#### **prompt:** Tell me the history or the Singer Building on New York City. Who built it? How was it built? What happened in the building? How was it demolished? What replaced it? What was there before it was built? Please cite your references and give biographical details of any people involved, company histories, and interesting stories. This should read like well-researched magazine article series, with plenty of side journeys. #### **article:** The Singer Building in Lower Manhattan began as a modest headquarters for a sewing machine company in the 1890s and grew into the world’s tallest office building by 1908, only to be demolished in the 1960s and replaced by the black steel slab of One Liberty Plaza. Its story threads together architectural experimentation, corporate ambition, and the birth of New York’s preservation movement.[wikipedia+4](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singer_Building)​youtube​ ## Before the Singer era The northwest corner of Broadway and Liberty Street, just south of Wall Street, was fully built up by the late 19th century with low‑rise commercial and office buildings typical of the post–Civil War Financial District. These were narrow, mid‑block structures on small lots that reflected an older pattern of incremental development rather than large unified sites. As the Singer Manufacturing Company grew and needed more space, it began quietly buying up these parcels to consolidate the block front, a common tactic of ambitious corporations in turn‑of‑the‑century New York.[nypap+2](https://www.nypap.org/preservation-history/singer-building/)​ In 1896–1897 Singer commissioned a 10‑story headquarters building at 149 Broadway from the architect Ernest Flagg, replacing some of those earlier low‑rise structures. Within a few years the company also added the adjoining Bourne Building on Liberty Street, continuing the process of erasing the older, smaller properties and turning the corner into a single corporate enclave.[hiddenarchitecture+2](https://hiddenarchitecture.net/singer-building/)​ ## Singer and its president The building’s client, the Singer Manufacturing Company (later Singer Sewing Machine Company), had grown from Isaac Merritt Singer’s mid‑19th‑century sewing machine patents into a global industrial powerhouse by 1900. Singer pioneered installment purchasing and door‑to‑door sales, selling machines across Europe, Russia, and Latin America, and the firm wanted a headquarters that projected its international reach.[blissfrombygonedays+3](https://www.blissfrombygonedays.com/post/manhattan-s-lost-gem-the-singer-building)​ Frederick Gilbert Bourne, the company’s dynamic president from the 1880s into the early 20th century, drove this expansion and personally championed the new tower. Bourne had risen from clerk to chief executive and cultivated a flamboyant image, commissioning grand projects such as Singer Castle in the Thousand Islands and the Singer Building in Manhattan as physical symbols of the firm’s success.[wikipedia+1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singer_Building)​ ## Ernest Flagg, reluctant skyscraper architect Ernest Flagg, the architect, had trained at the École des Beaux‑Arts in Paris and became known for classically ordered, highly detailed designs. Ironically, Flagg was an outspoken critic of the new generation of tall commercial buildings, arguing that sheer slab‑sided towers darkened streets and choked cities, yet he accepted Singer’s commission and used it to demonstrate how a very tall building might still be graceful and humane.[onverticality+2](https://www.onverticality.com/blog/singer-and-nostalgia)​ Flagg advocated setbacks, slender towers, and abundant light and air, ideas he later promoted as reforms to New York’s building regulations and that anticipated the city’s 1916 Zoning Resolution. His work on the Singer Building, with its relatively narrow shaft rising from a broader base and its exuberant crown, embodied those principles and made the tower a touchstone for debates about vertical growth.[hiddenarchitecture+2](https://hiddenarchitecture.net/singer-building/)​ ## The first Singer Building and Bourne Building The initial 10‑story Singer Building, completed around 1897–1898, was a red brick and stone structure with Beaux‑Arts detailing and a mansard roof, echoing Parisian office blocks and giving the firm a dignified but not yet spectacular presence on Broadway. The lower floors housed banking and rental offices, while Singer’s own executive and administrative offices occupied the upper stories, literally putting the company hierarchy above its tenants.