Equitable Building (New York)

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Equitable Building
Equitable Building
Basic data
Place: New York City , United States
Construction time : 1912-1915
Status : Built
Architectural style : Neoclassicism
Architect : Ernest Graham
Technical specifications
Height : 164 m
Floors : 38
Floor area : 115,500 m²
Equitble Building postcard before 1919.

The Equitable Building is a 38 -storey high skyscraper in 120 Broadway in New York City borough Manhattan . It was designed by Ernest Graham and completed in 1915. At that time it was the largest office building in the world with a floor area of ​​111,500 m². It had 50 elevators and offered space for 16,000 employees. Immediately next to the building is the HSBC Bank Building , opposite the Trinity and US Realty Buildings on the other side of Broadway .

The skyscraper is a monolithic, two-pane building on a six-storey base in the Beaux Arts style , the vertical edges of which form a single line from top to bottom.

history

The Equitable Life Building

In 1870, the insurance company The Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States completed a first high-rise as an administration building with a height of 40 meters, a record at the time. It is considered the first skyscraper in history.

New building

When the original headquarters burned down in 1912, the current building was erected in its place. Initially a height of 40 floors was planned, but Charles Knox calculated that 36 floors is the optimal height for the elevators.

Due to its size, the building prevents light from entering the surrounding streets. In 1916 this gave rise to the first drastic building regulations that had been issued in New York for the construction of tall buildings by then. This is the zoning resolution , which states, among other things, that buildings have to be thinner towards the top.

It has been on the National Register of Historic Places since June 2, 1978 . In June 1978 it was recognized as a National Historic Landmark . In June 1996, it was listed by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission . Real estate investor Larry Silverstein acquired the building in 1980 and carried out a $ 30 million renovation. The building houses the offices of the New York State Attorney General .

From 1898 to 1968 the Union Pacific Railroad had its headquarters in the building, from 1969 to 1988 the holding Union Pacific Corporation .

Web links

Commons : Equitable Building  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. SPIEGEL Online, accessed January 11, 2012 http://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/0,1518,808509,00.html
  2. ^ Equitable Building on the National Register Information System. National Park Service , accessed August 19, 2019.
  3. Listing of National Historic Landmarks by State: New York. National Park Service , accessed August 19, 2019.

Coordinates: 40 ° 42 '30.4 "  N , 74 ° 0' 37.6"  W.