hoog, hoger, hoogst [5]

Twee laat-negentiende eeuwse wolkenkrabbers in New York

Een van de eerste wolkenkrabbers in New York dateert nog uit de negentiende eeuw. In 1899 nam het 117 meter hoge Park Row Building de titel world’s tallest building over van zijn buurman St.Paul Building.

Park Row Building, 1899
Tot 1908 het hoogste gebouw ter wereld. Rechts St.Paul’s Building dat in 1898 nog deze titel droeg.
The 30-story Park Row Building was the tallest office building in the world from the time of its completion until the completion of the Singer Building in 1908. Built as a speculative office building by a syndicate of investors lead by August Belmont (also the entrepreneur behind the Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT), a private company responsible for the building and operation of the original subway line) the office block originally accommodated 950 offices and over 4,000 workers. It exploited the newly developed all steel-skeleton technology. The syndicate bought and consolidated seven smaller lots to create this large but very irregularly shaped site which lacked the corner lot. The exterior lacks the soaring profile and slender tower of the office buildings that would take the title of tallest building in the next decade, the Singer Building, Metropolitan Life Tower and Woolworth Building. The most distinctive elements of its design are the two three-story cupolas and four life-sized sculpted figures projecting from the fourth floor of the Park Row front.
 
Bron: nyc-architecture.com
Nogmaals de kampioenen van 1898-1908 samen op een ansichtkaart.
The Park Row Building still stands today facing City Hall Park in lower Manhattan. Commissioned in 1896 by William Mills Ivins, the head of an investment group, the structure was built as speculative office space. It rises 386 feet to its cornice and 391 feet to the lanterns placed atop the structure; counting the four stories in the lanterns, the building is 30 stories tall. The interior could accommodate up to 1,000 offices, and was the home of the first IRT subway headquarters. Under the direction of architect R.H. Robertson and engineer Nathaniel Roberts, the building was under construction for over three years.
 
Bron: skyscraper.org

Een aardig overzicht van wolkenkrabbers in New York met actuele foto’s vind je hier

nyc-architecture.com | skyscraper.org