[nypap+1](https://www.nypap.org/preservation-history/singer-building/)​ Next came the Bourne Building, a 14‑story structure on Liberty Street completed by 1899 and named for the company president. Together, these adjoining buildings formed a kind of L‑shaped complex that could be expanded upward and outward as Singer’s needs grew, which is exactly what occurred in the first years of the new century.[blissfrombygonedays+2](https://www.blissfrombygonedays.com/post/manhattan-s-lost-gem-the-singer-building)​ ## From mid‑rise to world’s tallest By the early 1900s Singer wanted something more dramatic, and Flagg was brought back to design a tower that would wrap around and rise above the existing buildings. The project proceeded in phases: the earlier Singer and Bourne structures were extended and tied together to make a 14‑story base, and above that base a slender 27‑story tower rose to create a 41‑ to 47‑story composition (contemporary counts vary based on how floors were numbered).[wikipedia+3](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singer_Building)​ When completed in 1908, the Singer Building reached about 612 feet and briefly held the title of world’s tallest office building, surpassing the nearby Park Row Building and only soon to be overtaken by the Metropolitan Life tower. Its completion symbolized both Singer’s corporate dominance and New York’s status as the capital of the skyscraper age.youtube​[onverticality+2](https://www.onverticality.com/blog/singer-and-nostalgia)​ ## How it was engineered The Singer Tower relied on two late‑19th‑century technologies that made true skyscrapers possible: the steel frame and the modern elevator. The building’s skeleton consisted of riveted steel columns and beams, which carried the loads separate from the masonry cladding, allowing the walls to be relatively thin and the tower to rise far above what traditional load‑bearing masonry could support.[herbertinter+2](https://www.herbertinter.com/resources/what-is-steel-frame-construction-techniques-advantages-and-considerations.html)​ Because the site sat over deep, difficult Manhattan soils, the tower used pneumatic caisson foundations, essentially large inverted boxes sunk through soft ground to bedrock using compressed air while workers excavated below and concrete piers were cast above. This method, then still relatively new for tall office buildings, enabled engineers to carry the concentrated weight of the tower shaft safely to solid rock—a demanding and hazardous process that exposed workers to the risks of compressed‑air disease (“the bends”).[oldstructures+2](https://oldstructures.com/2021/12/15/singer-caissons/)​ ## The tower’s architecture and interior Flagg’s design combined Beaux‑Arts planning with French Second Empire and picturesque tower forms: a broad, dignified base along Broadway and Liberty Street, a narrow central shaft set back from the street walls, and an ornate lantern‑like crown with copper‑clad roofs and an illuminated beacon. The façades featured rich red brick, limestone, and elaborate terracotta ornament, including pilasters, sculpted spandrels, and dormered roofs, making the building as much a piece of civic sculpture as a speculative office block.[nypap+2](https://www.nypap.org/preservation-history/singer-building/)​ Inside, Singer outfitted its own floors with high‑quality woodwork, marble, and decorative metal, while rentable offices were more utilitarian but benefited from the tower’s light and views. Elevators whisked visitors up through the base to the tower stories, whose relatively small floor plates—only a few thousand square feet—created intimate suites with panoramic vistas over the harbor, Brooklyn, and the rising skyline of Midtown.[untappedcities+2](https://www.untappedcities.com/cities-101-how-do-you-demolish-a-skyscraper/)​ ## Tenants and everyday life The Singer Building served as Singer’s global headquarters, housing executive offices, corporate boards, and departments that coordinated the firm’s far‑flung factories and sales networks. Below the company’s own floors, the base and lower tower levels were rented out to banks, law firms, brokers, and other service tenants keen to associate themselves with a prestigious address at Broadway and Liberty.