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  #21  
Old Posted Aug 10, 2010, 7:47 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by RLS_rls View Post
I have to agree with wrabbit, that interior shot is impressive! This must have been considered a very modern building when finished. But look at the floorplates....they're tiny!

I wonder if the Singer Building had survived another 20 years if it would have been converted into condos?

edit: oh yeah and why does the second picture mention the Lusitania?
I agree with your post.

The RMS Lusitania arrived in New York on that date (Sep. 13, 1907) at the completion of its maiden voyage. The flag and pennants must of been flown from the incomplete Singer Building to welcome the ship into the harbor. At the time the ship was the largest ocean liner in the world (later to be eclipsed by the White Star Line's Olympic class).
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  #22  
Old Posted Sep 17, 2010, 2:02 PM
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Singer Building

Quote:
Originally Posted by DamienK View Post
I have always been fascinated by the Singer Building, the world's tallest building from 1908 to 1909. I was never able to find much information on it, until today, when I stumbled upon a treasure - an online scanned version of a 1908 publication on the skyscraper!

The 127 page book includes photos during and after construction, plans, and details on all aspects of the tower, including the interior furnishings and mechanical equipment.

Enjoy!

http://www.archive.org/details/histo...gerb00semsrich













My father worked in The Singer Building from about 1948 until it was demolished in 1965. It was his first job when he came to this country. He started out as "lamp boy" and ended up as an electrician. When the building was torn down the powers that be told him that he could take anything he wanted from the building. As a result, I have hanging in my den a pair of the lions that hung over the elevators in the lobby.
Thank you for this posting. It has brought back many found memories of a place I visited often as a little girl.
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  #23  
Old Posted Jan 14, 2011, 10:23 AM
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Hey! Hello everyone! I Cant to find any informations about destruction of this building! I'm really interested in this and I wanna know why it happened. This is my favorite building and I think it was first skyscraper in the world that was more than 500 feet!
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  #24  
Old Posted Jul 3, 2011, 8:35 PM
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Originally Posted by The-T View Post
Hey! Hello everyone! I Cant to find any informations about destruction of this building! I'm really interested in this and I wanna know why it happened. This is my favorite building and I think it was first skyscraper in the world that was more than 500 feet!
It was mainly because they thought more about office space than historic buildings. The reason they let this happen is explained in this quote "
The two-years-old Landmarks Preservation Commission proved inadequate to the task of saving the tower;
as Alan Burnham, executive director of the commission, explained: ‘If the building were made a landmark, we would have to find a buyer for it or the city would have to acquire it. The city is not wealthy and the commission doesn’t have a big enough staff to be a real-estate broker for a skyscraper’”


and i found a picture of the demolition

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_cxRN31abC1...lding+1968.jpg
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  #25  
Old Posted Aug 9, 2011, 7:54 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by marvelfannumber1 View Post
It was mainly because they thought more about office space than historic buildings. The reason they let this happen is explained in this quote "
The two-years-old Landmarks Preservation Commission proved inadequate to the task of saving the tower;
as Alan Burnham, executive director of the commission, explained: ‘If the building were made a landmark, we would have to find a buyer for it or the city would have to acquire it. The city is not wealthy and the commission doesn’t have a big enough staff to be a real-estate broker for a skyscraper’”


and i found a picture of the demolition

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_cxRN31abC1...lding+1968.jpg
Wow.. I'm so glad I happened onto this thread as I too have always loved this building and always gawk at it in old movies set in NY.

I was 11 years old when the building was demolished. Wasn't it demolished over a weekend - as preservationists were mobilizing it to save it?

