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A popular building that is often referenced in books and movies for its corporate history and Gothic charm, New York City's Woolworth Building is the subject of this week's throwback. Built by the very company who pioneered five-and-dime stores, the F.W. Woolworth Company, this building is a National Historic Landmark as well as a New York City Landmark.
The company purchased the original site from Tenor Luther Park Estate and other part-owners for $1.65 million, and by early 1911 Woolworth had spent a total of $4.5 million to acquire the final site. Frank Woolworth then commissioned Cass Gilbert, an MIT graduate, to design a 20-storey office building for the site, a building which would become the company's new headquarters upon its completion.
Cass Gilbert's original design stood at 130 metres, but the building eventually rose to 241 metres, making it the tallest building in the world at the time. The neo-Gothic office building housed 30 floors with around 5,000 windows. The grand tower of the building is connected to a wider base which houses the office spaces, with the building's main frontage resting on Broadway Street. The exterior decor of the Woolworth Building is cast in limestone-coloured terracotta, and the interior lobby is ornate with veined marble, a vaulted ceiling, and bronze fittings. At its 1913 opening, President Woodrow Wilson actually inaugurated the Woolworth Building by turning on the lights by way of a button in Washington, D.C.
The Woolworth Company owned the building for about 85 years until 1998, when the company, after changing its name to Venator Group, sold it to the Witkoff Group for $155 million. The building more recently housed tenants such as TTA Inc., Control Group Inc., and the New York University School of Continuing and Professional Studies' Center for Global Affairs. In 2012, Alchemy Properties bought the top floors of the building with the goal of building some of the city's most expensive ultra-luxury residences there, an ongoing project that is set to be completed in 2017. New York City Hall is also in close proximity to the building, as is the One World Trade Centre.
In the present day, the building stands among other noteworthy buildings. To its right is the commercial-use building 250 Broadway designed by Emery Roth & Sons. To its left is the historic New York Evening Post Building, the former office and printing plant of the New York Evening Post, designed by Robert D. Kohn.
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