The building form most closely associated withNew York City is the skyscraper, which has shifted many commercial and residential districts from low-rise to high-rise. Surrounded mostly by water, the city has amassed one of thelargest and most varied collection of skyscrapers in the world.[1]
New York has architecturally significant buildings in a wide range of styles spanning distinct historical and cultural periods. These include theWoolworth Building (1913), an earlyGothic revival skyscraper with large-scalegothic architectural detail. The1916 Zoning Resolution requiredsetback in new buildings, and restricted towers to a percentage of the lot size, to allow sunlight to reach the streets below.[2] TheArt Deco design of theChrysler Building (1930) andEmpire State Building (1931), with their tapered tops and steel spires, reflected the zoning requirements. The Chrysler Building is considered by many historians and architects to be one of New York's finest, with its distinctive ornamentation such as V-shaped lighting inserts capped by a steel spire at the tower's crown.[3] Early influential examples of theInternational Style in the United States are330 West 42nd Street (1931) and theSeagram Building (1958). TheCondé Nast Building (2000) is an important example ofgreen design in American skyscrapers.[4]
The character of New York's large residential districts is often defined by the elegantbrownstonerowhouses,townhouses, andtenements that were built during a period of rapid expansion from 1870 to 1930.[5] In contrast, New York City also has neighborhoods that are less densely populated and feature free-standing dwellings. In the outer boroughs, largesingle-family homes are common in various architectural styles such asTudor Revival andVictorian.[6][7][8] Splittwo-family homes are also widely available across theouter boroughs, for example in theFlushing area.
Stone and brick became the city's building materials of choice after the construction of wood-frame houses was limited in the aftermath of theGreat Fire of 1835.[9][10] Unlike Paris, which for centuries was built from its own limestone bedrock, New York has always drawn its building stone from a far-flung network of quarries and its stone buildings have a variety of textures and hues.[11][12] A distinctive feature of many of the city's buildings is the presence of wooden roof-mountedwater towers. In the 19th century, the city required their installation on buildings higher than six stories to prevent the need for excessively high water pressures at lower elevations, which could burst municipal water pipes.[13]Garden apartments became popular during the 1920s in outlying areas, includingJackson Heights in Queens, which became more accessible with expansion of the subway.[14]
New York has two main concentrations of high-rise buildings:Midtown Manhattan andLower Manhattan, each with its own uniquely recognizable skyline. Midtown Manhattan, the largest central business district in the world, is home to such notable buildings as theEmpire State Building, theChrysler Building, andCitigroup Center, as well as theRockefeller Center complex. Lower Manhattan comprises the third largest central business district in the United States (after Midtown and Chicago'sLoop). Lower Manhattan was characterized by the omnipresence of the Twin Towers of theWorld Trade Center from its completion in 1973 until its destruction in theSeptember 11 attacks in 2001.
In the first decade of the 21st century,Lower Manhattan saw reconstruction, which includedOne World Trade Center within the newWorld Trade Center complex. The Downtown skyline received new designs from such architects asSantiago Calatrava andFrank Gehry. In 2010, a 749-foot (228 m), 43-story tower named200 West Street was built forGoldman Sachs across the street from the World Trade Center site.
New York City has a long history of tall buildings. It has been home to 10 buildings that have held theworld's tallest fully habitable building title at some point in history, although half have since been demolished. The first building to bring the world's tallest title to New York was theNew York World Building, in 1890. Later, New York City was home to the world's tallest building for 75 continuous years, starting with thePark Row Building in 1899 and ending with One World Trade Center upon completion of theSears Tower in 1974. The 1899 Park Row Building, one of the world's earliest skyscrapers, is still standing.
The high-rise buildings ofBrooklyn constitute a third, much smaller skyline.Downtown Brooklyn is also experiencing an extensive building boom, with new high rise luxury residential towers, commercial space and a new arena in the planning stages. The building boom in Brooklyn has had a great deal of opposition from local civic and environmental groups which contend that Brooklyn needs to maintain its human scale. The borough ofQueens has also been developing its own skyline in recent years withOne Court Square (formerly the Citigroup Building, currently the tallest building in NYC outside Manhattan), and the Queens West development of several residential towers along theEast River waterfront.
