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Three leading agents and managers reflect on early career setbacks and how they moved on to bigger-and-better things.
This abridgement of Universal's 12-episode serial Buck Rogers stars Buster Crabbe as Dick Calkins' famed comic-strip space adventurer. Buck and Buddy (Jackie Moran) and are recruited to battle against modernistic gangster Killer Kane (Anthony Warde), by Wilma Deering (Constance Moore) and Dr. Huer (C. Montague Shaw). The duo travels to Saturn to get help in their mission, and after Buck and Buddy quell the internal struggles of the Saturnians, Buck triumphs over Killer Kane and his cosmic thugs.
Planet Outlaws Feature link: youtu.be/UD3xKy42KUY
Link to all 12 Serial Episodes:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTtc-u3zFGk&feature=share&...
Starring Buster Crabbe, Constance Moore, Jackie Moran, Jack Mulhall, Anthony Warde, C. Montague Shaw, Guy Usher, William Gould, Philson Ahn. Directed by Ford Beebe, Saul A. Goodkind.
Buck Rogers and Buddy Wade are in the middle of a trans-polar dirigible flight when they are caught in a blizzard and crash. Buddy then releases a special gas to keep them in suspended animation until a rescue party can arrive. However, an avalanche covers the craft and the two are in suspended animation for 500 years. When they are found, they awake to find out that the world has been taken over by the outlaw army of Killer Kane. Along with Lieutenant Wilma Deering, Buck and Buddy join in the fight to overthrow Kane and with the help of Prince Tallen of Saturn and his forces, they eventually do and Earth is free of Kane's grip.
This is actually a pretty enjoyable serial, but it seems doomed to be forever overshadowed by the much superior Flash Gordon trilogy. Universal brought BUCK ROGERS out in 1939, in between their own chapterplays FLASH GORDON'S TRIP TO MARS and FLASH GORDON CONQUERS THE UNIVERSE; it also starred Buster Crabbe (but with his natural dark hair instead of Flash's golden curls) and although it is filled with space ships and weird gadgets, BUCK ROGERS lacks most of the elements that gave the Flash serials their intense emotional draw.
For one thing, there is none of the strong sexual charge that the Flash series had. Instead of nubile Dale Arden and sultry Princess Aura both competing for the hero's attention while the villain openly lusted for the heroine, Buck's epic featured Constance Moore as Col. Wilma Deering. Now, Moore is perfectly fine in her role, but she is after all a soldier in the resistance army and not a fair damsel in distress. She has a nice moment when she wrests a ray gun away from a guard and blasts her way out of her cell, but she and Buck seem to be merely chums on the same side.
Also, although BUCK ROGERS has plenty of futuristic gadgets (rayguns and buzzing spaceships which shoot sparks from their backs, teleportation tubes and invisibility rays), there are no grotesque monsters or nonhuman alien races on view. Prisoners have remarkably goofy metal helmets strapped on which turn them into docile zombies, and there are these homely goons called Zuggs moping around, but that's hardly as fascinating as Lion Men and Clay People and horned apes (that Orangapoid critter).
What's ironic about all this is that the comic strip BUCK ROGERS by Philip Nolan and Richard Calkins started in 1929, was immensely popular for many years and it success inspired the creation of Flash. Yet the Flash strip benefitted from the genius of Alex Raymond, one of the all-time great cartoon artists, and it produced stunning visual images (from the samples of Buck's strip I've seen, it was imaginative enough but pretty crude and drab). This contrast carried over to the serials.
Buck Rogers and his sidekick Buddy Wade (Jackie Moran) are pilots who crash in the Arctic in1938 and survive for 500 years because the 'Nirvano' gas they were carrying put them in a state of suspended animation. They both seem to adapt to waking up in the year 2424 pretty well, where I would think most people would be so traumatized it would take a while to adjust. In this dystopic future, the Earth is ruled by a mega-gangster called Killer Kane (another setback; Anthony Warde would be okay as a crimelord but he just doesn't have the imposing presence to convince me this guy can dominate an entire planet).
Luckily, Buck and Buddy have been found by the small resistance movement hopelessly trying to overthrow Kane from their hidden city. Here is Dr Huer (C. Montague Shaw, who I just saw in the UNDERSEA KINGDOM doing the same gig with his wild inventions) and Wilma Deering leading the good fight. For some reason I missed, everyone immediately puts all their trust in Buck and he pretty much takes over. (Maybe he's just one of those charismatic alpha males or something.) Most of the serial involves desperate trips back and forth to Saturn to enlist the aid of the isolationist Saturnians, and this means running the blockade of Kane's ships. The usual fistfights and explosions and captures and escapes normal for this sort of situation ensue. It's a lot of fun if you take it on its own terms, with a strong linear plot and likeable heroes, but it really never kicks into high gear and seems a bit drab.
