Woolworth Building
Skyscraper in Manhattan, New York / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Woolworth Building is a 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 1930, with a height of 792 feet (241 m). More than a century after its construction, it remains one of the 100 tallest buildings in the U.S..
Woolworth Building | |
---|---|
Record height | |
Tallest in the world from 1913 to 1930[I] | |
Preceded by | Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Tower |
Surpassed by | 40 Wall Street |
General information | |
Architectural style | Neo-Gothic |
Location | 233 Broadway Manhattan, New York, US |
Construction started | November 4, 1910; 113 years ago (November 4, 1910) |
Topped-out | July 1, 1912; 111 years ago (July 1, 1912)[1] |
Completed | 1912 |
Opening | April 24, 1913; 110 years ago (April 24, 1913) |
Renovated | 1977–1981 |
Cost | US$13.5 million (equivalent to $400,000,000 in 2022) |
Owner | Witkoff Group, Cammeby's International (bottom 30 floors) KC Properties (top 30 floors) |
Height | |
Roof | 792 ft (241 m) |
Technical details | |
Floor count | 55 |
Lifts/elevators | 34 |
Design and construction | |
Architect(s) | Cass Gilbert |
Developer | F. W. Woolworth |
Structural engineer | Gunvald Aus and Kort Berle |
Main contractor | Thompson–Starrett Co. |
Renovating team | |
Renovating firm | Ehrenkrantz Group |
Woolworth Building | |
Coordinates | 40°42′44″N 74°00′29″W |
Area | 0.5 acres (0.2 ha) |
NRHP reference No. | 66000554 |
NYSRHP No. | 06101.001790 |
NYCL No. | 1121, 1273 |
Significant dates | |
Added to NRHP | November 13, 1966 |
Designated NHL | November 13, 1966 |
Designated NYSRHP | June 23, 1980[2] |
Designated NYCL | April 12, 1983 |
References | |
[3][4][5][6] |
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 a 30-story base topped by a 30-story tower. Its facade is mostly decorated 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 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 National Exchange Bank, 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 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 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,[7][8][9] and a New York City designated landmark since 1983.[10]
Cass Gilbert designed the Woolworth Building in the neo-Gothic style.[11][12] The building resembles European Gothic cathedrals; Reverend S. Parkes Cadman dubbed it "The Cathedral of Commerce" in a booklet published in 1916.[1][13][14][15] F. W. Woolworth, who had devised the idea for the Woolworth Building, had proposed using the Victoria Tower as a model for the building;[16][12] he reportedly also admired the design of Palace of Westminster.[17] Gilbert, by contrast, disliked the comparison to religious imagery.[16][12][18] The architect ultimately used 15th- and 16th-century Gothic ornament on the Woolworth Building, along with a complementary color scheme.[12][18][19]
The Woolworth Building was designed to be 420 feet (130 m) high but was eventually raised to 792 feet (241 m).[11][lower-alpha 1] 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.[18] The Woolworth Building was 60 stories tall when completed in 1913,[13] though this consisted of 53 usable floors topped by several mechanical floors.[22][23][lower-alpha 2] The building's ceiling heights, ranging from 11 to 20 feet (3.4 to 6.1 m), make it the equivalent of an 80-story building.[18] It remained the tallest building in the world until the construction of 40 Wall Street and the Chrysler Building in 1930, both in New York City.[26] 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[update].[27]
Form
The building's tower, flush with the main frontage on Broadway, joins an office block base with a narrow interior court for light.[13][28][29] The base occupies the entire lot between Park Place to the north, Broadway to the east, and Barclay Street to the south.[15] The site measures 155 feet (47 m) wide on Broadway and 200 feet (61 m) wide on both Park Place and Barclay Street.[30] The base contains two "wings" extending westward, one each on the Park Place and Barclay Street frontages, which form a rough U-shape when combined with the Broadway frontage. This ensured that all offices had outside views.[15] The U-shaped base is approximately 30 stories tall.[31][32][30] All four elevations of the base are decorated, since the building has frontage on all sides.[18]
The tower rises an additional 30 stories above the eastern side of the base, abutting Broadway.[23][32] Above the 30th floor are setbacks on the north and south elevations. There are additional setbacks along the north, south, and west elevations on the 45th and 50th floors.[22][33] 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).[22] The tower has a square plan below the 50th-story setback and an octagonal plan above.[34] Though the structure is physically 60 stories tall, the 53rd floor is the top floor that can be occupied.[23][lower-alpha 2] Above the 53rd floor, the tower tapers into a pyramidal roof.[31][29]
