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I'il II

\i A RECORD-BREAKING PEAT OF MODERN CONSTRUCTION and Fuller had recently ascended to their fabulous, mechanistic structures we were position of dominance in the industry going to build.m "New York was the place 'Ii as "national builders," prevailing during for the man who wanted to build sky­ an extended period of labor conflict in scrapers," Paul Starrett added.s It offered 11\ New York-an outgrowth of the tens of the optimal economic and geographic con­ thousands of industrial strikes nationwide. ditions for conquering vertical space in

!lll, 'II During the 1880s and 189os, the conflict the open "frontier" of sky. Popular maga­ had left the body politic reeling from the zines such as Everybody's similarly lauded shock, and especially from the violence the builders' force ofstructural ironworkers Ii' CHAPTER FIVE of the Haymarket (1886) and Homestead as "cowboys of the skies," a reference to II (1892) strikes, throwing up a seemingly the heroic masculinity identified with III impassable barrier between capital and Theodore Roosevelt's "rough riders" of A Record-Breaking Feat of labor.'" In reaction, Fuller promoted strat­ 1898, the self-taught regiment ofcowboys 1,1 egies of "peaceful" labor conciliation, who charged up Cuba's Kettle Hill to­ 'Ill Modern Construction designed to mask the day's deep division ward Sanjuan Ridge during the Spanish­ \1 between the employer and the employed. American War (fig. 5.1).9 The enterprise

1\1 1 The Woolworth Building's promotional of constructing skyscrapers, the magazine literature supported and furthered the de­ further suggested, reflected the nation's 111\ ception: It was not the "national builder," preparedness for battle, its persisting belief \llj ~\ but rather "master builders" and their in manifest destiny, and its current policy force ofartisanal "free labor" that collabo-'­ of expansion overseas. III oolworth and Gilbert's determination to build the highest sky­ II rated to construct New York as a modern In competing for the contract to con­ scraper in the world was rivaled only by the ambition of the skyscraper metropolis.sIn actuality, how­ struct the Woolworth Building, builders II men who vied to construct it, among the most vocal of propo­ ever, Thompson-Starrett and Fuller had such as Paul Starrett and Louis Horowitz :1 1\ -wnents for modernizing the city. "From 1905 to 1914 ... there seemed to be thoroughly reorganized the construction were, in fact, reacting to the localized, among modern builders an epidemic of heroic design, a veritable competition industry in the effort to circumvent such speculative market pressures inciting 'II 'II in lofty ambitions." New York's skyline was reshaping itself seemingly over­ conflict. They had employed their own expansion skyward-pressures that Wool­ , \ ,:1\ night, and from the perspective of the builder, "nothing man-made" produced forces of construction labor along with worth had likewise exploited as a source 1 1,I \1 "an equivalent thrilL''' Such a context of competition, described in the builder that of subcontractors under the new sin­ of capital and an instrument for attaining ,'I Paul Starrett's autobiographical account of enterprise and "can-do," Chang­ gle-contract system. In aiming to complete his headquarters' visibility. They and their 11 '\ , ing the Skyline, may have inspired Gilbert to assert his professional authority as large-scale projects in record time, they contemporaries in the building industry I had imposed a new level of modern ratio­ had invented new mechanical devices, \' an architect among New York's most noted builders. Starrett, he warned, 1;:\, nalization, efficiency, and financial control techniques, and methods of construction, should not enter the Union Club through the front door, but instead through :1\ over the entire construction process. besides systematizing the entire process the tradesman's entrance.2 But Gilbert also knew that Starrett, as president 1\\1 Horowitz later elucidated the builders' toward the end of modernizing the city

1\1 of the George A. Fuller Company, signified an economically powerful, thor­ II enterprising zeal and conviction about at a breathtaking pace. Exemplary of

11 ! 111 oughly twentieth-century phenomenon. Starrett headed one ofNew York's C~~nging the skylines ofmajor American this modernization, during what Thomas two giant, recently incorporated general contracting firms, two among the few C1~les, his spirit of conquest resonating Hughes has called the "era of technolog­ big enough to compete for the contract to build the Woolworth Building. WIth the widespread enthusiasm for tech­ ical enthusiasm," the Woolworth Building Regardless of Gilbert's view of Starrett, the builder wielded tremendous ~ology and for feats of daring construc­ was characterized by extremes.10 These tiOn 6 "E . power as the chief protagonist in the creation of the Woolworth Building once h" veryone ofus In the company felt were evident in the depth of its caisson­ Irnself to be an adventurer. We visioned constructed foundation and the record­ construction began. Louis Horowitz, president of the Thompson-Starrett th '. . e CitIes ofAmerica rising to dizzy, gleam­ breaking height ofits structural steel as well Company, the firm that ultimately triumphed over Starrett's Fuller Company lilgh' h elg ts. We dreamed of unshaped in­ as in the workers' assembly of that steel to secure the project's contract, later asserted that "an architect could dream \Tentio h ns t at would become part of the in record time. Such evidence of modern­ and plan, but we could make the dream come true.'" Both Thompson-Starrett

16 166 7 1'1 \1' , I'

1\'1 A RECORD-BREAKING FEAT OF MODERN CONSTRUCTION , I CHAPTER FIVE worked on several big projects in several they set up headquarters in New York.19 ,i, big cities at once.14­ Before 1909, Thompson-Starrett had William Aiken Starrett, the vice pres­ founded offices in Chicago, San Francisco, "I I, II I ident of the Thompson-Starrett Company Philadelphia, Washington, Pittsburgh,

, during the Woolworth Building project, Salt Lake City, and Portland-and steel­ I later recounted that national builders had framed speculative office-building projects pioneered an "administrative revolution composed by far the largest proportion II' in construction," and so "raised contracting ofthe firm's total volume ofconstruction\20. 1,1 I": from a limited trade to both an industry Similarly, Fuller had established offices

11 and a profession" by "visualizing the build­ in Chicago, Boston, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, ""I, 'I!,I ing problem in its entirety.ms Theodore Washington, D.C., San Francisco, Chatta­ Starrett and Paul Starrett, brothers ofWil­ nooga, Kansas City, and Philadelphia.21 By liam Aiken, apprenticed with the Chicago 1911, Horowitz had developed Thom~on­

",I 1 architect Daniel Burnham in the late 1880s Starrett into what he called a "modern and early 1890s. Both admired Burnham's building organization": a still larger, more ,'I II organizational capacities and largeness of systematized, and more efficient variation 16 \ vision. Theodore served as president of of Fuller's original single-contract sys­ II "\ the Thompson-Starrett Company from its tem.22 Regardless ofThompson-Starrett's I, I founding in 1899, and Paul became presi­ and Fuller's new national scope, however, " I II', I dent ofthe Fuller Company in 19°5.17 Well New York remained the industry's dom­

I I "I I before competing for the Woolworth Build­ inant center. Ifwe are to believe Starrett, ~ " \ I ing contract, both Thompson-Starrett Fuller constructed 80 percent of Man­ F" I G U RES, I cowboys of the Skies, showing steelworkers on the Metropolitan Life Insurance Tower, 'I i and Fuller had taken charge of and, for a hattan's new buildings during the years II \ New York. From Everybody's Magazine, vol. 19 (November 1908). photograph by Arthur Hewitt

I 2l I fixed percentage fee, had systematically around 1910 alone. Within such a context, and Frederick Colburn Clarke. \ \ organized all aspects of the large-scale Woolworth's skyscraper offered not only ,I 1\ I of1886-89. For the first time, Fuller built construction process: planning, financing, a profitable contract, but also the potential ',11111 ization presented a stark contrast to the City a skyscraper within a contractually pre­ and engineering, along with the subcon­ for advertising that contract, and with it, I Beautiful movement's highly esteemed tracts required to assemble labor and the builders' skills, organization, and mod­ I determined frame of time for a predeter­ horizontal landscape of axial planning, materials, chiefamong them the big con­ ern methods of construction in record time. "II ~~ 11 mined price, then "delivered" it as a I gardens, and Beaux-Arts monuments. But tracts for structural steel. product to its owner, the Chicago lawyer I by the time the New York City Improve­ Thompson-Starrett and Fuller predi­ I and businessman Wirt D. Walker, ready ment Commission published its first large­ cated their growth nationally as corpora­ THE WOOLWORTH ,',\ II!I to occupy. Subsequently, the Fuller Com­ scale plan, in 1905, New York's real estate tions on procuring big projects through BUILDING CONTRACT pany built up its reputation on taking '11111 speculators, bankers, and financiers had full financial responsibility for such proj­ strategic salesmanship, that is, on their Even before Woolworth began discussing \. already identified the city's audacious, ver­ ects, either on its own or through letting ability to convince a speculator of a pro­ his project with Irving National Bank's ',1111 tical skyline with its stature as a world subcontracts to othersY It incorporated posed project's future income-earning board ofdirectors in 19°8, several ofNew financial center. capacity.1s This markedly distinguished 1111, in 1890 and by 1896, set up an office in NeW York's largest builders-the George A. both firms from the mid-nineteenth cen­ Fuller Company and the Thompson­ York. In 1899, Theodore Starrett founded 1 ~ury's local builders, that is, the small, Starrett Company among them-began The Single- Contract System and with Henry S. Thompson a rival organiza­ III tion modeled on Fuller, the Thompson­ Independent, and skilled tradesmen re­ aggressively competing for the contract to the Rise of the "National Builder" Starrett Company.ll Fuller moved its head­ nOwned for their artisanal orientation. construct his skyscraper. Word ofWool­ Strat· I quarters to New York in 1900, and shortly eg1c sa esmanship generated volume, worth's intentions had leaked out early, The George A. Fuller Company, founded a~d !!i thereafter, both the Fuller Company and volume facilitated the rapid expan­ Paul Starrett later recalled, and the build­ in Chicago in 1882, pioneered the single­ the Thompson-Starrett Company boasted 510n ofThompson-Starrett and Fuller ing community was electrified. "The ru­ \\\1 contract system of general contract con­ across th . reputations as "national builders" that e country m branch offices after mor had been about for a long time that struction in the Tacoma Building project

16 168 9 ,I,'