[onverticality+2](https://www.onverticality.com/blog/singer-and-nostalgia)​ News accounts and later reminiscences describe the tower as a popular destination for out‑of‑town visitors, who rode the elevators to upper floors or roof observatories to survey New York’s harbor and downtown canyons, much as visitors flocked to later icons like the Empire State Building. The building’s illuminated crown and beacon also made it a nighttime landmark visible to ships entering the harbor, a symbolic lighthouse of corporate modernity.[blissfrombygonedays+3](https://www.blissfrombygonedays.com/post/manhattan-s-lost-gem-the-singer-building)​ ## Flagg’s reform ideas and zoning Flagg used the Singer commission to argue for new rules governing tall buildings, insisting that towers should occupy only a portion of their sites and rise from lower bases so that streets would still receive light and air. He wrote essays and proposed codes that would limit tower bulk and encourage setbacks, anticipating many aspects of New York’s pioneering 1916 zoning law, even if the city did not adopt his proposals verbatim.[hiddenarchitecture+1](https://hiddenarchitecture.net/singer-building/)​ In this sense the Singer Building was both a product of unregulated skyscraper competition and a prototype for a more regulated, sculpted skyline. Later setback skyscrapers, such as the Chrysler and Empire State Buildings, can be seen as distant descendants of the model Flagg demonstrated at Broadway and Liberty.[onverticality+2](https://www.onverticality.com/blog/singer-and-nostalgia)​ ## Decline and obsolescence By the mid‑20th century the Singer Building’s virtues had become liabilities in the eyes of large corporate tenants. The tower portion offered dramatic views but tiny floors of roughly 4,200 square feet, far less than the broad, efficient plates demanded by modern office users, making it hard to lease profitably.[untappedcities+2](https://www.untappedcities.com/cities-101-how-do-you-demolish-a-skyscraper/)​ After decades downtown, the Singer Sewing Machine Corporation decided to relocate in the early 1960s, judging the building outdated compared with newer air‑conditioned towers with modern systems and open layouts. Once the anchor occupant left, the property became a target for redevelopment at a time when Lower Manhattan land values were rising in response to projects like the World Trade Center.youtube​[untappedcities+2](https://www.untappedcities.com/cities-101-how-do-you-demolish-a-skyscraper/)​ ## Sale to U.S. Steel and the development scheme In 1964 United States Steel Corporation purchased the Singer Building and the adjoining City Investing Building, which occupied a large part of the same block. U.S. Steel envisioned a single, much larger, modern headquarters tower spanning the combined site, with deep floor plates and up‑to‑date mechanical systems—an approach that made economic sense but spelled doom for the older structures.youtube​[untappedcities+2](https://www.untappedcities.com/cities-101-how-do-you-demolish-a-skyscraper/)​ Efforts in the early 1960s to relocate the New York Stock Exchange to the site had failed, opening the door for U.S. Steel’s plan. With no landmark protection in place yet for commercial skyscrapers and with city officials eager to keep major corporations downtown, there were few legal obstacles to demolishing even a former “world’s tallest” building.[villagepreservation+1](https://www.villagepreservation.org/2025/08/12/a-vanished-skyscraper-and-the-rise-of-historic-preservation/)​youtube​ ## Protests and the preservation context Architectural critics, preservationists, and magazines such as Architectural Forum protested the proposed demolition, arguing that the Singer Building was an irreplaceable work of Beaux‑Arts skyscraper design and a symbol of New York’s vertical heritage. Their campaign was part of a broader wave of outrage over the loss of notable structures in the 1960s, including Pennsylvania Station and several grand theaters and hotels.youtube​[villagepreservation+2](https://www.villagepreservation.org/2025/08/12/a-vanished-skyscraper-and-the-rise-of-historic-preservation/)​ Although the protests did not save the building, its destruction, along with that of other icons, helped fuel the emerging historic preservation movement and sharpen the case for a stronger landmarks law and for extending protection to significant commercial buildings, not just churches and townhouses. Later commentators have pointed to the Singer’s loss as one reason New Yorkers became more determined to prevent similar disappearances of major skyscrapers.