Facade
The lowest four stories are clad in limestone.[31][lower-alpha 3] Above that, the exterior of the Woolworth Building was cast in limestone-colored, glazed architectural terracotta panels.[12][13][28] F. W. Woolworth initially wanted to clad the skyscraper in granite, while Gilbert wanted to use limestone.[28][36] The decision to use terracotta for 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.[28][36] Each panel was of a slightly different color, creating a polychrome effect.[37][28] The facade appeared to have a uniform tone, but the upper floors were actually darker and more dense.[37] Behind the terracotta panels were brick walls; the terracotta pieces are attached to the brick walls by metal rods and hangers.[19]
The Atlantic Terra Cotta Company provided the original terracotta cladding.[34][38][39] The panels were manufactured in shades of blue, green, sienna, and rose.[18] The terracotta panels were partially vitrified, allowing them to bear large loads.[19] Gilbert also asked that John Donnelly and Eliseo V. Ricci create full-size designs based on Atlantic Terra Cotta's models.[39][40] In 1932, Atlantic Terra Cotta carried out a comprehensive cleaning campaign of the Woolworth's facade to remove blackening caused by the city's soot and pollution.[41] The Ehrenkrantz Group restored the building's facade between 1977 and 1981.[14] During the renovation, much of the terracotta was replaced with concrete and Gothic ornament was removed.[10]
The building has several thousand windows: the exact number is disputed, but various sources state that the Woolworth Building has 2,843,[25][42] 4,400,[43] or 5,000 windows.[13][44][45] Windows were included for lighting and comfort;[46][47] because the Woolworth Building was built before air conditioning became common, every office is within 10 feet (3.0 m) of a window.[48] Some of the Woolworth Building's windows are set within arch-shaped openings. Most of 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.[22]
Base
On the part of the base facing Broadway, as well as 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.[31] There are nine entrances in total.[16]
The main entrance on Broadway is a three-story Tudor arch,[12][35] surrounded on either side by two bays: one narrower than the main arch, the other wider.[35] The five bays form a triumphal arch overhung by a balcony and stone motifs of Gothic design.[35] 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.[49][35] The spandrel above the left side of the arch depicts Mercury, classical god of commerce, while that above the right side depicts Ceres, classical goddess of agriculture.[49] Above all of this is an ogee arch with more niches, as well as two carvings of owls hovering above a "W" monogram.[49][35] There are salamanders within niches on either side of the main entrance.[50] Inside the triumphal arch, there is a smaller arch with a revolving door and a Tudor window; it is flanked by standard doors and framed with decorations.[50][35] There is a pelican above this smaller arch.[50]
Decorated revolving doors are also located at the northern and southern entrances, at Park Place and Barclay Street respectively.[51] The Park Place and Barclay Street entrances are nearly identical, except for the arrangement of the storefronts. Both entrances are located on the eastern sides of their respective elevations, lining up with the tower above them, and contain a wide arch flanked by two narrower arches.[35] The three entrances feed into the arcaded lobby.[51] 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.[35]
The facade contains vertical piers, which protrude diagonally.[37][35] There are six such piers on the Broadway elevation.[35] In addition, horizontal belt courses run above the 4th, 9th, 14th, 19th, and 24th stories.[37][52] 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.[37][22] These decorative features make the tower section "appear to merge with the atmosphere", as architectural writer Donald Reynolds described it.[37] Above 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.[22]
Tower section
The 30th through 45th floors contain three bays on each elevation; the side bays contain two windows, while 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.[34][22] The northeast corner turret concealed a smokestack.[34]