:1 II I' A RECORD-BREAKING FEAT OF MODERN CONSTRUCTION ;1 ' I, CHAPTER FIVE Woolworth eventually signed a contract In 1909, during his term as president of builders slowly, Horowitz added, and "after !\ F. W. Woolworth was playingwith the idea with Horowitz and the Thompson­ the American Institute ofArchitects, Gil­ I, three years," dropped those that were, of a gigantic skyscraper in New York, to Starrett Company five months later, on bert argued vociferously against the very II in his view, "not big enough for this job," ~ bear his name, and all the leading builders 1 II I April 20, 1911. 4­ phenomenon in construction represented with the Metropolitan Life Insurance had their ears pricked up. This would be a As an architect, Gilbert had the clout to by Black and the United States Realty and ( m Tower's V. J. Hedden and Sons probably 1[1 prize worth fighting forl 4- Horowitz later decisively influence Woolworth's selection Construction Company. Such big, amal­ counting among them, to focus strictly on reminisced, "I schemed with all my power, of a builder, and both Paul Starrett and gamated corporations aimed to monopo­ I" the Thompson-Starrett Company and the during several years, to get the contract for Louis Horowitz knew it. After Starrett dis­ lize all aspects of large-scale construction 11 11 George A. Fuller Company.29 Thompson­ III the vast project." He described such proj­ covered that Horowitz and his Thompson­ and so presented a "serious menace to the Starrett had constructed large office build­ ects as "a masonry of chance encounters, Starrett Company had indeed won the interests of the architect." Gilbert proposed ld ings in New York: Clinton and Russell's vague ambitions, and even less substantial contract to construct the Woolworth Build­ as a solution that architects return to the Iii Atlantic Mutual Life Insurance Company j things.,,2s But as the architect H. A. Shreve ing, he instantly sent his competitor a nineteenth-century's "old-fashioned sys­ ,I, Building (19°°-19°1) and the U.S. Express more directly put it, Horowitz was "ag­ congratulatory note, adding that he was tem" of letting certain contracts for large­ :11 Building (1905-7)' But by 1910 the Fuller 1", gressive in conceiving projects himself and "heartbroken" and blaming Gilbert­ scale projects to minor contractors)? Gil­ I Company-although formerly branded then in cajoling into partnership neces­ li 'l "Woolworth told me Gilbert wouldn't have bert may have read the accounts about the III a "Chicago operation"-clearly had the sary human elements possessing desire and me.ms Earlier, Starrett had maiied Gilbert Fuller Company's having hired in-house competitive edge. Fuller had built some of I", site and capital to the end that there would a copy of the sales letter he wrote to Wool­ draftsmen with the objective of control­ Chicago's largest skyscrapers during the be another big building against the sky­ worth, noting that he "would appreciate ling all aspects of design and construction, boom of 1889-94, among them Burnham line.m6 Horowitz, in fact, called himself a very much any assistance you feel war­ among them the architect's function of and Root's Woman's Temple and the Reli­ "contract hunter": he targeted big, lucra­ ranted in giving to me in this matter.ll36 "drawing up the plans."4-0 The Fuller Com­ I"I' ance Building, as well as some ofNew tive projects during the years he headed Unfortunately for Starrett, Gilbert had al­ pany and the Purdy and Henderson team ~ \ York's during the boom of the early 190os, Thompson-Starrett, when the company ready made up his mind; he had developed had already put Gilbert's prof~ssional role among them the Flatiron (19°3) and the completed $600 million worth of projects. a mistrustful view ofFuller's new parent as an architect to a severe test during the New York Times (1903-5) buildings and, These, he claimed, represented "a con­ organization, the United States Realty and Broadway Chambers projec~. Now, beyond , later, the Hudson Terminal Buildings spicuous part of the skylines" of the Construction Company. question, Gilbert aspired to reinstate the (1907-9))0 Fuller's record in New York, ',ll III nation's major cities, but "most of all, After the death ofFuller in 1901, Full­ architect in the central function of admin­ however, may well have made Horowitz NewYork.m7 er's son-in-law, Harry S. Black, took over istering all aspects of a building's design feel even more determined to seize for Woolworth's choice of a builder in­ the George A. Fuller Company, making it and construction. Thompson Starrett the city's newest and volved a tedious, excruciatingly drawn-out ~ part of his new venture, the United States Besides viewing corporations such as [' biggest contract for a skyscraper. process of investigation and interviewing, Realty and Construction Company, a gi...: United States Realty as a "menace," Gilbert Woolworth later explained the criteria as Horowitz later recounted: "All my ant, consolidated corporate enterprise that had little trust in Black's business practices. guiding his choice of the skyscraper's nightmares had to do with the black de­ he capitalized at $66 million. Black aimed Julia- Finch Gilbert described Gilbert's builder: He "not only had to be the best in spair of failing to get that mighty contract. ~o control all aspects of acquiring, financ­ encounter with the construction tycoon his field, have the best material at his dis­ Woolworth's method of selection was ex­ Ing, constructing, and leasing space in the in Palm Beach in March 19II: Black, Finch posal, the best talent at his service, but it IL 1III tremely aggravating for those ofus who largest New York propertiesY Paul Starrett Gilbert wrote, was "working the East was also essential that he have an organi­ waited for his decision. It was a slow pro­ observed that "Black loved to amalgamate Coast" with the ambition ofacquiring the zation back of him which was thoroughly cess of elimination. He talked to every­ and expand": he knew little about con­ Woolworth Building and other big con­ adequate and had reached the maximUIll st . body; and time and time again he seemed rUctIOn, but he had reportedly built up struction contracts for the Fuller Com­ of efficiency.ll31 Woolworth announced his to have his mind made up, only to change the Fuller Company into a $15 million pany. Knowing that Black had been previ­ project in New York's Record and Guide corp . it and begin to hunt all over again. Some of oration from a mere 'fifty-thousand­ 0usly "untrue" to Gilbert-a reference, on November 19, 1910, which remarked . dOllar ent '" r his meetings with me and with my rivals erpnse 10 Just a lew years. Star­ that "the general contract has been practi­ perhaps, to the Broadway Chambers proj­ were in his office; some were in the office rett characterized Black as "a business cally closed and awarded.ll32 Nevertheless, ect-'-Finch Gilbert performed "social of Cass Gilbert, the architect, where the genius, a gambler, a financial juggler"; as "the matter rested for several months," gymnastics" to keep Black from "having excitement was enough to keep me on fire l a person he Was "bighearted and selfish heart to heart talks with Mr. Woolworth," according to Horowitz, "because Woo ­ with hunger for the job.ms Woolworth . . ci"ll '. . and rat h er unscrupulous.Ills worth just could not make up hiS nun . hoping to see Black "beautifully turned narrowed down the group of competing

171 17°

....------~ CHAPTER FIVE A RECORD-BREAKING FEAT OF MODERN CONSTRUCTION \',I [ II down."4-1 Woolworth did, in fact, turn down a project known for its rapid construction for its labor disputes, craft practices, and challenge, but he still anticipated that his the Fuller Company, as Paul Starrett, while and during which he functioned all at the diversity ofits building trades. Man­ organization would facilitate a system­ blaming Gilbert, lamented. Horowitz and once as the owner, developer, and general aged from a central office, the organization atic, orderly, and harmonious relationship I, Thompson-Starrett, as a consequence, contractor.""" Such a job for a major re­ I' comprised "in-house departments" re­ among all lines ofwork.50 would build Woolworth's skyscraper, se­ tailing concern, more importantly, may sponsible for key lines ofwork. The central Horowitz's organizational methods re­ 1 curing not only a big and lucrative con­ have helped Horowitz seal the Wool­ 1'\ office established the project's compre­ sembled those recently proposed by his " struction contract, but also a decisive stake worth Building contract. Bernard Gimbel, hensive time schedule and, through the New York contemporary, the mechanical in the modernization ofNew York. Horowitz later recalled, "put on his hat" schedule, aimed to impose a rational and engineer and building contractor Frank and went to see Woolworth for him.4-5 systematic order from start to finish over ~ , Bunker Gilbreth. Gilbreth's "System in I, Horowitz defined the "modern build­ all lines ofwork.4-? The in-house depart­ LOUIS HOROWITZ AND Contracting" (1905) and Field System (19 06) ing organization" as "a machine that can ments estimated project costs, awarded THE "MODERN BUILDING similarly defined the departmental func­ 'II, take contracts at a fixed figure, for a fixed contracts for labor and materials, purchased ORGANIZATION" tions housed within the contractor's central fee, and deliver the buildings to their own­ materials in bulk, expedited the delivery managerial office and similarly called for Horowitz published The Modern Building ers in a guaranteed time, as methodically ofmaterials, and coordinated shop draw­ clear lines of communication with the Organization in 19II, the year that he se­ as a tailor handles an order for a suit of ings. After construction began, the central building site}1 Gilbreth's effort to rational­ cured the Woolworth Building contract. clothes."4-6 Railroad builders had by the office enforced the comprehensive time ize the work process and the work site An essay in booklet form, it described a mid-nineteenth century achieved unprec­ schedule by tracking weekly progress and traced its origins in turn to the principles still newer version of the single-contract edented rates ofspeed by building several costs and through the authority of the ofFrederick Winslow Taylor, whose "Piece system. Horowitz's system would be more railroad lines at once and by employing construction superintendent and the super­ Rate System" of1895 pioneered "scientif­ efficiently organized and its methods of interchangeable work gangs or "machines" intendent's daily reports. Horowitz ac­ ic management." Taylor based his time and ,1, construction still further rationalized. It ofmen.4-7 More recently, both Fuller and 1 knowledged that the uniqueness among the " motion studies on observations from the III would have a corporate structure geared Thompson-Starrett had utilized the single­ thirty to fifty trades typically employed ~I ,I shop floor of the steel industry; he aimed toward erecting with unprecedented speed contract system to similarly construct sev­ on a given construction site-"too diverse to improve the speed and the efficiency of and all at once many skyscrapers rivaling erallarge office buildings in several cities to be welded into a whole"-presented a the individual worker.52 While less focused the Woolworth's technological sophistica­ at once with the objective ofa comparable tion and scale (fig. 5.2). Theodore Star­ rationalization and speed. But in Horo­ rett had recently led Thompson-Starrett witz's view, both big contractors still un­ "I'" I' through a period of rapid growth, but fortunately practiced "brokerage pure and by 1903 Theodore's "nerves were shot," as simple:" They still hired out major por­ ORGANIZATION Q:iABJ" THOMPSON-STARRETT COMPANY Paul Starrett later put it; the "competi.:.. tions of the typical large building's con­ -----, BUILDING CONSTRUCTION tion for jobs and the speed on jobs ... were struction to subcontractors, each ofwhom

I killing."4-2 By 1905, consequently, Thompson­ had a profit to make. Such a method of

"1 Starrett's board of directors had elected cobbling together too many subcontractors Horowitz the company's vice president and and the fees for their work slowed down general manager. Horowitz took charge of the process of construction and increased the company's finances, steering it through expenditures, and given the real estate the panic of1907, and in 19°8, when Star­ speculator's requirement ofrapid comple­ rett officially resigned, Thompson-Starrett, tion and a timely financial return, it unnec­ by Horowitz's own account, boasted over essarily augmented a project's total cost. 48 $15 million in business annually.4-3 When Horowitz further argued that the elected in March 1910 as president, Horow­ administration of the modern building itz credited his rise within Thompson­ organization must be as systematized and Starrett to the nearly completed $6 million efficient in its component parts as the F" I G·u R e: 5.2 "Organization Chart, Thompson-Starrett Company Building Construction." From The Gimbel Brothers Department Store in current state of the construction industry ;0"171 BUilding Organization (New York: The Alexander Hamilton Institnte, I9I i). Science, Industry and New York (D. H. Burnham and Company), would permit-an industry still known USlness Libr~ryt New.York P~blic Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations. "

. :: ~.. ~ 17 2 In

~ II II" -~-----~~ ...... '11:

II CHAPTER F"IVE A RECORD-BREAKING F"EAT OF" MODERN CONSTRUCTION

on the worker, Horowitz's "modern build­ tance of Rapid Building" (1900), he had but it also bribed union leaders to ensure ported in 19°8, comprised "Americans, ing organization," like Gilbreth's "system outlined one of the most convincing argu­ peaceful labor conditions. 61 English, Irish, French-Canadians, Swedes, in contracting," emphasized the rational­ ments of his day for rapidly constructing Regardless of the New York building now and then an Italian," and "two full­ ization of both the work process and the a skyscraper. Using the example of a $1.5 industry's having reached a new level of blooded Indians."66 That year, Bricklayer work site. million office building and a full set of de­ stability and order, Gilbert continued to and Mason compared building a skyscraper Horowitz's self-described mission as a tailed numerical calculations to illustrate worry about a major disabling strike at the to building the Tower ofBabel, given the builder was "get the order, and then put up his argument, Gilbert concluded that, ide­ Woolworth project site; work on his United confusion of languages arising from the in­ the building, so that it is done in the short­ ally, a medium-sized office building should States Custom House had been halted re­ tegration ofnative-born workers with the est possible time."53 Paul Starrett likewise be built within a single year. "The reasons peatedly by strikes. When sending the Wool­ 1111,1 new immigrant groups.67 Gilbreth argued I stressed the centrality of speed to the finan­ for rapid construction ... are of course worth Building's specifications out for bid, that the problem of confusion could be cial success of any big construction proj­ economic," he assertedY The sooner a sky­ Gilbert advised "the use ofsuch a class of obviated altogether, and speed thereby in­ ect: "Time is important in building. Equip­ scraper reached completion, the sooner labor that will not occasion strikes."62 With :l creased, through the segregation of con­ ment is tied up, other jobs wait, tenants it paid its owner, and the sooner it could the exceptions of a painters' strike in March II struction crews into groups by nationality.68 are ready to move in, the owner stands on effectively compete in a market rapidly 1912, a five-day strike in the shops ofthe But regardless of such racial and ethic the sidelines counting the days. Speed filling up with comparably attractive, mod­ Atlantic Terra Cotta Company inJune, and differences among the workers, by the mid­ pleases everybody and is money in the ern office space. last-minute negotiations with the Reliance II III 1890S many of the New York building I pocket. Speed gets jobs."S+ When campaign­ Equally important, Horowitz, Gilbert, Labor Club over the carving ofthe interior trades had achieved a new solidarity; they ing for the Woolworth Building's contract, and Woolworth knew that achieving marble in September 19I1, the Woolworth had isolated themselves from party politics Starrett told Woolworth, "You watch that speed during construction required that project remained remarkably free oflabor and had begun adhering to Samuel Gomp­ building across the street; see it shoot up! potential labor conflicts be resolved or, conflict throughout the course ofconstruc­ ers's "pure and simple unionism."69 You'll see what speed we get," pointing to stIll better, altogether avoided. Strikes had tion, to the relief ofHorowitz, Gilbert, New York's building trades unions, the the East River Savings Bank, at the time crippled Fuller Company building sites and Woolworth. 63 After completion, Gilbert membership ofwhich increased twofold starting construction catercorner across between 1900 and 1903, and across the New applauded the site's "peaceful" labor condi­ between 1897 and 1910, enforced standards Broadway from Woolworth's Stewart York building industry, strikes and lock­ tions, which he thought offered a broader 55 ofsafety while promotingequality among Building headquarters. In the railroad outs had come to a head in 1902-3, with +32 social lesson: "It is only by the combination all members.7° By 1910, moreover, the city's construction industry, Benjamin Franklin's industrial actions involving 2,268 build­ of the interests of capital and labor that 58 structural ironworkers had achieved still notion that "time is money" had already ings. "The labor question constantly organized society can successfully exist."6+ greater solidarity through their swelling become a truism on rationalized work arose," Gilbert wrote in 1900, during the Both sets ofinterests, Gilbert had come numbers in the Housesmiths' and Bridge­ , sites by the mid-nineteenth century, but construction of the Broadway Chambers to believe, contributed to the timely real­ 9 men's Union ofNew York and Vicinity for Starrett and Horowitz speed in its own Building.s Within the next five years, how­ ization ofhis costly, opulent, and skill­ II and, as consequence, the status ofa "labor right had risen to precedence as the indus­ ever, the industry had achieved an unusual fully crafted BeaUX-Arts designs. aristocracy," or a well-paid working-class , \'" try's overarching, all-pervasive credo. level of stability. The city's General Arbi­ Besides the threat ofstrikes, Horowitz 71 elite. Still, control over the workers' liveli­ IIIIII Speed mattered especially to Woolworth. tration Board, established in 190+, settled and the Thompson-Starrett Company hoods remained vested in the hands of their After the Woolworth Building's construc­ labor disputes. For a briefperiod, it also faced another complication in their goal giant corporate employers, the founders of tion began, he frequently worried about gave workers a closed shop, or the right to ofthoroughly rationalizing and speeding an industry that viewed them no longer as whether Thompson-Starrett could, in fact, stipulate that the whole of a particular ~p the construction process-New York's skilled, independent artisans, but instead as complete the skyscraper on time, his fear organization be protected by a union. Al­ l~creasingly diversifying labor commu­ employees, and in doing so, enforced above fueled by "evasive answers from Horo­ though Fuller and employer's associations nity. Between 1890 and 1910, immigrants all else the criterion ofspeed. witz," as he anxiously told Gilbert in De­ challenged the right in 19°6, they settle~ frorn Southern Italy and Eastern Europe cember 1911. Woolworth anticipated losing for employing union alongside nonunIon flooded the city, along with Chinese and 60 fourteen thousand to fifteen thousand dol­ labor. In addition, the Fuller Company African-Americans from the southern ARCHITECT, BUILDER, lars a month in potential rental income adopted a position of conciliation among United States. By 1900, three-quarters of AND CLIENT the if confronted with construction delays.56 the unions. After Black took control,. it de­ ci~'s population consisted offoreign­ bOrn . As construction of the Woolworth Building Gilbert, not surprisingly, had reason to vised methods for defusing labor actions in . Unmlgrants.65 The Metropolitan LIfe Tow , I . began, Gilbert's office, organized hierar­ be sympathetic. In his "Financial Impor­ advance: It paid workers reliably and well, er s stee erectors, one WrIter re­ chically but still functioning as something