[villagepreservation+2](https://www.villagepreservation.org/2025/08/12/a-vanished-skyscraper-and-the-rise-of-historic-preservation/)​ ## How the demolition was done Demolition of the Singer Building began in 1967 and was completed in 1968, making it at that time the tallest building ever intentionally demolished. Instead of using explosives, contractors dismantled the structure in a controlled, top‑down process, removing the tower’s steel frame, floors, and ornate cladding floor by floor to protect surrounding streets and buildings.[linkedin+3](https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/day-history-grandeur-demise-singer-building-reuben-petty-j3fxe)​youtube​ The slender tower was taken apart first, with cranes and derricks lifting down beams and columns after workers cut connections and stripped interior finishes, followed by the more massive base once the upper stories were gone. The operation was slow and labor‑intensive—both a technical feat in urban demolition and a powerful visual symbol of mid‑century urban renewal, as passersby watched a once‑dominant landmark vanish piece by piece.[bbc+2](https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-20535821)​youtube​ ## Replacement: One Liberty Plaza The site ultimately gave way to One Liberty Plaza, originally known as the U.S. Steel Building, a 54‑story, dark steel‑and‑glass International Style tower completed in the early 1970s. With floor plates of roughly 37,000 square feet, the new building provided nearly an order of magnitude more usable space per level than the Singer tower floors, aligning perfectly with the era’s demand for large, flexible corporate offices.[untappedcities+1](https://www.untappedcities.com/cities-101-how-do-you-demolish-a-skyscraper/)​youtube​ One Liberty Plaza’s austere, planar façades and massive bulk stand in marked contrast to the picturesque verticality and ornament of the Singer Building, embodying a shift from individually expressive corporate monuments to more standardized modernist slabs. The tower became part of the broader ensemble of superblocks and large modern buildings that reshaped Lower Manhattan around the World Trade Center in the late 20th century.[villagepreservation+2](https://www.villagepreservation.org/2025/08/12/a-vanished-skyscraper-and-the-rise-of-historic-preservation/)​youtube​ ## Legacy and nostalgia Although it stood for only about six decades, the Singer Building retains a strong grip on architectural memory as a “lost gem” of Manhattan’s early skyscraper era. Photographs and drawings circulate widely in books and online, and the building often appears in discussions of preservation “what‑ifs,” with commentators speculating that, had it survived into the landmark era or been converted to residential use, it would likely be cherished today.[reddit+3](https://www.reddit.com/r/ArchitecturalRevival/comments/pekbfc/the_singer_building_a_beauxarts_masterpiece_of_a/)​ Its combination of corporate ambition, technically advanced construction, idiosyncratic beauty, and ultimately sacrificial demolition has made the Singer Building a symbol of both the triumphs and costs of New York’s continual reinvention. In the space where Flagg’s ornate tower once rose, One Liberty Plaza now stands as a reminder of that trade‑off between past and present that every growing city must confront.[wikipedia+4](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singer_Building)​youtube​ 1. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singer_Building](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singer_Building) 2. [https://www.nypap.org/preservation-history/singer-building/](https://www.nypap.org/preservation-history/singer-building/) 3. [https://www.villagepreservation.org/2025/08/12/a-vanished-skyscraper-and-the-rise-of-historic-preservation/](https://www.villagepreservation.org/2025/08/12/a-vanished-skyscraper-and-the-rise-of-historic-preservation/) 4. [https://www.onverticality.com/blog/singer-and-nostalgia](https://www.onverticality.com/blog/singer-and-nostalgia) 5. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AChMpsigaR4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AChMpsigaR4) 6. [https://www.untappedcities.com/cities-101-how-do-you-demolish-a-skyscraper/](https://www.untappedcities.com/cities-101-how-do-you-demolish-a-skyscraper/) 7. [https://www.blissfrombygonedays.com/post/manhattan-s-lost-gem-the-singer-building](https://www.blissfrombygonedays.com/post/manhattan-s-lost-gem-the-singer-building) 8. [https://hiddenarchitecture.net/singer-building/](https://hiddenarchitecture.net/singer-building/) 9. [https://www.herbertinter.com/resources/what-is-steel-frame-construction-techniques-advantages-and-considerations.html](https://www.herbertinter.com/resources/what-is-steel-frame-construction-techniques-advantages-and-considerations.html) 10. [https://oldstructures.com/2021/12/15/singer-caissons/](https://oldstructures.com/2021/12/15/singer-caissons/) 11. [https://trdsf.com/blogs/news/caissons-construction-explained](https://trdsf.com/blogs/news/caissons-construction-explained) 12. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0R8cRpdbR0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0R8cRpdbR0) 13. [https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/day-history-grandeur-demise-singer-building-reuben-petty-j3fxe](https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/day-history-grandeur-demise-singer-building-reuben-petty-j3fxe) 14. [https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-20535821](https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-20535821) 15. [https://www.reddit.com/r/ArchitecturalRevival/comments/pekbfc/the_singer_building_a_beauxarts_masterpiece_of_a/](https://www.reddit.com/r/ArchitecturalRevival/comments/pekbfc/the_singer_building_a_beauxarts_masterpiece_of_a/) 16. [https://www.facebook.com/groups/archeologyandcivilizations/posts/7395896707170456/](https://www.facebook.com/groups/archeologyandcivilizations/posts/7395896707170456/) 17. [https://safetyculture.com/topics/caisson-construction](https://safetyculture.com/topics/caisson-construction) 18. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amwSandzS-Y](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amwSandzS-Y) 19. [https://www.instagram.com/reel/DPW3KehiakQ/?hl=en](https://www.instagram.com/reel/DPW3KehiakQ/?hl=en) 20. [https://www.facebook.com/groups/Italian.liberty/posts/7570757866309568/](https://www.facebook.com/groups/Italian.liberty/posts/7570757866309568/) ---- prompt: Compare Singer Building to other early NYC skyscrapers article: The Singer Building was one of a small group of “record‑breaking” early New York skyscrapers that turned steel‑frame office towers into corporate monuments, but it was also the most idiosyncratic and the least efficient, which helps explain both its fame and its early demise. Compared with peers like the Park Row, Flatiron, Metropolitan Life, and Woolworth buildings, it was taller and more flamboyant than the first generation, but quickly overshadowed by larger, more rational towers that offered better floor space and remained profitable.[buildingtheskyline+3](https://buildingtheskyline.org/nyc-record-breaking-skyscrapers/)​ ## Heights and dates In the parade of “world’s tallest” New York towers, Singer sat exactly between the 1890s pioneers and the great pre‑war giants. Park Row (1899) reached about 391 feet and 30 stories, making it the tallest office building of its day; the Singer Building (1908) jumped to roughly 612 feet and about 41–47 stories, then Metropolitan Life Tower (1909) climbed to around 700 feet and 50 stories, and the Woolworth Building (1913) pushed to about 792 feet and 55–60 stories. The Flatiron, completed in 1902 at only 22 stories, was never the tallest, but it became one of the most recognizable silhouettes of early skyscraper New York.[dezeen+7](https://www.dezeen.com/2021/09/08/worlds-tallest-skyscrapers-911-anniversary/)​ ## Architecture and style Architecturally, Singer was a Beaux‑Arts skyscraper with a 14‑story base and an extremely slender 27‑story tower, capped by a richly modeled mansard and lantern; critics liked to liken it to an overdressed Parisian dowager in a skyline ball. Park Row and Manhattan Life before it used a more straightforward palazzo‑type massing, while Metropolitan Life was essentially a scaled‑up Venetian campanile and the Woolworth Building a Gothic “Cathedral of Commerce,” all rooted in historical styles but with different imagery; the Flatiron, by contrast, used a simple, sharply triangular mass with classical detail applied more sparingly. Ernest Flagg’s Singer composition, with its broad base and recessed, narrow shaft, foreshadowed later zoning‑inspired setback towers, whereas Woolworth’s more unified, heavily verticalized mass set the pattern for many later Gothic‑influenced skyscrapers.