The1916 Zoning Resolution requiredsetback in new buildings, and restricted towers to a percentage of the lot size, to allow sunlight to reach the streets below.[2]
Theskyscraper, which has shaped Manhattan's distinctiveskyline, has been closely associated with New York City's identity since the end of the 19th century. From 1890 to 1973, the title ofworld's tallest building resided continually in Manhattan (with a gap between 1894 and 1908, when the title was held byPhiladelphia City Hall), with eight different buildings holding the title.[15] TheNew York World Building onPark Row, was the first to take the title in 1890, standing 309 feet (94 m) until 1955, when it was demolished to construct a new ramp to theBrooklyn Bridge.[16] The nearbyPark Row Building, with its 29 stories standing 391 feet (119 m) high, became the world's tallest office building when it opened in 1899.[17]
The 41-storySinger Building, constructed in 1908 as the headquarters of theeponymous sewing machine manufacturer, stood 612 feet (187 m) high until 1967, when it became the tallest building ever demolished.[18] TheMetropolitan Life Insurance Company Tower, standing 700 feet (210 m) at the foot ofMadison Avenue, wrested the title of world's tallest building in 1909, with a tower reminiscent ofSt Mark's Campanile in Venice.[19] TheWoolworth Building, and its distinctiveGothic architecture, took the title in 1913, topping off at 792 feet (241 m).[20] Structures such as theEquitable Building of 1915, which rises vertically forty stories from the sidewalk, prompted the passage of the1916 Zoning Resolution, requiring new buildings to containsetbacks withdrawing progressively at a defined angle from the street as they rose, in order to preserve a view of the sky at street level.[21]
Grand Central Terminal is located in East Midtown close to the Chrysler Building. The railroad terminal, completed in 1913, is the third on its site.[22] It was built in the Beaux-Arts style by the firmsReed and Stem andWarren and Wetmore.[23] It became a National Historic Landmark in 1976.[24]
TheRoaring Twenties saw a race to the sky, with three separate buildings pursuing the world's tallest title in the span of a year. As thestock market soared in the days before theWall Street Crash of 1929, two developers publicly competed for the crown.[25] At 927 feet (283 m),40 Wall Street, completed in May 1930 in only eleven months as the headquarters of theBank of Manhattan, seemed to have secured the title.[26] AtLexington Avenue and42nd Street, auto executiveWalter Chrysler and his architectWilliam Van Alen developed plans to build the structure's trademark 185-foot (56 m) spire in secret, pushing theChrysler Building to 1,046 feet (319 m) and making it the tallest in the world when it was completed in 1929.[27] Completed in 1930, the Chrysler Building is a distinctive symbol of New York.[28]: 14 Originally built for theChrysler Corporation,[29] the building is presently co-owned byAby Rosen's RFR Holding LLC, in ajoint venture with the AustrianSIGNA Group.[30][31] The Chrysler Building was the first structure in the world to surpass the 1,000 foot threshold.[32]
Both buildings were soon surpassed with the May 1931 completion of the 102-story Empire State Building with its tower reaching 1,250 feet (380 m) at the top of the building. The 203-foot (62 m) high pinnacle was later added bringing the total height of the building to 1,453 ft (443 m).[33][34] TheEmpire State Building, a contemporaryArt Deco style building inMidtown Manhattan, was designed byShreve, Lamb and Harmon and takes its name from the nickname of New York State.[35]: 413 [28]: 46 It was the first building to go beyond the 100-story mark, and has one of the world's most visited observation decks, which sees about 4 million visitors a year.[36] The building was built in just 14 months.[37]30 Rockefeller Plaza is a slim Art Deco skyscraper and the focal point ofRockefeller Center. It stands 850 ft (259 m) with 70 floors. Built in 1933[38] and originally called theRCA Building, it was later called theComcast Building.[39] The frieze above the main entrance was executed byLee Lawrie and depictsWisdom, along with a phrase from scripture that reads"Wisdom and Knowledge shall be the stability of thy times", originally found in the Book of Isaiah, 33:6.[40]
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330 West 42nd Street (1931) was the only skyscraper in New York City displayed inHenry-Russell Hitchcock andPhilip Johnson's influentialInternational Style exhibition at theMuseum of Modern Art in 1932,[41] and the only other U.S. skyscraper at that exhibition, besides thePSFS Building.[42] Johnson, along withLudwig Mies van der Rohe, later helped build theSeagram Building (1959) on Park Avenue between 52nd and 53rd Streets, with extruded bronzemullions on the facade.[43]Paul Goldberger wrote inThe New York Times in 1976 that the Seagram Building was one of "New York's most copied buildings", its design having been copied in several structures worldwide.[44]
