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Woolworth Building

August 20, 2023

For other uses, see List of Woolworth buildings.

The Woolworth Building is an early American skyscraper designed by architect Cass Gilbert located at 233 Broadway in the Tribeca neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. 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 United States.

Woolworth Building
Woolworth Building in November 2005
Record height
Tallest in the world from 1913 to 1930[I]
Preceded byMetropolitan Life Insurance Company Tower
Surpassed by40 Wall Street
General information
Architectural styleNeo-Gothic
Location233 Broadway
Manhattan, New York
Construction startedNovember 4, 1910; 112 years ago (November 4, 1910)
Topped-outJuly 1, 1912; 111 years ago (July 1, 1912)[1]
Completed1912
OpeningApril 24, 1913; 110 years ago (April 24, 1913)
Renovated1977–1981
CostUS$13.5 million (equivalent to $400,000,000 in 2022)
OwnerWitkoff Group, Cammeby's International (bottom 30 floors)
KC Properties (top 30 floors)
Height
Roof792 ft (241 m)
Technical details
Floor count55
Lifts/elevators34
Design and construction
Architect(s)Cass Gilbert
DeveloperF. W. Woolworth
Structural engineerGunvald Aus and Kort Berle
Main contractorThompson–Starrett Co.
Renovating team
Renovating firmEhrenkrantz Group
Woolworth Building
New York City Landmark No. 1121, 1273
Location in New York City
Location in New York
Location in United States
Coordinates40°42′44″N 74°00′29″W / 40.71222°N 74.00806°W / 40.71222; -74.00806
Area0.5 acres (0.2 ha)
NRHP reference No.66000554
NYSRHP No.06101.001790
NYCL No.1121, 1273
Significant dates
Added to NRHPNovember 13, 1966
Designated NHLNovember 13, 1966
Designated NYSRHPJune 23, 1980[2]
Designated NYCLApril 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]

Architecture

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 building's crown

The Woolworth Building was designed to be 420 feet (130 m) high but was eventually raised to 792 feet (241 m).[11][a] 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][b] 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.[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][b] Above the 53rd floor, the tower tapers into a pyramidal roof.[31][29]

Facade

The lowest four stories are clad in limestone.[31][c] 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

 
Part of the lobby

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]

 
Detail of grotesque

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

 
Detail of 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]

History

Planning

F. W. Woolworth, an entrepreneur who had become successful because of his "Five-and-Dime" (5- and 10-cent stores), began planning a new headquarters for the F. W. Woolworth Company in 1910. Around the same time, Woolworth's friend Lewis Pierson was having difficulty getting shareholder approval for the merger of his Irving National Bank and the rival New York Exchange Bank. Woolworth offered to acquire shares in New York Exchange Bank and vote in favor of the merger if Pierson agreed to move the combined banks' headquarters to a new building he was planning as the F. W. Woolworth Company's headquarters.[32][101] Having received a commitment from the banks, Woolworth acquired a corner site on Broadway and Park Place in Lower Manhattan, opposite City Hall.[10] The entrepreneur briefly considered purchasing a plot at West Broadway and Reade Street, a few blocks north of the Woolworth Building's current site. Woolworth decided against it because of the prestige that a Broadway address provided (despite its name, West Broadway was a separate street running several blocks from Broadway).[102]

Woolworth and the Irving National Exchange Bank then set up the Broadway-Park Place Company to construct and finance the proposed structure. Initially, the bank was supposed to purchase the company's stock gradually until it owned the entire company, and thus, the Woolworth Building. Irving would be able to manage the 18 floors of rentable space on a 25-year lease.[103] While negotiations to create the Broadway-Park Place Company were ongoing, Woolworth and his real estate agent Edward J. Hogan purchased several parcels from the Trenor Luther Park estate and other owners.[103][104] The entire footprint of the current building, a rectangular lot, had been acquired by April 15, 1910, at a total cost of $1.65 million.[10][103][105]

Original designs

 
The Woolworth Building under construction in February 1912

Woolworth commissioned Cass Gilbert to design the new building.[10][45] There are few print documents that indicate early correspondence between Woolworth and Gilbert, and news articles as late as March 1910 mentioned that no architect had been chosen.[106] Gilbert later mentioned that he had received the commission for the Woolworth Building after getting a phone call from Woolworth one day.[106] The architect had recently finished designing the nearby Broadway–Chambers Building and 90 West Street,[107] whose architecture Woolworth admired.[88] Woolworth wanted his new structure to be of similar design to the Palace of Westminster in London, which was designed in the Gothic style.[15] At the time, Gilbert was well known for constructing modern skyscrapers with historicizing design elements.[45]

Gilbert was originally retained to design a standard 12- to 16-story commercial building for Woolworth,[107] who later said he "had no desire to erect a monument that would cause posterity to remember me".[108] However, Woolworth then wanted to surpass the nearby New York World Building, which sat on the other side of City Hall Park and stood 20 stories and 350 feet (110 m). A drawing by Thomas R. Johnson, dated April 22, 1910, shows a 30-story building rising from the site.[107] Because of the change in plans, the organization of the Broadway-Park Place Company was rearranged. Woolworth would now be the major partner, contributing $1 million of the planned $1.5 million cost. The Irving Bank would pay the balance, and it would take up a 25-year lease for the ground floor, fourth floor, and basement.[88]

By September 1910, Gilbert had designed an even taller structure, with a 40-story tower on Park Place adjacent to a shorter 25-story annex, yielding a 550-foot (170 m)-tall building.[101] The next month, Gilbert's latest design had evolved into a 45-story tower roughly the height of the nearby Singer Building.[107] After the latest design, Woolworth wrote to Gilbert in November 1910 and asked for the building's height to be increased to 620 feet (190 m), which was 8 feet (2.4 m) taller than the Singer Building, Lower Manhattan's tallest building. Woolworth was inspired by his travels in Europe, where he would constantly be asked about the Singer Building. He decided that housing his company in an even taller building would provide invaluable advertising for the F. W. Woolworth Company and make it renowned worldwide. This design, unveiled to the public the same month, was a 45-story tower rising 625 feet (191 m), sitting on a lot by 105 by 197 feet (32 by 60 m).[101][105][109] Referring to the revised plans, Woolworth said, "I do not want a mere building. I want something that will be an ornament to the city."[105][110] He later said that he wanted visitors to brag that they had visited the world's tallest building.[108] Louis J. Horowitz, president of the building's main contractor Thompson-Starrett Company, said of Woolworth, "Beyond a doubt his ego was a thing of extraordinary size; whoever tried to find a reason for his tall building and did not take that fact into account would reach a false conclusion."[32][111]

Plans for world's tallest building

Even after the revised height was unveiled, Woolworth still yearned to make the building even taller as it was now close to the 700-foot (210 m) height of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Tower, then the tallest building in New York City and the world. On December 20, 1910, Woolworth sent a team of surveyors to measure the Metropolitan Life Tower's height and come up with a precise measurement, so he could make his skyscraper 50 feet (15 m) taller.[32][107][112][110] He then ordered Gilbert to revise the building's design to reach 710 or 712 feet (216 or 217 m), despite ongoing worries over whether the additional height would be worth the increased cost. In order to fit the larger base that a taller tower necessitated, Woolworth bought the remainder of the frontage on Broadway between Park Place and Barclay Street.[112] He also purchased two lots to the west, one on Park Place and one on Barclay Street; these lots would not be developed, but would retain their low-rise buildings and preserve the proposed tower's views. Such a tall building would produce the largest income of any building globally.[113]

On January 1, 1911, the New York Times reported Woolworth was planning a 625 feet (191 m) building at a cost of $5 million.[32][114] By January 18, 1911, Woolworth and Hogan had acquired the final site for the project at a total cost of $4.5 million; the lot measured 152 feet (46 m) on Broadway, 192.5 feet (58.7 m) on Barclay Street, and 197.83 feet (60 m) on Park Place.[32] In a New York Times article two days later, Woolworth said that his building would rise 750 feet (230 m) to its tip.[107][115] In order to fit the correct architectural proportions, Gilbert redesigned the building to its current 792-foot (241 m) height.[11] Renderings by illustrator Hughson Hawley, completed in April 1911, are the first official materials that reflect this final height.[107]

Gilbert had to reconcile both Woolworth's and Pierson's strict requirements for the design of the structure. The architect's notes describe late-night conversations that he had with both men. The current design of the lobby, with its arcade, reflected these conflicting pressures.[116] Sometimes, Gilbert also faced practical conundrums, such as Woolworth's requirement that there be "many windows so divided that all of the offices should be well lighted", and so that tenants could erect partitions to fit their needs. Gilbert wrote this "naturally prevented any broad wall space".[117] Woolworth and Gilbert sometimes clashed during the design process, especially because of the constantly changing designs and the architect's fees.[118] Nevertheless, Gilbert commended Woolworth's devotion to the details and beauty of the building's design, as well as the entrepreneur's enthusiasm for the project.[117][118] Such was the scale of the building that, for several years, Gilbert's sense of scale was "destroyed [...] because of the unprecedented attuning of detail to, for these days, such an excessive height".[12][119]

Construction

 
Photograph of the Woolworth Building under construction in April 1912

In September 1910, wrecking crews demolished the five and six-story structures which previously occupied the site.[120] Construction officially began on November 4, 1910, with excavation by The Foundation Company, using a contract negotiated personally by Frank Woolworth.[121] The start of construction instantly raised the site's value from $2.25 million to $3.2 million.[66] The contract of over $1 million was described as the largest contract for foundation construction ever awarded in the world.[122]

It took months for Woolworth to decide upon the general construction company. George A. Fuller's Fuller Company was well experienced and had practically invented skyscraper construction, but Louis Horowitz's Thompson-Starrett Company was local to New York; despite being newer, Horowitz had worked for Fuller before, and thus had a similar knowledge base.[123][124] On April 20, 1911, Thompson-Starrett won the contract with a guaranteed construction price of $4,308,500 for the building's frame and structural elements.[125] The company was paid $300,000 for their oversight and management work, despite Woolworth's attempts to get the company to do the job for free due to the prestige of the project.[121][126] On June 12, 1911, the Atlantic Terra Cotta Company received a $250,000 contract to manufacture the terracotta. The next month, Donnelly and Ricci received the $11,500 contract for the terracotta work and some of the interior design work.[40] Gilbert requested Atlantic Terra Cotta use an office next to his while they drew several hundred designs.[39]

The construction process involved hundreds of workers, and daily wages ranged from $1.50 for laborers (equivalent to $44 in 2022) to $4.50 for skilled workers (equivalent to $133 in 2022).[66] By August 1911, the building's foundations were completed ahead of the target date of September 15; construction of the skyscraper's steel frame began August 15.[127] The steel beams and girders used in the framework weighed so much that, to prevent the streets from caving in, a group of surveyors examined them on the route along which the beams would be transported.[63][128] The American Bridge Company provided steel for the building from their foundries in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh; manufacturing took over 45 weeks.[129]

 
The Woolworth Building topped out on July 1, 1912

The first above-ground steel had been erected by October 1911,[60] and installation of the building's terracotta began on February 1, 1912.[130][131] The building rose at the rate of 1+1⁄2 stories a week and the steelworkers set a speed record for assembling 1,153 tons of steel in six consecutive eight-hour days.[132] By February 18, 1912, work on the steel frame had reached the building's 18th floor.[133] By April 6, 1912, the steel frame had reached the top of the base at the 30th floor and work then began on constructing the tower of the Woolworth Building. Steel reached the 47th floor by May 30 and the official topping out ceremony took place two weeks ahead of schedule on July 1, 1912, as the last rivet was driven into the summit of the tower.[1][66][132][134] The skyscraper was substantially completed by the end of that year.[13] The final estimated construction cost was US$13.5 million (equivalent to $400,000,000 in 2022),[1][109][135][136] up from the initial estimates of US$5 million for the shorter versions of the skyscraper (equivalent to $148,000,000 in 2022).[1] This was divided into $5 million for the land, $1 million for the foundation, and $7 million for the structure. Woolworth provided $5 million, while investors provided the remainder, and financing was completed by August 1911.[137]

Woolworth operation

Opening and 1910s

The building opened on April 24, 1913. Woolworth held a grand dinner on the building's 27th floor for over 900 guests, and at exactly 7:30 p.m. EST, President Woodrow Wilson pushed a button in Washington, D.C., to turn on the building's lights.[13][135][138] Attendees included: Francis Hopkinson Smith, who served as toastmaster; author William Winter; businessmen Patrick Francis Murphy and Charles M. Schwab; Rhode Island Governor Aram J. Pothier; Judge Thomas C. T. Crain; US Senator from Arkansas Joseph Taylor Robinson; Ecuadorian minister Gonzalo Córdova; New York Supreme Court Justices Charles L. Guy and Edward Everett McCall; Commissioner of Education of the State of New York John Huston Finley; Collector of the Port of New York William Loeb Jr.; naval architect Lewis Nixon; Rear Admiral Charles Dwight Sigsbee; Commissioner of Docks and Ferries of the City of New York R. A. C. Smith; Colonel William Conant Church; United States Representative from New York Herman A. Metz; New York City Police Commissioner Rhinelander Waldo; banker James Speyer; former Lieutenant Governor of New York Timothy L. Woodruff; writer Robert Sterling Yard; Admiral Albert Gleaves; and reportedly between 69 and 80 congressmen who arrived via a special train from Washington, DC.[135][139][140] Additional congratulations were sent via letter from former President William Howard Taft, Governor of New Jersey James Fairman Fielder and United States Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels.[140]

