Fieldston School

Department of History_______________________________________________________________

Inventing Gotham

Cathedrals of Commerce: The Industrial City and the Rise of the Skyscraper

Cities of Exchange/ City of Industry

industrial revolution

transportation and transportation breaks

Erie Canal, begun 1818, finished 1825

the canal boom, 1820s-40s

railroads, 1840s-1850s

technology and the city

cast iron

Bogardus front

Cast Iron Bldgs., 1865 Details

“Bogardus Front”

elevator, steel frame construction and the skyscraper

Elisha Otis and the Safety Elevator (Crystal Palace, 1854)

vertical multiplication of space

steel frame (Wm. LeBaron Jenney, 1883)

The Early Chicago Skyscraper

Montgomery Ward, “Busy Bee-Hive,” 1900 catalog

Phoenix Reborn, 1871 Agent 6373

Chicago Lumber district (1883) Chicago 1892

Chicago Corn Cob, 1891 Chicago Board of Trade

the grid and the "Loop:" Currier and Ives, Chicago, 1890

the "palazzo block:"

William Le Baron Jenney (1832-1907)

Home Insurance building, 1883-4

Louis Sullivan

Wainwright, St. Louis, 1891 Bayard (Condict), NYC, 1894-8

New York- Cathedrals of Commerce

‘Making America Corporate:’ The Signature Building

New York in 1797 1811 Commissioners' Plan

14-155th Streets

rivers, Collect Pond, Broadway

Metropolitan Life Building, 1893 and 1909 (N. LeBrun) Singer Building, 1899 (E. Flagg)

Madison Square, 1910 history of skyscraper

Flatiron Building, New York, 1902 (D. Burnham) Steiglitz

Woolworth Building, 1913 (Cass Gilbert)

1913 tallest building in world until Chrysler in 1929 and Empire State 1930

800 feet, only 60 floors (high ceilings)

Cathedral of commerce, $13.5 million in cash- big advertisement

Gothic

Gargoyles:Woolworth, Gilbert, Louis Horowitz the builder

The Equitable Building and the Origins of Zoning

King’s Dream of 1930 ( 1908) Equitable (120 Bway)1915

discuss zoning

41 stories without setback; multiplication of ground plane by technology: steel and elevator. Force of real estate speculation on an island

1916 zoning law; setback 'wedding cake" skyscraper

The City of Tomorrow

Hugh Ferriss, The Metropolis of Tomorrow, 1929

Raymond Hood

Study for the Regional Plan Association, 1`930

Daily News Building, 1929

McGraw Hill Building, 1931

Chrysler Building, 1929 (W. Van Alen)

Beaux-Arts Ball, 1929 Apres L’Amour, Vreisendorp, 1976

battles Bank of the Manhattan Company building for tallest (hidden spire)

hubcap and hood ornament decorations and gargoyles

Empire State Building, 1931 (Shreve, Lamb, and Harmon)

Waldorf Astoria’

16 designs by S, L &H before Raskob and Smith approve

originally 86 stories, 1100 feet. Eventually 102 stories and 1,454 feet with addition in 1930 of Zeppelin mooring mast

Tallest from 1931-

Construction: Commenced March 17, 1930.  Framework rose at a rate of 4 1⁄2 stories per week.

Total Time: One year and 45 days including Sundays and holidays.  (Ahead of schedule).

Man-Hours: 7,000,000

Cost: $40,948,900 (including land) less than original estimate

Total Height: 1,454 feet (1,453 feet, 8 9/16th inches) or 443.2 meters to top of lightning rod.

*To 86th Floor Observatory: 1,050 feet (320 meters)

*To 102nd Floor Tower: 1,224 feet (373 meters)

*102nd Floor to Tip: 230 feet

Height of Antenna: 204 feet

Steps: 1,860 from street level to 102nd floor

Rockefeller Center, 1931 (Harrison, Corbett, et al)

The International Style in America

Lever House, 1950 (G. Bunshaft, SOM)

Seagrams Building, 1954 (L. Mies van der Rohe)

United Nations Building