Woolworth Building, Looking up at tower on roof.
1 2017-03-22T11:56:20-07:00 Ellen Dement 42442c14bff120b6e83827404fe0b851fdc8a6df 14634 2 Wurt Bros., ca. 1915, courtesy of Museum of the City of New York. plain 2017-03-22T13:04:43-07:00 Ellen Dement 42442c14bff120b6e83827404fe0b851fdc8a6dfThis page has tags:
- 1 2017-02-07T09:50:39-08:00 Ellen Dement 42442c14bff120b6e83827404fe0b851fdc8a6df Wurts Bros. Photography Ellen Dement 2 Contemporary images by an architectural photography firm vistag 2017-02-07T09:51:48-08:00 Ellen Dement 42442c14bff120b6e83827404fe0b851fdc8a6df
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Typical Tower Floor
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plain
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F.W. Woolworth wanted his company headquarters to have a distinctive profile based on the towers of medieval European town halls. The Woolworth Building tower is not modeled on any specific tower, but creates a unique and distinctive profile that its contemporaries would easily identify as that of the Woolworth Building.
The tower originally housed speculative office space, as shown in this superseded plan for a typical tower floor. This plan corresponds to the plan for the thirtieth through fortieth floors, shown in this finalized plan that appeared in Architecture and Building. As the final plan shows, the tower gradually recessed, and the top floors were contained in the roof. They held no offices, just a circular elevator and spiral staircase leading to the building's observation deck.
This superseded plan for the fiftieth floor shows the tower's relationship to the lower portion of the Woolworth Building, which has a U-shaped plan.
