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1.2
Standard Oil Building
1.3
Manhattan Life Insurance Building
2.2
Park Row Building (15 Park Row)
Duration
1.5 hours
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Location
Broadway & Wall St, New York
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Broadway near Bowling Green
Broadway & Wall St, New York
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1.1
1895 - Empire Building - Speculatively built by the O.B. Potter estate and designed by Kimball &Thompson, the Empire Building housed Andrew Carnegie’s United States Steel Corporation offices, among many others.[1] This building was the headquarters of J.P. Morgan's United States Steel Company from its establishment until 1976. It was converted into apartments in 1997.
1.2
1885 - Standard Oil Building - The original Standard Oil Building was only ten stories tall, but in 1895, Kimball & Thompson added six new skeleton frame floors and a north extension to the building, making it 280 feet tall. - The Skyscraper Museum
1.3
1894 - Manhattan Life Insurance Building - Notable for its ingenuity in engineering, this building was one of the first to use pneumatic caissons for its foundations. Designed by architects Kimball and Thompson and engineer Charles Sooysmith, it reached a height of 348 ft.[1] Built on a site with a 54-foot layer of mud and quicksand, the Manhattan Life Insurance Building required its masonry foundations to be carried down to bedrock. Initial excavation was carried out by men and horses scraping across the entire lot, after which caissons were installed allowing men to continue digging beneath the masonry piers that slowly sank to the bedrock.[2]… the Manhattan Life Building became NYC’s tallest skyscraper in 1893. It was also the first office building to use pneumatic caissons in its foundation.[3]
1.4
1895 - American Surety Company Building - At the time of its completion in 1895, Bruce Price’s American Surety Building was the second-tallest skyscraper in NYC. It had a steel-skeleton frame and curtain walls that were significantly thinner than heavy load-bearing walls, freeing up additional space in offices.[1] The ornate 23-story American Surety Building at 100 Broadway was the second tallest in New York on completion in 1896. Architect Bruce Price used steel framing and curtain-wall construction, as well as caisson foundation piers that were described in detail in Scientific American.[2] Steel framed, the American Surety Company Building is one of the most significant early skyscrapers. It features granite cladding on all four sides, as the building originally appeared as a free-standing tower. It was designed by Emily Post's father, Bruce Price. The classical statues above the fist floor on Broadway are were commissioned from J. Massey Rhind. The street facades are divided into three distinct elements inspired by the base, shaft, and capital of a classical column. This popular characteristic would be seen in other early skyscrapers. The American Surety Company dealt in surety bonds such as bail bonds, fidelity bonds, fiduciary bonds and commercial bonds. American Surety became the biggest company in its field, employing 15,000 local agents nationally in 1924. It merged with Transamerica Corporation in 1963.
1.5
1897 - Gillender Building - Despite its tiny 25 ft. x 75 ft. lot, Berg & Clark’s Gillender Building was still one of NYC’s tallest edifices in 1900. The slender skyscraper’s lifespan was short; it was demolished in 1910 to make room for the even taller Bankers Trust Building.[1]
2
Park Row
Park Row & Beekman St, New York
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2.1
1897 - St. Paul Building - While many skyscrapers were made taller by pointed roofs or cupolas, George B. Post’s St. Paul Building reached its lofty height with a flat roof. Its neoclassical style, with its many-layered rows of columns, was consistent with older neighboring buildings.[1]
2.2
1899 - Park Row Building (15 Park Row) - R.H. Robertson’s Park Row Building was the tallest in the world until 1908. Financed by August Belmont, a pioneer of New York’s first subway, the building had 30 stories, nearly 1,000 offices, and cost $2,750,000 to build. [1] At thirty stories and 391 feet to the top of its twin cupolas, New York's Park Row Building was the tallest office building in the world. A speculative real estate venture, it contained 950 offices and could accommodate up to 4,000 workers.[2]
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2.3
1896 - American Tract Society - The American Tract Society rented out offices in their building, using the profits to spread Christianity and donate to charity. The structure, built by R.H. Robertson, is most notable for its six horizontal divisions and rooftop loggia.[1] Built in 1894-95 as an office building for the American Tract Society, the building was designed by noted architect R.H. Robertson, who was best known for designing churches, institutional and office buildings in New York. At twenty full stories in height, this rusticated granite, brick, and terra cotta building was one of the earliest steel skeletal-frame skyscrapers in New York, as well as one of the tallest and largest skyscrapers in the city upon its completion. Combining elements of the Romanesque and Renaissance Revival styles, the design features a three-story arcade of Romanesque arches resting on Corinthian columns at the upper stories, combining to create a picturesque feature in the skyline of lower Manhattan. The American Tract Society was one of the largest American publishers prior to the Civil War, located in an area that was the center of newspaper publishing in New York City from the 1830s through the 1920s.
2.4
1860 - New York World Building - In commissioning the controversial World Building, Joseph Pulitzer hoped to assert his paper’s dominance in American journalism. George B. Post’s design stood out not only for its imposing height (it was the tallest building in NYC to date), but also for its colorful façade and iconic dome.[1]Tallest building in the world in 1890, the headquarters for Joseph Pulitzer's World stretched 309 feet to its gold dome. Architect George B. Post used a hybrid "cage" system common in New York which used steel framing to support the interior structure and exterior masonry walls with metal columns embedded to carry floor loads.[2]
3
Houston Street
Broadway & W Houston St, New York
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3.1
1894 - Cable Building - The Commercial Cable Building, designed by Harding and Gooch, employed concrete-filled cast iron pipes for an innovative approach to foundation engineering used to stabilize the slender tower.[1] The Cable Building was built in 1892-1894. It is a steel and iron frame structure with brick, stone, and terra-cotta facing. It has a limestone base with a two-story arcade featuring show windows graced by iron spandrels and elegant keystones. It also has a prominent copper cornice with lions' faces, egg and dart moldings, and surmounting acanthus. It is believed to be the architectural firm McKim, Mead & White's first use of a complete steel frame in a commercial building.
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The Tallest buildings in the world, New York City
The Charging bull, initially left in the middle of the night outside the NY Stock exchange
1915, The term Bowling Green is derived from its frequent association with the turfed, circular space used for ball games popular in Europe and America.
At the intersection of Park Row and Beekman Street diagonally across from City Hall Park.
The John A. Paulson Center from the corner of Houston Street and Greene Street
IN THIS PHOTO / THEN AND NOW
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St. Paul Building
Park Row Building (15 Park Row)
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