta Company provided the original terracotta cladding. The panels were manufactured in shades of blue, green, sienna, and rose. The terracotta panels were partially vitrified , allowing them to bear large loads. Gilbert also asked that John Donnelly and Eliseo V. Ricci create full-size designs based on Atlantic Terra Cotta's models. In 1932, Atlantic Terra Cotta carried out
33096-430: The third quarter of the 19th century. Gothic Revival architecture varied considerably in its faithfulness to both the ornamental styles and construction principles of its medieval ideal, sometimes amounting to little more than pointed window frames and touches of neo-Gothic decoration on buildings otherwise created on wholly 19th-century plans, using contemporary materials and construction methods; most notably, this involved
33293-439: The title Tribune Tower Competition and later in The Chicago Tribune Tower Competition: Skyscraper Design and Cultural Change in the 1920s by Katherine Solomonson, 2001. In the 1980 book entitled The Tribune Tower Competition published by Rizzoli, authors Robert A. M. Stern , Stanley Tigerman as well as Bruce Abbey and other architects jokingly submitted "late entries" in Volume II of the work. Archival materials regarding
33490-444: The tower above it, there are three bays ; the left and right bays have two windows per floor, while the center bay has three windows. The elevations facing Park Place and Barclay Street each have six bays with two windows per floor. The base, on its lowest four stories, is divided into three-story-high entrance and exit bays, each of which has a one-story attic above it. There are nine entrances in total. The main entrance on Broadway
33687-454: The tower once construction was complete. Of these, 24 were passenger elevators, which were arranged around cruciform elevator lobbies on each floor. Two freight elevators and two emergency staircases were placed at the rear of the building. The elevators are accessed from bays in the eastern and western walls of the arcade. The walls are both divided by two bays with round arches, and there are four elevators on each wall. The elevator doors in
33884-413: The tower's setbacks, the outer walls are supported by girders, as the columns beneath them are offset. Above the 28th floor, knee braces and column-girder connections were used; hollow-tile floors were installed because it would have taken too long to set the concrete floors, especially during cold weather. Upon completion, the Woolworth Building contained seven water systems—one each for the power plant,
34081-409: The tower. After the building was topped out, Gilbert initially told Woolworth that he thought the building was about 787 feet (240 m) tall, but Woolworth's own engineers found the true height to be 792 feet (241 m). The skyscraper was substantially completed by the end of 1912. The final estimated construction cost was US$ 13.5 million (equivalent to $ 416,000,000 in 2023), up from
34278-415: The tower. The roof was originally gilt but is now green. The pyramidal roof, as well as the smaller roofs below, used 40,000 square feet (3,700 m ) of gold leaf. The main roof is interspersed with small dormers , which contain windows into the maintenance levels inside. The pyramidal roof is topped by another pyramid with an octagonal base and tall pointed-arch windows. In turn, the octagonal pyramid
34475-414: The use of iron and, after the 1880s, steel in ways never seen in medieval exemplars. In parallel with the ascendancy of neo-Gothic styles in 19th century England, interest spread to the rest of Europe, Australia, Africa and the Americas; the 19th and early 20th centuries saw the construction of very large numbers of Gothic Revival structures worldwide. The influence of Revivalism had nevertheless peaked by
34672-411: The west end. In Germany, there was a renewal of interest in the completion of Cologne Cathedral . Begun in 1248, it was still unfinished at the time of the revival. The 1820s "Romantic" movement brought a new appreciation of the building, and construction work began once more in 1842, marking a German return for Gothic architecture. St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague , begun in 1344, was also completed in
34869-405: The whimsical Gothic detailing in English furniture is traceable as far back as Lady Pomfret 's house in Arlington Street, London (1740s), and Gothic fretwork in chairbacks and glazing patterns of bookcases is a familiar feature of Chippendale 's Director (1754, 1762), where, for example, the three-part bookcase employs Gothic details with Rococo profusion, on a symmetrical form. Abbotsford in