17+ 175

...... It ~ CHAPTER FIVE A RECORD-BREAKING FEAT OF MODERN CONSTRUCTION

1'\ of a Beaux-Arts atelier, faced coordinating so facilitated his organization of the project's ees. In 1909, all received three hundred II contractors' installation of the building's one of the most complex, daunting, and disparate design efforts simultaneously. dollars a month, about three times the mechanical and electrical equipment.84­ rigorously scheduled architectural projects Gilbert had not departmentalized his average draftsman's salary.79 Still, Gilbert At the construction site, Gilbert in­ of the day (see fig. 4.3). To that end, Gil­ office like that of the Thompson-Starrett refused to letJohnson's, Rockart's, or structed Wells to rigorously enforce his bert tailored his office methods to synchro­ Company, but the current obsession with Wells's names grace the office's letterhead, own high standards of craftsmanship nize with the expectations of Thompson­ system and organization permeated his reinforcing the impression to clients and n72 while also cultivating a climate ofgood­ Starrett's "modern building organization. thinking as much as it did theirs. Of this to the public alike that his creative works will: "As long as you maintain your good Gilbert's relatively small staffof twenty Gilbert was deeply aware: "The architect were his alone.8o The preparedness and ef­ temper, keep free from personalities, and to twenty-five assistants produced the proj­ of today conducting great building enter­ ficiency with which Gilbert's office was do your duty, as I believe you have done in ect's hundreds ofworking drawings to prises must of necessity maintain a large able to tackle projects as large and complex the past, I will sustain you. Do not under accord with Thompson-Starrett's construc­ organization. It is physically impossible for as Woolworth's skyscraper can be ascribed any circumstances lose temper or enter tion schedule and, afterward, supervised anyone man to do all of the things that the largely to Gilbert's careful selection and into any personal feeling.... Your posi­ assembly and craftsmanship on the site architect is required and expected to do. promotion ofJohnson, Rockart, and Wells. tion is a difficult one and it would not be with efficiency. It is his function to design the building in Johnson, having already fulfilled a an unnatural trick for them [the foremen] II Gilbert organized the lines of command every sense ofthe word, but necessarily he pivotal role in the project's conceptual de­ to quarrel with you ifpossible, and to between his office and those of his engi­ must use many assistants in accorp.plish­ sign process, now oversaw the office staff's claim that your decisions were influenced neering consultants and manufacturers to ing this. Skilled designers and draftsmen, production ofall craft details, including by spite.... Hold them strictly to the con­ resemble those existing between the gen­ structural experts, mechanical, electrical, the full-scale drawings for ornamentation; tract, and no matter how many times you eral contractor's central office, related de­ heating, ventilating and sanitary experts he "directed the overall design of the Wool­ have a thing done over, insist upon it un­ :,,1 partments, and subcontractors. Gunvald ... must take their part in the organization worth Building," recalled Antonin Ray­ til it is right. Do this no matter how much Aus and Company, with thirty engineers ofa great building.... It naturally follows, mond, who drew some of those details.81 they protest."85 Gilbert valued solid crafts­ and draftsmen, produced the Woolworth then, that the architect, being the designer Johnson also approved the full-scale shop manship, and Wells's supervision ofcon­ Building's structural steel shop drawings and master builder, must be the one to co­ drawings produced by the Atlantic Terra struction distanced him from some of the in an office adjacent to Gilbert's within ordinate the work ofall those engaged in I. 1III Cotta Company's in-house draftsmen and, n76 project's most important craft details.86 But the Metropolitan Life Insurance Annex. the enterprise. Contemporaries admired later, Donnelly and Ricci's models for the it also allowed him to focus on developing Long before completing the drawings, it the Gilbert office's "able and systemizing project's ornamental terra cotta, stone, and 82 the identity of his firm as a Beaux-Arts sent batches of them directly to the proj­ deputizing effort, without which works of copper. As Gilbert's project manager for atelier-through effective administration, ect's steel fabricator, the American Bridge the magnitude ofMr. Gilbert's could not the Woolworth Building, Rockart super­ n77 skillful salesmanship, and the production Company.73 In a similar fashion, the At­ be achieved. Like the Woolworth project, vised the office staff's production ofdraw­ of the vivid conceptual sketches and seduc­ lantic Terra Cotta Company's twenty-five each ofthe office's earlier projects had pre­ ings for construction and coordinated all tive perspectives that won support for his draftsmen produced detailed drawings for sented a wide array ofunique and unprec­ project meetings. 8~ designs. the process offabrication in a temporary edented construction-related problems. After construction began, Wells over­ Gilbert's office, with its two associated office on the annex's tenth floor, five stories The time pressures imposed by Thompson­ saw the,project's progress in the office corps of "structural" and "ornamental" below Gilbert's, under the supervision of Starrett's "modern building organization" and on the job site. He collaborated with draftsmen-totaling about eighty in his Thomas R. Johnson.74- The project's heat­ only exacerbated the challenges. Horowitz to supervise the signing ofall own employ and that of Gunvald Aus and ing engineer, Nygren, Tenney, and Ohmes; Gilbert told Woolworth in August 1912 , Contracts between the building's subcon­ Company and the Atlantic Terra Cotta electrical engineer and elevator expert, "This high speed business and the extraor­ tractors and the Broadway-Park Place Company combined-produced virtually Mailloux and Knox; and sanitary engi­ dinary character of the propositions we Company. He also wrote and updated con­ all the Woolworth Building's construction I neer' Albert Webster, all prepared similar have had to solve sometimes forces us all ~truction specifications, inspected the qual­ 'III drawings within about three months, be­ sets of detailed drawings for the project's to nearly a killing pace."78 By 1907, Gilbert Ity ofthe structural steel and all other tweenJanuary 22, 1911, and April 29, 19 subcontractors and related manufacturers.75 had attempted to combat such pressures lllat~rials and their fabrication, approved 11 II' (figs. 5,3, 5'4, 5·5). Sometime after April, ' Gilbert's many consultants effectively ex­ by establishing within his office a second­ o~-Slte assembly and craftsmanship, and l however, Gilbert increased the height tended his own reach over the project's ary tier of key associates. John Rocka~t WIth Th . h . ompson-Starrett synchrollIzed I"~, t e tIm' f . of the tower to 792 feet, causing revisions many interlocking processes ofproducing and George Wells had joinedJohnson III . Ing 0 steel, terra cotta, and stone dehverie L h . to continue until the end ofJuly.87 The detailed drawings for construction and becoming the office's highest-paid employ- s. ater, e coordmated the sub­ drawings produced by Gilbert's draft:smen,

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CHAPTER FIVE: A RECORD-BREAKING FEAT OF MODERN CONSTRUCTION

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F" I G U R E 5.3 Woolworth

Building, construction F" I G U R E 5.4 Woolworth I drawings, Park Place eleva­ bk;....,...-_,. Building, construction tion, gable at twenty-eighth drawings, forty-sixth to to thirtieth stories, I91I. fifty-first stories, showing From National.A.rchitect I buttresses and tourelles, ::f,,·~~:..,-.r:Yl -,_.~. ·~t>::':~tw._,"".-••~ .~' 11 H I (November 1912). 19 • From National.A.rchitect,

II vol. 1 (November 1912). I I when added together with the drawings many difficulties. If I had the physical and pinnacles, and gables.90 Some ofthe orna­ produced by the project's consulting engi­ Burnham and Company's office with 180 mental ability to make the drawings for the mental details they studied at full scale, neers, brought the total to 1,55°.88 Given employees and McKim, Mead, and White's Woolworth Building, it would have taken among them the interior's metal screens, the sky-scraper's gigantic size and the ur­ with approximately 100. 91 Gilbert distin­ me ten years."89 Still, at Gilbert's behest, woodwork, and plaster cornices. These gency of completing the drawings, Gilbert, guished his practice from such practices, Thomas R. Johnson led the office's junior Johnson treated as designs from which a who treasured the ideal of the architect however, by keeping his staffofassisting de­ designers and draftsmen in the production fabricator could produce shop drawings as an artist, nonetheless found himself of the skyscraper's many plans and ele­ directly. signers and draftsmen com"paratively small, at the mercy of the countless impersonal vations, choosing Stickel for the important rarely exceeding the Woolworth Building . Hierarchy, delegation, and specializa­ hands that methodically translated his project's total of 25. In doing so, he resisted Broadway elevation, and guided their re­ tIon had already characterized the organi­ original conceptual sketches andJohnson's creating D. H. Burnham and Company's finement ofintricate ornamental details in ~ation oflarge-scale architectural practices perspectives into documents for construc­ so-called large manufacturing plant, which limestone, terra cotta, copper, and marble: In New York and Chicago by the turn tion. "The principal of a large practice has in the view ofH. Van Buren Magonigle spandrels, canopies, tourelles, buttresses, ofthe century, notable among them D. H. produced "cold and lifeless syndicated

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" .1' I I I;' I , CHAPTER FIVE A RECORD-BREAKING FEAT OF MODERN CONSTRUCTION I I I at the time of the Singer Tower (1906-8). Woolworth accused Thompson-Starrett ect's design phase had ended four months I I , Both offices, however, also incorporated of charging the Broadway-Park Place earlier, the office had virtually completed II: departments of engineering, with Post Company three-quarters of a cent more detailed working drawings, construction III serving as his own chief engineer and Flagg than the typical price of new rope for of the foundation also neared completion, II ' employing Otto Francis Semsch. Flagg, "second-hand rope" from other jobs, and and within two weeks, Woolworth would furthermore, had added a department of in February, he haggled with Gilbert releaseJohnson and Hawley's colorful per­ ;'\ I,I construction in 1907.93 Gilbert, by contrast, over "details of a more or less immaterial spective for simultaneous publication in J, utilized the combined capacities of outside character": pneumatic pivot door checks, the Sunday editions of New York's news­ '.1 I 4~-._ Ii, , consultants, draftsmen, and construction metal trim, elevator signal service, locks papers. Still, Woolworth disputed Gilbert's ·1~~~~1~ contractors. In doing so, he aspired to keep on elevators, bulletin boards, and mail fee. 106 In response, Gilbert argued that his I: "I, , intact the identity of his practice as a small, chutes.10o Earlier, Woolworth had solicited office had totally redesigned the skyscraper , T~-!, ~., '1;1 - independently functioning Beaux-Arts an "astonishingly low" bid from Elbert betweenJanuary 23, 19II, and April 23, 19II, '."•..t):." , "'~J•..•..... I '-.,; atelier. Gary ofUnited States Steel for the project's producing a complete set of construction :1 I .­ 1f Despite Gilbert's "able and systematiz­ total ofmore than twenty-four thousand documents within ninety calendar days. I ~ I ' ___.lL_t_ ing deputizing effort," the Woolworth tons of structural steel-its highest-priced More critically, after working "night and ~§a~:=' I Buildingwas nonetheless "carried through contract-on the grounds that supplying day" it had filed those documents at the under the personal direction ofWool.:.. steel for the Woolworth Building had ad­ Manhattan Bureau ofBuildings.107 In the worth," as Gilbert put it. "There was no vertising value.lOl After Horowitz locked end, Woolworth paid Gilbert the expec­ 'I ;I I detail that did not have Frank Woolworth's in the price of the steel's fabrication at ted 5percent professional fee on a project