The building was declared ready for occupancy on May 1, 1913, and Woolworth began advertising the offices for rent beginning at $4.00 per square foot.[141] To attract tenants, Woolworth hired architecture critic Montgomery Schuyler to write a 56-page brochure outlining the building's features.[142] Schuyler later described the Woolworth Building as the "noblest offspring" of buildings erected with steel skeletons.[12][143] On completion, the Woolworth Building topped the record set by the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Tower as the world's tallest building, a distinction it held until 1930.[55][136][144] Woolworth had purchased all of the Broadway-Park Place Company's shares from the Irving National Exchange Bank by May 1914; his company held no ownership stake in the building.[1] The building contained offices for as many as 14,000 employees.[29] By the end of 1914, the building was 70% occupied and generating over $1.3 million a year in rents for the F. W. Woolworth Company.[145]

1920s to 1960s

 
Woolworth Building c.1913

During World War I, only one of the Woolworth Building's then-14 elevators was turned on, and many lighting fixtures in hallways and offices were turned off. This resulted in about a 70% energy reduction compared to peacetime requirements.[146] The building had more than a thousand tenants by the 1920s, who generally occupied suites of one or two rooms.[141] These tenants reportedly collectively employed over 12,000 people in the building.[147] In 1920, after F. W. Woolworth died, his heirs obtained a $3 million mortgage loan on the Woolworth Building from Prudential Life Insurance Company to pay off $8 million in inheritance tax.[148][149] By this point, the building was worth $10 million and grossed $1.55 million per year in rent income.[150] The Broadway-Park Place Corporation agreed to sell the building to Woolco Realty Co., a subsidiary of the F. W. Woolworth Company, in January 1924 at an assessed valuation of $11.25 million.[151][152] The company paid $4 million in cash and obtained a five-year, $11 million mortgage from Prudential Life Insurance Company at an annual interest rate of 5.5%.[153] The sale was finalized in April 1924, after which F. W. Woolworth's heirs no longer had any stake in the building.[154][155]

In 1927, the building's pinnacle was painted green, and the observation tower was re-gilded for over $25,000.[156] The Atlantic Terra Cotta Company cleaned the Woolworth Building's facade in 1932.[41] Prudential extended its $3.7 million mortgage on the building by ten years in 1939,[157] and the observation deck was closed after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941.[158] Ten of the building's 24 elevators were temporarily disabled in 1944 because of a shortage of coal.[159] The next year, the building's owners replaced the elevators and closed off the building above the 54th story.[98]

By 1953, a new chilled water air conditioning system had been installed, bringing individual room temperature control to a third of the building. The old car-switch-control elevators had been replaced with a new automatic dispatching systems and new elevator cars.[158] The structure was still profitable by then, although it was now only the sixth-tallest building, and tourists no longer frequented the Woolworth Building.[98] The building's terracotta facade deteriorated easily, and, by 1962, repairs to the terracotta tiles were occurring year-round.[15][160] The Woolworth Company had considered selling the building as early as the 1960s, though the planned sale never happened.[161]

Restoration and landmark status

The National Park Service designated the Woolworth Building as a National Historic Landmark in 1966.[162] The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) considered giving the Woolworth Building official city-landmark status in 1970.[163][164] The F. W. Woolworth Company called the landmark law "onerous" since it would restrict the company from making modifications to many aspects of the building.[164] The commission ultimately declined to give the Woolworth Building a designated-landmark status because of the company's opposition to such a measure, as well as the increased costs and scrutiny.[165] The lobby was cleaned in 1974.[166]

The F. W. Woolworth Company commissioned an appraisal of the building's facade in 1975 and found serious deterioration in the building's terracotta. Many of the blocks of terracotta had loosened or cracked from the constant thermal expansion and contraction caused by New York's climate.[25][42] The cracks in the facade had let rain in, which caused the steel superstructure to rust.[42] By 1976, the Woolworth Company had placed metal netting around the facade to prevent terracotta pieces from dislodging and hitting pedestrians.[167][166] The issues with the facade were exacerbated by the fact that very few terracotta manufacturers remained in business, making it difficult for the company to procure replacements.[167] The New York City Industrial and Commercial Incentives Board approved a $8.5 million tax abatement in September 1977, which was to fund a proposed renovation of the Woolworth Building.[168] The Woolworth Company still occupied half the building; its vice president for construction said "we think the building merits the investment",[169] in part because F. W. Woolworth had used his own wealth to fund the building's construction.[166] Much of the remaining space was occupied by lawyers who paid $7 to $12 per square foot ($75 to $129/m2).[166]

The F. W. Woolworth Company began a five-year restoration of the building's terracotta and limestone facade, as well as replacement of all the building's windows, in 1977.[43][170] Initially, the company had considered replacing the entire terracotta facade with concrete; this was canceled due to its high cost and potential backlash from preservationists. The renovation, carried out by Turner Construction to plans by the New York architectural firm Ehrenkrantz Group, involved the replacement of roughly one-fifth of the building's terracotta. Since there were so few remaining terracotta manufacturers, so Woolworth's replaced 26,000 of the tiles with concrete lookalikes; many of those tiles had to be custom-cut.[25][42] The concrete was coated with a surface that was meant to be replaced every five years, like the glazing on the terracotta blocks.[160] Similarly, the original copper windows were replaced with aluminum frames which allowed them to be opened, whereas the originals were sealed in place. The company also removed some decorative flying buttresses near the tower's crown and refaced four tourelles in aluminum because of damage.[25][42]

The building's renovation was completed without fanfare in 1982.[171] The estimated cost of the project had risen from $8 million to over $22 million.[172] Much of the renovation was financed through the city government's tax break, which had increased to $11.4 million.[170][172] The LPC again considered the Woolworth Building for landmark designation in early 1982, shortly after the renovation was completed.[171][173] Upon the request of the building's lawyers, the LPC postponed a public hearing for the proposed landmark designation[174] to April 1982.[175] That year, the building's entrance to the City Hall subway station was closed because of fears over crime.[91] The LPC granted landmark protection to the building's facade and the interior of its lobby in April 1983.[165][170] The Woolworth Company (later Venator Group) continued to own the building for a decade and a half. After struggling financially for years, and with no need for a trophy office building, Venator Group began discussing a sale of the building in 1996.[161] To raise capital for its other operations,[176] Venator formally placed the Woolworth Building for sale in April 1998.[161][177]

Witkoff Group ownership

Sale and initial plan

 
The Woolworth Building in 1985, right, the former World Trade Center in the background

Venator Group agreed to sell the building in June 1998 to Steve Witkoff's Witkoff Group and Lehman Brothers for $155 million.[176][178][179] Before the sale was finalized in December 1998, Witkoff renegotiated the purchase price to $137.5 million, citing a declining debt market.[180] Venator shrunk its space in the building from eight floors to four;[56] this was a sharp contrast to the 25 floors the company had occupied just before the sale.[176] Witkoff also agreed to license the Woolworth name and invest $30 million in renovating the exterior and interior of the building.[56] After purchasing the building, the Witkoff Group rebranded it in an attempt to attract entertainment and technology companies. In April 2000, the Venator Group officially moved their headquarters to 112 West 34th Street,[181] and Witkoff indicated that he would sell the upper half of the building as residential condominiums.[182] That October, the company proposed a 2-story addition to the 29th-floor setbacks on the north and south elevations of the tower, to be designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, who were also leading the renovation of the building. The LPC denied the proposal.[183]

The company unveiled an ambitious plan in November 2000 that would have converted the top 27 floors of the building into 75 condominiums, including a five-story penthouse. The plan would have included a new residential lobby on Park Place, a 100-space garage, a 75-seat underground screening room, and a spa in the basement. The developers planned to spend $60 to $70 million on the conversion and to be ready for occupancy by August 2002.[181] The LPC opposed the plan because it would have required exterior changes to the roof.[183] The commission eventually approved a modified version of the plan. Following the September 11 attacks, and the subsequent collapse of the nearby World Trade Center, the status of the plan was in doubt, and the proposal was later canceled.[184]

Security increases and new plan

Prior to the September 11 attacks, the World Trade Center was often photographed in such a way that the Woolworth Building could be seen between the complex's twin towers.[185] After the attacks occurred only a few blocks away, the Woolworth Building was without electricity, water and telephone service for a few weeks; its windows were broken, and falling rubble damaged a top turret. Increased post-attack security restricted access to most of the ornate lobby, previously a tourist attraction.[186] New York Times reporter David W. Dunlap wrote in 2006 that a security guard had asked him to leave within twelve seconds of entering the Woolworth Building.[187] However, there was renewed interest in restoring public access to the Woolworth Building during planning for its centennial celebrations. The lobby reopened to public tours in 2014, when Woolworth Tours started accommodating groups for 30- to 90-minute tours. The tours were part of a partnership between Cass Gilbert's great-granddaughter, Helen Post Curry, and Witkoff's vice president for development, Roy A. Suskin.[188]

In June 2003, Credit Suisse First Boston provided $201 million in financing for the property spread across a $125.4 million senior loan, a $49.6 million junior interest and a $26 million mezzanine loan.[189] In April 2005, Bank of America provided a $250 million commercial mortgage-backed security interest-only loan on the office portion of the building. At the time, the building was 96% occupied, appraised at $320 million, and generated almost $18 million a year in net operating income.[190]

By 2007, the concrete blocks on the Woolworth Building's facade had deteriorated because of neglect. A lack of regular re-surfacing had led to water and dirt absorption, which stained the concrete blocks. Though terracotta's popularity had increased since the 1970s, Suskin had declined to say whether the facade would be modified, if at all.[160] Around the same time, Witkoff planned to partner with Rubin Schron to create an "office club" on the top 25 floors building to attract high-end tenants like hedge funds and private equity firms. The plan would have restored the 58th floor observatory as a private amenity for "office club" tenants, in addition to amenities like a private dining room, meeting rooms, and a new dedicated lobby. The partners planned to complete the project by the end of 2008, but the financial crisis of 2007–2008 derailed the plans, leaving the top floors gutted and vacant.[191]

Residential conversion

On July 31, 2012, an investment group led by New York developer Alchemy Properties which included Adam Neumann and Joel Schreiber, bought the top 30 floors of the skyscraper for $68 million from the Witkoff Group and Cammeby's International.[192][193] The firm planned to renovate the space into 33 luxury apartments and convert the penthouse into a five-level living space.[194] The lower 28 floors are still owned by the Witkoff Group and Cammeby's International, who planned to maintain them as office space. The project was expected to cost approximately $150 million including the $68 million purchase price.[195] The Landmarks Preservation Commission approved the changes to the building in October 2013.[196]

When the sale was first announced in 2012, the developers expected the building's conversion to be complete by 2015.[192] However, construction took longer than expected. Workers could not attach a construction hoist to the building's landmarked facade without damaging it, and they were prohibited from using the elevators because of the active office tenants on the lower floors and the regular public tours of the landmarked lobby.[197] The renovation included many restorations and changes to the building's interior. Two of the elevator shafts only went to the 29th floor, allowing extra floor space for the residents above.[195] A new private lobby was also built for residents and the coffered ceiling from F.W. Woolworth's personal 40th floor office was relocated to the entryway.[94][198] Thierry Despont and Eve Robinson designed the building's new interiors with Miele appliances and custom cabinetry. Each unit also received space in a wine cellar, along with access to the restored private pool in the basement.[94] The 29th floor was converted to an amenity floor named the "Gilbert Lounge" after the structure's architect, while the 30th floor hosts a fitness facility.[195]

In August 2014, the New York Attorney General's office approved Alchemy's plan to sell 34 condos at the newly branded Woolworth Tower Residences for a combined total of $443.7 million.[199] After a soft launch in late 2014, units at the building were officially listed for sale in mid-2015.[200] Alchemy initially intended to leverage an in-house sales staff and hired a director from Corcoran Sunshine to lead the effort.[201] However, the new sales director left at the end of 2015 for Extell Development Company amid rumors of slow sales at the project.[202] Following his departure, the company hired Sotheby's International Realty to market the units.[203] The building's penthouse unit, dubbed "The Pinnacle", was listed at $110 million, the highest asking price ever for an apartment in downtown Manhattan.[204][205] If it had sold at that price, the unit would have surpassed the record $50.9 million penthouse at Ralph Thomas Walker's Walker Tower, and even the $100.5 million record price for a Manhattan penthouse set by Michael Dell at Extell's One57 in 2014.[206]

In 2015, The Blackstone Group provided a $320 million loan on the office portion of the building to refinance the maturing Bank of America loan from 2005.[207] United Overseas Bank of Singapore provided a $220 million construction loan for the residential conversion in June 2016.[208] Due to delays, the conversion was expected to be completed by February or March 2019, about six and a half years after Alchemy bought the property.[197] By February 2019, only three of the building's 31 condos had been sold, since the developers had refused to discount prices, despite a glut of new luxury apartments in New York City.[209] The still-vacant penthouse's asking price was reduced to $79 million.[210][211] By 2021, Alchemy had sold 22 condominiums to tenants such as entrepreneur Rudra Pandey.[212]