It's interesting that some (but not all) of the Saturnians are played by Asian actors. Prince Tallen, who gets caught up in most of the fun, was portrayed by a very young Philson Ahn, and I thought for years this was the same guy who in 1972 impressed us as the head of the Shaolin Temple in TV's KUNG FU (he taught all the styles, really amazing if you think about it). Turns out that was Phiip Ahn, Philson's brother.
Dir: Ford Beebe and Saul A. Goodkind - 12 Chapters
BUCK ROGERS (1939): Director Ford Beebe, who also worked on Flash Gordon (1938), came straight from The Phantom Creeps (1939) and then went back to finish Flash Gordon Conquers The Universe (1940). Buck Rogers stars Buster Crabbe or, as his family knew him, Lawrence. Now, Lawrence ‘Larry’ ‘Buster’ Crabbe had previously starred in two Flash Gordon serials, a couple of Tarzan movies and a long string of westerns, so it was only natural for Universal to decide he was perfect as the heroic Buck Rogers, aka that blonde guy who saves the universe but isn’t Flash Gordon. Actually, Buster Crabbe wasn’t the first actor to play Buck Rogers in-the-flesh, so to speak.
That honour goes to an unknown man who played Buck in a Virginia department store, instead of their regular Santa Claus. Santa was off conquering Martians at the time, I think it was an exchange program of sorts. It strikes me that Buck Rogers is not unlike a male fantasy come to life. Just think of it – Buck gets to take a nice five-hundred-year-long sleep-in. With my busy schedule, I’m ecstatic if I can get twenty minutes nap on the weekend. Then, when he wakes up, Buck is the smartest, most dynamic guy around. In reality he’d be treated like something that’s escaped from the zoo. And finally, everyone needs Buck to go on exciting missions, fight the bad guys, test exotic equipment and crash rocket ships – out of the half-dozen flights Buck makes, he only lands successfully once. It’s easy to see the bullet cars used in the movie are the same ones from Flash Gordon’s Trip To Mars (1938), and even the script is rather suspect.
Planet Outlaws
This film is actually a compilation of the Buck Rogers serials that ran originally in 1939. The cliffhanger endings and recap beginnings have been edited out to make it flow better -- with partial success. Some new footage was shot for the introduction and summary. At the opening, there are some newspaper headlines about jets chasing flying discs, and the obligatory checkered V2 launch, etc. to add a modern segue. After that, it's pure 1939.
Sci-fi movie technology had come a long way in the 14 years since Buck's debut. Audiences had grown accustomed to sleek and pointy rockets, flying saucers, strange aliens, etc. The Buck Rogers style world-of-the-future must have looked oddly quaint. (if not laughable) Just why Universal Pictures thought re-releasing Buck Rogers was a good idea is a bit of a mystery. Kids who were 8 or so back in 1939 would be young adults in '53. Perhaps Universal was banking on those young adults would buy tickets for a trip down memory lane.
Plot Synopsis
After a bit of modern ('53) footage about the wonders of modern progress and "flying disks," the old serial begins. Rogers and Buddy crashed in the arctic while on a transpolar flight. They were in suspended animation due to the cold and a vague gas. A patrol finds them in the year 2500 and revives them. In the world of 2500, a despot named Killer Kane is trying to take over the world. The forces of good are holed up in the "hidden city." Buck arranges a decoy maneuver to elude Kane's patrol ships. They fly to the planet Saturn in hopes of finding help. On Saturn, the Council sees Rogers and party as the rebels, and Kane as the rule of law. Rogers et al, escape Saturn, return to earth and seek to disrupt Kane's bamboozling of Prince Tallen, the Saturnian representative. Rogers sneaks into Kane's city, interrupts the treaty signing and convinces Tallen of Kane's evil by revealing Kane's "robot battalion" (slaves wearing mind-control helmets). Rogers and Tallen get to Saturn and the treaty is signed. Rogers escapes Kane's patrols via the Dissolvo Ray which rendered them invisible. Rogers and the war council plan for war. Rogers enlists the Saturnians to help. Meanwhile, Rogers sneaks into Kane's city and de-zombies Minister Krenco to lead an uprising of freed robot-slave-prisoners. Rogers storms Kane's palace and puts one of the robo-slave helmets on Kane. The End
The industrial vision of the future is delightful to watch. The heavily mechanical look of everything is so radically different from the sleek rockets and glowing acrylic audiences were growing accustomed to. The space ships look like they were built at locomotive factories or steamship yards. They spew roman-candle sparks and smoke and buzz as they fly. There are no computers, no radar or electronics. It's a fascinating snapshot of what pre-electronic-age people thought the future would be like.