In 1961, thePennsylvania Railroad unveiled plans to tear down the oldPenn Station and replace it with a newMadison Square Garden andoffice building complex. Organized protests were aimed at preserving theMcKim, Mead & White-designed structure completed in 1910, widely considered a masterpiece of theBeaux-Arts style and one of the architectural jewels of New York City.[45] Despite these efforts, demolition of the structure began in October 1963. The loss of Penn Station—called "an act of irresponsible public vandalism" by historianLewis Mumford—led directly to the enactment in 1965 of a local law establishing theNew York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, which is responsible for preserving the "city's historic, aesthetic, andcultural heritage".[46] Thehistoric preservation movement triggered by Penn Station's demise has been credited with the retention of some one million structures nationwide, including over 1,000 in New York City.[47] In 2017, a multibillion-dollar rebuilding plan was unveiled to restore the historic grandeur of Penn Station, in the process of upgrading the landmark's status as a criticaltransportation hub.[48]
TheMetLife Building, formerly thePan Am Building, was the largest commercial office building in the world when it opened on March 7, 1963.[49] It stands directly north of Grand Central Terminal.[50]The formerTwin Towers of the World Trade Center were located in Lower Manhattan. At 1,368 and 1,362 feet (417 and 415 m), the 110-story buildings were the world's tallest from 1972 until they were surpassed by the construction of theWillis Tower in 1974 (formerly known as the Sears Tower, located inChicago).[51] One World Trade Center, a replacement for the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, is currently the tallest building in theWestern Hemisphere.[52]
Citigroup Center is a 59-story office tower located at 53rd Street and Lexington Avenue inMidtown Manhattan. It is considered one of the most important post-war skyscrapers to be in erected in New York City. The striking design of the steeply slanted roof, the sleek aluminum-clad facade, and its base on four stiltsover a church also on the site made the skyscraper an instant architectural icon. The sloping roof houses the building's mechanical and ventilation systems. The designers settled on an aluminum-clad facade to reduce the weight load on the building's foundation and support structures, since its entire weight would be supported by stilts.[53] To prevent swaying, a "tuned mass damper" was later added on the roof.[54]
Time Warner Center is a mixed-use skyscraper atColumbus Circle onManhattan'sUpper West Side. It was the first major building to be completed since the September 11 attacks.[55]
TheCondé Nast Building, officially Four Times Square, is a modern skyscraper inTimes Square inMidtown Manhattan and one of the most important examples ofgreen design in skyscrapers in the United States. Environmentally friendly gas-firedabsorption chillers, along with a high-performinginsulating and shading curtain wall, ensure that the building does not need to be heated or cooled for the majority of the year. Office furniture is made withbiodegradable and non-toxic materials. The air-delivery system provides 50% more fresh air than is required by New York CityBuilding Code, and a number of recycling chutes serve the entire building. Being the first project of its size to undertake these features in construction, the building has received an award from theAmerican Institute of Architects, as well as AIA New York State.
Hearst Tower, located inMidtown Manhattan at 300 West 57th Street, is another example of the new breed ofgreen design skyscrapers in New York City. Hearst Tower is a glass and steel construction skyscraper which rests on the base of the original 1920s Hearst Corporation Building. Hearst Tower is easily identified by the dramatic interlocking triangular glass panels designed by British architectLord Norman Foster. Hearst Tower is also the first skyscraper in New York City to be awarded the coveted Gold LEED Certified rating by theUnited States Green Building Council.
The 15 tallest buildings:
| Std. rank | Name | Year | Location (Midtown & Lower Manhattan) | Height ft (m) | Floors[A] | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | One World Trade Center | 2014 | 285Fulton Street | 1,776 (541) | 94[B] | [56] |
2 | Central Park Tower | 2021 | 225 West57th Street | 1,550 (472) | 99 | [57] |
3 | 111 West 57th Street | 2022 | 111 West57th Street | 1,428 (435) | 85 | [58] |
4 | One Vanderbilt | 2020 | 1Vanderbilt Avenue | 1,401 (427) | 73 | [59] |
5 | 432 Park Avenue | 2015 | 432Park Avenue | 1,397 (426) | 85 | [60] |
6 | 270 Park Avenue | 2025 | 270Park Avenue | 1,388 (423) | 60 | [61] |
7 | 30 Hudson Yards | 2019 | 500 West33rd Street | 1,270 (387) | 73 | [62] |
8 | Empire State Building | 1931 | 350Fifth Avenue | 1,250 (381) | 102[C] | [63] |
9 | Bank of America Tower | 2009 | 1101Sixth Avenue | 1,200 (366) | 55 | [64] |
10 | 3 World Trade Center | 2018 | 175Greenwich Street | 1,079 (329) | 80 | [65] |
11 | The Brooklyn Tower | 2022 | 9DeKalb Avenue | 1,066 (325) | 74 | [66] |
12 | 53W53 | 2019 | 53 West53rd Street | 1,050 (320) | 77 | [67] |
13 | Chrysler Building | 1930 | 405Lexington Avenue | 1,046 (319) | 77 | [68] |
14 | The New York Times Building | 2007 | 620Eighth Avenue | 1,046 (319) | 52 | [69] |
15 | The Spiral | 2022 | 435Tenth Avenue | 1,031 (314) | 66 | [70] |
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As New York City grew, it spread outward from where it originally began at the southern-tip ofManhattan Island into surrounding areas.[71] In order to house the burgeoning population, farm land and open space inUpper Manhattan,the Bronx,Queens,Brooklyn, andStaten Island were developed into neighborhoods ofbrownstones, apartment buildings,multi-family andsingle-family homes.[72] The density of this new construction generally depended on the area's proximity and accessibility toManhattan.
