The 'Singer Building' at
Liberty Street and
Broadway in
Manhattan, New York was an office building completed in
1908 as the headquarters of the
Singer Manufacturing Company.
The building's architect,
Ernest Flagg, was a supporter of height limitations and restrictive zoning, and showed his solution to tall building crowding with the Singer's set-back design. The 12-story base of the building filled an entire blockfront, while the tower above was very narrow.
At 612
ft (187
m) above grade, the Singer Building was the
tallest building in the world from its completion until the completion in 1909 of the
Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Tower on
Madison Avenue in Manhattan.
The building was demolished in 1968 as it was functionally obsolete and to make way for the U.S. Steel Building (now known as One Liberty Plaza). The tower floors were squares only 65 ft (20 m) on a side. It remained the tallest occupied building ever destroyed until the
September 11, 2001 collapse of the nearby
World Trade Center. It is still currently the tallest building ever legitimately demolished. It is also thought to have been the tallest free-standing structure ever demolished until the destruction of the
Avala TV Tower on
April 29,
1999.
Today
One Liberty Plaza occupies the site.
External links
★
Old postcard view of the Singer Building on bc.edu
★