Tenants

Early tenants

 
Seen from the east

On the building's completion, the F. W. Woolworth Company occupied only one and a half floors.[10] However, as the owner, the Woolworth Company profited from renting space out to others. The Woolworth Building was almost always fully occupied because of its central location in Lower Manhattan, as well as its direct connections to two subway stations.[15] The Irving Trust Company occupied the first four floors when the building opened. It had a large banking room on the second floor accessible directly from a grand staircase in the lobby, vaults in the basement, offices on the third-floor mezzanine, and a boardroom on the fourth floor.[213] In 1931, the company relocated their general, out-of-town, and foreign offices from the Woolworth Building after building their own headquarters at 1 Wall Street.[214] Columbia Records was one of the Woolworth Building's tenants on opening day and housed a recording studio in the skyscraper.[215] In 1917, Columbia made what are considered the first jazz recordings, by the Original Dixieland Jass Band, in this studio.[216]

Shortly after the building opened, several railroad companies rented space. The Union Pacific Railroad and Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad occupied the ground floor retail space with ticket offices.[217] Other railroad companies that leased office space included the Alton Railroad, on the 13th floor; the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad (Milwaukee Road), on the 14th floor; the Canadian Pacific Railway, Great Northern Railway, and New York Central Railroad on the 15th floor; the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad, on the 17th floor; the Chicago and North Western Transportation Company, on the 19th floor; the Canadian Northern Railway; the Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad; the Pennsylvania Railroad; the Atlanta, Birmingham and Atlantic Railway; the Kansas City Southern Railway; and the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad.[145][218][219][220]

The inventor Nikola Tesla also occupied an office in the Woolworth Building beginning in 1914; he was evicted after a year because he could not pay his rent.[48] Scientific American moved into the building in 1915 before departing for Midtown Manhattan in 1926.[221] The Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company of America was present at the building's opening, occupying the southern half of the 18th floor after signing a lease in January 1913.[222] Other early tenants included the American Hardware Manufacturers Association headquarters, the American Association of Foreign Language Newspapers, Colt's Manufacturing Company, Remington Arms, Simmons-Boardman Publishing headquarters, the Taft-Peirce Manufacturing Company, and the Hudson Motor Car Company.[219][223]

Later 20th century

By the 1920s, the building also hosted Newport News Shipbuilding and Nestlé.[145][218] In the 1930s, prosecutor Thomas E. Dewey maintained his offices in the building while investigating racketeering and organized crime in Manhattan. His office took up the entire fourteenth floor and was heavily guarded.[224][225] The regional headquarters of the National Labor Relations Board also moved into the building in 1937, shortly after its founding in 1935.[226] During World War II, the Kellex Corporation, part of the Manhattan Project to develop nuclear weapons, was based here.[227]

During the early 1960s, public relations expert Howard J. Rubenstein opened an office in the building.[228] In 1975, the city signed a lease for state judge Jacob D. Fuchsberg's offices in the Woolworth Building.[229]

Higher education

The structure has a long association with higher education, housing a number of Fordham University schools in the early 20th century. In 1916, Fordham created "Fordham Downtown" at the Woolworth Building by moving the School of Sociology and Social Service and the School of Law to the building.[230] The Fordham University Graduate School was founded on the building's 28th floor in the same year and a new Teachers’ College quickly followed on the seventh floor.[231] In September 1920, the Business School was also established on the seventh floor, originally as the School of Accounting. By 1929, the school's combined programs at the Woolworth Building had over 3,000 enrolled students.[232] Between 1916 and 1943 the building was also home at various times to the Fordham College (Manhattan Division), a summer school, and the short-lived School of Irish Studies.[230][233][234] In 1943, the Graduate School relocated to Keating Hall at Fordham's Rose Hill campus in Fordham, Bronx, and the rest of the schools moved to nearby 302 Broadway because of reduced attendance because of World War II.[235]

The New York University School of Professional Studies' Center for Global Affairs leased 94,000 square feet (8,700 m2) on the second, third, and fourth floors in 2002 from defunct dot-com startup FrontLine Capital Group.[236][237] The American Institute of Graphic Arts also moved its headquarters in the Woolworth Building.[238]

21st-century tenants

By the early 2000s, the Woolworth Building was home to numerous technology tenants. Digital advertising firm Xceed occupied 65,000 square feet (6,000 m2) across four floors as its headquarters, Organic, Inc. took 112,000 square feet (10,400 m2), and advertising agency Fallon Worldwide used two floors.[239][240] Xceed terminated its lease in April 2001 during the midst of the Dot-com bubble collapse in order to move to smaller offices in the Starrett–Lehigh Building.[241] One month after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's Northeast Regional Office at 7 World Trade Center was destroyed in the September 11 attacks, the commission's 334 employees moved into 140,000 square feet (13,000 m2) across five floors of the Woolworth Building.[242][243] The Commission left for a larger space in Brookfield Place less than four years later in 2005.[244] The General Services Administration took over the commission's space on November 1, 2005 and used it as offices for approximately 200 staff of the Administrative Office of the United States Courts and U.S. Probation and Pretrial Services System.[190] Following the completion of renovations at the historic Thurgood Marshall United States Courthouse in late October 2017, both offices moved into newly vacated space in the nearby Daniel Patrick Moynihan United States Courthouse.[245]

The New York City Police Department pension fund signed a lease for 56,000 square feet (5,200 m2) on the 19th and 25th floors in April 2002.[246] The pension fund renewed their lease for another 20-year term in October 2010.[247] Starbucks opened a 1,500-square-foot (140 m2) location on the ground floor in the spring of 2003.[248] In 2006, Levitz Furniture moved its headquarters to the 23rd floor of the building from Woodbury, Long Island, after declaring bankruptcy a second time.[249] The design firm Control Group Inc. leased an entire floor of the Woolworth Building in 2006.[250]

As of 2010, the Lawrence Group handles leasing at the Woolworth Building.[251] In May 2013, SHoP Architects moved the company's headquarters to the building's entire 11th floor, occupying 30,500 square feet (2,830 m2) of space.[252] In February 2016, the New York City Law Department leased the building's entire 32,000 square feet (3,000 m2) fifth floor for the Department's tort office.[253] Joseph Altuzarra's namesake fashion brand, Altuzarra, signed on to occupy the 14th floor in June 2016.[254] In November 2017, Thomas J. Watson's Watson Foundation signed a lease to relocate to the 27th floor of the building.[255] In 2017, the New York Shipping Exchange moved into the 21st floor of the building. In May 2018, architecture and design firm CallisonRTKL signed a lease for the building's entire 28,100 square feet (2,610 m2) 16th floor.[256] The Vera Institute of Justice left the building's 12th floor a few months later, moving into a larger space in Industry City, Brooklyn.[257]

Impact

 
Woolworth Building June Night, 1916 lithograph by Rachael Robinson Elmer, National Gallery of Art

Before beginning construction, Woolworth hired New York photographer Irving Underhill to document the building's construction. These photographs were distributed to Woolworth's stores nationwide to generate enthusiasm for the project.[1] During construction, Underhill, Wurts Brothers, and Tebbs-Hymans each took photographs to document the structure's progression. These photos were often taken from close-up views, or from far away to provide contrast against the surrounding structures.[1] They were part of a media promotion for the Woolworth Building.[258] Both contemporary and modern figures criticized the photos as "'standard solutions' at best and 'architectural eye candy' at worst".[259]

Later critics praised the building. Amei Wallach of Newsday wrote in 1978 that the building resembled "a giant cathedral absurdly stretched in a gigantic fun mirror" and that the lobby "certainly looks like a farmboy's dream of glory".[166] A writer for The Baltimore Sun wrote in 1984 that the lobby's lighting, ceiling mosaic, and gold-leaf decorations "combine for a church-like atmosphere", yet the grotesques provided a "touch of irreverence".[260] Richard Berenholtz wrote in his 1988 book Manhattan Architecture that, at the Woolworth Building, Gilbert "succeeded in uniting the respected traditions of architecture and decoration with modern technology".[78] In a 2001 book about Cass Gilbert, Mary N. Woods wrote that "the rich and varied afterlife of the Woolworth Building ... enhances [Gilbert's] accomplishment".[261] Dirk Stichweh described the building in 2005 as being "the Mozart of skyscrapers".[29]

In recognition of Gilbert's role as the building's architect, the Society of Arts and Sciences gave Gilbert its gold medal in 1930, calling it an "epochal landmark in the history of architecture".[262][263] On the 40th anniversary of the building's opening in 1953, one news source called the building "a substantial middle-aged lady, with a good income, unconcern over years—and lots of friends".[98] A one-third-scale replica of the Woolworth Building, the Lincoln American Tower in Memphis, Tennessee, was also built in 1924.[264]

The Woolworth Building has had a large impact in architectural spheres, and has been featured in many works of popular culture, including photographs, prints, films, and literature.[265] One of the earliest films to feature the skyscraper was the 1921 film Manhatta (1921), a short documentary film directed by painter Charles Sheeler and photographer Paul Strand.[266] Since then, the building has made cameo appearances in several films,[267] such as the 1929 film Applause.[268] It was also the setting of several film climaxes, such as in Enchanted (2007),[269] as well as used for the setting of major organizations, such as in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016).[270][271] The television show Ugly Betty used the Woolworth Building as the 'Meade Publications' building, a major location in the series,[269][272] while one of the vacant condominiums was used as a filming location for the TV series Succession in 2021.[273][274] The Woolworth Building has also appeared in works of literature, such as Langston Hughes's 1926 poem "Negro"[275] and the 2007 novel Peak.[276]

See also

References

Notes

  1. ^ Different sources gave varying accounts, and even the building's own pamphlets gave different figures. A building permit issued in April 1911 listed the height as 750 feet (230 m) with 51 usable floors, while Engineering Record in 1913 gave the building's height as 782.5 ft (238.5 m) from ground floor to the pinnacle of the building's flagpole, with 55 usable floors.[20] A 1913 brochure for the building gave the height as 784 ft (239 m); a 1916 brochure quoted 792 ft (241 m); and a 1995 brochure gave a height of 792 ft (241 m), with 60 stories "from subbasement to tower".[21]
  2. ^ a b The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission and Skyscraper Museum consider the building to have 53 usable stories.[22][23] Architectural writers Sarah Landau and Carl Condit quote the building as having 55 usable stories (counting the tower as being 25 stories tall), and two below-ground levels.[24] The count depends on whether the 55th-story former observation deck is included.[22] There are no floors numbered 42, 48, or 52.[25]
  3. ^ Reynolds 1994, p. 216, and Nash 2005, p. 17, give a conflicting figure of three stories. This is because the second- and third-story windows are placed within the same arches, giving the impression of a single story.[35] By this calculation, if the lowest section is cited as being three stories tall, then the "U"-shaped base is 29 stories tall.[18]

Citations

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  4. ^ . Emporis. Archived from the original on March 5, 2016.
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  7. ^ . National Historic Landmark summary listing. National Park Service. September 23, 2007. Archived from the original on June 6, 2011. Retrieved August 31, 2011.
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External links

 
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Woolworth Building.
  • Official website