When originally released in 1939, the Killer Kane character was a thinly disguised allusion to Hitler. In 1953, Kane was intended to represent a communist despot. It wasn't as tidy a fit. The narrator sums it up voicing a hope that scientists will develop the means for men to stand up to today's dictators and make the world safe for democracy. In the early 50s, there's little question of who they meant.
Simple Colors -- One endearing trait of Buck Rogers is the simplicity of the characterizations. The good guys do nothing but good. The bad guys are pure bad. The good guys are crack pilots and sharp shooters and tough as nails. The bad guys do nothing but bad, have trouble hitting a flying barn and are easily knocked out with one punch.
Industrial Baroque -- Somewhat like the baroque era's compulsion to decorate every square inch with swirls and filigree, Industrial Baroque sought to fill every space with heavy-duty hardware. The sets, and especially the rocket interiors are like flying boiler rooms. Valves, pipes, levers, dials, wheels, large flashing light bulbs. To look more "high tech" in the 30s meant cramming in more industrial hardware. Buck Rogers' ships show more affinity for Captain Nemo "steampunk" than the proto-space-age of the 50s.
Family Resemblance -- There is a noticeable similarity in the sets and costumes of Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers. Even serials of the early 50s, like Captain Video and the various Rocketman serials, look more like Flash and Buck than George Pal. The industrial baroque look and costuming are distinctive, making them almost a sub-genre of their own. In that regard, Buck has a timelessness.
Another take on the story and additional background info.
A round-the-world dirigible flight commanded by US Air Force officer Buck Rogers (Buster Crabbe) encounters dangerously stormy weather above the Himalayas; said weather, along with disastrous panic on the part of Rogers’ crewmen, causes the aircraft to crash. The cowardly crewmen ditch the ship and meet quick ends, but Rogers and young Buddy Wade (Jackie Moran), son of the aircraft’s designer, survive the crash. The pair use a cylinder of “Nirvano” gas to place themselves into suspended animation until a rescue party can reach them, but an avalanche buries the ship and all searches prove fruitless; the dirigible and its two dormant inhabitants remain beneath rocks and snow for five hundred years.
Finally, in the year 2440, a spaceship unearths the wreck, and its pilots restore Buck and Buddy to consciousness. The holdovers from the 20th century soon learn that their rescuers are soldiers from the “Hidden City,” a pocket of resistance to the super-criminal who is ruling the 24th-century Earth–one “Killer” Kane (Anthony Warde). Rogers immediately pledges his support to Air Marshal Kragg (William Gould) and Scientist-General Dr. Huer (C. Montague Shaw), the leaders of the Hidden City exiles, and is soon en route to Saturn, hoping to convince that planet’s rulers to aid the Hidden City in freeing the Earth from Kane’s tyranny. To cement the Saturian alliance, Buck must battle Kane’s legions at every step of the way, with able assistance from Buddy and from Dr. Huer’s trusted aide Lieutenant Wilma Deering (Constance Moore).
Ever since its original release, Buck Rogers has stood in the shadow of Universal’s Flash Gordon serials; the studio encouraged such association by casting Flash Gordon star Buster Crabbe as a different sci-fi hero, obviously hoping that the chapterplay would capitalize on the goodwill generated by Flash Gordon and Flash Gordon’s Trip to Mars. The serial did succeed in reminding audiences of the Flash outings–but it reminded them of how much they had liked those serials and forced inevitable comparisons that were not in Rogers’ favor. Universal’s plans for a second Buck Rogers serial were quickly scrapped when the first outing failed to please matinee audiences; the intended Buck sequel was then replaced on the studio’s production schedule by–what else?–a third Flash Gordon chapterplay. Even today, Buck is typically dismissed by fans as a pale echo of the great Gordon serials.
It’s easy to see why Buck Rogers came as a disappointment to audiences expecting an outing in the Flash Gordon tradition. Its production design, while futuristic, is less quirky and more uniform than that of the Gordons; there are no monsters and no weird semi-human races besides the rather uninteresting Zuggs; there are also no supporting characters as developed or as interesting as Dr. Zarkov, Ming, King Vultan, the Clay King, Princess Aura, Prince Barin, and other major figures in the Flash Gordon chapterplays. And yet, taken on its own terms, Buck Rogers is far from a failure; it does not approach the Flash Gordon trilogy in quality, but then few serials do.
