BARBARALEE DIAMONSTEIN-SPIELVOGEL by old new york
Bold
Business
Two skyscrapers evoke
ambitious capitalism in
Manhattan during the
early 20th century
New York has always teemed with ambition, and this became particularly manifest in the early 20th century as
the city became the center of commerce
of the United States. Fueled by the
Industrial Revolution, skyscrapers blasted
up out of Manhattan’s ground to amazing
new heights, permanently defining
the city’s visual landscape. Two such
structures, the Woolworth Building and
the American Radiator Building, became
landmarks of the period’s big business
and architectural daring.
The Woolworth Building, which cost
$14 million (more than $289 million
today) to construct and was paid for in
cash, crowned the empire of F.W.
Woolworth Company, a major retail
chain of the day. To mark its grand
opening in 1913, President Woodrow
Wilson pressed a button from the White
House that lit all 80,000 of the epic
structure’s light bulbs simultaneously.
Such fanfare and marvel would define
the 792-foot skyscraper for years to
come. In the past decade, its top section
was to be converted into luxury housing,
including a five-story penthouse that
would have surely constituted one of the
A striking view of the Woolworth Building and its surrounding structures, circa 1913. This, the tallest tower in the
world until the Chrysler Building went up 16 years later in 1929, became the standard for the great skyscrapers of
New York to come.
most sought-after residences in
Manhattan. However, in 2007, the
building’s owners decided to abandon
this plan in favor of maintaining the
existing office spaces.
In 1923, 10 years after the Woolworth
Building opening, the 23-story American
Radiator Building went up. Conceived by
architect Raymond Hood as a neo-Gothic
affront to typical office buildings, the
structure’s unusual black and gold exterior
was meant to evoke flaming furnace
embers, and therefore the heat generated
by American Radiator products. Like the
Woolworth Building, Hood’s office tower
announced capitalism as a force pushing
the business world ever upward, while still
achieving universal beauty. Today, the
high-rise is occupied by the trendy Bryant
Park Hotel, with celebrated tenants such
as Leonardo DiCaprio.