August 20, 2023
woolworth, building, other, uses, list, woolworth, buildings, early, american, skyscraper, designed, architect, cass, gilbert, located, broadway, tribeca, neighborhood, manhattan, york, city, tallest, building, world, from, 1913, 1930, with, height, feet, more. For other uses see List of Woolworth buildings The Woolworth Building is an early American skyscraper designed by architect Cass Gilbert located at 233 Broadway in the Tribeca neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City 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 United States Woolworth BuildingWoolworth Building in November 2005Record heightTallest in the world from 1913 to 1930 I Preceded byMetropolitan Life Insurance Company TowerSurpassed by40 Wall StreetGeneral informationArchitectural styleNeo GothicLocation233 BroadwayManhattan New YorkConstruction startedNovember 4 1910 112 years ago November 4 1910 Topped outJuly 1 1912 111 years ago July 1 1912 1 Completed1912OpeningApril 24 1913 110 years ago April 24 1913 Renovated1977 1981CostUS 13 5 million equivalent to 400 000 000 in 2022 OwnerWitkoff Group Cammeby s International bottom 30 floors KC Properties top 30 floors HeightRoof792 ft 241 m Technical detailsFloor count55Lifts elevators34Design and constructionArchitect s Cass GilbertDeveloperF W WoolworthStructural engineerGunvald Aus and Kort BerleMain contractorThompson Starrett Co Renovating teamRenovating firmEhrenkrantz GroupWoolworth BuildingU S National Register of Historic PlacesU S National Historic LandmarkNew York State Register of Historic PlacesNew York City Landmark No 1121 1273Location in New York CityShow map of New York CityLocation in New YorkShow map of New YorkLocation in United StatesShow map of the United StatesCoordinates40 42 44 N 74 00 29 W 40 71222 N 74 00806 W 40 71222 74 00806Area0 5 acres 0 2 ha NRHP reference No 66000554NYSRHP No 06101 001790NYCL No 1121 1273Significant datesAdded to NRHPNovember 13 1966Designated NHLNovember 13 1966Designated NYSRHPJune 23 1980 2 Designated NYCLApril 12 1983References 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 Contents 1 Architecture 1 1 Form 1 2 Facade 1 2 1 Base 1 2 2 Tower section 1 3 Structural features 1 3 1 Substructure 1 3 2 Superstructure 1 4 Interior 1 4 1 Lobby 1 4 2 Basement 1 4 3 Offices 1 4 4 Elevators 2 History 2 1 Planning 2 1 1 Original designs 2 1 2 Plans for world s tallest building 2 2 Construction 2 3 Woolworth operation 2 3 1 Opening and 1910s 2 3 2 1920s to 1960s 2 3 3 Restoration and landmark status 2 4 Witkoff Group ownership 2 4 1 Sale and initial plan 2 4 2 Security increases and new plan 2 5 Residential conversion 3 Tenants 3 1 Early tenants 3 2 Later 20th century 3 3 Higher education 3 4 21st century tenants 4 Impact 5 See also 6 References 6 1 Notes 6 2 Citations 6 3 Sources 7 External linksArchitecture EditCass 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 building s crownThe Woolworth Building was designed to be 420 feet 130 m high but was eventually raised to 792 feet 241 m 11 a 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 b 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 Edit 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 b Above the 53rd floor the tower tapers into a pyramidal roof 31 29 Facade Edit The lowest four stories are clad in limestone 31 c 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 Edit 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 Edit 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 Edit Substructure Edit 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 Edit 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 Edit Part of the lobbyUpon 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 Edit 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 Detail of grotesqueVeined marble from the island of Skyros in Greece covers the lobby 77 74 79 Edward F Caldwell amp 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 Edit 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 Edit 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 Chateau de Compiegne 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 Edit Detail of elevatorsThe 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 History EditPlanning Edit F W Woolworth an entrepreneur who had become successful because of his Five and Dime 5 and 10 cent stores began planning a new headquarters for the F W Woolworth Company in 1910 Around the same time Woolworth s friend Lewis Pierson was having difficulty getting shareholder approval for the merger of his Irving National Bank and the rival New York Exchange Bank Woolworth offered to acquire shares in New York Exchange Bank and vote in favor of the merger if Pierson agreed to move the combined banks headquarters to a new building he was planning as the F W Woolworth Company s headquarters 32 101 Having received a commitment from the banks Woolworth acquired a corner site on Broadway and Park Place in Lower Manhattan opposite City Hall 10 The entrepreneur briefly considered purchasing a plot at West Broadway and Reade Street a few blocks north of the Woolworth Building s current site Woolworth decided against it because of the prestige that a Broadway address provided despite its name West Broadway was a separate street running several blocks from Broadway 102 Woolworth and the Irving National Exchange Bank then set up the Broadway Park Place Company to construct and finance the proposed structure Initially the bank was supposed to purchase the company s stock gradually until it owned the entire company and thus the Woolworth Building Irving would be able to manage the 18 floors of rentable space on a 25 year lease 103 While negotiations to create the Broadway Park Place Company were ongoing Woolworth and his real estate agent Edward J Hogan purchased several parcels from the Trenor Luther Park estate and other owners 103 104 The entire footprint of the current building a rectangular lot had been acquired by April 15 1910 at a total cost of 1 65 million 10 103 105 Original designs Edit The Woolworth Building under construction in February 1912Woolworth commissioned Cass Gilbert to design the new building 10 45 There are few print documents that indicate early correspondence between Woolworth and Gilbert and news articles as late as March 1910 mentioned that no architect had been chosen 106 Gilbert later mentioned that he had received the commission for the Woolworth Building after getting a phone call from Woolworth one day 106 The architect had recently finished designing the nearby Broadway Chambers Building and 90 West Street 107 whose architecture Woolworth admired 88 Woolworth wanted his new structure to be of similar design to the Palace of Westminster in London which was designed in the Gothic style 15 At the time Gilbert was well known for constructing modern skyscrapers with historicizing design elements 45 Gilbert was originally retained to design a standard 12 to 16 story commercial building for Woolworth 107 who later said he had no desire to erect a monument that would cause posterity to remember me 108 However Woolworth then wanted to surpass the nearby New York World Building which sat on the other side of City Hall Park and stood 20 stories and 350 feet 110 m A drawing by Thomas R Johnson dated April 22 1910 shows a 30 story building rising from the site 107 Because of the change in plans the organization of the Broadway Park Place Company was rearranged Woolworth would now be the major partner contributing 1 million of the planned 1 5 million cost The Irving Bank would pay the balance and it would take up a 25 year lease for the ground floor fourth floor and basement 88 By September 1910 Gilbert had designed an even taller structure with a 40 story tower on Park Place adjacent to a shorter 25 story annex yielding a 550 foot 170 m tall building 101 The next month Gilbert s latest design had evolved into a 45 story tower roughly the height of the nearby Singer Building 107 After the latest design Woolworth wrote to Gilbert in November 1910 and asked for the building s height to be increased to 620 feet 190 m which was 8 feet 2 4 m taller than the Singer Building Lower Manhattan s tallest building Woolworth was inspired by his travels in Europe where he would constantly be asked about the Singer Building He decided that housing his company in an even taller building would provide invaluable advertising for the F W Woolworth Company and make it renowned worldwide This design unveiled to the public the same month was a 45 story tower rising 625 feet 191 m sitting on a lot by 105 by 197 feet 32 by 60 m 101 105 109 Referring to the revised plans Woolworth said I do not want a mere building I want something that will be an ornament to the city 105 110 He later said that he wanted visitors to brag that they had visited the world s tallest building 108 Louis J Horowitz president of the building s main contractor Thompson Starrett Company said of Woolworth Beyond a doubt his ego was a thing of extraordinary size whoever tried to find a reason for his tall building and did not take that fact into account would reach a false conclusion 32 111 Plans for world s tallest building Edit Even after the revised height was unveiled Woolworth still yearned to make the building even taller as it was now close to the 700 foot 210 m height of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Tower then the tallest building in New York City and the world On December 20 1910 Woolworth sent a team of surveyors to measure the Metropolitan Life Tower s height and come up with a precise measurement so he could make his skyscraper 50 feet 15 m taller 32 107 112 110 He then ordered Gilbert to revise the building s design to reach 710 or 712 feet 216 or 217 m despite ongoing worries over whether the additional height would be worth the increased cost In order to fit the larger base that a taller tower necessitated Woolworth bought the remainder of the frontage on Broadway between Park Place and Barclay Street 112 He also purchased two lots to the west one on Park Place and one on Barclay Street these lots would not be developed but would retain their low rise buildings and preserve the proposed tower s views Such a tall building would produce the largest income of any building globally 113 On January 1 1911 the New York Times reported Woolworth was planning a 625 feet 191 m building at a cost of 5 million 32 114 By January 18 1911 Woolworth and Hogan had acquired the final site for the project at a total cost of 4 5 million the lot measured 152 feet 46 m on Broadway 192 5 feet 58 7 m on Barclay Street and 197 83 feet 60 m on Park Place 32 In a New York Times article two days later Woolworth said that his building would rise 750 feet 230 m to its tip 107 115 In order to fit the correct architectural proportions Gilbert redesigned the building to its current 792 foot 241 m height 11 Renderings by illustrator Hughson Hawley completed in April 1911 are the first official materials that reflect this final height 107 Gilbert had to reconcile both Woolworth s and Pierson s strict requirements for the design of the structure The architect s notes describe late night conversations that he had with both men The current design of the lobby with its arcade reflected these conflicting pressures 116 Sometimes Gilbert also faced practical conundrums such as Woolworth s requirement that there be many windows so divided that all of the offices should be well lighted and so that tenants could erect partitions to fit their needs Gilbert wrote this naturally prevented any broad wall space 117 Woolworth and Gilbert sometimes clashed during the design process especially because of the constantly changing designs and the architect s fees 118 Nevertheless Gilbert commended Woolworth s devotion to the details and beauty of the building s design as well as the entrepreneur s enthusiasm for the project 117 118 Such was the scale of the building that for several years Gilbert s sense of scale was destroyed because of the unprecedented attuning of detail to for these days such an excessive height 12 119 Construction Edit Photograph of the Woolworth Building under construction in April 1912In September 1910 wrecking crews demolished the five and six story structures which previously occupied the site 120 Construction officially began on November 4 1910 with excavation by The Foundation Company using a contract negotiated personally by Frank Woolworth 121 The start of construction instantly raised the site s value from 2 25 million to 3 2 million 66 The contract of over 1 million was described as the largest contract for foundation construction ever awarded in the world 122 It took months for Woolworth to decide upon the general construction company George A Fuller s Fuller Company was well experienced and had practically invented skyscraper construction but Louis Horowitz s Thompson Starrett Company was local to New York despite being newer Horowitz had worked for Fuller before and thus had a similar knowledge base 123 124 On April 20 1911 Thompson Starrett won the contract with a guaranteed construction price of 4 308 500 for the building s frame and structural elements 125 The company was paid 300 000 for their oversight and management work despite Woolworth s attempts to get the company to do the job for free due to the prestige of the project 121 126 On June 12 1911 the Atlantic Terra Cotta Company received a 250 000 contract to manufacture the terracotta The next month Donnelly and Ricci received the 11 500 contract for the terracotta work and some of the interior design work 40 Gilbert requested Atlantic Terra Cotta use an office next to his while they drew several hundred designs 39 The construction process involved hundreds of workers and daily wages ranged from 1 50 for laborers equivalent to 44 in 2022 to 4 50 for skilled workers equivalent to 133 in 2022 66 By August 1911 the building s foundations were completed ahead of the target date of September 15 construction of the skyscraper s steel frame began August 15 127 The steel beams and girders used in the framework weighed so much that to prevent the streets from caving in a group of surveyors examined them on the route along which the beams would be transported 63 128 The American Bridge Company provided steel for the building from their foundries in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh manufacturing took over 45 weeks 129 The Woolworth Building topped out on July 1 1912The first above ground steel had been erected by October 1911 60 and installation of the building s terracotta began on February 1 1912 130 131 The building rose at the rate of 1 1 2 stories a week and the steelworkers set a speed record for assembling 1 153 tons of steel in six consecutive eight hour days 132 By February 18 1912 work on the steel frame had reached the building s 18th floor 133 By April 6 1912 the steel frame had reached the top of the base at the 30th floor and work then began on constructing the tower of the Woolworth Building Steel reached the 47th floor