World Building

Faits

• The structural system of the World Building was a hybrid "cage" frame.
• Steel framing was used to support the interior structure, but the exterior masonry walls contributed lateral stability and some vertical support.
• The facade was red sandstone, brick and terra-cotta, with red and gray granite at the arched entryway.
• Columns embedded in the exterior walls carried the floor loads, transferring lateral forces between the frame and the masonry.
• Construction commenced October 10, 1889 and finished December 10, 1890.
• The New York World Building was the tallest of several high-rise structures built for major newspapers in the late 19th century.
• The World Building and New York Tribune Building were demolished in 1955 for the expanded automobile entrance to the Brooklyn Bridge.
• Joseph Pulitzer placed his private office at the second level of the dome where he could easily look down on the other buildings of Newspaper Row.
• The tower stretched 309 feet to the top of the lantern, measured from the steep grade of Frankfort Street rather than the main frontage on Park Row.
• The number of stories is disputed; estimates range from the 26 stories claimed by the World to the 16 or 18 suggested by recent scholars.
• Commissioned by the famous editor Joseph Pulitzer, the World Building (also known as Pulitzer Building) was the first building in New York to surpass the 284-foot spire of Trinity Church.