~ I personal supervision ... somewhat to my almost two hundred thousand dollars less cost of approximately $8.5 million, or

I 108 II temporary distress."94- Horowitz recalled than the American Bridge Company had $+26,000. Gilbert's refusal to give in to ~ Woolworth's "close watch of the opera­ originally proposed, however, Woolworth Woolworth during the arguments over fees, I' tions."9S Woolworth, in fact, competed with reportedly changed his stance and became the secretary and treasurer of the Amer­ "II III i both Horowitz and Gilbert for control "more cooperative.m02 ican Institute ofArchitects, Glenn Brown,

"i I of the project, at times commandeering In his severest effort at cost cutting, later proudly asserted, "won a victory I I I I Horowitz's position, tracking and record­ Woolworth attempted to slash both Horo­ for the Institute Schedule and a handsome 'Ii; ing the project's labor costs week by week, witz's fee for managing the project's con­ remuneration for himself.m09 I'! I and at times pestering Gilbert about whether struction and Gilbert's professional fee, Despite the obvious stresses in their ~ .~. ~Lt/',fI;'.;A'o· J,f,T,tW CltJLr,t.J", ~.~ ~. the project's consulting engineers had in­ arguing that the publicity associated with architect-builder-client relationship, Gil­ i I 96 .l_"~' =;:;;.12'_ deed met the highest standards ofdesign. the world's tallest skyscraper would bring bert, Horowitz, and Woolworth remained \ I m""·""",,,_ Woolworth kept especially careful watch "a fortune in the shape offame." Horo­ effective collaborators throughout the ( over Aus, whom Gilbert had appointed witz recalled arguing to Woolworth that course of the project. In October 1912, Gil­ F' I G U R E 5.5 Woolworth Building, construc­ .11: i , , tion drawings, tower roof and observatory, during construction as the steel inspection he would not handle all aspects of the bert wrote to his children while sailing for II 1911. From National Architect, vol. 1(Novem­ engineer, fearing that he might start "boss­ bUilding's construction "for nothing": he Europe aboard the Norddeutscher Lloyd I! II ber 1912). ing the job" and giving steel contracts to could not "afford to put up [Woolworth's] steamship Bremen, describing gifts from II I I 97 111 r his friends. building for the sake ofprestige, because Woolworth, a "handsome clock which folds

"\1 Woolworth, furthermore, imposed cost­ We already have earned an abundance of flat in a travelling case; my name is en­ II m03 III work."92 In this, his office more closely saving methods of his own accord, fre­ prestige. As for Gilbert, he reportedly graved on it; it looks expensive," and from resembled that ofNew York's Beaux-Arts­ quently requested changes, and vacillated told Woolworth that he was "just another Horowitz, "boxes ofrare cigars.U110 Horo­ \' :: trained George Post or Ernest Flagg, both over minute materials- and equipment­ millionaire" until his own architectural witz later recalled that he became "de­ III I ofwhom also designed skyscrapers and related decisions, all ofwhich delayed con­ design for the Woolworth Building had voted" to Woolworth during the years of both ofwhom also relied on a secondary struction.98 Horowitz characterized Wool­ made him famous.104- Gilbert, in fact, sent the Woolworth Building's construction. !':1: I, III tier of key associates, with Post's office worth's methods as his "customary way Woolworth the bill for his professional After meeting at Gilbert's office several III numbering close to 60 at the time of the of buying goods for his five-and-ten-cent s~rvices, $61,000 for the project's three ear­ times a week and at other times informally,

stores."99 InJanuary 19II, for example, !test designs, on April 20, 19II.10S The proj- qI I St. Paul Building (1896-99) and Flagg's +7 "the three ofus began to find companion- I I

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I I CHAPTER FIVE

Ii I ship in these conferences."111 Woolworth multiplication to an unprecedented degree '[I! frequently invited Horowitz to his Fifth of the many new technological develop­ Avenue chateau. Gilbert rode downtown in ments preceding it, the Woolworth Build­ I: I Woolworth's automobile for lunch at the ing epitomized the skyscraper as a building I I Hardware Club and dined with Woolworth type. For this reason, it anticipated the I I at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, spending the great, iconic New York setback skyscrap­ :1 i \ , evening afterward in Garden City discuss­ ers of the 1920S, the Chrysler Building and II ~ ing business and then returning with him the Empire State Building among them, II \ I[ I I to New York the next day.112 Regardless leading the structural engineer Mario Sal­ i' of their many individual disagreements, vadori to call it a "first" in reference to I ; then, Horowitz, Woolworth, and Gilbert the later skyscrapers.115 recognized the importance of their own I!' ; shared stake in the shaping ofNew York as II a modern skyscraper city. THE CONSTRUCTION SITE The Thompson-Starrett Company had 1111 considerable experience with building \il Building the Woolworth Building tall, steel-framed skyscrapers, but the ~,I ' I unusual size of Woolworth's project pre­ The construction techniques and methods sented a host of new challenges (fig. 5.6). Thompson-Starrett employed to build Engineering Record and Scientific American :11\1 the Woolworth Building represented the emphasized how Thompson-Starrett or­ culmination of two and a half decades ganized the site for efficiency and how by I in the development of the skyscraper's ingenious methods they raised the project's ~III foundation, steel framing, wind bracing, steel, brick, and terra cotta to previously and cladding technologies. They also tested unconquered heights. New derricks and :1\1 the limits of those technologies. Workers steam-powered cranes lifted "loads which I, ill excavated the concrete piers of the Wool­ never before had been lifted," among them worth's foundation to some of the deepest twelve-ton members of stee1,t16 Hod hoists UIii bedrock in the city. The skyscraper's steel delivered tile, brick, and terra cotta to the frame, the highest in the world, reached skyscraper's upper stories at a speed of one I!:I I, the greatest level of intricacy in its individ­ thousand feet per minute.ll7 To increase ual bracing members, and its exterior, speed, Thompson-Starrett developed a \1: sheathed throughout in terra cotta, rep­ special two-stage vertical hoisting process, i~ resented the day's most extensive system along with a method for shifting sets of

1 1II of ornamental cladding. From a purely guy derricks upward two stories at a time. technological standpoint, however, the It invented new electrically powered hoist­ 'III Woolworth Building was a conservative ing engines and new safety devices for !, I' design, reflecting the restrictive stipulations special types of electrically powered scaf­ ofNew York's j899 building code.11l The folding, or the temporary, open platforms I skyscraper had "few if any absolutely new that supported workmen and materials 11 118 "11 features of importance," reported Engineer­ as construction progressed. To produce 1,1 ing Record in 1912.114- But on account of its steam of the high pressure required for F' ; G U R E 5. e Woolworth Building, construction site, May I, 1911 • From Photographic Views 'unusually large scale, rationalized process rapid hoisting, it employed a battery of ofthe Construction ofthe Woolworth Building, lJJ Broadway, New York City, I9II- I2, Irving Underhill, of construction, sophistication as a work three boilers that consumed twenty tonS of Photographer (New York, 1911-12). Milstein Division of United States History, Local History, II of engineering, and inclusion as well as anthracite coal in twenty-four hours,119 and Genealogy, New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations.

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I ...... I ~ CHAPTER FIVE 'I A RECORD-BREAKING FEAT OF MODERN CONSTRUCTION , ,I According to Engineering Record, the method of horse-drawn truck (fig. 5.7).123 changeable work units, the project's gangs subcontractors, each ofwhich fell under Woolworth project stood out as remarkable The Atlantic Terra Cotta's shops in Perth ofmen functioned something like cogs in the direction ofa foreman and, in some for "the organization, administration, and Amboy, NewJersey, shipped the skyscrap­ a giant machine, methodically advancing a cases, several deputy foremen. Sunter's execution of the complicated and difficult er's terra cotta claddlng directly to lower quasi-industrialized sequence ofconstruc­ staff, comprising a civil engineer, a chief construction work with numerous diverse Manhattan around Staten Island via the tion, a time- and money-driven process timekeeper, three time clerks, and a ma­ operations, simultaneously prosecuted by upper bay and the Hudson River. Once that would reach its most systematic state terials clerk assisted by two checkers, rigor­ an army ofworkmen in a very restricted workers began attaching terra cotta, Sunt­ of efficiency and order in the Empire State ously enforced the project's schedule in space." The site's confined area for storage, er had batches sent from the factory at the Building's construction almost twenty 'I their daily inspections ofall lines of con­ contained by sidewalk boundaries, im­ rate of one trucklqad every fifteen min­ years later. struction.129 Both Sunter and Wells sent posed severe limitations on the delivery utes.124 When the batches arrived on the William Sunter and George Wells su­ Gilbert's office daily progress reports.HO ~ I and removal of the project's nearly two site, workers hoisted the terra cotta to ever pervised construction from offices poised Wurts Brothers photographers systemati­ hundred thousand tons of materials, some higher stories as construction progressed. on a sidewalk bridge bordering the edge cally documented the project daily, for Gil­ ofwhich trucks hauled in gigantic, fifty­ At the project site, there existed a of the site. Thompson-Starrett supplied bert's reference as an architect, but, more ton masses. As the skyscraper's steel skel­ "spirit of cooperation which pervaded the the office with a forty-plug switchboard, important, also to establish a visual record eton mounted higher, and as successive work from the beginning," according to wired to seven telephones throughout the ofthe project's construction should a dis­ batches of new materials and new subcon­ Gilbert's later description of the peaceful building and to the offices of the project's agreement arise.1l1 tractors arrived at the site, the human and labor conditions,12S Woolworth likewise mechanical energy intensified; "a large applauded the ease with which "each con­ number of freight and passenger elevators tractor worked as a unit in cooperation 111,1 " [moved] materials and men.1l120 with the other contractors," comparing the The superintendent for the Woolworth II unity with the "deep and rich communal project, William Sunter-whom Gilbert spirit" of the cathedral builders,126 Both called "the most efficient man on the job"­ men, however, refused to recognize the requisitioned materials two or three days contradictions between such a "communal in advance, so that they flowed to the site spirit" and the early twentieth-century systematically, and precisely at the moment reality of a labor force totally at the mercy specified by the schedule.12l Thompson­ of speed, or a "well systematized orga­ Starrett had not planned the skyscraper as nization" working in "record time." The a "fast-track project" in the present-day average size of the project's labor force sense of the term, but the frame's more was approximately two thousand, with than twenty-three thousand tons ofstruc­ about one thousand employed directly by tural steel-three times the amount used Thompson-Starrett and about one thou­ to construct the Metropolitan Life Tower­ sand by the project's ninety subcontractors, it had fabricated in the American Bridge most ofwhom worked in single eight­ Company's plants in Philadelphia and hour shifts. A total of twenty-six subcon­ II Pittsburgh as rapidly as Gunvald Aus and tractors fabricated, assembled, and in­ Company could supply the shop drawings.122 stalled the building's electrical, heating, I 127 American Bridge then shipped the fabri­ and ventilating systems alone. That _.~ 0'$ -..... cated steel by rail to the Pennsylvania such a vast array of trades and individuals -.-­ M _~ .. _~ " )I,i Railroad Company's yards in Greenville, should fall into place systematically and

~ NewJersey. Sunter ordered the steel on time can be attributed above all else -_..

I" from the yards in three-hundred- to five­ to Thompson-Starrett's rationalized con­ ! I hundred-ton lots; after being shipped by trol over the project's seventy classified. F G U R E 5.7 Delivery of terra cotta to construction site by the Atlantic Terra II lighter to New York, the lots were carted items or "principal operations" through ItS COtta COmpany, near the Hudson River docks,June 1912• Unidentified photographer. 128 to the site by the comparatively simple comprehensive time schedule. As inter- Collection of the New-York Historical Society, negative 53451.

!I 18 4 III 18S

II1II...... !1111 -_...... -...... ------­ CHAPTER FIVE

Altogether, the Foundation Company than nine months later, they drove the and the Thompson-Starrett Company frame's final rivet in place, topping off constructed the Woolworth Building within the tower's 792-foot pinnacle (fig. 5.10).134­ a period totaling twenty-nine months. "The highest piece of steel was erected :1 Preparation of the site began in April 1910, on schedule time," Gilbert wrote to Wool­ when Gilbert engaged Phillips and Worth­ worth, adding that "the other work has I !I ington to investigate the area's surface been following along with extraordinary geology with test borings. ThatJuly, the speed and system, and it is a matter of con­ :1 II, E. H. Southard Wrecking and Trucking stant remark all over the city and in fact all

11 Company, followed by the Yolk House over the country that it has been wonder­ I Wrecking Company, razed the five exist­ fully well handled."1lS Thompson-Starrett's ing commercial buildings that bordered original schedule had specified a comple­ 1 Broadway and Park Place. H2 On November tion date ofDecember 31, 1912• ThatJuly, I, the Foundation Company demolished Sunter pointed out that certain trades had and removed the buildings' remainingwalls, completed work in advance ofthe sched­ footings, and floors below grade and then ule but others, unfortunately, had lagged three days later began excavation with significantly behind.1l6 Horowitz revised pneumatic caissons (see fig. 5.6). In May the schedule and designated April 1, 1913, 19II, four months after Woolworth ac­ as the project's new completion date.1l7 By quired the Barclay corner, Yolk House comparison to the length of time it took demolished the existing structures border­ to build a major public building-Gilbert's ing Barclay Street, which opened up the United States Custom House, for instance, m I entire 152-foot Broadway frontage. Al­ took more than six years to construct-the I though the Foundation Company had Woolworth Building's three-month delay begun excavation in November, it took was minor; thousands ofworkers had fab­ Ilil another ten months before its labor force ricated and assembled its structural steel II I sank the last of the foundation's caissons. and terra cotta with speed and efficiency. I I It completed the skyscraper's foundation on August 26, 19II. 1'1' CArs SONS I Thompson-Starrett's structural iron­ I workers set the Woolworth Building's first Next to the Municipal Building, the Wool­ I steel grillage on August 15, and by Octo­ worth Building represented the largest , II! ber II, the skyscraper's skeletal steel super­ architectural caisson job ever undertaken structure began to rise in the city. In late anywhere (figs. S.II, 5.12).1l8 As such, it November, the superstructure reached the challenged the conventional practices of sidewalk level, and then it climbed incre­ caisson construction and put to the test the mentally upward through the following newest caisson technologies. These had , " 'i winter and spring at a rate of nearly a significantly matured since Charles-Jean I story and a half per week (fig. 5.8). Brick­ Triger's fabrication of the earliest caisson I 'I layers attaching terra cotta cladding fol­ for a coal mine, in 1839, a pressurized cast­ lowed closely behind. By April 6, 1912, steel iron enclosure with a sharp cutting edge . erectors had carried the frame up to the for excavation underwater, featuring an aIr Ii thirtieth story, the top of the main block, lock that permitted communication with and by May 30, to the forty-seventh story the outside.1l9 Still, the Woolworth job im­ , ,... I '~J ofthe tower (fig. 5.9). OnJuly 1,1912, less posed new demands; it pressed caisson p; R E: 5.8 Woolworth Building, erection ofstructural steel, December 28,1911. From Photographic I ;~S' ofthe ConJ"truction ofthe Woolworth Building, 2JJ Broadway, New York City, I9 - , Irving II I2 B~ erh"ill, Photographer (New York, 1911-12). Milstein Division of United States History, Local 186 lstory, and Genealogy, New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations.

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1 ; 111 FIG U R E 5.9 Woolworth Building, erection of structural steel, April +, 1911. From Photographic ,.. : G U R E 5. I 0 Woolworth Building, erection of structural steel, July I, 1911. From Photographic riews ofthe Construction ofthe Woolworth Building, 2JJ BroadwtfY, New York City, I9II-I2, Irving Vzews ofthe Construction ofthe Woolworth Building, lJJ Broadway, New York City, I9II-I2, Irving ~~derhill, Underhill, Photographer (New York, 1911-Il). Milstein Division ofUnited States History, Local Photographer (New York, 1911- Il). Milstein Division ofUnited States History, Local History, and Genealogy, New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations. lStory, and Genealogy, New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations. I

II''I I I CHAPTER FIVE A RECORD-BREAKING FEAT OF MODERN CONSTRUCTION

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~ J ." 6 1 "I

,- U ~!~.~ "JA. .~ .~.<.' .~:.~:z I~ I:: ;a i:.· .n aO .' II' • ~ .~- . ~ ! :1 ~54 ~ ~ ~. ,~'" ~j~~tf 'I si .2 .: ~ D:J U'9'·'::-· .zm".''';'''__·''''-~.~+-66·'':''-''<<''-_.--.":'.-.I9'S'...1 II I'br1< """" Ii F" I G U R E: 5.1 1 Woolworth Building, plan showing foundation, Gunvald Aus and Company, 1911. Engineering Record, vol. 65 (February 17,1912).

II workers into shafts of unusual vertical completely by hand. A half-dozen men F"IGURE: 5.12 II Woolworth Build­ depths, where they charted unknown crowded into confined chambers with at ing, detail of subterranean territory and, despite the lat­ best six feet of headroom and faced poor caisson, May 16, est technologies, grappled with all the at­ ventilation and stifling heat.14-1 At night, 1911. Photograph tendant risks. the excavation continued under electric by Wurts Brothers. After the Foundation Company arrived lamps, the poetJohn Reed's "thousand Woolworth Col­ !I'I, on the Woolworth Building site on Novem­ candle flares.77tH As many as nine caissons lection, National II Building Museum. I ber I, 1910, caisson workers drove wood the workers at once sealed and placed I' and interlocking steel sheet piling with under air pressure equal to the surround­ steam hammers along the site's street edges ing water pressure. and underpinned the walls of adjacent Each shaft took an average oftwo weeks The Foundation Company provided Woolworth's caisson construction quali­ buildings with new concrete footings. On to construct, with wagons carting away ~ the Woolworth site with its own steel air fied after on-site medical examinations November +, they began excavating shafts the excavation spoil throughout the day lock for "hospital purposes" and kept a for the rigors of the work. During the IL 1'1 for the skyscraper's thirty-eight reinforced and night.H3 As excavation hy caisson pro­ physician and nurse constantly in atten­ Municipal Building project of only a few concrete piers, and when Woolworth en­ ceeded, other teams ofworkers poured dance.14-S Although experts in Germany months earlier, which required excava­ larged the site on February 3, they excavat­ and sank concrete piers in sections while at and France had determined the cause of tions as deep as 178 feet below grade, ex­ ed the thirty-one new shafts required for times reducing the air pressure in the cais­ "caisson disease," or "the bends," around perts judged an atmospheric pressure of , ",I the project's total of sixty-nine piers. The sons' steel working chambers. They loaded 1861, it had yet to be fully understood; forty-five pounds per square inch the limit site's bedrock, lying deep beneath water­ the piers with "ballast," or huge quanti­ workers continued to suffer from the sud­ ofhuman tolerance. At the Woolworth's logged quicksand, gravel, and hardpan, ties of one- and two-ton cast-iron blocks, den decompression caused by the changes site, the men excavated the shafts in forty­ I varied in profile from no to 120 feet below frequently totaling up to eight hundred in atmospheric pressure, or "the effects I minute shifts, spent an equivalent amount surface grade. Where the bedrock inclined tons. One of the piers, caisson number 61 of dissolved gases 'boiling' in the blood­ j of time decompressing in the caisson's steeply, workers carved out horizontal (six feet, six inches in diameter), they sank stream," with IIO cases of the sickness and air lock, and repeated the process just one offsets to provide suitable bearing strata.HO eighty feet in twenty consecutive hours. fOur of the Brooklyn Bridge's estimated I more time before finishing for the day.14-7 II III Inside the caissons, the workers labored The larger caisson number 3+ (nine feet, twenty deaths during construction attrib­ Gilbert and his contemporaries described around the clock in three eight-hour shifts nine inches in diameter) took twelve days uted to the disease.14-6 Reportedly, fewer 1 the rigors ofcaisson work as an important of two hundred men, digging the shafts to excavate, pour, and sink. 4-4 than 80 percent of the applicants for the rite ofmasculinity: "The courage ofa soldier

19 0 19 1

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A RECORD-BREAKING FEAT OF MODERN CONSTRUCTION CHAPTER FIVE

under fire is not more heroic," Gilbert The Woolworth Building's sixty-nine project's western property line, a special angles at the very moment that its com­ exclaimed. In "the excavation or the cais­ reinforced concrete piers functioned like type of transfer girder, the cantilever petitor' Bethlehem Steel, began producing I II giant tubular roots extending downward girder, carried the column loads eccentric the innovative, labor-saving wide-flanged I son" there lurked "imminent and terrible II physical dangers every hour ofthe day": through water-saturated soil to bedrock. with the building's main foundation piers, H-beam, a product of the new "universal" ·1' 8 such work "is quoted as 'extra hazardous,' Their odd arrangement and two-staged supporting those loads as closely as possible rolling method devised by Henry Grey.15 '1\ .:: 1S4 I ' for it is so in every sense of the word."148 process of construction-hardly a "pure" to the existing adjacent construction. Corresponding to the Carnegie Company's :1 1 William Aiken Starrett similarly compared solution for the design ofa concrete pier Unusually elaborate steel grillages dis­ conservative method of creating built-up the building ofa skyscraper to the wag­ foundation-reflected instead Woolworth's tributed the tower columns' concentrated sections, United States Steel's American ing of a war, with workers deployed like disjointed process ofacquiring parcels to point loads over the top of each concrete Bridge Company had continued to employ an army in a risk-filled field operation.149 create the project's final site. Aus design.ed pier, utilizing four separate tiers of steel I the steel fabrication technique known as ". II':1: Rather than banding together as Gilbert most of the piers as circular, ranging in beams, each laid crosswise-contrasting "heavy bridge construction" for its struc­ '" and Starrett's troops in a battle, how­ diameter from six feet, six inches up to with the simpler two-way grillages typi­ tural members, which reportedly increased ,1\ 1ss ever, the Woolworth's caisson workers eighteen feet, nine inches. Along the sky­ cally found in New York's skyscrapers. the total weight ofthe Woolworth project's II ;11 159 achieved solidarity through their fight to scraper's Barclay Street edge, however, Altogether, Aus's design for the Wool­ steel by at least one-third. The massive­ 11\ , secure safe and survivable conditions of he shaped the piers instead as long and worth Building's cumbersome system of ness and structural conservatism of the Iii work. Their union, the International Com­ narrow rectangles, permitting a tight ad­ oddly shaped concrete piers, huge transfer Woolworth Building's steel frame, then, , :1\ pressed Air Workers ofAmerica, defended jacency against the property line, and so girders, cantilever girders, and complex can be explained in part by a corporation 'II 1s2 and protected that solidarity. utilizing the site to the very fullest. After grillages illogically transferred down to that in becoming so large, and indeed, so 'II! Woolworth enlarged the site, Aus joined bedrock the skyscraper's combined column inflexible as an industrial system, could :;1 The Foundation Company, headquar­ loads of 136,000 tons. Still, it effectively no longer maintain its position at the fore­ 1\ tered adjacent to the Woolworth's con­ eight of the project's original thirty eight ;i! struction site at u5 Broadway, boasted pat­ piers to the project's new piers with enor­ exploited every square inch ofWoolworth's front of technological innovation. jl ents on caisson technology, among them mous transfer girders. The girders carried property.1S6 The rapidity and efficiency with which at their midspan enormous concentrated the steel erectors assembled the Woolworth ill the sturdy and efficient air lock developed by its vice president, the civil engineer point loads, which shot straight downward Building's steel frame, by contrast, pointed :'1 STEEL from the main columns of the tower. to an antithetical phenomenon-Thompson­ "I Daniel E. Moran. The company's reputa­ II,;I' ' tion rested largely on the achievements of The largest of the Woolworth's trans­ The extreme depth of the Woolworth Starrett's modern, rationalized system of II' Iii its professional engineering staff, which fer girders, G+I, spanned two piers un­ Building's concrete pier foundation was construction, in which speed reigned para­ :1 "I continued to refine excavation equipment derneath tower column +1. Probably the exceeded only by the extreme height of mount. In addition to fabricating the proj­ .1 'II and procedures. For the Woolworth proj­ heaviest ever used in building construc­ the tower's structural steel. The project's ect's steel, the American Bridge Company J I' tion, G+I was eight feet deep, six feet, nine huge quantity of steel pointed to the high also served as the structural steel subcon­ I, ect, it specially prefabricated the caissons' tI ." steel forms, air locks, and cofferdams in inches wide, and twenty-three feet long. volume ofproduction made possible by tractor, employing a total of180 structural "I its own yards near Newark, NewJersey, Built up from three separate girders, and the size ofUnited States Steel, the recently ironworkers in single eight-hour shifts ::1 consolidated, vertically integrated, and I,' and in other shops in the vicinity. On the finished with solid web and side plates, it (fig. 5.13). Antonin Raymond later recalled, ~; construction site, it installed batteries of weighed sixty-five tons. At its center, it now largest industrial corporation yet to "The workers of that time on the whole ~ I steam boilers and air compressors and set carried a concentrated point load of four appear in the United States. As the parent were excellent, and i learned more from " up movable derricks with long booms that thousand seven hundred tons. On account Company of the Carnegie Company and the them than I had ever learned in the office."160 ,I rse manipulated ten- and twelve-ton caisson ofits size, G+l required a forty-two-ho American Bridge Company, United States Organized in teams of erectors and riv­ sections with rapidity and ease.1SO After team and a one-hundred-ton truck to haul Steel produced as well as fabricated all the eting gangs, the ironworkers averaged completing the Woolworth's foundation, its bulky mass to the building site. After structural steel for the Woolworth Build­ a pace of two stories per week while it proudly advertised itself as the provider grappling with girder G+1, the Foundation ing.tS? United States Steel's great size, how­ constructing the skyscraper's twenty­ ofpneumatic caissons for "twenty-six Company chose to cut apart the project's ever, also engendered a particular type of eight-story main structure, setting in of the tallest and most costly buildings in remaining seven transfer girders while product, its Carnegie Company's massive the process a new record for the largest still in transport aboard a lighter; at the a~d overdesigned steel I beam. The Carne­ amount of structural steel ever assem­ I New York City," with the Singer Tower 111,1 and the Municipal Building also number­ construction site, it had workers rivet the gIe Company, furthermore, had continued bled-l,153 tons-within six consecutive 153 to build up I-beam sections using plates and eight-hour days.161 I ing among them.1S1 pieces back together again. Along the I

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i J III11 I "

I I II III I A RECORD-BREAKING FEAT OF MODERN CONSTRUCTION ,I CHAPTER FIVE lowered, "almost as swiftly as falling, nor to severe, at least once a week.167 New to the street," finding the elevators too York's unions continued to demand safer r ' slow.16+Journalists hailed the steel erec­ building methods and equipment, given

I tors' risk taking, while knowing full well the industry's national average of 12 fa­

1\ ':1 that the risks were all too real. At the proj­ talities and more than 350 serious injuries 1 'Ji I 1,000 II ect's outset, a derrick's steel cable broke, per workers a year-among them , I crashing down over the sidewalk and, in the stabilizing of scaffolding and lad­ Gilbert's words, "killing a man and badly ders, the placement of guardrails around i'l wounding, probably mortally, a boy while openings, and the covering of floors as a II!,I II passing."16S As the frame approached the skyscraper's skeleton rose-and backed Iii twenty-eighth story, the riveter Peter those demands with strikes. Still, they II II ,ii' Gushue of Brooklyn fell down an elevator found their demands at best infrequently I, shaft, and several hundred fellow workers acknowledged.168 Paul Starrett franklyad­ mourned his death, refusing to work for mitted that a worker should join a union "III twenty-four hours afterward.166 Liability to protect himself, but also applauded the II ,I[ I insurance inspectors reported the acci­ site's foremen who "made a game of it, a r dents and injuries, which ranged from mi­ race against time."169 II: II III

\ I F" I G U R E: 5. I 3 Woolworth Building, structural ironworkers hoisting a beam in place, 1912•

r I Photograph by Brown Brothers. ,iI I I I

"I I ,I, As the steel arrived at the site, between air compressors. A force of thirty-five steel II I thirty and forty structural ironworkers painters followed one story behind the riv­ "II, I unloaded, sorted, and began erecting the eters, applying the code-required field coat , 1,1 i of red lead paint. The floor-arch builders I : frame's individual steel components, 1 I' 162 assisted by large stiff-legged derricks. A followed still another story behind.

1 :,1 team of ten erectors followed two stories Gilbert spoke of "the hazardous height ..)1 behind, "fitting up" and plumbing the to be scaled by the workmen erecting the steel columns, girders, beams, and portal structural steel," and Horowitz of the I1 I arch wind bracing to a tolerance of three­ chilling experience ofworking high on a I, I eighths of an inch (fig. 5.1+). Four-man steel skeleton "so high from the ground J I ill,l: gangs of riveters, twenty-two in all, ac­ [that] on wet mornings, its upper halfwas companied the erectors. Concentrated in lost to view in clouds."16l The steel erec­ j groups around the frame's column splices, tors, Horowitz added, "seem not to knoW III ~~:::: -.iJ;._-;~:: ...... portal and knee braces, and girder inter­ the meaning of fear" (fig. 5.15). They . r- sections, the gangs drove an average of stood on the edges of beams, leaning theIr 1 three hundred rivets per eight-hour day bodies outward against the wind, and F'" I G U R E: 5.14 Woolworth Building, structural ironworkers, 1912• Unidentified photographer. using pneumatic hammers operated from swarmed "like flies onto the chain of the ~as~ Gilbert Collection, Archives Center, National Museum ofAmerican History, Behring Center, 1ll1thsonian Institution. the basement by two electrically powered hoisting mechanism," by which they were

19+ 195

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I 111.1 A RECORD-BREAKING FEAT OF MODERN CONSTRUCTION CHAPTER FIVE

I and in turn erected by a rationalized, lin­ I

II1 1 ear method that portended later industrial :1, 17t 111 assembly lines. Horowitz would go on to

II '1: 11 declare that "our mighty skyscrapers all J have been assembled out offactories."l72 Steel, in use for skyscrapers in New York 111'1 '1 1 since the mid-1890s, comprised modular , I ,:111 components not unlike the earlier cast­ 'I··' 1 I1I I and wrought-iron systems-albeit with the I added advantage ofincreased strength in 'il II both tension and compression. Horowitz Iii found steel ideally suited to a comparable Totol Load -9,400.ooo!b. type of prefabrication offsite, where the fi­ Moteriol :' , ~ 1I1I1 nallocation of each member could be pre­ 2-Pls.4JJ'xj' - l6.125" , PI ,'x" - 7.000· II 5P/s 40'xl' -ZlaOCf)" 8 U 6'x4'xj' - 6U2O­ I determined by the fabricator's setting plan. 4P14. 21')(/' - 7J,5()()" 8~ 6'x6'x/' - 7~ IOPIs. 2f'xl' -,,"-7.50" 2 U 5'x4'1t;' - asoo- 1III1 The Woolworth's steel members could III" TotClI 700.715 sq. In 11,11 not "have either been fabricated, properly I, F" I G U R E 5.16 Woolworth Building, detail ofcol­ 11I1 finished, shipped, handled, or erected in umns II and 14, Gunvald Aus and Company, 1911. the ordinary course of events," Engineering From Engineering Record, vol. 67 (July 5, 1913). Record reported in 1912, suggesting Thomp­

III son-Starrett's recent advances in the scale III ofassembly.173 The process of assembly, cumulative vertical load of 4,7°° tons. Of t, moreover, ensured predictability and ac­ that total, about 750 tons constituted the curacy in the scheduling of construction weight of the column itself.175 Horowitz and so made the company's goals ofratio­ later recalled that columns II and 1+ and nalized construction and rapid completion other heavy structural members had to be ill II achievable. hauled to the building site along a special Ii ,ill As constructed, the Woolworth Build­ route laid out by Thompson-Starrett, to

1 ,\1 ing's steel frame possessed not only a visual avoid the caving in of streets honeycombed F" I G U R E: 5.15 Woolworth Building, structural ironworkers, 1912• Photograph by Brown Brothers. massiveness that betrayed its conservative with a "complex mechanical jungle" and

1,111 design, but also a complexity among its of the tunnels he characterized as "vaulted ,il component parts unprecedented in earlier sewers through which a coach and four In 1902, the editors ofAmerican Architect a rapidity which is out of the question in masonry structures."l70 In assuming such skyscrapers. Column, girder, and bracing might be driven."l76 Despite the virtues :1 and Building News called attention to the members the American Bridge Company of assembly, then, the massiveness and I1 rapidity of the day's steel.:..framed con­ a preconceived relationship among the I1I built up in accordance with Aus's design complexity required of the Woolworth struction, arguing that it demonstrated the steel frame's component parts, the method for the structural steel, by joining many Building's structural steel contradicted f virtues of a modern method of assembly: of assembly suited Thompson-Starrett's 'I large pieces using hundreds ofrivets, Horowitz's effort to streamline, rational­ "The advantage of the modern steel-frame objective of rationalizing the process of following the methods of heavy bridge :111 construction. As early as the 18+os, James ize, and speed up the entire process of con­ construction over the older style in point 17 fabrication. 4- Columns II and 1+ of the struction. IlL of rapidity has been strikingly shown of Bogardus had pioneered a modular system 8 I tower, the heaviest ever used in building The Woolworth Building's system of late. It is obvious that, while every por­ of cast-iron construction, but not until I S I did the method of assembly triumph-in construction, required box sections at their wind bracing, the final design ofwhich I tion of a steel-frame structure takes as 'III, ~ases (fig. 5.16). At seven hundred square Aus assigned to his associate S. F. Holtzman, long to make as the corresponding part of London's Crystal Palace. Its builders, Fo:X: and Henderson, had the design's individual Inches of material in cross-sectional area had a level of elaboration never reached a building of masonry, it is possible, in the ~nd approximately three feet by four feet before or since in steel-framed construc­ former, to prepare parts outside, and when cast- and wrought-iron members prefab­ In plan dimension, each column carried a tion (figs. 5.17, 5.18, 5.19).177 First ofall, the they are ready, to 'assemble' them ... with ricated as modular, interchangeable parts

19 6 197

J .AI ,I:

CHAPTER F"IVE A RECORD-BREAKING F"EAT OF" MODERN CONSTRUCTION I III system integrated a wide catalog of brac­ ing types: portal arch and double portal arch bracing, full-story diagonal bracing, and knee bracing, or the low diagonals Iii II joining corner girders and columns. It ~~-:~-B also incorporated the more common stiff, , moment-resisting connections made by :1= -t-t=-t-1 ~--~ - t- n I...J 'I' :1~. II/ joining triangular gusset plates to girders and columns.178 Second, the tower's lower :+=~-j " -I ~ ~t:t:J twenty-eight stories featured the most """" extensive use ofportal arches ever to ap­ -l-t:t ­ f t -=t±:±:t liS ti fl --I> R 'S 179 pear in tall building construction. In the l· -_.. __ -r - -__ .­ -­ ------11--­-:­ - ':"~-'-. tower's frontal elevation, the portal arches =-~,~ ~~L' ~. ~r made possible an unusual degree of open­ ••• '" ness between the main structural columns, ::I .:1 IIr"> precisely in the places the eye would have '-7~-~=1~:1m=~-~

expected to find either full-bay diagonals F'IGURE: 5.18 or, in masonry construction, the greatest It-''--.: Woolworth Build­ massiveness and weight. The portal arch -U:t:t: ing, elevations of system, in essence, made possible the ar­ wind bracing planes - .~ e i ~I-· e I ~. r: I I ,If chitectural impression desired by Gilbert, in tower, Gunvald L that ofa screenlike ethereality. r Aus and Company, 191I. From American The Woolworth's tall and thin central ~~~-C:=-=F=t-~t====t-;J-~~ Architect, vol. 103 tower functioned structurally as a highly I: I I ad PrJ I:a :!!J .' P':a:I t-'I (March t­ -9---I-.-t­ 26, 1913). rigid vertical cantilever: Totally self­ .~ (Courtesy of the ;tl Ell fs