Buck Rogers’ script, by former Mascot writers Norman Hall and Ray Trampe, is fast-moving and manages to avoid repetition for most of its length. The trip to Saturn, the attempts to convince Saturnian leader Prince Tallen (Philson Ahn) of the justice of the Hidden City’s cause, the subsequent rescue of Tallen from Kane’s city, the second journey to Saturn to cement the alliance, and the attempts of Kane’s henchman Laska (Henry Brandon) to sabotage it–all these incidents keep the narrative flowing very nicely for the serial’s first eight chapters. As in many of Trampe and Hall’s Mascot scripts, however, the writers seem to run out of plot before the serial’s end. While Chapters Nine and Ten remain interesting (with Buck being converted into a hypnotized robot, Buddy’s rescue of the hero, and an infiltration of the Hidden City by one of Kane’s men), the last two chapters have a definite wheel-spinning feel to them, throwing in a redundant third trip to Saturn and an unneeded flashback sequence.
The last-chapter climax is also something of a disappointment, with Kane being overthrown quickly and undramatically instead of being definitively crushed. Here, Trampe and Hall seem to have been leaving room for the sequel that never came and trying to avoid duplicating the dramatic but very final destruction of MIng which closed the first Flash Gordon serial (and which needed to be explained away in the second). The other weak spot of the scripting is Buck and Buddy’s rather calm reaction when they realize that their old world (and everyone in it) is dead–and their extraordinarily quick adjustment to their new one. One wouldn’t have wanted the writers to dwell on our heroes’ plight (which would be absolutely crushing in real life), but I do wish Trampe or Hall could have given Buck and Buddy a few emotional lines about their displacement before getting on to the main action; Hall in his scripts for other serials (Hawk of the Wilderness, Adventures of Red Ryder), showed himself capable of far more dramatic moments.
As already mentioned, the serial’s visuals are less varied than those of the Flash Gordon serials, but that’s not to say they aren’t impressive by serial standards. Pains seem to have been taken to avoid duplicating too much of Gordon’s “look;” the spaceship miniatures are completely different than the ships in the Gordon trilogy, while Kane’s stronghold–probably the best miniature in the serial–is not the quasi-Gothic palace of Ming but rather an ominous, futuristic-looking version of New York City, complete with towering skyscrapers. The Hidden City’s great rock gates are also nifty, and the massive Saturnian Forum (a life-size set, not a miniature) is very visually impressive. The barren Red Rock Canyon area works well as the Saturnian landscape, but I think it was a mistake to also use the Canyon as the area between the Hidden City and Kane’s capital; Saturn and Earth shouldn’t look so similar.
The only major prop or set reused from the Gordon serials are the “bullet cars” from Flash Gordon’s Trip to Mars; they’re just as fun to watch in action here as in the earlier serial. Other incidental props and sets–Kane’s robot room, his mind-control helmets, the various televiewing devices, the anti-gravity belts, Dr. Huer’s invisibility ray, and the Star-Trek-like molecular transportation chamber–add further colorful touches to the serial., and are respectably represented by Universal’s always above-average array of sets and props. The Zuggs, the “primitive race” ruled by the Saturnians, are somewhat disappointing, however; while suitably grotesque-looking, they’re nowhere near as menacing or memorable–in appearance or demeanor–as their obvious inspiration, the Clay People in Flash Gordon’s Trip to Mars.
The serial’s action scenes are brisk and energetic, suffering not at all from a general lack of fistfights–thanks to the swift-moving direction of Ford Beebe (a Mascot veteran like writers Trampe and Hall) and his co-director Saul Goodkind (usually an editor). The few hand-to-hand tussles–most of them on the rocky hills of Saturn–are executed routinely but skillfully by Dave Sharpe, Tom Steele, Eddie Parker, and other stuntmen; the best of the bunch is the fight between Buck and a Kane man in the control room of the Hidden City, although this is more exciting for the suspenseful situation (Buck trying to close the gates that the henchman has opened to Kane’s oncoming armada) than for any particular flair in the staging.
Most of the action sequences consist of protracted chases and pursuits (both on foot and in rocketships), with occasional quick combats thrown in. Many of these lengthy chases are very exciting–particularly the long incursion into Kane’s city that occupies most of Chapters Three and Four, a great combination of action and suspense. Buddy’s later stealthy visit into Kane’s fortress to rescue Buck from the robot room, and the following escape, is also good, as are Buck’s skillful and repeated elusions of the rebellious Zuggs in Chapter Eight and the bullet car getaway in Chapter Six.
