The inventions of steel (plus the ability to inexpensively mass produce it) and of the elevator combined with electrical plumbing pumps, central heating and the telephone would lead to the design of buildings known as "skyscrapers." The earliest skyscrapers were the "elevator buildings" of 10 to 20 stories constructed in New York in the 1870's. Today's skyscrapers are, obviously, much taller and more massive than the first skyscrapers. Skyscrapers came of age in Chicago with the use of cage construction in the 1880's (many skyscrapers were built there following the devastating fire in 1871). Ironically, New York City, today famous for its skyscrapers, had stricter building codes so the construction of skyscrapers moved slower here.
The word "skyscraper" usually brings to mind the tallest skyscrapers -- the Chrysler Building, the Empire State Building or the World Trade Center towers. Earlier and smaller ones may be forgotten. The Architecture of New York: Histories and Views of Important Structures, Sites and Symbols by Donald Martin Reynolds lists the following three buildings as New York City's first skyscrapers (all three were either demolished or destroyed by fire):
- the Equitable Life Assurance Building (built in 1871 at 120 Broadway and destroyed by fire in 1912 and rebuilt in 1915), designed by George B. Post;
- the Western Union Building (1873 - 1875) was at 195 Broadway and
- the New York Tribune Building (1873 - 1875) east of City Hall Park and designed by Richard Morris Hunt.
The island of Manhattan is composed of a large amount of mica schist rock, especially suited for the construction of skyscrapers. As skyscrapers became popular and more and more were constructed in the City, New Yorkers began to worry that eventually the city would be without enough light and air. Zoning laws were introduced in 1916 after the construction of the Equitable Building (1915) and the City adopted a "setback law" which required the buildings to be set back at specific intervals (according to the width of the streets at the skyscraper's locations) so that light and air would be admitted to the street. This resulted in the construction of "wedding cake" (tiers that get thinner and narrower as the building rises) or "ziggurat" skyscraper-style structures with stepped towers. This style was very popular from the 1920s to the 1950s.
Some of New York City's most noteworthy taller buildings have included:
- Park Row Building (15 Park Row) 1899, 30 stories, 391 feet
- Flatiron Building (pictured above) 1903, 22 stories
- Metropolitan Life Building 1909-1912, 54 stories
- Woolworth Building 1913, 60 stories
- Equitable Building (120 Broadway) 1915, 38 stories
- American Radiator Building 1923 - 1924 (now the American Standard Building) 23 stories
- Bank of Manhattan (48 Wall Street and now the Trump Building) 1927 - 1929, 72 stories
- Manhattan Company Building (40 Wall Street) 1929
- City Bank-Farmers Trust Building (Exchange Place at Beaver, Hanover and William Streets) 1930 - 1931, 59 stories (planned in 1929 as the world's tallest building)
- Chanin Building (122 W. 42nd Street) 1927 - 1929, 56 stories
- Chrysler Building 1930, 77 stories
- Empire State Building 1931, 102 stories
- Rockefeller Center 1931
- American International Building 1932
- United Nations Building 1948
- Lever House (390 Park Avenue) 1950 - 1952
- Seagram Building (375 Park Avenue) 1954 - 1958
- CBS Building (52nd Street at Sixth Avenue) 1961 - 1965
- World Trade Center (completed 1977) 110 stories
- Time Warner Center 2003
- Hearst Building glass tower (addition) 2004
Designed by architect David
Burnham and built from 1901 – 1903, the Flatiron Building (photo above) is 22 stories high and was initially
the Fuller Construction Company building;
however, New Yorkers quickly named it “the
Flatiron Building,” due to its unusual “flat iron”/triangular shape. The name stuck. The
The
