A mere 13 years passed between the construction of the Gillender Building in 1897 and its demolition. The Gillender Building became the world’s first skyscraper to be demolished, and the building’s tragic fate was the result of a decision made by its owner. The building attracted attention due to its disproportionate design and its tower, which was quite tall for its time. However, the building suffered from a flaw typical of early skyscrapers: the office space it offered was cramped and too small. Unfortunately, several decades later, other, far more valuable skyscrapers from that period shared the fate of ‘New York’s worst skyscraper’.
A quick profit
The history of the Gillender Building’s construction is full of rumours and ambiguities. Helen L. Gillender Asinari – the daughter of the millionaire Eccles Gillender – was a fairly wealthy owner of a multi-storey tenement at the junction of Wall Street and Nassau Street. In the 1890s New York – and Manhattan in particular – began to fill up with pioneering skyscrapers such as the New York World Building and, later, the Singer Building, the tallest building of its time. Every wealthy landowner wanted their own prestigious skyscraper to become a symbol of the city. Meanwhile, major New York firms such as J.P. Morgan were constantly on the lookout for modern office space.
In 1896, Helen Gillender wanted to make better use of the potential of a well-located plot on Wall Street and decided to build a modern skyscraper. Press reports from that time suggest that the landowner decided to rush the construction of the skyscraper in order to beat the new laws restricting the shadow cast by skyscrapers. In reality, however, such legislation was not introduced in New York until 1916. Be that as it may, the Gillender skyscraper was erected at breakneck speed, with the entire construction completed in just 10 months. It is also worth noting that the press at the time reported that the building’s developer was a certain Augustus T. Gillender. However, this information was corrected by the owner of the plot.
A house on sand
Despite the rapid pace of construction, architects Charles Berg and Edward Clarke were faced with a very difficult task. The ground on which the skyscraper was to be built was sandy, which made it difficult to erect such a tall structure. For this reason, foundations based on steel caissons and a modern steel framework were chosen. The façade was clad in terracotta tiles, granite and copper elements. However, Berg’s greatest problem was not the sandy ground, but the building’s disproportionate dimensions, which were a result of the plot’s area. A significant portion of the usable floor space was taken up by lifts and staircases, and ultimately the entire skyscraper offered just 2,800 square metres of office space. What is more, at its widest point the building was only 8 metres wide, whilst the façade itself stretched 22 metres in length. The building rose to a height of 83 metres, meaning that the width-to-height ratio was 10.5:1.
The ornamentation of the Gillender Building’s façade followed the trends of the time. Consequently, it featured a tall rusticated base with long bay windows, whilst the very top was crowned with a stepped finial. This upper section was modelled on the Italian Baroque style, hence the splendour of the pilasters, richly decorated capitals and cornices. The whole structure was crowned by a dome with a copper roof and a flag.
The worst?
It is not entirely clear why Helen Gillender decided to sell the building. Most likely, it was the major New York firms that were the first to approach the owner with an offer to purchase the building. It is worth noting that as early as the beginning of the 20th century, plots of land in Manhattan began to rise in value, and the land itself was more valuable than the building standing on it. In 1909, the owner sold the plot, complete with the skyscraper, to Bankers Trust for 1.5 million dollars at the time. This means that Helen Gillender made twice the amount she had invested in the skyscraper 13 years earlier.
Bankers Trust demolished the impractical and inefficient skyscraper as early as 1910. As the demolition took place in the city centre, so the workers had to take particular care, and the materials recovered from the demolition were used to construct a new skyscraper. The Bankers Trust Building was erected on the site of the Gillender Building in 1912 and still stands there today. Rising to a height of 160 metres, the skyscraper offers 100,000 square metres of office space and is designed to resemble one of the Seven Wonders of the World – the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus.
Today, hardly anyone remembers the bizarre Gillender Building. Although the building’s history served as an important lesson for future architects, many subsequent skyscrapers still met a similar fate. Although many residents liked the architecture of the Gillender Building, for decades the skyscraper reigned supreme in the pantheon of New York’s architectural failures. However, current projects in Manhattan, such as 432 Park Avenue, show that the battle for the title of ‘New York’s worst skyscraper’ is still ongoing.
Source: Skyscraper Museum
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