The cliffhanger endings are generally well-staged, with proper build-ups, but too many of them involve spaceship crashes that our heroes rather implausibly live through. The impressive collapsing forum at the end of Chapter Eleven and the bullet car crash at the end of Chapter Six provide nice variety amid the spaceship wrecks, but (alas) are also resolved by mere survival. Still, this is preferable to the blatantly cheating resolution of what is otherwise one the best chapter endings–Killer Kane’s pursuit of Buddy in a darkened council chamber and his apparently lethal zapping of the young hero. At least the resolution features a good stunt bit by Dave Sharpe.
The leading performances in Buck Rogers are all excellent (although most other critics would make a single exception; see below). Buster Crabbe, as always, makes a perfect serial hero–both genially cheerful and grimly serious, unassumingly polite and aggressively tough. As in the Flash Gordon trilogy, his down-to-earth attitude also helps to make the wild sci-fi happenings seem perfectly normal.
Jackie Moran (oddly “reduced” to serial acting only a year after playing Huck Finn in David O. Selznick’s big-budget classic Adventures of Tom Sawyer) does a fine job as Buddy Wade, handling his character’s frequent “golly, gee-whiz” lines in a low-key fashion that keeps Buddy from coming off as too naïve; his chipper but calm demeanor complements Crabbe’s well, and he has no problems carrying an entire chapter and part of another on his own.
Constance Moore, despite being saddled with perhaps the most unflattering costume ever worn by a serial leading lady (basically coveralls and a bathing cap), manages to come off as charming. Her Wilma Deering is self-possessed and capable-seeming but never too coldly efficient; she remains warmly likable even when piloting spaceships or explaining technology to Crabbe.
Henry Brandon is very good as Killer Kane’s chief henchman Captain Laska–suave and sly when acting as Kane’s ambassador to Saturn, haughtily arrogant when threatening people, and nervously jittery in the presence of his overbearing leader. Hard-bitten tough guys Wheeler Oakman and Reed Howes, along with the slicker Carleton Young , form Brandon’s backup squad.
As Killer Kane himself, perennial henchman actor Anthony Warde has been almost universally panned by critics as “miscast.” I have to dissent strongly, however; Warde does a fine job in the part and plays Kane with a memorable combination of viciousness and uncontrollable anger. The character is not a diabolical schemer like Ming, but rather a super-gangster who’s blasted and bullied his way to the top–and Warde’s bad-tempered, aggressive, and thuggish screen personality fits the part perfectly. He veers between intimidating ranting and harshly sinister sarcasm–as when he describes himself as a “kindly ruler” just after wrathfully sending a formerly trusted councilor to the robot room–but is quite menacing in both aspects.
Philson Ahn, brother of frequent serial and feature actor Phillip Ahn, does a good job as Prince Tallen of Saturn; he possesses his sibling’s deep and distinctive voice, which serves him well as a planetary dignitary. His manner also has a slightly tougher edge to it than his refined brother’s, which helps to keep the viewer in uncertainty in the earlier chapters as to whether Tallen will turn out to be friend or foe. Guy Usher plays Aldar, the head of Saturn’s ”Council of the Wise,” and does his best to seem suitably imposing and dignified, despite the almost comical way in which the “Wise” continually change their opinions–backing Kane, opposing him, giving into his demands, defying him, etc. Cyril Delevanti is enjoyable as a grumpy subordinate member of the Council.*
C. Montague Shaw has limited screen time, but is very good as Dr. Huer, balancing statesmanlike dignity with shrewdness and a touch of enjoyable scientific eccentricity (the last is particularly noticeable during his demonstration of his invisibility gas in Chapter Five). Energetic Jack Mulhall is typically affable and enthusiastic as Captain Rankin of the Hidden City, while Kenne Duncan has a rare good guy role as Mulhall’s fellow-officer Lieutenant Lacy. Perennial screen “underworld rat” John Harmon also plays against type as a Hidden City soldier, as does Stanley Price as a Hidden City pilot rescued from existence as a human robot. The dignified but stolid William Gould is good enough as Air Marshal Kragg, but I would have preferred a more dynamic actor in the role–Kragg is, after all, the top military leader of Kane’s enemies. Mulhall could have handled it well, as could Wade Boteler–who does an excellent job as the grim and concerned Professor Morgan in the first chapter, intensely instructing Buddy and Buck in the use of the Nirvano gas.
Lane Chandler also appears in the first chapter, as a military officer who demonstrates the Nirvano gas to a reporter played by another old pro, Kenneth Harlan. An unusually subdued Theodore Lorch is one of Kane’s councilors, while Karl Hackett has a good part as another councilor who gets into an argument with Kane that leads to Hackett’s being converted into a human robot (his terrified pleas as he’s dragged out of the council chamber are quite chilling). Al Bridge has some memorably sinister lines (“when this helmet is in place, you’ll never think or speak again”) in his periodic scenes as the slave-master of Kane’s human robots.