35066-510: The word, and probably the most splendid monument to be handed down to us from the past". Because of Romantic nationalism in the early 19th century, the Germans, French and English all claimed the original Gothic architecture of the 12th century era as originating in their own country. The English boldly coined the term "Early English" for "Gothic", a term that implied Gothic architecture was an English creation. In his 1832 edition of Notre Dame de Paris , author Victor Hugo said "Let us inspire in
35263-436: The work of mediaeval stonemasons. His rational approach to Gothic stood in stark contrast to the revival's romanticist origins. Throughout his career he remained in a quandary as to whether iron and masonry should be combined in a building. Iron, in the form of iron anchors, had been used in the most ambitious buildings of medieval Gothic, especially but not only for tracery. It had in fact been used in "Gothic" buildings since
35460-495: The world". The competition worked brilliantly for months as a publicity stunt, and the resulting entries still reveal a unique turning point in American architectural history. More than 260 entries were received. The winner was a neo-Gothic design by New York architects John Mead Howells and Raymond Hood , with buttresses near the top. The entry that many perceived as the best, by the Finnish architect Eliel Saarinen , took second place and received $ 20,000. Saarinen's tower
35657-443: Was Woodchester Mansion . The flexibility and strength of cast-iron freed neo-Gothic designers to create new structural Gothic forms impossible in stone, as in Calvert Vaux 's cast-iron Gothic bridge in Central Park , New York dating from the 1860. Vaux enlisted openwork forms derived from Gothic blind-arcading and window tracery to express the spring and support of the arching bridge, in flexing forms that presage Art Nouveau . In
35854-481: Was adopted by figures including Frederick Thomas Pilkington (1832–1898) in secular architecture it was marked by the re-adoption of the Scots baronial style. Important for the adoption of the style in the early 19th century was Abbotsford, which became a model for the modern revival of the baronial style. Common features borrowed from 16th- and 17th-century houses included battlemented gateways, crow-stepped gables , pointed turrets and machicolations . The style
36051-499: Was also known as "Cathedral style" ("À la catédrale"). By the mid-19th century, Gothic traceries and niches could be inexpensively re-created in wallpaper , and Gothic blind arcading could decorate a ceramic pitcher. Writing in 1857, J. G. Crace , an influential decorator from a family of influential interior designers, expressed his preference for the Gothic style: "In my opinion there is no quality of lightness, elegance, richness or beauty possessed by any other style... [or] in which
36248-491: Was an early and important exponent, transforming the campuses of Bryn Mawr College , Princeton University and the University of Pennsylvania in the 1890s. In 1872, Abner Jackson , the President of Trinity College, Connecticut , visited Britain, seeking models and an architect for a planned new campus for the college. William Burges was chosen and he drew up a four-quadrangled masterplan, in his Early French style. Lavish illustrations were produced by Axel Haig . However,
36445-438: Was at once a setting and a protagonist in a hugely popular work of fiction. Hugo intended his book to awaken a concern for the surviving Gothic architecture left in Europe, however, rather than to initiate a craze for neo-Gothic in contemporary life. In the same year that Notre-Dame de Paris appeared, the new restored Bourbon monarchy established an office in the Royal French Government of Inspector-General of Ancient Monuments,
36642-449: Was eventually raised to 792 feet (241 m). Several different height measurements have been cited over the years, but the building rises about 793.5 feet (241.9 m) above the lowest point of the site. The Woolworth Building was 60 stories tall when completed in 1913, though this consisted of 53 usable floors topped by several mechanical floors. The building's ceiling heights, ranging from 11 to 20 feet (3.4 to 6.1 m), make it
36839-491: Was immediately hailed a success and universally replaced the previous preference for classical design. Not every architect or client was swept away by this tide. Although Gothic Revival succeeded in becoming an increasingly familiar style of architecture, the attempt to associate it with the notion of high church superiority, as advocated by Pugin and the ecclesiological movement, was anathema to those with ecumenical or nonconformist principles. Alexander "Greek" Thomson launched
