Singer Building
The Singer Building was an office building and early skyscraper at the northwestern corner of Liberty Street and Broadway in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan, New York City, United States. Serving as the headquarters of the Singer Manufacturing Company, it was commissioned by the company's leader Frederick Gilbert Bourne and designed by architect Ernest Flagg in multiple phases from 1897 to 1908. The building's architecture contained elements of the Beaux-Arts and French Second Empire styles.
The building was composed of four distinct sections. The original 10-story Singer Building at 149 Broadway was erected between 1897 and 1898, and the adjoining 14-story Bourne Building on Liberty Street was built from 1898 to 1899. In the first decade of the 20th century, the two buildings were expanded to form the 14-story base of the Singer Tower, which rose another 27 stories. The facade was made of brick, stone, and terracotta. A dome with a lantern capped the tower. The foundation of the tower was excavated using caissons; the building's base rested on shallower foundations. The Singer Building used a steel frame, though load-bearing walls initially supported the original structure before modification. When completed, the 41-story building had a marble-clad entrance lobby, 16 elevators, of office space, and an observation deck.
With a roof height of, the Singer Tower surpassed Philadelphia City Hall to become the tallest building in the world from 1908 to 1909, when it was superseded by the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Tower. The base occupied the building's entire land lot; the tower's floors took up just one-sixth of that area. Despite being regarded as a city icon, the Singer Building was razed between 1967 and 1969 to make way for One Liberty Plaza, which had several times more office space than the Singer Tower. At the time of its destruction, the Singer Building was the tallest building ever to be demolished by its owners, a distinction it held until 270 Park Avenue was demolished in 2019.
Architecture
The Singer Building was at the northwest corner of Liberty Street and Broadway in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan, abutting the City Investing Building to the north. The land lot was nearly rectangular, though slightly skewed due to the layout of the street grid, and measured on Broadway by on Liberty Street. The structure, as completed in 1908, was composed of four distinct sections: the original Singer and Bourne buildings, an annex next to both buildings, and the tower. All of these structures were designed by Ernest Flagg for Frederick Bourne, who led the Singer Manufacturing Company.The structure was designed with elements of the Beaux-Arts style and the French Second Empire style. American architect George W. Conable prepared plans and working drawings. An architectural office with an engineering department led by Otto F. Semsch, and mechanical equipment engineer consultants Charles G. Armstrong and steel engineers Boller & Hodge, oversaw construction. Over 40 other companies were involved in the construction process, and nearly 100 construction contracts were awarded. There were no general contractors on the project; the owners communicated directly with the suppliers responsible for each contract.
When the tower addition was completed in 1908, its roof was high. The tower was topped by a flagpole, giving it a ground-to-pinnacle height of. The Singer Building was the world's tallest building at the time of its completion and the world's tallest building to be destroyed upon its demolition. Contemporary sources at the time of the building's construction described the "Singer Tower" as referring only to the building's tower portion, rather than its base. The "Singer Building" name originally referred only to a portion of the base, although by the mid–20th century it referred to the entire structure.
Form
The base of the building filled the entire lot. It was composed of the 10-story original structure and the 14-story annex known as the Bourne Building. The original Singer Building, on the southeastern portion of the lot, had a frontage of on Broadway and on Liberty Street. The Bourne Building, on the southwestern portion, was 58 feet deep and had a frontage of approximately on Liberty Street. From 1906 to 1907, the original Singer Building was extended northward and the Bourne Building was extended westward. The original Singer and Bourne buildings were about tall.The 41-story tower above the northwest corner of the base was square in plan, with floor dimensions of. When the dome and lantern at the tower's pinnacle were included, the Singer Tower was the equivalent of a 47-story building. The tower was set back behind the base's frontage on Broadway, and it filled only one-sixth of the total lot area. There was a gap of between the Singer Building's tower and the City Investing Building immediately to the north, which was built during the same time. The columns required to support the Singer Tower would have been too large to place atop the original Singer Building, so they were instead built in the northern portion of the lot. The tower had a height-to-width ratio of 7:1, setting a record at the time of its completion.