[americanheritage+5](https://www.americanheritage.com/rise-skyscraper-and-fall-louis-sullivan)​ ## Structure and engineering All of these buildings relied on steel‑frame construction and deep foundations, but the details and ambitions differed. Singer, Metropolitan Life, and Woolworth represented what one historian calls the flowering of the all‑steel skeletal frame, with sophisticated wind‑bracing and pneumatic caisson foundations reaching bedrock to support unprecedented heights and relatively narrow footprints. The Flatiron’s frame, engineered by Purdy and Henderson and fabricated by American Bridge, was designed to withstand multiple times the expected wind loads and proved how a steel skeleton could safely support a tall, thin tower on a constricted, awkward site. Structurally, Singer’s dramatic height atop a small tower footprint made it more technically daring than Park Row, but Woolworth’s record‑fast steel erection and deep caisson work pushed the engineering art even further.[wikipedia+7](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flatiron_Building)​ ## Floor plates, use, and efficiency Where Singer notably lagged its peers was in floor efficiency and rentable area. Its tower floors were famously small—only a few thousand square feet—creating spectacular but inefficient aerie‑like offices, while Park Row, Metropolitan Life, and especially Woolworth were designed with broader, more flexible floor plates that better served big corporate tenants and allowed denser occupation. The Flatiron’s narrow footprint also produced idiosyncratic interior layouts, but its overall height and costs were lower, so the economic trade‑off was less severe than in Singer’s lofty but cramped tower stories. That imbalance between symbolic height and usable space is a key reason why Woolworth and Flatiron survived as valuable real estate, while Singer was judged obsolete and demolished in the 1960s.[wirednewyork+6](http://wirednewyork.com/skyscrapers/height/)​ ## Symbolism and legacy Symbolically, all these towers served as corporate billboards, but their reputations evolved differently. Singer briefly held the “world’s tallest” title and embodied the global reach of Singer Sewing Machine, yet it disappeared just as preservation consciousness was rising, becoming a kind of martyr in the story of New York’s historic skyscrapers; Woolworth, by contrast, retained its nickname as the Cathedral of Commerce and now stands as one of the best‑known survivors of the early skyscraper age. Flatiron never chased height records, but its knife‑edge form and early adoption of steel framing made it a lasting icon of turn‑of‑the‑century modernity. Today, Singer’s combination of exuberant Beaux‑Arts dress, technically advanced but inefficient tower, and eventual demolition makes it the outlier in the group—the most romantic and nostalgic of New York’s early record‑breaking skyscrapers, precisely because it no longer stands among them.[skyscraper+8](https://skyscraper.org/ten-tops/)​ ## Singer vs. key contemporaries |Building|Completion year|Approx. height / stories|Client / function|Stylistic image|Fate and legacy| |---|---|---|---|---|---| |Park Row Building|1899|~391 ft, 30 stories [wirednewyork](http://wirednewyork.com/skyscrapers/height/)​|Speculative offices [wirednewyork+1](http://wirednewyork.com/skyscrapers/height/)​|Early palazzo‑type skyscraper [visual-arts-cork+1](http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/architecture/skyscraper.htm)​|Survives; early height pioneer [wikipedia+1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_buildings_in_New_York_City)​| |Flatiron Building|1902|22 stories [wikipedia+1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flatiron_Building)​|General offices [wikipedia+1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flatiron_Building)​|Triangular Beaux‑Arts massing [wikipedia+1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flatiron_Building)​|Survives as iconic early tower [britannica](https://www.britannica.com/topic/Flatiron-Building)​| |Singer Building|1908|~612 ft, 41–47 