Gerald S.
Yelp
The Flatiron Building constructed in 1902 in the Beaux-Arts style by the Chicago School architect Daniel Burnham at the intersections of Broadway, Fifth Avenue, 22nd and 23rd Streets, in Manhattan, was meant to be the headquarters for the George A. Fuller Company, a large Chicago contractor.
Only 22 stories tall, and six feet wide at its narrow point, it was never meant to be the tallest building in the Big Apple - just one of the most beautiful and unique. It stands today having achieved that continuing notoriety. Despite fear that it was too skinny to withstand the harsh wind vectors that blow almost constantly there, it remains unbowed in its 300 feet of steel skeleton and limestone & terra cotta carved exterior façade. In its one hundred sixteen years, it has become the iconic symbol of the City That Never Sleeps, and the most photographed structure in Manhattan.
I have always been among its admirers. My mother worked there at her first job after high school, and told stories about how the designers failed to install any women's restrooms in the entire building, and how that was remedied by alternating male and female bathrooms on alternate floors. Needless to say, if you had to go, you better plan ahead! She knew her way around the building after working for a clothing company with headquarters there, and she took my sister and I on a tour, with special attention paid to the classic (if first forgotten) ladies rooms. Even then it was easy to feel the glorious intention exhibited throughout.
Fuller was gone by the1929 financial crisis, and the urban planners' dream of a second business zone to compete with lower Manhattan was stalled until the 1990's, when new money needed a place to live, along with all the commerce that went with it. Until then, this neighborhood was almost barren of anything was attractive other than Madison Square Park and its Arc de Triomphe built after the Civil War, and the Flatiron Building which had gone through several changes to accommodate retail space on the first floor (including a cafe with outdoor seating at the prow, now gone, and new façade on the top floors).
The walk from Penn Station to Fifth Avenue and down to Washington Square takes about an hour, with the Flatiron Building somewhere in the middle of the route. It is so very worth taking the stroll to capture part of what is so special about New York City.
PS. This is my 2500th review as the count now stands. I don't know how I got this far, but it has been an awesome trip. Thank you all for joining me on the journey, and for allowing me to come along on yours.