by May 30 and the official topping out ceremony took place two weeks ahead of schedule on July 1 1912 as the last rivet was driven into the summit of the tower 1 66 132 134 The skyscraper was substantially completed by the end of that year 13 The final estimated construction cost was US 13 5 million equivalent to 400 000 000 in 2022 1 109 135 136 up from the initial estimates of US 5 million for the shorter versions of the skyscraper equivalent to 148 000 000 in 2022 1 This was divided into 5 million for the land 1 million for the foundation and 7 million for the structure Woolworth provided 5 million while investors provided the remainder and financing was completed by August 1911 137 Woolworth operation Edit Opening and 1910s Edit The building opened on April 24 1913 Woolworth held a grand dinner on the building s 27th floor for over 900 guests and at exactly 7 30 p m EST President Woodrow Wilson pushed a button in Washington D C to turn on the building s lights 13 135 138 Attendees included Francis Hopkinson Smith who served as toastmaster author William Winter businessmen Patrick Francis Murphy and Charles M Schwab Rhode Island Governor Aram J Pothier Judge Thomas C T Crain US Senator from Arkansas Joseph Taylor Robinson Ecuadorian minister Gonzalo Cordova New York Supreme Court Justices Charles L Guy and Edward Everett McCall Commissioner of Education of the State of New York John Huston Finley Collector of the Port of New York William Loeb Jr naval architect Lewis Nixon Rear Admiral Charles Dwight Sigsbee Commissioner of Docks and Ferries of the City of New York R A C Smith Colonel William Conant Church United States Representative from New York Herman A Metz New York City Police Commissioner Rhinelander Waldo banker James Speyer former Lieutenant Governor of New York Timothy L Woodruff writer Robert Sterling Yard Admiral Albert Gleaves and reportedly between 69 and 80 congressmen who arrived via a special train from Washington DC 135 139 140 Additional congratulations were sent via letter from former President William Howard Taft Governor of New Jersey James Fairman Fielder and United States Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels 140 The building was declared ready for occupancy on May 1 1913 and Woolworth began advertising the offices for rent beginning at 4 00 per square foot 141 To attract tenants Woolworth hired architecture critic Montgomery Schuyler to write a 56 page brochure outlining the building s features 142 Schuyler later described the Woolworth Building as the noblest offspring of buildings erected with steel skeletons 12 143 On completion the Woolworth Building topped the record set by the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Tower as the world s tallest building a distinction it held until 1930 55 136 144 Woolworth had purchased all of the Broadway Park Place Company s shares from the Irving National Exchange Bank by May 1914 his company held no ownership stake in the building 1 The building contained offices for as many as 14 000 employees 29 By the end of 1914 the building was 70 occupied and generating over 1 3 million a year in rents for the F W Woolworth Company 145 1920s to 1960s Edit Woolworth Building c 1913During World War I only one of the Woolworth Building s then 14 elevators was turned on and many lighting fixtures in hallways and offices were turned off This resulted in about a 70 energy reduction compared to peacetime requirements 146 The building had more than a thousand tenants by the 1920s who generally occupied suites of one or two rooms 141 These tenants reportedly collectively employed over 12 000 people in the building 147 In 1920 after F W Woolworth died his heirs obtained a 3 million mortgage loan on the Woolworth Building from Prudential Life Insurance Company to pay off 8 million in inheritance tax 148 149 By this point the building was worth 10 million and grossed 1 55 million per year in rent income 150 The Broadway Park Place Corporation agreed to sell the building to Woolco Realty Co a subsidiary of the F W Woolworth Company in January 1924 at an assessed valuation of 11 25 million 151 152 The company paid 4 million in cash and obtained a five year 11 million mortgage from Prudential Life Insurance Company at an annual interest rate of 5 5 153 The sale was finalized in April 1924 after which F W Woolworth s heirs no longer had any stake in the building 154 155 In 1927 the building s pinnacle was painted green and the observation tower was re gilded for over 25 000 156 The Atlantic Terra Cotta Company cleaned the Woolworth Building s facade in 1932 41 Prudential extended its 3 7 million mortgage on the building by ten years in 1939 157 and the observation deck was closed after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941 158 Ten of the building s 24 elevators were temporarily disabled in 1944 because of a shortage of coal 159 The next year the building s owners replaced the elevators and closed off the building above the 54th story 98 By 1953 a new chilled water air conditioning system had been installed bringing individual room temperature control to a third of the building The old car switch control elevators had been replaced with a new automatic dispatching systems and new elevator cars 158 The structure was still profitable by then although it was now only the sixth tallest building and tourists no longer frequented the Woolworth Building 98 The building s terracotta facade deteriorated easily and by 1962 repairs to the terracotta tiles were occurring year round 15 160 The Woolworth Company had considered selling the building as early as the 1960s though the planned sale never happened 161 Restoration and landmark status Edit The National Park Service designated the Woolworth Building as a National Historic Landmark in 1966 162 The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission LPC considered giving the Woolworth Building official city landmark status in 1970 163 164 The F W Woolworth Company called the landmark law onerous since it would restrict the company from making modifications to many aspects of the building 164 The commission ultimately declined to give the Woolworth Building a designated landmark status because of the company s opposition to such a measure as well as the increased costs and scrutiny 165 The lobby was cleaned in 1974 166 The F W Woolworth Company commissioned an appraisal of the building s facade in 1975 and found serious deterioration in the building s terracotta Many of the blocks of terracotta had loosened or cracked from the constant thermal expansion and contraction caused by New York s climate 25 42 The cracks in the facade had let rain in which caused the steel superstructure to rust 42 By 1976 the Woolworth Company had placed metal netting around the facade to prevent terracotta pieces from dislodging and hitting pedestrians 167 166 The issues with the facade were exacerbated by the fact that very few terracotta manufacturers remained in business making it difficult for the company to procure replacements 167 The New York City Industrial and Commercial Incentives Board approved a 8 5 million tax abatement in September 1977 which was to fund a proposed renovation of the Woolworth Building 168 The Woolworth Company still occupied half the building its vice president for construction said we think the building merits the investment 169 in part because F W Woolworth had used his own wealth to fund the building s construction 166 Much of the remaining space was occupied by lawyers who paid 7 to 12 per square foot 75 to 129 m2 166 The F W Woolworth Company began a five year restoration of the building s terracotta and limestone facade as well as replacement of all the building s windows in 1977 43 170 Initially the company had considered replacing the entire terracotta facade with concrete this was canceled due to its high cost and potential backlash from preservationists The renovation carried out by Turner Construction to plans by the New York architectural firm Ehrenkrantz Group involved the replacement of roughly one fifth of the building s terracotta Since there were so few remaining terracotta manufacturers so Woolworth s replaced 26 000 of the tiles with concrete lookalikes many of those tiles had to be custom cut 25 42 The concrete was coated with a surface that was meant to be replaced every five years like the glazing on the terracotta blocks 160 Similarly the original copper windows were replaced with aluminum frames which allowed them to be opened whereas the originals were sealed in place The company also removed some decorative flying buttresses near the tower s crown and refaced four tourelles in aluminum because of damage 25 42 The building s renovation was completed without fanfare in 1982 171 The estimated cost of the project had risen from 8 million to over 22 million 172 Much of the renovation was financed through the city government s tax break which had increased to 11 4 million 170 172 The LPC again considered the Woolworth Building for landmark designation in early 1982 shortly after the renovation was completed 171 173 Upon the request of the building s lawyers the LPC postponed a public hearing for the proposed landmark designation 174 to April 1982 175 That year the building s entrance to the City Hall subway station was closed because of fears over crime 91 The LPC granted landmark protection to the building s facade and the interior of its lobby in April 1983 165 170 The Woolworth Company later Venator Group continued to own the building for a decade and a half After struggling financially for years and with no need for a trophy office building Venator Group began discussing a sale of the building in 1996 161 To raise capital for its other operations 176 Venator formally placed the Woolworth Building for sale in April 1998 161 177 Witkoff Group ownership Edit Sale and initial plan Edit The Woolworth Building in 1985 right the former World Trade Center in the backgroundVenator Group agreed to sell the building in June 1998 to Steve Witkoff s Witkoff Group and Lehman Brothers for 155 million 176 178 179 Before the sale was finalized in December 1998 Witkoff renegotiated the purchase price to 137 5 million citing a declining debt market 180 Venator shrunk its space in the building from eight floors to four 56 this was a sharp contrast to the 25 floors the company had occupied just before the sale 176 Witkoff also agreed to license the Woolworth name and invest 30 million in renovating the exterior and interior of the building 56 After purchasing the building the Witkoff Group rebranded it in an attempt to attract entertainment and technology companies In April 2000 the Venator Group officially moved their headquarters to 112 West 34th Street 181 and Witkoff indicated that he would sell the upper half of the building as residential condominiums 182 That October the company proposed a 2 story addition to the 29th floor setbacks on the north and south elevations of the tower to be designed by Skidmore Owings amp Merrill who were also leading the renovation of the building The LPC denied the proposal 183 The company unveiled an ambitious plan in November 2000 that would have converted the top 27 floors of the building into 75 condominiums including a five story penthouse The plan would have included a new residential lobby on Park Place a 100 space garage a 75 seat underground screening room and a spa in the basement The developers planned to spend 60 to 70 million on the conversion and to be ready for occupancy by August 2002 181 The LPC opposed the plan because it would have required exterior changes to the roof 183 The commission eventually approved a modified version of the plan Following the September 11 attacks and the subsequent collapse of the nearby World Trade Center the status of the plan was in doubt and the proposal was later canceled 184 Security increases and new plan Edit Prior to the September 11 attacks the World Trade Center was often photographed in such a way that the Woolworth Building could be seen between the complex s twin towers 185 After the attacks occurred only a few blocks away the Woolworth Building was without electricity water and telephone service for a few weeks its windows were broken and falling rubble damaged a top turret Increased post attack security restricted access to most of the ornate lobby previously a tourist attraction 186 New York Times reporter David W Dunlap wrote in 2006 that a security guard had asked him to leave within twelve seconds of entering the Woolworth Building 187 However there was renewed interest in restoring public access to the Woolworth Building during planning for its centennial celebrations The lobby reopened to public tours in 2014 when Woolworth Tours started accommodating groups for 30 to 90 minute tours The tours were part of a partnership between Cass Gilbert s great granddaughter Helen Post Curry and Witkoff s vice president for development Roy A Suskin 188 In June 2003 Credit Suisse First Boston provided 201 million in financing for the property spread across a 125 4 million senior loan a 49 6 million junior interest and a 26 million mezzanine loan 189 In April 2005 Bank of America provided a 250 million commercial mortgage backed security interest only loan on the office portion of the building At the time the building was 96 occupied appraised at 320 million and generated almost 18 million a year in net operating income 190 By 2007 the concrete blocks on the Woolworth Building s facade had deteriorated because of neglect A lack of regular re surfacing had led to water and dirt absorption which stained the concrete blocks Though terracotta s popularity had increased since the 1970s Suskin had declined to say whether the facade would be modified if at all 160 Around the same time Witkoff planned to partner with Rubin Schron to create an office club on the top 25 floors building to attract high end tenants like hedge funds and private equity firms The plan would have restored the 58th floor observatory as a private amenity for office club tenants in addition to amenities like a private dining room meeting rooms and a new dedicated lobby The partners planned to complete the project by the end of 2008 but the financial crisis of 2007 2008 derailed the plans leaving the top floors gutted and vacant 191 Residential conversion Edit On July 31 2012 an investment group led by New York developer Alchemy Properties which included Adam Neumann and Joel Schreiber bought the top 30 floors of the skyscraper for 68 million from the Witkoff Group and Cammeby s International 192 193 The firm planned to renovate the space into 33 luxury apartments and convert the penthouse into a five level living space 194 The lower 28 floors are still owned by the Witkoff Group and Cammeby s International who planned to maintain them as office space The project was expected to cost approximately 150 million including the 68 million purchase price 195 The Landmarks Preservation Commission approved the changes to the building in October 2013 196 When the sale