19 8 199

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CHAPTER FIVE A RECORD-BREAKING FEAT OF MODERN CONSTRUCTION

absolute stability, given its "extraordi­ fied Thompson-Starrett's ambition to mod­ nary height.ll186 In 1912, Gilbert wrote III ernize the city, but the massiveness and proudly of the Woolworth Building's su­ i conservatism ofits structural design point­ perior rigidity against the forces of the i ed instead to the outmoded stipulations of wind: "It has been the intention to provide the firmly entrenched 1899 New York City ! the soundest, strongest, and most efficient ·1 building code. Even the giantism ofUnited construction.ll187 Tests made by Aus during States Steel, with its stagnant methods of 'I III I a "violent gale" onJanuary 6, 1913, Gilbert design and reliance upon heavy bridge fab­ felt comforted to know, revealed not the rication techniques in the end served the I I slightest tremor.188 In 1923, Gilbert reas­ J.... Aoor. : dictates of the code. Those who attempted ~I -E~ill~-I serted that the tower "does not sway at all "=:1 to revise the code, in particular the New ~I I so far as we can detect by the most careful .. I ~: York Building Code Revision Commission ~I measurements" and that "the structure ~i in 19 0 9, confronted the vicissitudes of II is of the most substantial character; we did ~I --~~--lJ city politics in addition to the competition ~' not dare take any risks that could be fore­ ~ between local building trades and profes­ v), seen or avoided.ll189 Although the tower did ~ sional interests. The code's stipulations .1 ~: in all likelihood sway at least a fraction remained in force until 1916, when the of an inch, Gilbert had it tested yet again 19l !II city finally adopted a new code. Only in the following year, to put to rest once and later skyscrapers such as the Empire State for all recurring myths about its swaying.190 Building would engineers use fewer struc­ Aus, in marked contrast to Gilbert, tural pieces and connections ofincreased strongly criticized the Woolworth Build­ rigidity to serve the same ends with greater i ! ing's structural redundancies and wasteful economy. Consequently, the most inno­ ~ conservatism, publicly calling attention .... I vative aspect ofthe Woolworth's construc­ ~, ..~ to its absence ofstructural engineering : ~ tion would be identified instead with I I ! ! economy. This he blamed on the 1899 New I I I Horowitz and the Thompson-Starrett Com­ j\ III .L.+-__.--J York City building code's excessively l I pany's "modern building organization" ! i high figures for wind loads and live loads. and, in particular, with the organization's __.1 i Skyscrapers, he insisted, could beyond rationalized method for assembling the any question be built to a height of one skyscraper's intricate skeleton of steel in thousand two hundred feet-but only if F" J G U R E 5. I 9 Woolworth Building, details ofwind bracing in tower, Gunvald Aus and Company, 1911, record time. From Engineering Record, vol. 6S (February 24, 1912). engineers and officials reevaluated the code's requirement for wind loads and live loads. Under the current code, it would TERRA COTTA 18 engineering expertise ofAus. Still, Gilbert politan Life Tower. 4- Woolworth, eager be impossible to ever build much higher The Woolworth Building's steel frame instructed Aus to be "extremely careful to trim expenses, countered that checking than the Woolworth Building, at least asserted itselfaudaciously during construc­ and conservative" with his structural cal­ by United States Steel or the Manhattan Without the closer spacing of major col­ 18l lss tion as a bold feat ofmodern technology, culations. Gilbert also advised Wool­ Bureau ofBuildings would be adequate. umns and the consequent loss ofvaluable but the application ofits handcrafted terra worth that Aus's design be checked by Gilbert continued to advocate caution, flOor area.191 Other engineers called New cotta cladding suggested by contrast a "an outside engineer" as an "additional nevertheless, choosing Thompson-Starrett's York's bUilding code archaic and urged kinship with the great stone monuments precaution" and recommended Boller and chief engineer, George Simpson, for the that it be amended. They cited Chicago's b 'ld' of the Middle Ages (see figs. 5,9, 5.10). Hodge, the structural engineers who had checking. He then emphasized to Simpson U1 lllg code as the desired model. 192 Terra cotta invested Aus's steel-framed checked Otto Francis Semsch's design for that while he had confidence in the engi­ , The Woolworth Building's rapid, ra­ tIo I' d engineering with a human scale, delicacy, the Singer Tower and more recently Purdy neeringjudgments ofAus, he also wanted na lze process of construction and record ' h' h l' and soaring, aerial lightness; without and Henderson's design for the Metro- to ascertain the Woolworth Building's -settIng elg t may have exemp 1­ such an intricacy of ornamental detail,

200 201

~II ---_....-.-­ ...J r:1 ~ ':' I I' CHAPTER FIVE A RECORD-BREAKING FEAT OF MODERN CONSTRUCTION

1 1

I1 1I' try had developed fully by 1910 (figs , 5.20 at the rate ofone and a half stories per 'I'll 5. 21).195 Although working within the old­ week. Still, the speed of the terra cotta's est tradidon oftheir craft, the bricklayers II application wholly depended on the rates found themselves subject to the dictates of 'III ofits production and shipment by the 11,1 1 Thompson-Starrett's comprehensive time Atlantic Terra Cotta Company.196 10' schedule and to the concomitant rigging of On April 10, 1912, after the bricklayers the building site for efficiency and speed. had finished attaching fourteen stories II Thompson-Starrett kept the Woolworth II ofthe Woolworth Building's terra cotta II project's 120 scaffolds, suspended completely il "I cladding, thirty stonemasons began dress­ around the buildillg by seven-story ropes, ing, setting, and anchoring carved Bed­ 'Ilil under the constant supervision of five men, ,I, ford limestone to its three-story base (fig. who raised them on schedule methodi­ 5. 22).197 The skyscraper's steel-framed 'I cally, abruptly, and all at once, to keep the II construction facilitated speed by allowing ,II top of the terra cotta cladding continually workers to proceed with such typically dis­ at waist height for the workmen. On the crete cladding operations simultaneously.198 'II skyscraper's lower Roors, work advanced I' It also allowed the building to remain open jlll'l

:1,

1 " 11 1 i

1 1 1 1 " FIG U R E 5.20 Woolworth Building Tower, showing installation of terra cotta cladding on the first two I floors of the tower as it rises above the main building, 1912. From Atlantic Terra Cotta, vol. 2 (April 1915). ,lll'iI Unidentified photographer. Collection of the New-York Historical Society, negative 78898d. 1 , I,. the skyscraper might have appeared cold Bricklayers began attaching the Wool­ and overpowering to the street spectator. worth Building's terra cotta cladding on

I[ 1 III The main challenge he faced, Gilbert told February I, 1912, after the structural iron­ , ;1 a reporter in 1912, was "how to combine workers had completed the riveting ofits height with architectural distinction."194 skeleton up to the eighteenth story. That In the large-scale industrial manufacture day, about one hundred men positioned on FIGURE 5.21 of terra cotta-the largest single use of scaffolds encircling the building's entire Woolworth Build­ architectural terra cotta to date-Gilbert sixth story began tying the pieces of terra ing, detail showing the installation of had identified a modern method for rec­ cotta to steel members with steel anchors, terra cotta cladding, reating the character of a Ruskin-inspired fastening each numbered piece to reflect May 18, 1912. Pho­ handcrafted and polychromatic design its numbered location on the drawings. L tograph by Wurts and, with it, a modern method of hierar­ Subsequently, they backfilled the cladding Brothers. Collection chically integrating types of ornamen­ with common red brick and mortar, of the New-York tation that rivaled his medieval models. employing a craft technique the indus­ Historical Society, ,I negative 7°852•

202 203

II1II..... ·

" Woolworth Building as "one of the larg­ Gilbert had few reservations about as­ i est contracts in terra cotta ever given for a signing the design of the Woolworth Build­ 111 1" III single structure in the world.mos ing's structural steel to Aus. He jealously [I' The Atlantic Terra Cotta Company's guarded the ornamental character ofits production ofindividual terra cotta units terra cotta cladding, however, as his own 1';11' for the Woolworth's cladding followed the metier. For Gilbert, terra cotta offered new industry's conventional practices, with possibilities for surface textures, for col­ two key exceptions. First, Gilbert required ors, for "authentic" craftsmanship, and for ,I'''' that the company's draftsmen produce the rivaling the colorful stone facings and I project's hundreds of full-size detailed veneers he admired in the Florentine and drawings in an office adjacent to his own Venetian architecture of the Middle Ages. 213 under the supervision ofJohnson. Its con­ Even more important, terra cotta had the struction department then produced yet capacity to compensate architecturally another set of detailed drawings, or shop for what Gilbert continued to view as the drawings, at "shrinkage scale.m06 Second, structural steel frame's problematically Wells's specifications stipulated that the thin and repetitive construction. :,1

I .11' . full-size models of the Woolworth's hand­ Woolworth intended, Gilbert empha­ II crafted and costly "foliate or intricate sized, to build the Woolworth Building

"'IiI:' ornamental parts"-its terra cotta tracery, not as "a purely commercial structure," crockets, pinnacles, and gargoyles-be but rather "to clothe it with beauty," and ' 111: modeled by an outside firm of Gilbert's "to make it a worthy ornament to the II i I choice, which he later identified as Don­ great city ofNew York" (fig. 5.23). Wool­ nelly and Ricci. 207 Donnelly and Ricci, worth, he added, was willing to pay for Gilbert further stipulated, were to sculpt such a structure "enriched and beautified" the models at Atlantic Terra Cotta's Perth with ornamentation and color, and terra 214 Amboy factory rather than in their own cotta cladding provided the means. . Gil­ 2o shops. s bert gave all elevations ofthe Woolworth Many ofDonnelly and Ricci's modelers Building an equally elaborate ornamental FIG U RES. 2 2 Woolworth Building, lower stories under construction, showing the had trained as architectural sculptors in treatment, even the lustrous, fully glazed, setting and the anchoring of limestone at the three-story base, June 10, 1912• photograph European art schools before departing to and highly reflective light court.21S For the by Wurts Brothers. Collection of the New-York Historical Society, negative S+7SI.

20+ 2°5

I, ------~--..-----­ --:::::III

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A RECORD-8REAKING F'EAT OF' MODERN CONSTRUCTION

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.. :1: rl FIGURE 5.24 Woolworth Building, detail ofterra cotta 1111 \ showing color in ogee j"" arches and recessed '1\ 1I1 11 spandrels at twenty­ I seventh story, 1912• Photograph by Tebbs­ Hymans. Collection of the New-York

1111 Historical Society, negative 7889ld.

Woolworth Building's general color, Gilbert of crowning canopies, he applied touches chose a combination ofwarm cream and of bright gold glaze as highlights in or­ ivory shades, which he combined in a matte­ ;11: namental shields, setting these offagainst glazed surface that suggested the patina of "denser shadows." When caught by sun­ age. Against this background, he tinted the light, their sparkle emphasized "by con­ building's transoms with a darker tone of trast the depth ofshadow.1l217 Just below buff, to deepen the illusion of recession be­ the projecting canopies at the twenty-sixth tween the verticals; he intended to attract and the forty-second stories, Gilbert set ~nd to lead the eye upward with "the light the terra cotta transoms more deeply and hnes and planes of the piers.1l216 colored them more darkly in bronze green. Gilbert used a far bolder, varied palette In their juxtaposition with the dark blue of color to "accent both the highlights and tones lining the canopies' undersides, shadows" in the Woolworth's Flamboy­ they intensified the illusion of shadowy ant Gothic ornamentation (fig. ).24; see depth and cavernous recess beneath a fig. 5·2~). Against the dark blue undersides I crown. In the backgrounds ofthe transoms' I FIG U R E 5.23 Woolworth building, view from Barclay Street, ca. 1915. Photograph I by Apeda Studios. Collection of the New-York Historical Society, negative 71981. I 2°7 I I

I I I r..... ! I -----...----­ ~ ~I~..-1r: 1\.' : ,~ [ " ' " " A RECORD-BREAKING FEAt OF MODERN CONSTRUCTION

1 1 1, I 1 111\ 'I Flamboyant Gothic tracery patterns, Gil­ "constructional polychromy," however,

II' I I bert applied golden yellow, sienna, bronze he exploited instead the illusory capaci­ I, " ! green, and light and dark blues as poly­ ties of terra cotta's colorful surface glazes. I\ II' I 'I I chromatic accents to throw the tracery's In doing so, he strengthened the vividness I 11'11 II delicate outlines into sharper detachment ofthe Woolworth tower in the eye of the 1 ' 11' I

, ' 1,1 1 and relief. Although the eye of the street street spectator while also highlighting its 1,1,1 spectator could barely distinguish such shape as an eye-catching ornamental fea­ , ,d' I 'Ill background colors on the building's higher ture in distant street and skyline views. , 'I,' floors, they grew stronger in depth, and Besides terra cotta's suitability for color, 'i:':1 ~ 'I I' ,I appeared across larger areas of surface as Gilbert exploited its technical capacities to I 11,111 their distance from the ground increased.218 the fullest: its potential for the clarification 11 1111 Iii I In his choice of colors, Gilbert gave spe­ of form through sculptural detachment, I 1 ',,' :, ,[ ~ 1 cial consideration to how the Woolworth's tolerance for deep undercutting, facility in l II I picturesque tower would look against the attenuation, and susceptibility to modeling ~ ,I \" 'I I "'1"" city's atmospheric background of sky and in high relief. Linear Flamboyant Gothic ,,1'1,1,

,,1\ I clouds. As ifhe were recreating through ornamentation in terra cotta enlivened the \ 1 \'1)1,\,111 " his choice of colors one of his many sun­ surfaces of the Woolworth's gables, cul­ fiG U R E 5.25 Woolworth 1 ,11 ' filled watercolors ofEuropean towers and minating tourelles, spandrels beneath ogee : I" Building, detail of terra I I1 I11 I campaniles, he wanted, he said, to "ap­ arches, and horizontal belt courses. It 1 cotta and copper roof at '1 ",1 parently increase the height of the tower" vigorously projected in Gothic canopies­ ',~ "'1~' gable, 1912. photograph by , "II Tebbs-Hymans. Collection and to "relate it to the color of the sky, Schuyler's "efflorescence" of "buds and

