Empire Building
- Architect
- Kimball & Thompson
- Year
- 1898
- Style
- Neoclassical
- City
- Manhattan, NY
The Empire Building at 71 Broadway, on the corner of Rector Street in the Financial District, is an early skyscraper designed by Kimball & Thompson in the Classical Revival style and built by Marc Eidlitz & Son from 1897 to 1898. It rises 21 stories above a full basement facing Trinity Place, reaching 293 feet.
the building
A column in steel. The facade is organized into base, shaft, and capital like a classical column, with gray granite at the base giving way to white granite above. The top stories carry a loggia and a large metal cornice above the 20th floor.
Caisson foundations. The Empire Building is one of the earliest skyscrapers built on pneumatic caissons and among the oldest such buildings still standing, with an interior steel frame carrying a curtain-walled facade.
the style
Kimball & Thompson designed the building in the Neoclassical, or Classical Revival, style, dividing the tower into base, shaft, and capital sections in imitation of a classical column.
More on Neoclassicalthe architect
The building was designed by the firm Kimball & Thompson.
significance
The Empire Building is a New York City Landmark (LP-01933), designated 6/25/1996, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and a contributing property to the Wall Street Historic District created in 2007.
nearby
- 65 Broadway
- Adams Express Building
- 1 Wall Street Building
- Trinity Church and Graveyard
- New York Stock Exchange
- American Surety Company Building