Unusually for Universal, several bit roles are filled by stuntmen; Eddie Parker and Tom Steele pop in as various soldiers and officers, but aren’t as noticeable as Dave Sharpe, who’s given multiple speaking roles as a Kane soldier, a Hidden City soldier, a Saturnian officer, and a Saturnian soldier. His ubiquity can get a little distracting at times, particularly since some of his appearances follow right on the previous one’s heels; he also seems to have a bit of trouble with the formal-sounding Saturnian dialogue, coming off as much more stiff and affected than in his co-starring turn in Daredevils of the Red Circle.
The serial’s music score, like most other Universals of the period, is an eclectic but usually effective array of stock music, some of it cues from the Flash Gordon serials but the majority of it culled from Universal’s horror features, including (most notably) Franz Waxman’s score for Bride of Frankenstein, which furnishes some memorable opening-titles music.
All in all, though Buck Rogers has its share of flaws, it also has more than enough virtues (the acting, the fast pace, the interesting sci-fi trappings) to make it a good chapterplay. Despite its similar themes, it shouldn’t be pitted against the Flash Gordon trilogy–a match it’s bound to lose–but rather judged against the field of competition in general. When judged in this fashion, it’s just as entertaining–and often more entertaining–than many serials with less shabby reputations.
*One has to wonder, though, why some Saturnians are Orientals like Ahn and others Occidentals like Usher and Delevanti; my own theory is that men from various countries emigrated from Earth to Saturn sometime before the bulk of the serial took place; this would explain the racial assortment and also explain why the Hidden City chooses Saturn in particular as an ally (as usual, I’m probably putting too much thought into this).
An early morning wakeup got us out of the door and on our way to catch the first of two flights. It was morning, but there was still three hours or more of darkness left in the sky. The first flight was a short two hour flight from Orlando, Florida to Washington, DC. The second flight would be seven times longer than that. There was only one hour and ten minutes between connecting flights, so any delay would domino into a series of major travel setbacks on the destination end of this trip. We gave ourselves a comfortable two-hour cushion to catch the first airplane.
While driving south on Interstate Highway 95, we were talking about how the 14-hour flight would not seem too bad if we compared it to our customary 26-hour sail from Miami to Nassau in the Bahamas.
Jill had just said, "At least we don't have to be awake to watch for other traffic during this trip", when the brake lights of the long-haul truck ahead of us suddenly glowed brightly. I quickly summoned the Jeep’s brakes. Through the early morning darkness I could see a cloud of dust in the median ahead to my left. Everything on the highway came to a complete stop. I stopped the Jeep a few yards behind the huge truck ahead, which had fishtailed on the roadway to avoid becoming part the calamity on the dark road ahead.
The calamity was caused by two large eighteen-wheel cargo haulers hitting each other at very high speeds. I can only speculate that one or both of the drivers fell asleep after driving all night. The result was a lot of debris strewn all across the highway, the right lane blocked by a smashed transfer truck and the left median littered with the bent trailer and cab of the other freight carrier.
Just like that, the two-hour cushion we had given ourselves to catch the first flight didn't seem to be enough. The truck ahead of us moved to the edge of the highway. Its driver got out to help. Lights of emergency vehicles were already approaching from the opposite direction. There was a slim opening amongst the debris. In my judgment there was just enough room for the jeep to squeeze by and gain access to the empty highway ahead. A crowd of drivers gathered around the two hapless truck cabs as I maneuvered the Jeep past the scene. We gingerly missed unrecognizable cargo lying in the left lane and broke free of the fiasco just as a police car pulled across the median and blocked the lane behind us. If I would have waited another minute to make my move through the wreckage, I am sure we would have missed our flights; both of them. I said a silent prayer for the two truck drivers, and then pressed down on the gas pedal to take advantage of the empty highway ahead of us.
We still had our two our cushion after we went through airport security. We had time to have a little breakfast, the first of many meals that would be a big part of the next two weeks.
An early morning wakeup got us out of the door and on our way to catch the first of two flights. It was morning, but there was still three hours or more of darkness left in the sky. The first flight was a short two hour flight from Orlando, Florida to Washington, DC. The second flight would be seven times longer than that. There was only one hour and ten minutes between connecting flights, so any delay would domino into a series of major travel setbacks on the destination end of this trip. We gave ourselves a comfortable two-hour cushion to catch the first airplane.
While driving south on Interstate Highway 95, we were talking about how the 14-hour flight would not seem too bad if we compared it to our customary 26-hour sail from Miami to Nassau in the Bahamas.