was first announced in 2012 the developers expected the building s conversion to be complete by 2015 192 However construction took longer than expected Workers could not attach a construction hoist to the building s landmarked facade without damaging it and they were prohibited from using the elevators because of the active office tenants on the lower floors and the regular public tours of the landmarked lobby 197 The renovation included many restorations and changes to the building s interior Two of the elevator shafts only went to the 29th floor allowing extra floor space for the residents above 195 A new private lobby was also built for residents and the coffered ceiling from F W Woolworth s personal 40th floor office was relocated to the entryway 94 198 Thierry Despont and Eve Robinson designed the building s new interiors with Miele appliances and custom cabinetry Each unit also received space in a wine cellar along with access to the restored private pool in the basement 94 The 29th floor was converted to an amenity floor named the Gilbert Lounge after the structure s architect while the 30th floor hosts a fitness facility 195 In August 2014 the New York Attorney General s office approved Alchemy s plan to sell 34 condos at the newly branded Woolworth Tower Residences for a combined total of 443 7 million 199 After a soft launch in late 2014 units at the building were officially listed for sale in mid 2015 200 Alchemy initially intended to leverage an in house sales staff and hired a director from Corcoran Sunshine to lead the effort 201 However the new sales director left at the end of 2015 for Extell Development Company amid rumors of slow sales at the project 202 Following his departure the company hired Sotheby s International Realty to market the units 203 The building s penthouse unit dubbed The Pinnacle was listed at 110 million the highest asking price ever for an apartment in downtown Manhattan 204 205 If it had sold at that price the unit would have surpassed the record 50 9 million penthouse at Ralph Thomas Walker s Walker Tower and even the 100 5 million record price for a Manhattan penthouse set by Michael Dell at Extell s One57 in 2014 206 In 2015 The Blackstone Group provided a 320 million loan on the office portion of the building to refinance the maturing Bank of America loan from 2005 207 United Overseas Bank of Singapore provided a 220 million construction loan for the residential conversion in June 2016 208 Due to delays the conversion was expected to be completed by February or March 2019 about six and a half years after Alchemy bought the property 197 By February 2019 only three of the building s 31 condos had been sold since the developers had refused to discount prices despite a glut of new luxury apartments in New York City 209 The still vacant penthouse s asking price was reduced to 79 million 210 211 By 2021 Alchemy had sold 22 condominiums to tenants such as entrepreneur Rudra Pandey 212 Tenants EditEarly tenants Edit Seen from the eastOn the building s completion the F W Woolworth Company occupied only one and a half floors 10 However as the owner the Woolworth Company profited from renting space out to others The Woolworth Building was almost always fully occupied because of its central location in Lower Manhattan as well as its direct connections to two subway stations 15 The Irving Trust Company occupied the first four floors when the building opened It had a large banking room on the second floor accessible directly from a grand staircase in the lobby vaults in the basement offices on the third floor mezzanine and a boardroom on the fourth floor 213 In 1931 the company relocated their general out of town and foreign offices from the Woolworth Building after building their own headquarters at 1 Wall Street 214 Columbia Records was one of the Woolworth Building s tenants on opening day and housed a recording studio in the skyscraper 215 In 1917 Columbia made what are considered the first jazz recordings by the Original Dixieland Jass Band in this studio 216 Shortly after the building opened several railroad companies rented space The Union Pacific Railroad and Delaware Lackawanna and Western Railroad occupied the ground floor retail space with ticket offices 217 Other railroad companies that leased office space included the Alton Railroad on the 13th floor the Chicago Milwaukee St Paul and Pacific Railroad Milwaukee Road on the 14th floor the Canadian Pacific Railway Great Northern Railway and New York Central Railroad on the 15th floor the Chicago Rock Island and Pacific Railroad on the 17th floor the Chicago and North Western Transportation Company on the 19th floor the Canadian Northern Railway the Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad the Pennsylvania Railroad the Atlanta Birmingham and Atlantic Railway the Kansas City Southern Railway and the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad 145 218 219 220 The inventor Nikola Tesla also occupied an office in the Woolworth Building beginning in 1914 he was evicted after a year because he could not pay his rent 48 Scientific American moved into the building in 1915 before departing for Midtown Manhattan in 1926 221 The Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company of America was present at the building s opening occupying the southern half of the 18th floor after signing a lease in January 1913 222 Other early tenants included the American Hardware Manufacturers Association headquarters the American Association of Foreign Language Newspapers Colt s Manufacturing Company Remington Arms Simmons Boardman Publishing headquarters the Taft Peirce Manufacturing Company and the Hudson Motor Car Company 219 223 Later 20th century Edit By the 1920s the building also hosted Newport News Shipbuilding and Nestle 145 218 In the 1930s prosecutor Thomas E Dewey maintained his offices in the building while investigating racketeering and organized crime in Manhattan His office took up the entire fourteenth floor and was heavily guarded 224 225 The regional headquarters of the National Labor Relations Board also moved into the building in 1937 shortly after its founding in 1935 226 During World War II the Kellex Corporation part of the Manhattan Project to develop nuclear weapons was based here 227 During the early 1960s public relations expert Howard J Rubenstein opened an office in the building 228 In 1975 the city signed a lease for state judge Jacob D Fuchsberg s offices in the Woolworth Building 229 Higher education Edit The structure has a long association with higher education housing a number of Fordham University schools in the early 20th century In 1916 Fordham created Fordham Downtown at the Woolworth Building by moving the School of Sociology and Social Service and the School of Law to the building 230 The Fordham University Graduate School was founded on the building s 28th floor in the same year and a new Teachers College quickly followed on the seventh floor 231 In September 1920 the Business School was also established on the seventh floor originally as the School of Accounting By 1929 the school s combined programs at the Woolworth Building had over 3 000 enrolled students 232 Between 1916 and 1943 the building was also home at various times to the Fordham College Manhattan Division a summer school and the short lived School of Irish Studies 230 233 234 In 1943 the Graduate School relocated to Keating Hall at Fordham s Rose Hill campus in Fordham Bronx and the rest of the schools moved to nearby 302 Broadway because of reduced attendance because of World War II 235 The New York University School of Professional Studies Center for Global Affairs leased 94 000 square feet 8 700 m2 on the second third and fourth floors in 2002 from defunct dot com startup FrontLine Capital Group 236 237 The American Institute of Graphic Arts also moved its headquarters in the Woolworth Building 238 21st century tenants Edit By the early 2000s the Woolworth Building was home to numerous technology tenants Digital advertising firm Xceed occupied 65 000 square feet 6 000 m2 across four floors as its headquarters Organic Inc took 112 000 square feet 10 400 m2 and advertising agency Fallon Worldwide used two floors 239 240 Xceed terminated its lease in April 2001 during the midst of the Dot com bubble collapse in order to move to smaller offices in the Starrett Lehigh Building 241 One month after the U S Securities and Exchange Commission s Northeast Regional Office at 7 World Trade Center was destroyed in the September 11 attacks the commission s 334 employees moved into 140 000 square feet 13 000 m2 across five floors of the Woolworth Building 242 243 The Commission left for a larger space in Brookfield Place less than four years later in 2005 244 The General Services Administration took over the commission s space on November 1 2005 and used it as offices for approximately 200 staff of the Administrative Office of the United States Courts and U S Probation and Pretrial Services System 190 Following the completion of renovations at the historic Thurgood Marshall United States Courthouse in late October 2017 both offices moved into newly vacated space in the nearby Daniel Patrick Moynihan United States Courthouse 245 The New York City Police Department pension fund signed a lease for 56 000 square feet 5 200 m2 on the 19th and 25th floors in April 2002 246 The pension fund renewed their lease for another 20 year term in October 2010 247 Starbucks opened a 1 500 square foot 140 m2 location on the ground floor in the spring of 2003 248 In 2006 Levitz Furniture moved its headquarters to the 23rd floor of the building from Woodbury Long Island after declaring bankruptcy a second time 249 The design firm Control Group Inc leased an entire floor of the Woolworth Building in 2006 250 As of 2010 update the Lawrence Group handles leasing at the Woolworth Building 251 In May 2013 SHoP Architects moved the company s headquarters to the building s entire 11th floor occupying 30 500 square feet 2 830 m2 of space 252 In February 2016 the New York City Law Department leased the building s entire 32 000 square feet 3 000 m2 fifth floor for the Department s tort office 253 Joseph Altuzarra s namesake fashion brand Altuzarra signed on to occupy the 14th floor in June 2016 254 In November 2017 Thomas J Watson s Watson Foundation signed a lease to relocate to the 27th floor of the building 255 In 2017 the New York Shipping Exchange moved into the 21st floor of the building In May 2018 architecture and design firm CallisonRTKL signed a lease for the building s entire 28 100 square feet 2 610 m2 16th floor 256 The Vera Institute of Justice left the building s 12th floor a few months later moving into a larger space in Industry City Brooklyn 257 Impact Edit Woolworth Building June Night 1916 lithograph by Rachael Robinson Elmer National Gallery of ArtBefore beginning construction Woolworth hired New York photographer Irving Underhill to document the building s construction These photographs were distributed to Woolworth s stores nationwide to generate enthusiasm for the project 1 During construction Underhill Wurts Brothers and Tebbs Hymans each took photographs to document the structure s progression These photos were often taken from close up views or from far away to provide contrast against the surrounding structures 1 They were part of a media promotion for the Woolworth Building 258 Both contemporary and modern figures criticized the photos as standard solutions at best and architectural eye candy at worst 259 Later critics praised the building Amei Wallach of Newsday wrote in 1978 that the building resembled a giant cathedral absurdly stretched in a gigantic fun mirror and that the lobby certainly looks like a farmboy s dream of glory 166 A writer for The Baltimore Sun wrote in 1984 that the lobby s lighting ceiling mosaic and gold leaf decorations combine for a church like atmosphere yet the grotesques provided a touch of irreverence 260 Richard Berenholtz wrote in his 1988 book Manhattan Architecture that at the Woolworth Building Gilbert succeeded in uniting the respected traditions of architecture and decoration with modern technology 78 In a 2001 book about Cass Gilbert Mary N Woods wrote that the rich and varied afterlife of the Woolworth Building enhances Gilbert s accomplishment 261 Dirk Stichweh described the building in 2005 as being the Mozart of skyscrapers 29 In recognition of Gilbert s role as the building s architect the Society of Arts and Sciences gave Gilbert its gold medal in 1930 calling it an epochal landmark in the history of architecture 262 263 On the 40th anniversary of the building s opening in 1953 one news source called the building a substantial middle aged lady with a good income unconcern over years and lots of friends 98 A one third scale replica of the Woolworth Building the Lincoln American Tower in Memphis Tennessee was also built in 1924 264 The Woolworth Building has had a large impact in architectural spheres and has been featured in many works of popular culture including photographs prints films and literature 265 One of the earliest films to feature the skyscraper was the 1921 film Manhatta 1921 a short documentary film directed by painter Charles Sheeler and photographer Paul Strand 266 Since then the building has made cameo appearances in several films 267 such as the 1929 film Applause 268 It was also the setting of several film climaxes such as in Enchanted 2007 269 as well as used for the setting of major organizations such as in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them 2016 270 271 The television show Ugly Betty used the Woolworth Building as the Meade Publications building a major location in the series 269 272 while one of the vacant condominiums was used as a filming location for the TV series Succession in 2021 273 274 The Woolworth Building has also appeared in works of literature such as Langston Hughes s 1926 poem Negro 275 and the 2007 novel Peak 276 See also Edit Architecture portal New York City portal NRHP portalEarly skyscrapers List of tallest buildings in the United States List of National Historic Landmarks in New York City List of New York City Designated Landmarks in Manhattan below 14th Street National Register of Historic Places listings in Manhattan below 14th StreetReferences EditNotes Edit Different sources gave varying accounts and even the building s own pamphlets gave different figures A building permit issued in April 1911 listed the height as 750 feet 230 m with 51 usable floors while Engineering Record in 1913 gave the building s height as 782 5 ft 238 5 m from ground floor to the pinnacle of the building s flagpole with 55 usable floors 20 A 1913 brochure for the building gave the height as 784 ft 239 m a 1916 brochure quoted 792 ft 241 m and a 1995 brochure gave a height of 792 ft 241 m with 60 stories from subbasement to tower 21 a b The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission and Skyscraper Museum consider the building to have 53 usable stories 22 23 Architectural