Flatiron Building
- Architect
- Daniel Burnham
- Year
- 1902
- Style
- Renaissance Revival
- City
- Manhattan, NY
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The Flatiron Building, originally the Fuller Building, is a 22-story, 307-foot steel-framed triangular tower at 175 Fifth Avenue, designed by Daniel Burnham and Frederick P. Dinkelberg and opened October 1, 1902. It was developed as headquarters for the Fuller Company, a construction firm that acquired the triangular site — formed by Fifth Avenue, Broadway, and East 22nd Street — from the Newhouse family in May 1901. The building's distinctive shape, which recalls a cast-iron clothes iron, gave it its enduring name.
the building
Triangular footprint. The building sits on a triangular block where Fifth Avenue, Broadway, and East 22nd Street converge, with an 87-foot back end and a narrow northern peak grazed by East 23rd Street — the shape that inspired its name.
Cowcatcher storefront. A low attached retail space nicknamed the "cowcatcher," for its resemblance to the device on rail locomotives, was added at ground level along with a penthouse, after the building's original 20-floor, 285-foot construction.
Burnham's Folly. In its early days the tower was sometimes called "Burnham's Folly" by locals skeptical that its narrow, triangular steel frame could stand up structurally.
the style
The Flatiron Building is executed in the Renaissance Revival style, considered a textbook exemplar of the idiom applied to an early steel-framed skyscraper.
More on Renaissance Revivalthe architect
Daniel Burnham, working with Frederick P. Dinkelberg, designed the Flatiron Building as headquarters for the Fuller Company, a construction firm.
significance
The Flatiron Building is a National Historic Landmark and New York City Individual Landmark (LP-00219), also listed on the National Register of Historic Places and the New York State Register of Historic Places, designated September 20, 1966.
nearby
- Scribner Building
- One Madison
- Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Tower
- Gorham Manufacturing Company Building
- Metropolitan Life North Building
- Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace