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Woolworth Building
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 Located
on
Broadway, between
Park Place at Barclay Street, the Woolworth Building,
known as the Cathedral of Commerce, was built in 1913 and when
completed, became the tallest tower in the world,
until the completion of the Bank of
Manhattan tower and then the Chrysler
building in 1930.
Frank Winfield Woolworth, the owner of the '5 and dime' Woolworth retail
chain admired the gothic buildings in Europe, in particular the
Houses of Parliament in
London. When he needed a new office
building for his company headquarters, he asked Cass Gilbert to build a
gothic tower with plenty of windows. Gilbert, who had studied in Europe,
designed a
steel framed
U shaped skyscraper with gothic ornamentation.
Essentially, the Woolworth Building is a
thirty-story tower set upon a thirty story base. Vertical bays of
windows and gothic-style spandrels, are set off from one another by
vertical piers, that are meant to express the structure of the building.
At its base, the building is a practical U shaped mass that was designed
to maximize the amount of light to the offices. It spirals upward in a
sheer Gothic fantasy of arches, spires, flying buttresses and gargoyles.
The Woolworth Building is essentially a twentieth century building clad
with
cream-colored terra cotta
with
fifteenth century gothic details. |
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Just as important as its
exterior appearance is what lies underneath the tower. At the time of
its completion, it was the tallest building ever constructed but without
a foundation in bedrock. Some feared that this would make the building
unstable and could cause the building to collapse. Gilbert countered
this by sinking a series of caissons 110-feet into the soil below, in
much the same way that bridges are built today
The Woolworth building is best known
for its neo-gothic style and decorations, the main entrance on Broadway
resembles European Cathedral entrances. It is decorated with many
symbols, like salamanders (symbol for the transmutation of iron and clay
into steel and terra-cotta) and owls (symbol for wisdom). Two empty
niches flank the entrance: one was supposed to hold a statue of
Frank Winfield
Woolworth, but it was never realized. |
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The Woolworth
Building
was primarily a rental building as Woolworth only occupied one and a
half floors. One way to attract tenants was to have an exquisite lobby
so that when tenants or their guests arrived, they could not help but to
be impressed. First there is
a small outer
lobby, then you enter through revolving doors into the main lobby with
high vaulted ceilings.
Woolworth spent an
enormous amount of money on the lobby. It became one of the most lavish
and outstanding spaces in New York, |
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 The
firm of
Heineicke and
Bowen, was hired to do most of internal work, with barrel-vaulted
mosaics filled with flowers and birds plus other ornaments based on
early Christian mosaics from Ravenna, Italy. They were responsible for
the stained glass dome over the marble staircase.
The decorations were truly lavish. Ironic when you think that the
Woolworth fortune was based on frugal customers spending their nickels
and dimes. |
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There are carved caricatures inside the
lobby, of men who were involved in the buildings construction. One is a
sculpture of Cass Gilbert, holding a model of the Woolworth building,
another depicts Frank
Winfield
Woolworth paying for his building in
coins. Woolworth chose to pay the $13.5 million cost of the building in
cash. |
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The Woolworth Building served as the
company's headquarters up until 1997, when the company closed its
remaining variety outlets to concentrate on other speciality stores,
such as the Foot Locker chain. |
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New
York City Guide
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