writers Sarah Landau and Carl Condit quote the building as having 55 usable stories counting the tower as being 25 stories tall and two below ground levels 24 The count depends on whether the 55th story former observation deck is included 22 There are no floors numbered 42 48 or 52 25 Reynolds 1994 p 216 and Nash 2005 p 17 give a conflicting figure of three stories This is because the second and third story windows are placed within the same arches giving the impression of a single story 35 By this calculation if the lowest section is cited as being three stories tall then the U shaped base is 29 stories tall 18 Citations Edit a b c d e f g h i Sutton Philip The Woolworth Building The Cathedral of Commerce Blogs New York Public Library Archived from the original on May 29 2013 Retrieved July 25 2013 Cultural Resource Information System CRIS New York State Office of Parks Recreation and Historic Preservation November 7 2014 Retrieved July 20 2023 Woolworth Building CTBUH Skyscraper Center Emporis building ID 114681 Emporis Archived from the original on March 5 2016 Woolworth Building SkyscraperPage Woolworth Building at Structurae Woolworth Building National Historic Landmark summary listing National Park Service September 23 2007 Archived from the original on June 6 2011 Retrieved August 31 2011 Patricia Heintzelman and Cecil McKithan January 6 1978 The Woolworth Building PDF National Register of Historic Places Inventory Nomination National Park Service The Woolworth Building Accompanying 3 photos exterior from 1975 National Register of Historic Places Inventory Nomination National Park Service January 6 1978 Retrieved August 31 2011 a b c d e f g New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission Dolkart Andrew S Postal Matthew A 2009 Postal Matthew A ed Guide to New York City Landmarks 4th ed New York John Wiley amp Sons p 25 ISBN 978 0 470 28963 1 a b c Gilbert C Heilbrun M Heilbrun P M New York Historical Society Hardy H Gotbaum B 2000 Inventing the Skyline The Architecture of Cass Gilbert Columbia University Press p 260 ISBN 978 0 231 11872 9 Retrieved December 7 2018 a b c d e f g h i Landau amp Condit 1996 p 387 a b c d e f g Study for Woolworth Building New York World Digital Library December 10 1910 Archived from the original on September 27 2013 Retrieved July 25 2013 a b c White Norval amp Willensky Elliot 2000 AIA Guide to New York City 4th ed New York Three Rivers Press p 67 ISBN 978 0 8129 3107 5 a b c d e f g Bartnett Edmond J February 11 1962 Woolworth Building After 50 Years Is Still a Cathedral of Commerce Gothic Tower Is Kept Up to Date But Retains Charm of Past Era The New York Times ISSN 0362 4331 Archived from the original on January 27 2019 Retrieved January 26 2019 a b c Reynolds 1994 p 225 Woolworth Building Makes Half Century The Austin Statesman April 21 1963 p C12 ProQuest 1616548322 a b c d e f g Nash 2005 p 17 a b c Reynolds 1994 p 216 a b c d Holtzman 1913 p 22 Landau amp Condit 1996 p 445 a b c d e f g h i j k l m Landmarks Preservation Commission 1983 p 16 a b c d Willis Carol August 5 1911 The Woolworth Building 100 The Skyscraper Museum Archived from the original on January 24 2019 Retrieved January 23 2019 Landau amp Condit 1996 p 382 a b c d e f Goldberger Paul November 5 1981 A Life Renewed for Cathedral of Commerce An Appraisal The New York Times ISSN 0362 4331 Archived from the original on January 21 2019 Retrieved January 25 2019 Gray Christopher November 15 1992 Streetscapes 40 Wall Street A Race for the Skies Lost by a Spire The New York Times ISSN 0362 4331 Archived from the original on November 7 2017 Retrieved November 3 2017 Brown Nicole March 18 2019 Why do some buildings have their own ZIP codes NYCurious amNewYork Retrieved July 8 2022 a b c d e Landmarks Preservation Commission 1983 p 12 a b c d e Stichweh Dirk 2016 New York Skyscrapers Prestel Publishing p 45 ISBN 978 3 7913 8226 5 OCLC 923852487 a b c d e f Springer 1912 p 457 a b c d e f Landmarks Preservation Commission 1983 p 13 a b c d e f g h Landau amp Condit 1996 p 381 Reynolds 1994 pp 217 218 a b c d e Reynolds 1994 p 218 a b c d e f g h i j k Landmarks Preservation Commission 1983 p 14 a b Increased Use of Atlantic Architectural Terra Cotta Buffalo Sunday Times August 18 1912 p 41 Archived from the original on May 5 2022 Retrieved January 21 2019 via newspapers com a b c d e f Reynolds 1994 p 217 The Brickbuilder Rogers and Manson Company 1913 p 67 Archived from the original on May 7 2021 Retrieved January 21 2019 a b c Fenske 2008 p 205 a b Reynolds 1994 pp 218 219 a b The Woolworth Building 100 Restoring Woolworth s Terracotta The Skyscraper Museum Archived from the original on January 21 2019 Retrieved August 10 2020 a b c d e Wiseman Carter November 2 1981 Rehabbing Your Skyscraper pp 66 67 Archived from the original on May 7 2021 Retrieved January 22 2019 a href Template Cite book html title Template Cite book cite book a work ignored help a b Oser Alan S May 11 1977 About Real Estate The New York Times ISSN 0362 4331 Archived from the original on January 22 2019 Retrieved January 22 2019 Gray Christopher May 26 1996 Streetscapes Metropolitan Life at 1 Madison Avenue For a Brief Moment the Tallest Building in the World The New York Times ISSN 0362 4331 Archived from the original on July 1 2017 Retrieved November 11 2015 a b c Reynolds 1994 p 215 a b c d e f g h Landau amp Condit 1996 p 384 Gilbert Cass May 1923 The Tenth Birthday of a Notable Structure Real Estate Magazine Vol 11 p 344 a b c d e f Sommer Jack September 22 2015 Go inside the rarely seen underbelly of New York s famed Woolworth Building Business Insider Archived from the original on December 9 2018 Retrieved December 7 2018 a b c d Reynolds 1994 p 219 a b c Reynolds 1994 p 222 a b c d e f g h i Landmarks Preservation Commission Interior 1983 p 11 a b c d Landau amp Condit 1996 p 386 a b Landau amp Condit 1996 p 388 a b Pitrone J M 2003 F W Woolworth and the American Five and Dime A Social History McFarland Incorporated p 120 ISBN 978 0 7864 1433 8 Archived from the original on May 7 2021 Retrieved January 21 2019 a b c Woolworth Building 50 Years Old Ithaca Journal April 24 1963 p 15 Archived from the original on May 5 2022 Retrieved January 21 2019 via newspapers com a b c d e f g h i j Dunlap David W February 24 1999 Commercial Real Estate Updating a Skyscraper That Woolworth Built The New York Times ISSN 0362 4331 Archived from the original on January 21 2019 Retrieved January 21 2019 a b c d National Park Service 1966 p 6 Aus 1913 p 158 Landmarks Preservation Commission 1983 pp 10 11 a b c d e Steel Work on Woolworth Building The New York Times October 29 1911 ISSN 0362 4331 Archived from the original on January 22 2019 Retrieved January 21 2019 a b c d 1913 The Country s First Real Skyscraper Engineering News Record Vol 242 no 7 February 15 1999 p 32 ProQuest 235763772 a b c d Aus 1913 p 160 a b c d National Park Service 1966 p 5 a b Landau amp Condit 1996 pp 385 386 Springer 1912 p 456 a b c d e f g F W Woolworth s Rise a Romance of the Nickel The New York Sun July 14 1912 p 51 Archived from the original on May 5 2022 Retrieved January 21 2019 via newspapers com Holtzman 1913 p 24 a b Landau amp Condit 1996 pp 384 385 Water Supply System in the Fifty Five Story Woolworth Building New York Engineering Record Vol 68 July 12 1913 p 44 Archived from the original on May 7 2021 Retrieved August 10 2020 Landau amp Condit 1996 pp 445 446 a b Cochran 1918 p 10 The Master Builders 1913 p 55 Cochran 1918 p 12 a b c d National Park Service 1966 p 2 a b Reynolds 1994 p 224 Reynolds 1994 pp 224 225 a b c d Nash 2005 p 19 a b Berenholtz Richard Reynolds Donald M 1988 Manhattan architecture New York Prentice Hall Press p 142 ISBN 0 13 551987 X OCLC 17732386 a b c Landau amp Condit 1996 p 389 Betts Mary 2000 Heilbrun Margaret ed Inventing the Skyline The Architecture of Cass Gilbert Columbia University Press p 122 Reynolds 1994 pp 222 224 a b c d e f g Landmarks Preservation Commission Interior 1983 p 12 a b Fenske 2008 p 234 a b Landau amp Condit 1996 pp 388 389 a b c d e f Secrets of the Woolworth Building lobby am New York December 9 2014 Archived from the original on January 24 2019 Retrieved January 23 2019 a b c Springer 1912 p 458 The Master Builders 1913 p 36 a b c Fenske 2008 p 66 Gray Christopher August 1 1999 Streetscapes 1 Wall Street A Bank s Art Deco Signature The New York Times ISSN 0362 4331 Archived from the original on January 24 2019 Retrieved January 23 2019 Inside the Epic Safe Deposit Vault in NYC s Woolworth Building Untapped Cities May 14 2014 Archived from the original on January 24 2019 Retrieved January 23 2019 a b Buder Leonard June 26 1983 Coping with Crime in Office Buildings The New York Times ISSN 0362 4331 Archived from the original on March 3 2020 Retrieved January 23 2019 a b c A Brief History of the Woolworth Building Commercial Observer October 16 2018 Archived from the original on January 21 2019 Retrieved January 21 2019 Dunlap David W December 26 2008 In Old Woolworth Pool Sign of the Luxe Life City Room Archived from the original on June 19 2018 Retrieved January 21 2019 a b c Plitt Amy September 16 2015 Finally Go Inside the Woolworth Building s Splendid Model Unit Curbed NY Archived from the original on January 24 2019 Retrieved January 23 2019 Mortimer George T July 1912 The Woolworth Building Most Modern Example of the Fireproof Skyscraper How It Was Built Real Estate Magazine Vol 1 p 56 Aus 1913 pp 159 160 a b Reynolds 1994 pp 219 222 a b c d Woolworth Building Past Its Early Glamour Role The Austin Statesman May 7 1953 p B11 ProQuest 1559313507 Cochran 1918 p 14 Otis Elevator Co The Wall Street Journal January 6 1912 p 5 ISSN 0099 9660 ProQuest 129391724 a b c Landmarks Preservation Commission 1983 p 3 Fenske 2008 pp 64 65 a b c Fenske 2008 p 65 In the Real Estate Field Woolworth amp Co Buy Broadway and Park Place Corner The New York Times March 11 1910 ISSN 0362 4331 Archived from the original on January 22 2019 Retrieved January 21 2019 a b c New Woolworth Building on Broadway Will Eclipse Singer Tower in Height The New York Times November 13 1910 p 57 ISSN 0362 4331 Archived from the original on May 5 2022 Retrieved January 21 2019 via newspapers com a b Fenske 2008 p 68 a b c d e f g The Woolworth Building 100 World s Tallest Building The Skyscraper Museum Archived from the original on January 21 2019 Retrieved August 10 2020 a b Manhattan s Master Tower Builders New York Herald April 13 1919 p 57 Archived from the original on May 5 2022 Retrieved January 21 2019 via newspapers com a b Landau amp Condit 1996 p 380 a b Nash 2005 pp 17 19 Horowitz 1937 p 120 a b Landmarks Preservation Commission 1983 p 4 Landau amp Condit 1996 pp 380 381 A Skyscraper Built by the Nickels of Millions PDF The New York Times January 1 1911 ISSN 0362 4331 Archived PDF from the original on May 7 2021 Retrieved January 21 2019 55 Story Building in Lower Broadway PDF The New York Times January 20 1911 ISSN 0362 4331 Archived PDF from the original on May 7 2021 Retrieved January 21 2019 Landmarks Preservation Commission Interior 1983 p 8 a b Landmarks Preservation Commission 1983 pp 4 5 a b Fenske 2008 p 122 Gilbert Julia Finch 1935 Cass Gilbert Reminiscences and Addresses The Scribner Press p 14 Archived from the original on May 7 2021 Retrieved August 10 2020 The Master Builders 1913 p 16 a b The Woolworth Building 100 Construction The Skyscraper Museum Archived from the original on January 21 2019 Retrieved August 10 2020 The Master Builders 1913 p 17 Fenske amp Moudry 2003 p 32 Horowitz 1937 p 104 High Building Contract Let PDF The New York Times April 20 1911 ISSN 0362 4331 Archived PDF from the original on May 7 2021 Retrieved January 21 2019 Horowitz 1937 p 107 Foundation Work For Big Building PDF The New York Times May 28 1911 ISSN 0362 4331 Archived PDF from the original on May 7 2021 Retrieved January 21 2019 Horowitz 1937 p 110 The Master Builders 1913 p 20 Fenske 2008 p 202 The Woolworth Building 100 The Skyscraper Museum p Installing Terra Cotta Archived from the original on January 21 2019 Retrieved August 10 2020 a b Fenske amp Moudry 2003 p 33 The Woolworth Building PDF The New York Times February 18 1912 ISSN 0362 4331 Archived PDF from the original on May 7 2021 Retrieved January 21 2019 Flag to Fly 830 Feet Up PDF The New York Times June 30 1912 ISSN 0362 4331 Archived PDF from the original on May 7 2021 Retrieved January 21 2019 a b c Wilson Lights Up Woolworth Tower Brooklyn Daily Eagle April 25 1913 p 9 Archived from the original on May 5 2022 Retrieved January 22 2019 via newspapers com a b National Park Service 1966 p 3 Obtains 8 000 000 for Big Skyscraper Gillespie Finds Abroad the Balance of 13 000 000 for 55 story Woolworth Building The New York Times August 2 1911 ISSN 0362 4331 Archived from the original on January 22 2019 Retrieved January 21 2019 Landau amp Condit 1996 p 390 55 Story Building Opens on a Flash PDF The New York Times April 25 1913 ISSN 0362 4331 Archived PDF from the original on May 7 2021 Retrieved January 21 2019 a b President Lights Up Woolworth Tower The New York Sun April 25 1913 p 3 Archived from the original on February 14 2019 Retrieved February 14 2019 a b The Woolworth Building 100 The Skyscraper Museum p A Real Estate Venture Archived from the original on January 21 2019 Retrieved August 10 2020 Pham Diane October 23 2014 Accounting for the Strange Faces That Adorn the Woolworth Building And Other Fun Facts 6sqft Archived from the original on January 23 2019 Retrieved January 23 2019 Schuyler Montgomery 1961 The Woolworth Building In Jordy William H Coe Ralph eds American Architecture And Other Writings American Architecture And Other Writings Belknap Press of Harvard University Press pp 608 620 Archived from the original on May 7 2021 Retrieved August 10 2020 Landau amp Condit 1996 p 391 a b c Woolworth Building The Wall Street Journal December 12 1914 p 2 ISSN 0099 9660 ProQuest 129433328 Skyscrapers Obey Ruling Rigorously Balked by Prospect of Climbing Steps Most Business Men Take a Holiday The New York Times January 22 1918 ISSN 0362 4331 Archived from the original on January 21 2019 Retrieved January 21 2019 Cochran 1918 p 7 The Commercial amp Financial Chronicle A Weekly Newspaper Representing the Industrial Interests of the United States William B Dana Company 1920 p 2664 Archived from the original on May 7 2021 Retrieved January 22 2019 Woolworth Heirs Borrow Money to Pay Inheritance Tax PDF The Real Estate Record Real Estate Record and Builders Guide Vol 105 no 26 June 26 1920 p 834 Archived PDF from the original on March 2 2021 Retrieved February 14 2019 via columbia edu Woolworth Building Mortgaged for 3 Million for Taxes Ithaca Journal June 23 1920 p 1 Archived from the original on May 5 2022 Retrieved January 21 2019 via newspapers com 15 000 000 Woolworth Building Sold The Hartford Courant January 11 1924 p 16 ISSN 1047 4153 ProQuest 553606111 From Day to Day in Old New York Buffalo Enquirer January 15 1924 p 4 Archived from the original on May 5 2022 Retrieved January 21 2019 via