Flatiron Building

Article By: Dan Hill

4 years ago

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Culture-Historical Building Settlement-Neighbourhood

By the mid-19th century, land on Manhattan was already at a premium, and each plot of land was maximised for its building potential - even if the plot was triangular. In 1857, Amos Eno bought the plot of land where the Flatiron stands today - and erected a 7 story apartment building. On his death, one of his sons, William Eno, bought the land at auction for $690,000. Chicago's Daniel Burnham was commissioned to produce the design of a new 22 floor building that would astonish the city's residents. Today, the Flatiron building is one of the city's most iconic landmarks, but at the time of its completion, many residents assumed the building would blow down - given a strong enough gust of wind. Incredibly, construction was completed in only one year - with the steel framed floors added at an astonishing one per week. The resulting building, inside the triangular shell, produced what some termed as a "rabbit warren" of inter-connecting rooms. The final design appears to be "ploughing up through the traffic of Broadway and Fifth Avenue in the afternoon light" - as H. G. Wells put it at the time. Today, it is one of the most photographed buildings in the world. The neighbourhood around the Flatiron Building is now called the Flatiron District - birthplace of Silicon Alley - New York City's high-tech sector. Photo by Vidar Nordli-Mathisen on Unsplash.