Some early critics referred to “Burnham’s Folly,” claiming that the combination of triangular shape and height would cause the building to fall down. This characteristic of the Flatiron Building’s design–its look of a freestanding tower–initially inspired widespread skepticism about whether it would actually be stable enough to survive. (The first of these was the Home Insurance Building in Chicago, which had been completed in 1885.) Whereas many of the new tall buildings featured high towers emerging from heavy, block-like bases, Burnham’s tower soared directly up from street level, making an immediate and striking contrast against the lower buildings surrounding it. But its design by Daniel Burnham, a member of the prominent Chicago School of architecture, would make it one of the most unusual looking of the steel-framed skyscrapers being constructed at the time. The Flatiron Building would not be the tallest building in the city–the 29-story, 391-foot Park Row Building that had gone up in 1899 already held that spot. Management had to designate bathrooms for men and women on alternating floors. Fuller Company, and filed plans to build a 20-story building on the triangular plot.ĭid you know? When the Flatiron Building first opened, female tenants were at a disadvantage, as the building's designers had failed to include any ladies' restrooms. In 1901, the Newhouses joined a syndicate led by Harry S. At the time, efforts were being made to create a new business district in New York, north of the current hub of Wall Street. The brothers Samuel and Mott Newhouse, who made their fortune in the mines of the West, bought the property in 1899. Though the Flatiron Building is often said to have gotten its famous name from its similarity to a certain household appliance, the triangular region contained by Broadway, Fifth Avenue, and 22nd and 23rd Streets had in fact been known as the “Flat Iron” prior to the building’s construction.
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