Facade
The facade was made of red brick, light-colored stone, and terracotta. Some of terracotta was used for both the facade and the interior partitions. About five million bricks were used in the entire project, including one million in the tower section. About of North River bluestone was also used, as was of limestone, mainly above the 33rd floor. The contractors for these materials included John B. Rose Company for the brick; Martin P. Lodge for the bluestone; J. J. Spurr & Sons for the limestone; and New Jersey Terra Cotta for the terracotta.For decorative elements, of sheet copper was used. Whale Creek Iron Works provided ornamental iron while Jno. Williams Inc. provided the ornamental bronze. There were of glass in the entire building, about 10percent of which was interior glass. There was extensive ornamentation throughout the building, including eight arches atop the tower's exterior.
Base
The original Singer Building was faced with stone and brick. When it was built, the plans called for the lowest two stories to be clad with stone. The third story contained a balcony extending along both facades. The four following stories were faced with brick and contained windows with stone surrounds. The seventh story was clad with stone and had a balcony doubling as a cornice, while the facade on the eighth story was made of brick. The original top stories comprised a decorative copper-and-slate roof with dormers and stone chimneys. The main entrance was on Liberty Street and had sculptures and ornament. The Bourne Building was faced with Indiana limestone on its lowest two stories and red brick above. The base had ironwork ornamentation in their mullions and window railings.After the 1906–1907 modifications, the main entrance faced Broadway on the eastern facade. This main entrance had a three-story-tall semicircular arch. A two-story architrave was beneath the arch, with an engraved cartouche reading "Singer" at the center. The upper part of the arch had a fanlight with five vertical mullions, below which was a bronze grille measuring wide and tall.
As a result of the modifications, the first three stories were faced with rusticated North River bluestone. Four stories were added between the seventh floor and the three-story roof during that time, and the Broadway facade was expanded from two bays to five. With the modifications, the vertical bays were separated with vertical strips from the fourth to the 10th floors, with pediments above the sixth-floor windows. The 11th and 12th floors of the modified base consisted of two rows of small windows, with the 11th-floor windows spaced between brackets supporting a 12th-floor iron balcony. The top two stories contained dormer windows projecting from the mansard roof. The sloped portions of the roof were clad with slate shingles, while glazed roof tiles covered the flat portion.
Tower
The Singer Tower's facade was made of brick masonry ranging in thickness from at the top to at the base. The Singer Tower contained five bays on each side, each measuring wide. Construction plans show that there were 36 windows on each floor. The faces of the tower were made of dark red brick, except for decorative elements such as trimmings, copings, courses, and windowsills, which were made of North River bluestone. On each side, vertical limestone piers separated the outermost bays from the three center bays, dividing the facade into three vertical sections. The outermost bays were illuminated by small windows. The corners of the tower were made of solid masonry, which concealed the diagonal steel bracing inside. The tower had cast-iron balconies and fascias, as well as wrought-iron jambs and mullions. The use of iron balconies, as well as the large amount of glass in the facade, was inspired by the design of the Little Singer Building at 561 Broadway, built in 1904.Horizontal belt courses wrapped around the tower above the 17th, 18th, 23rd, 24th, 29th, and 30th stories, while there were terracotta balconies on each side at the 18th, 24th, and 30th stories. Iron balconies also projected from the building at intervals of seven stories. Near the top of the tower, the vertical stone bands on each side formed a tall arch evocative of the tower's dome. On the 36th floor, an ornamental balcony cantilevered about outward on each side; it was supported by brackets on the 35th floor. Stone architraves surrounded the corner windows of the 36th and 37th stories, while ornate stone arches framed the center bays on the 36th through 38th stories. There were oval windows on each corner at the 38th floor. Above that level, a heavy stone cornice ran around the corners and above the arches.
The top of the tower contained a dome covering the top three stories, capped by a lantern that measures across at its base and stretches tall. The dome's roof was made of slate, while the roof ornamentation, dormers, and lantern were made of copper sheeting. In its final years, the dome's trapezoidal skylights were replaced with dormer windows. The top of the lantern was above ground level, and a steel flagpole rose above the lantern, bringing the height of the Singer Tower to when measured from ground to tip. The flagpole was actually long, but the base of the flagpole was embedded into the tower. The entire exterior was lit at night by 1,600 incandescent lamps and thirty projectors, which were visible at distances of up to.