newspapers com Woolworth Building Sold for 11 000 000 The Wall Street Journal April 2 1924 p 13 ISSN 0099 9660 ProQuest 130268131 Woolworth Building Control Passes From Heirs to Realtors The New York Herald New York Tribune April 2 1924 p 2 ProQuest 1112952421 Woolworth Building Sold for 11 000 000 The Hartford Courant April 2 1924 p 21 ISSN 1047 4153 ProQuest 553735752 Woolworth Tower of Gold and Dimes The Wall Street Journal April 27 1927 p 13 ISSN 0099 9660 ProQuest 130428298 3 700 000 Lien Extended On Woolworth Building The New York Times March 13 1939 ISSN 0362 4331 Retrieved February 22 2023 a b Woolworth Building Observes 40th Year as City Landmark The New York Times April 12 1953 p R1 ISSN 0362 4331 ProQuest 112851741 Elevators Cut Off to Conserve Coal PDF The New York Times January 6 1944 ISSN 0362 4331 Archived from the original on May 5 2022 Retrieved January 21 2019 a b c Gray Christopher September 9 2007 Dark Spots Mar an Aging Yet Exquisite Face The New York Times ISSN 0362 4331 Archived from the original on January 27 2019 Retrieved January 26 2019 a b c Dunlap David April 29 1998 Woolworth Plans to Sell Its Landmark Building The New York Times ISSN 0362 4331 Archived from the original on January 21 2019 Retrieved January 25 2019 Woolworth Building Gains Landmark Status The Hartford Courant May 6 1967 p 17E ISSN 1047 4153 ProQuest 549474087 36 Buildings May Be Rated As Landmarks Daily News April 27 1970 p 23 Retrieved April 11 2023 a b Burks Edward C April 29 1970 Owners of Woolworth Building Call Landmark Law Onerous The New York Times ISSN 0362 4331 Archived from the original on January 27 2019 Retrieved January 26 2019 a b Dunlap David W April 13 1983 Landmark Status Given to Woolworth Building The New York Times ISSN 0362 4331 Archived from the original on January 21 2019 Retrieved January 21 2019 a b c d e Wallach Amei April 11 1978 Preserving The People s Architecture Corporations are refurbishing the Woolworth and Chrysler Buildings and a public outcry apparently will save Radio City Music Hall from destruction Newsday p 4A ISSN 2574 5298 ProQuest 966641090 a b Horsley Carter B April 4 1976 Decaying Facades a Latent Hazard to Pedestrians The New York Times p R1 ISSN 0362 4331 ProQuest 122663074 Sterne Michael September 16 1977 Hotel Project on Site of Landmark On Madison Ave Gets Abatement The New York Times ISSN 0362 4331 Retrieved April 11 2023 Morehouse III Ward III February 23 1979 Skyscraper renaissance Seven new towers are rising in New York as dozens of old ones like the Woolworth Building are renovated The Christian Science Monitor p 3 ProQuest 512163995 a b c Banner Randy April 13 1983 A Landmark Decision Newsday p 117 Retrieved April 11 2023 a b Carroll Maurice January 25 1982 Landmark Status is Proposed for the Woolworth Building The New York Times ISSN 0362 4331 Retrieved April 11 2023 a b Goodwin Michael October 27 1982 Woolworth Gets Tax Abatement of 11 4 Million The New York Times ISSN 0362 4331 Archived from the original on January 21 2019 Retrieved January 22 2019 White Joyce February 8 1982 Landmarks Commission to consider 13 buildings Daily News p 105 Retrieved April 11 2023 White Joyce February 10 1982 Neighbors of ex synagogue saved by landmark decision Daily News p 109 Retrieved April 11 2023 Miele Al March 30 1982 Landmark list a What s What in buildings Daily News p 121 Retrieved April 11 2023 a b c Kirkpatrick David D June 22 1998 Accord Is Reached To Sell Landmark Woolworth Tower The Wall Street Journal p A14 ISSN 0099 9660 ProQuest 398610900 Seckler Valerie April 29 1998 Woolworth Building Put On the Block Landmark Woolworth Building For Sale Could Fetch 100M Women s Wear Daily Vol 175 no 81 pp 4 14 ProQuest 1445687026 Nation in Brief New York Woolworth Building Sold for 155 Million Los Angeles Times June 23 1998 p 12 ISSN 0458 3035 ProQuest 421424548 Metro Business Woolworth Building Brings 155 Million The New York Times June 23 1998 ISSN 0362 4331 Archived from the original on January 21 2019 Retrieved January 25 2019 Purchase of Woolworth Building The Wall Street Journal December 7 1998 p A23 ISSN 0099 9660 ProQuest 398812581 a b Dunlap David November 2 2000 Condos to Top Vaunted Tower Of Woolworth The New York Times ISSN 0362 4331 Archived from the original on March 28 2019 Retrieved January 25 2019 Developer Will Sell Upper Half of Famed Woolworth Building in NY as Residences St Louis Post Dispatch Associated Press April 17 2000 p A2 ProQuest 403995326 a b Dunlap David October 18 2000 Commercial Real Estate Change the Woolworth No Way a Board Says The New York Times ISSN 0362 4331 Archived from the original on January 21 2019 Retrieved January 25 2019 Brozan Nadine August 9 2002 Residential Real Estate Luxury Units on Rise Near City Hall The New York Times ISSN 0362 4331 Archived from the original on January 28 2019 Retrieved January 28 2019 Woolworth Building Turns 100 The Wall Street Journal April 23 2013 ISSN 0099 9660 Archived from the original on September 23 2015 Retrieved February 7 2016 Picture 11 of 19 The World Trade Center shown under construction in 1970 and other modern skyscrapers eventually dwarfed the Woolworth Building visible here at the center between the Trade Center s two towers Fendrich Laurie January 8 2008 American Architectural Wonder Keep Out The Chronicle of Higher Education Archived from the original on October 15 2012 Retrieved August 30 2011 Dunlap David W January 20 2006 So You Think You Can See a Landmark The New York Times ISSN 0362 4331 Archived from the original on January 30 2020 Retrieved January 21 2019 Dunlap David W December 31 2014 Woolworth Building s Grand Arcade Is Once Again a Sight All Can See The New York Times ISSN 0362 4331 Archived from the original on May 20 2016 Retrieved July 28 2016 Potter Susanna June 20 2003 Woolworth Building Loan Part of Recent Securitization Commercial Real Estate Direct Archived from the original on May 9 2019 Retrieved May 9 2019 a b Banc of America Commercial Mortgage Pass Through Certificates Series 2005 3 Securities and Exchange Commission June 2005 Archived from the original on May 9 2019 Retrieved May 9 2019 Gregor Alison May 30 2007 Downtown Landmark Makes a High End Play The New York Times ISSN 0362 4331 Archived from the original on May 9 2019 Retrieved August 10 2020 a b Higgins Michelle August 7 2012 Luxury Living in Old Temple of the 5 and Dime The New York Times ISSN 0362 4331 Archived from the original on February 25 2015 Retrieved August 24 2014 Putzier Konrad December 1 2017 The story of WeWork s mysterious first investor The Real Deal Archived from the original on August 3 2019 Retrieved August 3 2019 Polsky Sara August 7 2012 Woolworth Building s Top Floors Will Become Luxury Condos Curbed Archived from the original on October 17 2015 Retrieved August 24 2014 a b c Weiss Lois July 11 2017 Woolworth renovations are a perfect blend of the past and the future New York Post Archived from the original on January 21 2019 Retrieved January 25 2019 Anuta Joe October 31 2013 Woolworth Building can get minor makeover Crain s New York Archived from the original on December 11 2019 Retrieved December 11 2019 a b Baird Remba Rebecca October 16 2018 A Star Is Horn How Ken Horn Redeveloped the Woolworth Building Commercial Observer Archived from the original on January 21 2019 Retrieved January 25 2019 Senison Heather March 8 2019 Historic New York Ceilings Restored To Old New York Grandeur Forbes Archived from the original on March 29 2019 Retrieved March 29 2019 Samtani Hiten August 21 2012 Revealed Floor plans for 110M Woolworth penthouse PHOTOS The Real Deal Archived from the original on August 23 2014 Retrieved August 24 2014 Velsey Kim June 3 2015 What s in a Name Quite a Lot If That Name Is Woolworth New York Observer Archived from the original on May 9 2019 Retrieved May 9 2019 Samtani Hiten August 19 2014 Alchemy to keep Woolworth Building sales in house The Real Deal Archived from the original on May 15 2019 Retrieved May 14 2019 Clarke Katherine November 17 2015 JP Forbes leaves Alchemy amid rumblings of slow sales at Woolworth Building The Real Deal Archived from the original on May 15 2019 Retrieved May 14 2019 Clarke Katherine April 14 2016 Alchemy brings in Sotheby s to ramp up sales at the Woolworth The Real Deal Archived from the original on May 15 2019 Retrieved May 14 2019 Perlberg Heather June 2 2014 NYC Woolworth Tower Condo Priced at Record 110 Million Bloomberg News Archived from the original on August 26 2014 Retrieved August 24 2014 Clarke Katherine September 20 2017 Woolworth Building Penthouse Hits the Market for 110 Million Wall Street Journal ISSN 0099 9660 Retrieved February 22 2023 Sugar Rachel October 2 2017 Woolworth Building s 110M penthouse may just be aspirational say brokers Curbed NY Archived from the original on January 22 2019 Retrieved January 21 2019 Mrozinksi Josh May 19 2015 Blackstone Lends 320Mln Against Office Space at Manhattan s Woolworth Building Commercial Real Estate Direct Archived from the original on May 9 2019 Retrieved May 9 2019 Alchemy borrows 220M for Woolworth Building conversion The Real Deal June 13 2016 Archived from the original on January 23 2019 Retrieved January 25 2019 Geiger Daniel February 13 2019 Dispute among partners of superluxe MoMA tower Crain s New York Archived from the original on February 14 2019 Retrieved February 13 2019 Warren Katie November 2 2019 The penthouse of NYC s Woolworth Building just got a 31 million price cut Business Insider Archived from the original on July 30 2021 Retrieved July 31 2021 Clarke Katherine October 31 2019 Pitching a New York Landmark s Puzzling Penthouse Wall Street Journal ISSN 0099 9660 Retrieved February 22 2023 Hudson Erin March 10 2021 Healthcare data exec snaps up Woolworth condo at 40 discount The Real Deal Retrieved February 22 2023 1 Wall Street Landmark Designation Report PDF New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission March 6 2001 p 2 Archived PDF from the original on March 11 2010 Retrieved January 20 2019 Big Bank Building Opens Next Monday PDF The New York Times March 17 1931 ISSN 0362 4331 Retrieved January 21 2019 Hoffman Frank 2004 Columbia Label Encyclopedia of Recorded Sound Encyclopedia of recorded sound Taylor amp Francis p 212 ISBN 978 0 203 48427 2 Archived from the original on July 29 2020 Retrieved January 25 2019 Cogan Jim Clark William 2003 Columbia Studios Temples of Sound Inside the Great Recording Studios Chronicle Books ISBN 978 0 8118 3394 3 Archived from the original on July 26 2020 Retrieved January 25 2019 The Real Estate Field PDF The New York Times December 10 1914 ISSN 0362 4331 Archived PDF from the original on May 7 2021 Retrieved January 21 2019 a b Real Estate Note The Wall Street Journal April 30 1914 p 4 ISSN 0099 9660 ProQuest 129496006 a b Leases PDF The Real Estate Record Real Estate Record and Builders Guide Vol 96 no 2489 November 27 1915 p 908 Archived PDF from the original on March 2 2021 Retrieved February 14 2019 via columbia edu In The Real Estate Market New York Tribune January 26 1915 p 13 Archived from the original on February 14 2019 Retrieved February 14 2019 Woolworth Building Leases The New York Tribune April 12 1916 p 17 Archived from the original on February 15 2019 Retrieved February 14 2019 Leases PDF The Real Estate Record Real Estate Record and Builders Guide Vol 91 no 2354 April 26 1913 p 886 Archived PDF from the original on March 2 2021 Retrieved February 14 2019 via columbia edu Leases PDF The Real Estate Record Real Estate Record and Builders Guide Vol 93 no 2406 April 25 1914 p 733 Archived PDF from the original on March 2 2021 Retrieved February 14 2019 via columbia edu Headquarters in the Woolworth Building Bulletin of the Merchant s Association of New York October 26 1914 p 7 Scientific American on the Move Scientific American August 28 2015 Archived from the original on February 27 2021 Retrieved 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Locations Free Tours by Foot December 16 2014 Archived from the original on January 26 2019 Retrieved January 25 2019 Hibberd James November 6 2015 Fantastic Beasts 5 secrets in our photo you might have missed Entertainment Weekly Archived from the original on June 12 2018 Retrieved June 10 2018 Plitt Amy December 15 2015 In Harry Potter Spin Off the Woolworth Building is Magical Curbed NY Archived from the original on January 26 2019 Retrieved January 25 2019 Soll Lindsay October 17 2008 The Deep Dive Made in NYC Entertainment Weekly Archived from the original on May 27 2013 Retrieved January 21 2010 Jones Sasha July 6 2022 Woolworth Tower apartment featured in Succession sells for 20M The Real Deal Retrieved February 22 2023 Vora Shivani December 10 2021 Inside the 23 355 Million Succession Penthouse Architectural Digest Retrieved February 22 2023 Hughes Langston 1926 Two Poems Poetry Daily a new poem every day Archived from the original on January 28 2019 Retrieved January 27 2019 Engberg G Chipman I Cart M 2014 Booklist s 1000 Best Young Adult Books since 2000 American Library Association p 185 ISBN 978 0 8389 1150 1 Archived from the original on May 7 2021 Retrieved January 27 2019 Sources Edit Aus Gunvald March 26 1913 Engineering Design of the Woolworth Building American Architect Vol 103 pp 159 160 Archived from the original on May 7 2021 Cochran Edward 1918 The Cathedral of Commerce Broadway Park Place Co Archived from the original on January 26 2019 via HathiTrust Fenske Gail 2008 The Skyscraper and the City The Woolworth Building and the Making of Modern New York Phoenix Poets Series University of Chicago Press ISBN 978 0 226 24141 8 Fenske Gail 2005 Moudry Roberta ed The American Skyscraper Cultural Histories Cambridge University Press Holtzman S F July 5 1913 Design of the Woolworth Building Engineering Record Vol 68 Archived from the original on May 7 2021 Horowitz Louis J 1937 The towers of New York the memoirs of a master builder Simon and Schuster 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Foundations Building Age ProQuest 128346446 The Master Builders A Record of the Construction of the World s Highest Commercial Structure Hugh McAtamney amp Company 1913 Woods Mary N 2001 In the Camera s Eye The Woolworth Building and American Avant Garde Photography and Film In Stern Robert A M ed Cass Gilbert Life and Work Architect of the Public Domain W W Norton pp 149 162 ISBN 978 0 393 73065 4 Archived from the original on May 7 2021 Woolworth Building PDF Report New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission April 12 1983 Archived PDF from the original on March 3 2016 Woolworth Building Interior PDF Report New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission April 12 1983 Archived PDF from the original on December 27 2016 External links Edit Wikimedia Commons has media related to Woolworth Building Official websiteRecordsPreceded byMetropolitan Life Insurance Company Tower Tallest building in the world1913 1930 Succeeded by40 Wall StreetTallest building in the United States1913 1930 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