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The Woolworth Building is a residential building and early skyscraper at 233 Broadway in the Tribeca neighborhood of Lower Manhattan in New York City, United States. Designed by Cass Gilbert, it was the tallest building in the world from 1913 to 1930, with a height of 792 feet (241 m).
- November 4, 1910; 112 years ago
- Witkoff Group, Cammeby's International (bottom 30 floors), KC Properties (top 30 floors)
- 55
Feb 17, 2014 · Completed in 1913 in New York, United States. The Woolworth Building, an innovative and elegant early skyscraper completed in 1913, endures today as an iconic form on the New York City skyline. A...
The Woolworth Building is Cass Gilbert's best-known tall building and one of the most famous skyscrapers in the United States. When it was completed in 1913, it was the tallest building in the world and a potent symbol of the F. W. Woolworth Company. The 60-story tower with its terra-cotta cladding and neo-Gothic ornament helped to transform ...
- World’s Tallest
- Gargoyles
Gilbert utilized the most advanced steel-frame construction techniques of the time allowing the Woolworth to soar 57 stories to 792 feet—the world’s tallest building until 1930.
In contrast to the relative horizontality of Chicago skyscrapers and the sharp divisions between base and tower of earlier New York skyscrapers like the Singer Building (1908), every aspect of the Woolworth’s composition and decoration is oriented up, creating a continuous vertical thrust.
The building’s decorative neo-Gothic program only adds to this sense of monumentality. On the exterior, ornate sculptural arches, finials, and gargoyles over-scaled enough to be read from street-level, refer directly to European medieval architecture, and draw the eye towards the heavens in the same manner as a High Gothic cathedral.
Inside the building’s barrel-vaulted lobby, walls covered with lavish mosaics and stained glass allude to even earlier examples of Christian art and architecture. Yet, as contemporary critics noted, the Woolworth was a tribute not to religion, but to capitalism.
The form of the New York skyscraper would soon shift again with a 1916 zoning law. This regulation used a building's "footprint" to ensure that sunlight and breezes would reach the city’s narrow streets far below. The "1916 Setback Law" led to the “wedding cake” massing and streamlined style of the Chrysler Building (1930) and Rockefeller Center’s RCA Building (1933), among many others. Just as with Woolworth, skyscrapers continue to serve as important symbols for the corporations that commissioned them.
Essay by Dr. Margaret Herman
Additional Resources:
New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission Designation Report (PDF)
Dec 6, 2023 · Woolworth Building under construction, 1912 (photo: Bain News Service , Library of Congress) Gilbert utilized the most advanced steel-frame construction techniques of the time allowing the Woolworth to sound 57 stories to 792 feet — the world’s tallest building until 1930. In contrast to the relative horizontality of Chicago skyscrapers and ...
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Cass Gilbert (November 24, 1859 – May 17, 1934) was an American architect. An early proponent of skyscrapers, his works include the Woolworth Building, the United States Supreme Court building, the state capitols of Minnesota, Arkansas, and West Virginia, the Detroit Public Library, the Saint Louis Art Museum and Public Library.
Jan 31, 2001 · Gilbert was not being falsely modest: When the Woolworth Building was finished in 1913, it was the tallest building in the world, widely acclaimed for the beauty of its Gothic detail and the grace ...
