“New York City | NYC | June 2010” by Nan Palmero, is licensed under CC BY 2.0 / cropped from original
“Flatiron Building, Manhattan” by Jeffrey Zeldman is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0
If you have visited New York City, you may already be familiar with the Flatiron Building. Completed in 1902 the narrow end is only 6.5 feet wide!
After it was built, it became a New York and United States historical landmark. It is also a famous building in the world of architecture. Aspiring young architects can even build their own, Lego version!
Designed by architect Daniel Burnham, residents called it “Burnham’s folly” because they thought it would blow down. What they didn’t know was that Burnham actually designed the building to withstand up to 4 times the average wind loads!
The plot of land determined the building’s unusual shape. Before the Flatiron was constructed, the land was underdeveloped and changed hands several times.
The unusual shape creates equally unique interior spaces. Surprisingly, from some of the corner offices, you can get excellent panoramic views of Midtown Manhattan.
It was originally designed to be only 19 stories, however, 2 years after its completion 3 floors were added bringing its height to 307 feet. The design uses a Renaissance aesthetic which can be seen in Greek faces and terracotta flowers on the facade.
Some may see a clothes iron, others feel it resembles a ship. Either way you look at it, the Flatiron building is a popular and often photographed building. One of the best places to snap a shot is just north of the building at the end of “Flatiron Plaza.”
More than just an oddity, the Flatiron Building represents an ingenious transformation of an underused piece of land into a local and national landmark.