stories [buildingtheskyline+2](https://buildingtheskyline.org/nyc-record-breaking-skyscrapers/)​|Singer Sewing Machine HQ, offices [buildingtheskyline+1](https://buildingtheskyline.org/nyc-record-breaking-skyscrapers/)​|Slender Beaux‑Arts tower with lantern [dezeen+2](https://www.dezeen.com/2021/09/08/worlds-tallest-skyscrapers-911-anniversary/)​|Demolished 1967–68; preservation cause célèbre [buildingtheskyline+1](https://buildingtheskyline.org/nyc-record-breaking-skyscrapers/)​| |Metropolitan Life Tower|1909|~700 ft, 50 stories [buildingtheskyline+3](https://buildingtheskyline.org/nyc-record-breaking-skyscrapers/)​|MetLife corporate tower [buildingtheskyline+1](https://buildingtheskyline.org/nyc-record-breaking-skyscrapers/)​|Overscaled Venetian campanile [dezeen+1](https://www.dezeen.com/2021/09/08/worlds-tallest-skyscrapers-911-anniversary/)​|Survives; former world’s tallest [dezeen+1](https://www.dezeen.com/2021/09/08/worlds-tallest-skyscrapers-911-anniversary/)​| |Woolworth Building|1913|~792 ft, 55–60 stories [wirednewyork+2](http://wirednewyork.com/skyscrapers/height/)​|F. W. Woolworth offices [buildingtheskyline+2](https://buildingtheskyline.org/nyc-record-breaking-skyscrapers/)​|Gothic “Cathedral of Commerce” [wikipedia+2](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_skyscrapers)​|Survives; major early skyscraper landmark [skyscraper+1](https://skyscraper.org/ten-tops/)​| 1. [https://buildingtheskyline.org/nyc-record-breaking-skyscrapers/](https://buildingtheskyline.org/nyc-record-breaking-skyscrapers/) 2. [https://www.dezeen.com/2021/09/08/worlds-tallest-skyscrapers-911-anniversary/](https://www.dezeen.com/2021/09/08/worlds-tallest-skyscrapers-911-anniversary/) 3. [http://wirednewyork.com/skyscrapers/height/](http://wirednewyork.com/skyscrapers/height/) 4. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_skyscrapers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_skyscrapers) 5. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flatiron_Building](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flatiron_Building) 6. [https://skyscraper.org/ten-tops/](https://skyscraper.org/ten-tops/) 7. [https://www.britannica.com/topic/Flatiron-Building](https://www.britannica.com/topic/Flatiron-Building) 8. [http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/architecture/skyscraper.htm](http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/architecture/skyscraper.htm) 9. [https://www.americanheritage.com/rise-skyscraper-and-fall-louis-sullivan](https://www.americanheritage.com/rise-skyscraper-and-fall-louis-sullivan) 10. [https://architecture-history.org/schools/SKYSCRAPER.html](https://architecture-history.org/schools/SKYSCRAPER.html) 11. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woolworth_Building](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woolworth_Building) 12. [https://old.skyscraper.org/EXHIBITIONS/WOOLWORTH/casec_foundation.php](https://old.skyscraper.org/EXHIBITIONS/WOOLWORTH/casec_foundation.php) 13. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_buildings_in_New_York_City](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_buildings_in_New_York_City) 14. [https://www.facebook.com/groups/TheLowerEastSide/posts/10160907630059719/](https://www.facebook.com/groups/TheLowerEastSide/posts/10160907630059719/) 15. [https://www.ctbuh.org/history/history-of-measuring-tall-buildings](https://www.ctbuh.org/history/history-of-measuring-tall-buildings) 16. [https://anthonywrobins.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/TopThisOne.pdf](https://anthonywrobins.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/TopThisOne.pdf) 17. [https://nkytribune.com/2025/08/our-rich-history-skyscrapers-in-the-ohio-valley-region-offer-a-treasure-trove-of-historic-and-modern-styles/](https://nkytribune.com/2025/08/our-rich-history-skyscrapers-in-the-ohio-valley-region-offer-a-treasure-trove-of-historic-and-modern-styles/) 18. [https://ericrossacademic.wordpress.com/tag/tallest-buildings-in-the-world/](https://ericrossacademic.wordpress.com/tag/tallest-buildings-in-the-world/) 19. [https://oldestlist.com/oldest-skyscrapers-in-the-world/](https://oldestlist.com/oldest-skyscrapers-in-the-world/) 20. [https://www.reddit.com/r/nycHistory/comments/1gqidmx/an_interesting_composite_showing_the_singer/](https://www.reddit.com/r/nycHistory/comments/1gqidmx/an_interesting_composite_showing_the_singer/)