'I'"', I I II of the New-York Historical whether blue or grey.U219 In the transoms blossoms"-in the gargoyles of the tou­ Society, negative 788 93d. ,':11: 11 ,','[ of the tower's higher setback stories, he relIes, and in the finials and crockets of the 11 222 1 1 colored panels light green, and for the crown. Large flying buttresses of terra ' , 1\1',,1\ highest stories, he used white against blue. cotta effected skillful transitions at the 11,1 ''''I, As for the spire, Gilbert later recalled that tower's setbacks (fig. 5.26). Freestanding "I' ' he "studied for many months" the "color verticals projected from outriggers in the

:" I of the roofs and especially of the apex of tower's upper stages, attenuated to the 'I i the tower, with its delicate gilding ... be~ point ofweightlessness. As if inspired by ,II" ""',1 fore it was finally determined."220 Gilbert the writings ofRuskin, Gilbert found in eventually decided to gild the ribs of the terra cotta the ideal medium by which to '1,',"1I" , roof and' observation story. He highlighted calibrate the proportions of the tower's ;1 I the copper roofs ofthe main buildingwith Flamboyant Gothic ornamentation, there­ 1 1I'I '1 their Gothic pinnacles, cresting, ,and trac­ by reducing the skyscraper's colossal size ery patterns in a pale blue green (fig. in the eye of the street spectator.22l "As the \:,1;\ 5. 25).221 Little in the Woolworth's bright parts were reduced in size and increased I 'I' and sunny color scheme could be traced in number," wrote Gilbert, "they were I I,:, 'I I" to Gilbert's original, and darker,medieval also increased in relative size, so as to make I, 1111'\ SOurces, whether those of the sacred or some allowance for the optical reduction 11 fiGURE 5.26 Woolworth s~cular 1 '[ Low Countries Gothic, or the Eng­ due to their distance from the eye" (fig. Building, detail of terra lIsh Perpendicular and French Flamboyant 5.27; see fig. 5.23).224, The large~scale orna­ 1"1 cotta, buttress at forty­ Gothic traditions. Gilbert, rather, contin­ 1;\ third story, 1912. photo­ mentation Gilbert designed for the tower's ued t . ,II graph by Tebbs-Hymans. . 0 VIew colored terra cotta through a highest stages, particularly-"by no means Collection of the New­ ntneteenth-century Ruskinian Gothic lens. . .. a process of mere 'monstrification,'" as 1'[ York Historical Society, In place of the Ruskinians' authenticity of Schuyler put it-augmented its legibility \ I negative 78891d. 2°9 i1 ~.... 11:I

: I ...... ~._- I ---.\1~!\1 : I I' CHAPTER FIVE

from a distance while retaining the mate­ The Highest Building in the World \ rial's characteristic clarity of outline for all ! , beholders to appreciate, whether stationed Well before the Woolworth Building's steel near or far. 225 frame began to rise visibly in the city, Wool­ J Along with its lightness, grace, and sub­ worth hired the commercial photographer tleties of color, the Woolworth Building's Irving Underhill-whose studio directly 'Ii\ terra cotta cladding had a peculiarly delicate, fronted the building site-to document its 11\ 1111 lean, and brittle character that made it stand construction at regularly timed intervals. 11 I ilill out as a specifically modern material among He then mailed Underhill's photographs to 1\·' \. , Gilbert's earlier Beaux-Arts monuments his store managers and agents throughout .1 in stone, notably the United States Custom the country and abroad, with the recom­ .1' House. The Woolworth's terra cotta pieces, mendation that they be distributed and moreover-already stylized and factory published as "widely as possible" (see figs. made-Gilbert designed in repetitive pat­ 5.6,5.8,5'9,5.10).229 The construction of I' terns, as groupings of four stories about the Woolworth Building, like that of other the central axis of the tower. Gilbert, it ap­ major skyscrapers and noted works of en­ \ \ pears, had little immunity to the modern, gineering ofthe day, inspired a Widespread industrial tendency that an I890S critic had enthusiasm for what David Nye has called already identified in the terra cotta orna­ the "technological sublime."230 This enthu­ mentation of Chicago skyscrapers, which siasm Woolworth appreciated. He would 111

1 1\\', he called the "machine-lace of the pres­ both exploit it and celebrate it through 1 \ 11'\ ent day."226 Still, few contemporary critics Underhill's photographs and other forms could find any artistic shortcoming in ofpublicity, continuing his program of the Woolworth Building's modern version strategically promoting his project, there:... of the Gothic ornamental tradition-they by calling still greater attention to his called attention, rather, to its remarkable "world's greatest skyscaper." authenticity. Schuyler compared the Wool­ As the Woolworth Building rose sky­ worth's ornamentation favorably with ward, New York's newspaper reporters that ofa medieval cathedral's. "One has recorded its progress and in the process seen photographic 'bits' offamous minsters transformed its construction into a form in comparison with which this brand new ofurban theater. In their well-timed se­ American Gothic loses nothing."227 And if quence of stories they interwove the epic Engineering Record and Scientific American of the skyscraper's ascent with human l' hailed the Woolworth Building as a feat of drama. The reporters' accounts reached structural engineering, art critics such the expected climax onJuly I, 1912, with the as Clarence Ward attributed its success as a tower's topping offas a noon whistle blew; "1\ skyscraper to the beauty embodied in the Charley Campbell, Thompson-Starrett's scale, poetry-indeed, in the "Gothicness" steel superintendent, hoisted a twelve-by­ ofits "lacelike and beautifully proportioned" twenty-four-foot flag to the top of a thirty­

terra cotta detail.228 In architectural terra foot flagpole (fig. 5.28). Thousands of cotta, consequently, Gilbert and Woolworth people in the streets, the reporters noted, 'II I had discerned the ideal material for recon­ "paused to pay tribute to the highest build­ ciling their desire for a European, hand­ ing in the world."231 "The upper stories crafted exterior with the city's forces of were crowded with ironworkers, steamfit­ modernization. ters, plumbers, reporters, photographers, .

\1 A RECORD-BREAKING F"EAT OF" MODERN CONSTRUCTION jl and other curiosity seekers," the Gilbert the entire civilized world," the book tri­ office's G. F. Shaffer more accurately ex­ umphantly pronounced in its opening plained, "while far below could be seen line, linking the project with the day's pop­ ,,\ the upward gazing throng of BroadwaY's ular and widely trumpeted themes of . I noon thousands.mu The denouement of western expansion and dominance. "There :1: the newspaper drama took place on Decem­ may never be a building in New York City ber 12,1913, with the exceedingly spectacu­ which will tower away so high skyward.mF lar and some thought "wholly unnecessary Woolworth and Gilbert wrote introduc­ 1 I1 and daredevil performance," ofthe crafts­ tions, with Woolworth proclaiming his sky­ III ~ 1 I i man Niels Nelson, who inched his way to scraper "the greatest structure in the the top of the tower's flagpole to gild its world" and Gilbert calling his own design :1 summit with a glint of gold.2H a "worthy ornament to the great city of I, New York.m38 The embossed blue cover of II· InJune 19II, Hugh McAtamney reported I to Gilbert that he had succeeded in getting The Master Builders, with its gilded letter­ , I I news items about the as-yet-unbuilt Wool­ ing and tinted photographs showing the

IIIIII worth Building printed in two hundred completed Woolworth Building and the new ~ newspapers around the world, and that New York skyline, functioned as a superb "clippings are now coming in from France piece ofvisual boosterism for the Thompson­ and Germany.mHo In all likelihood, it was Starrett Company, Woolworth, and for McAtamney who broached to reporters in the city. It also functioned as eye-catching May that the roof of the Woolworth's advertising for the project's subcontrac­ twenty-eighth story might serve as an tors, craftsmen, and manufacturers, who I'" "aerial wharf" for airships, and its tower in giving to prospective customers such an sport an electric beacon at its peak, trans­ account of "the greatest structure in the 'II m3s I forming it into an "aeriallighthouse. world" furthered Woolworth and McAtam­ And as the tower's frame neared climax ney's objectives for publicity. and completion inJune 1912, it was prob­ Burrelle's Press Clipping Bureau culled ably McAtamney who apprised the city's accounts of the project's construction reporters of the exploits of the aviator from newspapers around the world and Frank Goodale. Goodale piloted a balloon mounted them in scrapbooks designed contraption out of the haze over the for Gilbert and Woolworth.239 McAtamney, Hudson River, encircled the pinnacle of in the end, spent approximately one hun­ the tower, and waved at the structural dred thousand dollars publicizing the ironworkers. He then headed south to construction of the Woolworth Building­ Battery Park, "to the wonder of gaping perhaps the first public relations campaign thousands from the streets, roofs, and on such a scale for a single building.24-0 windows ofskyscrapers.m36 In the process, he further sensationalized The capstone ofMcAtamney's publicity an already sensational skyscraper. Yet after program for the Woolworth's construction, a certain point, McAtamney's program his commemorative The Master Builders: ofpublicity threatened to destroy the air .A. Record ofthe Construction ofthe World's ofhigh seriousness that Gilbert, Horowitz, Highest Commercial Structure (1913), exalted and Woolworth brought to the construc­ the skyscraper as well as its builders (fig. tion of the project. In lateJuly 1912, Gilbert 5. 29): "The United States of America has cautioned that "spectacular advertising set the pace for building construction of of the building must not be permitted,"

F'I G U R E 5.2 a Woolworth Building, topping offthe steel frame, 213 July 1,1912. (©Bettmann/Corbis.)

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A RECORD-BREAKING rEAT Or MODERN CONSTRUCTION

and later, Edward Hogan asserted as the THE MASTER BUILDERS skyscraper's rental agent that "ifyou tion New York and the world's tallest, its height the product ofa newly systematized IIII A RECORD OF THE CONSTRUCTION get too spectacular, you don't get the ten­ OF THE WORLD'S HIGHEST COM, ants you want."2+1 building organization and a rationalized MERCIAL STRUCTURE process ofassembly in record time-marked By 1910, skyscrapers, along with long­ spanning bridges, subway tunnels, and a turning point in the history of construc­ tion. Such height and speed of assembly great railway stations, had become pow­ they chose to celebrate, despite the build­ 'f erful and awe-inspiring emblems of ,j ing code's conservatism, the historicizing the modernizing city. As the Thompson­ ,I features of Gilbert's skyscraper Gothic Starrett Company's William Aiken Starrett I design, the realities of the construction later put it, "when a great building starts, industry, or even Woolworth's exploitation ,I all the world is a builder," and "the whole ,01, of the project toward the ends of spec­ citizenry ofa metropolis takes to its heart I"! tacular urban theatrics and printed media the swift and skillful accomplishment."l+2 I III publicity. For this reason, skyscrapers such "I" Horowitz, not surprisigly, viewed the as the Woolworth galvanized for those who ",'I, Woolworth Building as a superior work ~I watched or read about its rise in the city a F" I G U R E 5.29 The Master of construction in its own right, as the "I Builders: A Record ofthe Construc­ still newer beliefin the nation's seemingly "'I PUBLISHED BY defining project in his career as a builder, HUGH McA.TAMNEY &1 COMPAN'{ tion of the World's Highest Com­ predestined technological greatness.247 and the lower Manhattan skyline as a "'i NEW YORK mercial Structure (New York: I I<)lJ 5.~0).Hl Hugh McAtamney & Co., 1913). "three-dimensional memoir" (fig. As innovators in the construction indus­ try, Horowitz and his Thompson-Starrett Company took pride in participating as builders in the nations's larger ethos of technological experimentation, innovation,

I,' and achievement. I Hughes has written that in the United I I States the "character-forming achieve­ ,I ment for almost three centuries has been I to transform a wilderness into a building H2H l site. The New York skyline, which Paul II Starrett later described as "more sky­ scrapers per acre and taller skyscrapers than any Spot on earth," signified the early twentieth century's most pronounced

r architectural manifestation of such an III SKY.LINE OF NEW YORK CITY achievement.2+5 Equating those Skyscrap­ I Arrows indicate a numher of buildings erected by Thompson.Starrett Company; forming part of the sky-line of lower New York. ers with recent advances in the construc­ 1. Atlantic Trust Building. 5.68 William Street Building. 9. Frankel Building, 13. Munieiplli Building. tion industry, William Aiken Starrett I 2. United Stateg R'fprees Building. 6. 80 Maiden Lane Building. 10. 123 William Street Building. 14. Chapel Court Building. 3. Kuhn-Loeb Building. 7. Wyllys Building. 11, 134 William$treet Building. 15. Sehieren Bulld'"g. 4. Equitable Building, 8. Hilliard Building. 12. Woolworth Building. prOclaimed that historians of the future "will of surety say that we were a nation of bUilders, great builders, the greatest F" I G U R E 5.30 SIg-Line Of New York City. From Thompson-Starrett Company: Building and the World has ever seen."l+6 For Gilbert's Industrial Construction (Montreal: Thompson-Starrett Co., 1922). Science, Industry, and Contemporaries in construction, then, Business Library, New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations. the WoolWorth Building-at its comple-

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