Photocopy, Courtesy of the Offices of the Singer Company, Inc., New York, LITHOGRAPH OF VIEW FROM SOUTHEAST
| Height | 65 feet |
|---|---|
| Floors | 12 |
| Year | 1908 |
| Architects |
About Singer Building
The Singer Building at Liberty Street and Broadway in Manhattan, New York, was an office building completed in 1908 as the headquarters of the Singer Manufacturing Company. The building's architect, Ernest Flagg, was a supporter of height limitations and restrictive zoning, and showed his solution to tall-building crowding with the Singer's set-back design. The 12-story base of the building filled an entire blockfront, while the tower above was relatively narrow. The tower floors were squares only 65 feet (20 m) on a side. At 612 feet (187 m) above grade, the Singer Building was the tallest building in the world from its completion until the completion in 1909 of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Tower on Madison Avenue, again in Manhattan. In 1968, the building, considered to be functionally obsolete, was demolished in order to make way for the U.S. Steel Building (currently known as One Liberty Plaza). At the time, it was the tallest building ever to be destroyed. This record has been surpassed twice since: once when the Avala TV Tower in Serbia was destroyed during a NATO bombing raid in 1999 and again by the September 11, 2001 collapse of the nearby World Trade Center.