The development of these areas was often spurred by the opening of bridges and the connection of boroughs via public transportation. For example, theBrooklyn Bridge was completed in 1883 and connects Brooklyn and Manhattan across theEast River.Brooklyn Heights, a nabe on the Brooklyn waterfront, is often credited as the United States' first suburb.[73] The bridge allowed an easier commute between Brooklyn and Manhattan and spurred rapid construction, development, and redevelopment. The Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, completed in 1964,[74] opened up many areas of Staten Island to residential and commercial development, especially in the central and southern parts of the borough, which had previously been largely undeveloped. Staten Island's population doubled from about 221,000 in 1960 to about 443,000 in 2000.
By 1870, stone and brick had become firmly established as the building materials of choice, as the construction of wood-frame houses had been greatly limited in the aftermath of theGreat Fire of 1835.[9][10] Unlike Paris, which for centuries was built from its ownlimestone bedrock, New York has always drawn its building stone from a network of quarries, sometimes quite distant, which is evident in the variety of textures and hues of stone seen in the city's buildings. In the days before rail, stones were floated down theHudson River or along the Atlantic Seaboard from pits inNew England. While trains brought marble from Vermont and granite from Minnesota, it wasConnecticut brownstone that was so popular in the construction of New York's row homes in the late 19th century that the termbrownstone became synonymous withrow house.
Beginning in the 1950s, public housing projects dramatically changed the city's appearance. New, large scale (frequently high-rise) residential complexes replaced older communities, at times removing artifacts and landmarks that would now be considered of historic value. During this period, many of these new projects were built in an effort towardsurban renewal championed by the famed urban plannerRobert Moses. The resulting housing projects have suffered from inconsistent funding, poor maintenance, and high crime, prompting many to consider these projects a failure.
A distinctive feature of residential (and many commercial) buildings in New York City is the presence of wooden roof-mountedwater towers, which were required on all buildings higher than six stories by city ordinance in the 19th century because the municipal water pipes could not withstand the extraordinarily high pressure necessary to deliver water to the top stories of high-rise buildings.[13]
New York City is located on one of the world's largest natural harbors.[75] The boroughs ofManhattan andStaten Island are their own islands, whileQueens andBrooklyn are located at the west-end of the largerLong Island. This precipitates a need for an extensive infrastructure of bridges and tunnels. Nearly all of the city's major bridges and several of its tunnels, have broken or set records. For example, theHolland Tunnel was the world's first vehicular tunnel when it opened in 1927.[76]
TheQueensboro Bridge is an important piece ofcantilever architecture. The towers of theBrooklyn Bridge are built of limestone, granite, and Rosendale cement. Their architectural style is neo-Gothic, with characteristic pointed arches above the passageways through the stone towers. This bridge was also the longest suspension bridge in the world from its opening until 1903, and the first steel-wire suspension bridge. TheManhattan Bridge,Throgs Neck Bridge,Triborough Bridge, andVerrazzano-Narrows Bridge are all examples ofStructural Expressionism.[77][78]
Formulated in theCommissioners' Plan of 1811, New York adopted a visionary proposal to develop Manhattan north of14th Street with a regularstreet grid. The economic logic underlying the plan, which called for twelve numbered avenues running north and south, and 155 orthogonal cross streets, was that the grid's regularity would provide an efficient means to develop new real estate property.[79]Frederick Law Olmsted, the designer ofCentral Park, disapproved.[80]
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{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)Our mission is to dramatically enhance the quality of life in the New York City metropolitan area by rebuilding the original Pennsylvania Station as the centerpiece of a new world-class transportation network for the entire region.
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