There is a pyramidal roof above the 53rd floor,[31] as well as four ornamental tourelles at the four corners of the tower.[53] The roof was originally gilt but is now green.[22] The pyramidal roof, as well as the smaller roofs below, used 40,000 square feet (3,700 m2) of gold leaf.[34] 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 is capped by a spire. The three layers of pyramids are about 62 feet (19 m), or five stories tall.[22] An observation deck was located at the 55th floor, about 730 feet (220 m) above ground level.[22][54][55] The deck was octagonal in plan, measuring 65 feet (20 m) across, was accessed by a glass-walled elevator.[56] It was patronized by an estimated 300,000 visitors per year but was closed as a security measure in 1941 after the Pearl Harbor attack.[22][54][55]
Strongly articulated piers, which carry right to the pyramidal cap without intermediate cornices, give the building its upward thrust.[57] 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."[12][58] The copper roof is connected to the Woolworth Building's steel superstructure, which serves to ground the roof electrically.[57] 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".[59] Gilbert considered several proposals for exterior lighting, including four powerful searchlights atop nearby buildings and 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.[31]
Structural features
Substructure
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.[60] The site also has a high water table, which is as shallow as 15 feet (4.6 m) beneath ground level.[30] Due to the geology of the area, the building is supported on either 66[61][30] or 69 massive caissons that descend to the bedrock.[60][46][62] The caissons range in depth from 100 to 120 feet (30 to 37 m).[60]
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 the ground with a pneumatic caisson process to anchor the foundations to the bedrock.[63] 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.[60][46][62] The caissons were both round and rectangular, with the rectangular caissons located mainly on the southern and western lot lines.[20][46] The caissons are irregularly distributed across 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.[30] The two basement levels, descending 55 feet (17 m),[61] are constructed of reinforced concrete.[64]
Superstructure
Whereas many earlier buildings had been constructed with load-bearing walls, which by necessity were extremely thick, the Woolworth Building's steel superstructure was relatively thin, which enabled Gilbert to maximize the building's interior area.[65] Engineers Gunvald Aus and Kort Berle designed the steel frame.[66][63] 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).[20][63][66] Where the columns of the superstructure did not match up with the caissons, they were cantilevered above on plate girders between two adjoining caissons.[20][46] 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.[30]
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.[61][46][67] Continuous portal bracing was used between the 1st and 28th floors, except in the interior columns, where triangular bracing was used.[62][68] The portal braces on the building's exterior direct crosswinds downward toward the ground, rather than into the building.[57] 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.[62][68] Directly above each of the tower's setbacks, the outer walls are supported by girders, as the columns beneath them are offset.[61] 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.[64]
Interior
Upon completion, the Woolworth Building contained seven water systems—one each for the power plant, the hot-water plant, the fire-protection system, the communal restrooms, the offices with restrooms, the basement swimming pool, and the basement restaurant.[52][69] 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.[70] A dedicated water system, separate from the city's, was proposed during construction, but workers abandoned the plan after unsuccessfully digging 1,500 feet (460 m) into Manhattan's bedrock.[48]
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 (5.4×1012 mJ); the plant could support 50,000 people.[57][71][72] The building also had a dedicated heating plant with six boilers with a capacity of 2,500 horsepower (1,900 kW).[66][48][71] The boilers were fed from subterranean coal bunkers capable of holding over 2,000 tons of anthracite coal.[73]
Lobby
The ornate, cruciform lobby, known as the "arcade",[53][74] 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".[10] 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 the north wing at Park Place and the south wing at Barclay Street. A mezzanine crosses the arcade's north and south wings.[51] Where the passageways intersect, there is a domed ceiling.[14][51][75] The dome contains pendentives that may have been patterned after those of the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia.[76][77][78] The walls of this intersection vault are laid out in an octagonal shape, with mailboxes at the four intercardinal directions.[51]