Jill had just said, "At least we don't have to be awake to watch for other traffic during this trip", when the brake lights of the long-haul truck ahead of us suddenly glowed brightly. I quickly summoned the Jeep’s brakes. Through the early morning darkness I could see a cloud of dust in the median ahead to my left. Everything on the highway came to a complete stop. I stopped the Jeep a few yards behind the huge truck ahead, which had fishtailed on the roadway to avoid becoming part the calamity on the dark road ahead.
The calamity was caused by two large eighteen-wheel cargo haulers hitting each other at very high speeds. I can only speculate that one or both of the drivers fell asleep after driving all night. The result was a lot of debris strewn all across the highway, the right lane blocked by a smashed transfer truck and the left median littered with the bent trailer and cab of the other freight carrier.
Just like that, the two-hour cushion we had given ourselves to catch the first flight didn't seem to be enough. The truck ahead of us moved to the edge of the highway. Its driver got out to help. Lights of emergency vehicles were already approaching from the opposite direction. There was a slim opening amongst the debris. In my judgment there was just enough room for the jeep to squeeze by and gain access to the empty highway ahead. A crowd of drivers gathered around the two hapless truck cabs as I maneuvered the Jeep past the scene. We gingerly missed unrecognizable cargo lying in the left lane and broke free of the fiasco just as a police car pulled across the median and blocked the lane behind us. If I would have waited another minute to make my move through the wreckage, I am sure we would have missed our flights; both of them. I said a silent prayer for the two truck drivers, and then pressed down on the gas pedal to take advantage of the empty highway ahead of us.
We still had our two our cushion after we went through airport security. We had time to have a little breakfast, the first of many meals that would be a big part of the next two weeks.
Forward portion of starboard lower plank dry fitted but as the next picture reveals boat building has its setbacks.
I was saying to the postman just the other day
what a delightful thing fruit and vegetables are
in their variety and talent with the ukulele. Poor
man! he’s had some setbacks lately, as we all have,
I suppose. Although I feel great and look even better
now that I’ve had the operation. We swim through
our lives I’ve found over the course of many days
dribbling various fluids down my chin but now I
hardly leak at all and scream very rarely. You
have dreams no doubt. Even if you are old and
generally washed-up there is something inside you
that says, “Don’t give up, even though surrendering
to the inevitability of your decline and decay
into compost would make good sense, it’s feeling
that counts and who doesn’t feel no matter
what a despicable wretch you are.” This is often
called the human spirit. Frankly, it makes me
a little sick. What does it have at stake, after all.
It will live on in the hollow of some little clerk
in a store somewhere when the rest of us are dead.
He’ll stare off into space and wait for a beauty
to come through the door and buy some small
thing from him—an eraser, maybe, or tube of glue—
and as she pays, her hand will touch his and he’ll
levitate the rest of the day until he goes home to start
work on his next screenplay. He’ll feel good until
the cat cries to be let out and he cuts his foot
on a shred of glass from a bottle he threw against
the wall five years ago when he was arrested for
talking on the bus to a woman who asked if he’d
remove his hand from her bosom. And if you are
young you have so much suffering to look forward
to it makes the eyes burn. No doubt it will be mixed
in with a few high points, but these just add to the pain
of the rest of your time and are far outweighed
by the tedium of your work, the indifference of those
you love, if that catastrophe should befall you, and
your lack of any discernible talent or worth. But
perhaps you’ll spend a lonely life seeking solace
and diversion in a hobby—like photography or
poetry—and you’ll miss out on the torment
of being surrounded by family and friends. So yes,
fruit is good for you. And vegetables ... well, they’re
still an open question in my book. Drive on, Mr. Postman,
life is great if not truly good.
"Tweets wallet". Author: Mure Yoko
And that it began to think finally past the age of 50. It's economy of old age. Are destined to disappears in the mortgage my parents' accumulated. Taxes every year source of concern. The appalled by Kei置 the money necessary to old age. I saw you wearing household accounts, but repeated setbacks. Although I made a small saving at the supermarket, a big splurge immediately after. Of when to break away from the rough estimate, it's a solid live a life one day? Problem everyone face of "money". Essays I wrote humorous and candid.
The Brickbattalions website is finally up and ready for business! It has been a long road full of ups and downs, setbacks and breakthroughs. But now we are ready to go!
Link to site: brickbattalions.com/
edit: We also have a Grand opening offer on the panzer 3, get yours before time runs out!
Link: brickbattalions.com/models/german-panzerkampfwagen-iii-as...