37036-619: Was laid in 1814, and it was consecrated in 1816. It predates St Luke's Church, Chelsea , often said to be the first Gothic-revival church in London. Though built of trap rock stone with arched windows and doors, parts of its tower and its battlements were wood. Gothic buildings were subsequently erected by Episcopal congregations in Connecticut at St John's in Salisbury (1823), St John's in Kent (1823–1826) and St Andrew's in Marble Dale (1821–1823). These were followed by Town's design for Christ Church Cathedral (Hartford, Connecticut) (1827), which incorporated Gothic elements such as buttresses into
37233-437: Was not decided upon until January 1911. Construction started in 1910 and was completed two years later. The building officially opened on April 24, 1913. The Woolworth Building has undergone several changes throughout its history. The facade was cleaned in 1932, and the building received an extensive renovation between 1977 and 1981. The Irving National Exchange Bank moved its headquarters to 1 Wall Street in 1931, but
37430-478: Was not limited to architecture. Classical Gothic buildings of the 12th to 16th Centuries were a source of inspiration to 19th-century designers in numerous fields of work. Architectural elements such as pointed arches, steep-sloping roofs and fancy carvings like lace and lattice work were applied to a wide range of Gothic Revival objects. Some examples of Gothic Revival influence can be found in heraldic motifs in coats of arms, furniture with elaborate painted scenes like
37627-517: Was originally retained to design a standard 12- to 16-story commercial building for Woolworth, who later said he "had no desire to erect a monument that would cause posterity to remember me". By 1910, the plans called for a building with a 20-story base and 10-story upper section. Woolworth then wanted to surpass the nearby New York World Building , which sat on the other side of City Hall Park and stood 20 stories and 350 feet (110 m). A drawing by Thomas R. Johnson, dated April 22, 1910, shows
37824-479: Was popular across Scotland and was applied to many relatively modest dwellings by architects such as William Burn (1789–1870), David Bryce (1803–1876), Edward Blore (1787–1879), Edward Calvert ( c. 1847–1914 ) and Robert Stodart Lorimer (1864–1929) and in urban contexts, including the building of Cockburn Street in Edinburgh (from the 1850s) as well as the National Wallace Monument at Stirling (1859–1869). The reconstruction of Balmoral Castle as
38021-463: Was preferred by architects like Louis Sullivan , and was a strong influence on the next generation of skyscrapers, including Raymond Hood's own subsequent work on the McGraw-Hill Building and the Rockefeller Center . The 1929 Gulf Building in Houston, Texas , designed by architects Alfred C. Finn , Kenneth Franzheim, and J. E. R. Carpenter , is a close realization of that Saarinen design. César Pelli 's 181 West Madison Street Building in Chicago
38218-428: Was set on more sound intellectual footings by a pioneer, Arcisse de Caumont , who founded the Societé des Antiquaires de Normandie at a time when antiquaire still meant a connoisseur of antiquities, and who published his great work on architecture in French Normandy in 1830. The following year Victor Hugo 's historical romance novel The Hunchback of Notre-Dame appeared, in which the great Gothic cathedral of Paris
38415-475: Was so savagely critical of new church buildings that were below its exacting standards and its pronouncements were followed so avidly that it became the epicentre of the flood of Victorian restoration that affected most of the Anglican cathedrals and parish churches in England and Wales. St Luke's Church, Chelsea , was a new-built Commissioner's Church of 1820–1824, partly built using a grant of £8,333 towards its construction with money voted by Parliament as
38612-452: Was still being republished by 1881, and has been reissued in the 21st century. The most common use for Gothic Revival architecture was in the building of churches. Major examples of Gothic cathedrals in the U.S. include the cathedrals of St. John the Divine and St. Patrick in New York City and the Washington National Cathedral on Mount St. Alban in northwest Washington, D.C. One of the biggest churches in Gothic Revival style in Canada
38809-431: Was used between the 1st and 28th floors, except in the interior columns, where triangular bracing was used. The portal braces on the building's exterior direct crosswinds downward toward the ground, rather than into the building. Interconnecting trusses were placed at five-floor intervals between the tower and the wings; these, as well as the side and court walls, provided the bracing for the wings. Directly above each of
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