Veined marble from the island of Skyros in Greece covers the lobby.[77][74][79] Edward F. Caldwell & Co. provided the interior lights for the lobby and hallways.[80] Patterned glass mosaics that contain blue, green, and gold tiling with red accents decorate the ceilings.[51][74] There are other Gothic-style decorations in the lobby, including on the cornice and the bronze fittings.[51] Twelve plaster brackets, which carry grotesques depicting major figures in 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.[51][81] 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.[74][79][82][83]
The staircase hall 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.[82][84][85] The ground floor originally contained 18 storefronts.[86] 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.[82][84][85] The mezzanine contains 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.[79][82] The skylight is also surrounded by sculpted grotesques,[82] which depict merchandising activities in the five-and-dime industry.[75]
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.[82] The crossbeams contain Roman portrait heads, while the cornice contains generic sculpted grotesques.[77][82] The lobby also contains a set of German chimes designed by Harry Yerkes.[87]
Basement
The basement of the Woolworth Building contains an unused bank vault, restaurant, and barbershop.[48] The bank vault was initially intended to be used for safe-deposit boxes,[85] though it was used by the Irving National Exchange Bank in practice.[88] In 1931, Irving moved some $3 billion of deposits to a vault in its new headquarters at 1 Wall Street,[89] and the Woolworth Building's vault was converted into a storage area for maintenance workers.[90] There is also a basement storage room, known as the "bone yard", which contains replacement terracotta decorations for the facade.[56]
The basement also contains closed entrances to two New York City Subway stations.[85] 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.[48] Another entrance led to 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.[91] The area in front of the former entrances was used as a bike-storage area by the 2010s.[85]
A private pool, originally intended for F. W. Woolworth, exists in the basement.[92] Proposed as early as 1910,[93] the pool measured 15 by 55 feet (4.6 by 16.8 m)[56][92] and had a marble perimeter.[56] The pool was later drained[92][56] but was restored in the mid-2010s as part of the conversion of the Woolworth Building's upper floors into residential units.[94]
Offices
At the time of construction, the Woolworth Building had over 2,000 offices.[66] Each office had ceilings ranging from 11 to 20 feet (3.4 to 6.1 m) high.[32][15] Gilbert had designed the interior to maximize the amount of usable office space, and correspondingly, minimize the amount of space taken up by the elevator shafts.[46][95] 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.[46][96] 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.[86] For reasons that are unknown, floor numbers 42, 48, and 52 are skipped.[25]
Woolworth's private office on the 24th floor, revetted in green marble in the French Empire style, is preserved in its original condition.[1][56][49] His office included a mahogany desk with a leather top measuring 7.5 by 3.75 feet (2.29 by 1.14 m).[97] That desk contained a hidden console with four buttons to request various members of his staff.[56] The marble columns in the office are capped by gilded Corinthian capitals. Woolworth's reception room contained objects that were inspired by 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.[97] The walls of the office contained portraits of Napoleon, and gold-and-scarlet chairs were arranged around the room.[98] At some point, Woolworth replaced the portrait of Napoleon with a portrait of himself.[56]
Elevators
The Woolworth Building contains a system of high-speed elevators capable of traveling 650 feet (200 m)[29] or 700 feet (210 m) per minute.[52][99] The Otis Elevator Company supplied the units, which were innovative in that there were "express" elevators, stopping only at certain floors, and "local" elevators, stopping at every floor between a certain range.[100] There were 26 Otis electric elevators with gearless traction, as well as an electric-drum shuttle elevator within the tower once construction was complete.[52] 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.[86]
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.[51] The elevator doors in the lobby were designed by Tiffany Studios.[77][85] The patterns on the doors have been described as "arabesque tracery patterns in etched steel set off against a gold-plated background".[83]