Last edited by xnyr; Aug 9, 2011 at 10:37 PM.
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  #26  
Old Posted Aug 9, 2011, 8:37 PM
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sometimes i wonder what it would be like if this tower hadn't been demolished, would it be condos, or a hotel, luxury loft apartments, or would it have even survived September 11th, given it's age, and proximity to Ground Zero and the damage inflicted on newer structures, and if it had survived i can imagine it reflected in the glass of the new Four World Trade Center, the beaux arts brick and masonry, her ornamentation, framed on the canvas of her polar opposite, the odd couple of skyscrapers.
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  #27  
Old Posted Aug 10, 2011, 12:37 PM
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I have thought about the same thing too. I always wonder if the city investing building have surived too. Would the singer building be used as a command center on 9/11 like one liberty plaza did.
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  #28  
Old Posted Aug 10, 2011, 4:10 PM
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I think the Singer Building should be rebuilt on top of the South Ferry Terminal Building. The building can support a skyscraper about as tall as the Singer Building. A skyscraper was proposed to rise there in the 1990's (About as tall as the Singer), but it never happened. It would be a good idea.
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  #29  
Old Posted Aug 10, 2011, 8:07 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Roadcruiser1 View Post
I think the Singer Building should be rebuilt on top of the South Ferry Terminal Building. The building can support a skyscraper about as tall as the Singer Building. A skyscraper was proposed to rise there in the 1990's (About as tall as the Singer), but it never happened. It would be a good idea.

Is that so?? What was the tower to be called?

I moved to Portland in '89 and now I'm constantly amazed at what NY pulls out of her sleeve.
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  #30  
Old Posted Aug 11, 2011, 2:33 PM
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  #31  
Old Posted Aug 11, 2011, 5:20 PM
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Originally Posted by Roadcruiser1 View Post
Wow... that would have been so cool - I could instantly see the resemblance to the Singer.

Thanks
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  #32  
Old Posted Aug 11, 2011, 5:51 PM
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The South Ferry Plaza Building does look close to being a replica of the Singer Building, but from my viewpoint the body of the South Ferry Plaza Building has much width then the Singer's, but they do look close, and I am confident that someone will propose something that looks the Singer to rise over the South Ferry Terminal someday.
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  #33  
Old Posted Jul 6, 2012, 4:21 AM
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Sorry if I'm offending anybody, but I thought the Singer Building was one of the (few) ugly examples of art deco in the world. I actually seem to like 1 Liberty Plaza better.
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  #34  
Old Posted Jul 6, 2012, 4:27 AM
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For its place in the skyline, here is a 1941 picture from the Charles W. Cushman Collection at the U of Indiana:

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  #35  
Old Posted Jul 6, 2012, 4:54 AM
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Here are a couple showing the Singer Building in the skyline in her final decades. These were scanned from various photo-books and magazines of the period that I own.

July 1950





July 1951



July 1953



November 1955



November 1958



July 1960



February 1961

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  #36  
Old Posted Jul 6, 2012, 5:29 AM
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I have to admit, the thought of personifying this skyscraper and adding her to my list of buildings to cosplay is awfully tempting. Although I suspect the amount of beadwork and embroidery in the outfit would make me right squint-eyed!
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  #37  
Old Posted Jul 6, 2012, 4:18 PM
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What a freaking loss, what were they thinking tearing this gem down?
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  #38  
Old Posted Jul 6, 2012, 4:36 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ThatOneGuy View Post
Sorry if I'm offending anybody, but I thought the Singer Building was one of the (few) ugly examples of art deco in the world. I actually seem to like 1 Liberty Plaza better.
The Singer Building was Beaux Art not Art Deco.
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  #39  
Old Posted Jul 6, 2012, 5:03 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ThatOneGuy View Post
Sorry if I'm offending anybody, but I thought the Singer Building was one of the (few) ugly examples of art deco in the world. I actually seem to like 1 Liberty Plaza better.
RAR!
Architecture Curmudgeon SMASH!!!

It is Beautiful Beaux Masterwork! One of the ONLY Beaux skyscrapers built. (The Woolworth being Neo Gothic.)

How could you not like it?
What is ugly about it?

The Curmudgeon Demands To Know!
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  #40  
Old Posted Jul 6, 2012, 5:59 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ThatOneGuy View Post
Sorry if I'm offending anybody, but I thought the Singer Building was one of the (few) ugly examples of art deco in the world. I actually seem to like 1 Liberty Plaza better.
Art deco? In 1906?

More disturbingly, ugly? The Singer Building?
The only thing ugly is what replaced it.
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