Downtown New York

 

Downtown Skyport in 1936 at Pier 11, East River; see the big 120 Wall Street Building in the back. 

same place 5 years later, in 1941.

Singer Building tower nearing completion, at Broadway and Liberty Street, in 1907. The original 10-story Singer Building at 149 Broadway was erected between 1897 and 1898, and the adjoining 14-story Bourne Building on Liberty Street was built from 1898 to 1899. 

In the first decade of the 20th century, the two buildings were expanded to form the 14-story base of the Singer Tower, which rose another 27 stories.

With a roof height of 612 feet (187 m), the Singer Tower was the tallest building in the world from 1908 to 1909, when it was surpassed by the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Tower.

The base occupied the building’s entire land lot; the tower’s floors took up just one-sixth of that area.

Despite being regarded as a city icon, the Singer Building was razed between 1967 and 1969 to make way for One Liberty Plaza (Black building in the ‘now’ photo), which had several times more office space than the Singer Tower.

At the time of its destruction, the Singer Building was the tallest building ever to be voluntarily demolished - and tallest until 270 Park was demolished from 2018-2021. 

Singer Building - once the world's tallest - at 149 Broadway, viewed from S.E. in September 1967. 

Elliot Bronstein wrote at FB: The Singer Tower (barely visible in the top picture) was a very narrow skyscraper, considered obsolete for modern offices. Had it lasted until the present day, it would have probably been converted to condos.

Robert S. Darbee wrote: Interesting! The Singer bldg was built on 19th Century technology.  The  company’s machines enabled mass production of consistent goods like shirts, pants, etc. It  gave rise to department stores like Macy’s & Wanamaker. That is a Wanamaker across street, right foreground , replaced by 140 Broadway, bldg with open plaza and cube statue balanced on a corner.

the original Singer Building, erected between 1897 & 1898. 

Ellis Hall wrote at FB: I generally like ornate buildings, but I always thought Singer was an odd composition.

Sahib Akhundzadeh answered Ellis Hall:  I can agree with you. Here is an original Singer Building before it was extended in width and height. It looked more harmonic and well proportioned.