To my flickr pals: Long time no see! It has been a crazy two moths, I started a new job in February that has sapped my building time and now I am getting ready to move to my own place! So until I get settled I probably won’t be posting new models (as my legos are all packed up) until I get settled in my apartment.
But just to let ya’ll know I am working on something BIG! Something I have never done before, and yes it will be a kit. So I am still here just not as much! ;)
Cheers! ~mas
NEWARK, Del. (Nov. 22, 2008) -- Villanova ran up 317 yards on the ground led by Aaron's Ball's 105 yards and two touchdowns as the Wildcats downed Delaware 21-7 Saturday afternoon at Delaware Stadium in the Blue Hens' final football game of the 2008 season. Delaware, which got its only points on a 34-yard scoring strike from Robby Schoenhoft to Martwain Johnston (above) in the final quarter, closed out a disappointing, injury-plagued season with a record of 4-8.
This is either a Freightliner 108SD or 114SD setback 5 axle flatbed semi truck with a tractor mounted Palfinger crane. (The SD stands for severe duty). I'm guessing this was a private crew doing contract work for PG&E. The roof mounted LED warning lights on this truck are super bright. Photographed and filmed by me in Livermore, CA - this short clip is the 1st video I have uploaded to my Flickr acct. You can see pictures of many other types of cool trucks & other vehicles below this one and in my albums with more to follow soon.
(Jan. 17, 2014) The girls played very well and dominated the Cal City High squad, despite injury setbacks to the Bishop Roster. Was lots of fun to shoot!
The Allerton Hotel is a 25-story 360 foot (110 m) hotel skyscraper along the Magnificent Mile in the Near North Side community area of Chicago, Illinois. It was the first building in the city to feature pronounced setbacks and towers resulting from the 1923 zoning law. The building was designated a Chicago Landmark on May 29, 1998.
When the Allerton first opened, it had fourteen floors of small apartment-style rooms for men and six similar floors for women, with a total of 1,000 rooms. The hotel also boasted social events, gold, sports leagues, a library, solarium, and an in-house magazine. An early resident was Louis Skidmore, founder of the architectural firm Skidmore Owings and Merrill.
In the 1940s and 1950s, the hotel housed a swanky lounge on its upper story, called the "Tip Top Tap." Although the lounge closed in 1961, the sign proclaiming its existence is still displayed on the Allerton Hotel. By 1963, the room was home to a new restaurant, the Cloud Room, when Don McNeill moved his broadcast of "Don McNeill's Breakfast Club" to the location. While the show was broadcast from the Allerton, McNeill's guests included regular Fran Allison.
After the Allerton Hotel was declared a Chicago landmark, it was closed from August 1998 through May 1999 for a $60,000,000 renovation. The restoration work reversed the hotel's trend toward seediness. When the hotel reopened as the Allerton Crowne Plaza Hotel, the twenty-third floor, which had housed the Tip Top Tap and the Cloud Room, opened as the Renaissance Ballroom. At the same time, a lounge opened on the second floor called Taps on Two, and featured one of the Tip Top Tap's signature drinks, a Moscow mule.
In November 2006, the Allerton Hotel was purchased from Crowne Plaza and sold to the Chartres Lodging Group for $70,000,000. It reopened on February 2, 2007 as the independently owned Allerton Hotel, under the Chartres Lodging umbrella of hotels.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allerton_Hotel
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_Creative_Commons_...
A Victorian facade stands on the 1000 block of F Street in Fresno between a crumbling foundation and a vacant building that was formerly a video arcade and snack bar. Burnt spoons, burnt sheets of foil, and needles were strewn about. The crumbling brick wall was once part of a commercial addition.
After a series of setbacks we ended up quite close to the spot I used for my last weeks FDT shot. Last week I was on the leftmost end of the concrete pier on the background. The green boat is now parked at the other end of it. It was not there last week.
Setbacks or not, we managed to stop for a nice coffee break too: www.instagram.com/p/Bln-W4DjULp/
Original Material Type: Newspaper clipping
Article Title: Slight Setback for a Bayview Service Center: 'Misunderstanding' over housing fees brings fraud investigators
Author: Joe Strupp
Publication Info: San Francisco Independent
Subject Keywords: San Francisco, Bayview Hunters Point, Bayview Information and Resource Center, fraud, subsidized housing, Department of Housing and Urban Development, HUD, San Francisco Housing Authority
Collection: San Francisco Public Library Branch Archives - Bayview Branch
Repository: San Francisco History Center - San Francisco Public Library
This alley in Birkdale Village has the garages setback from the alleyway. This extended right of way is necessary to accomodate utility easements--note the green utility service bollards on the right. The setbsacks here seem smaller than at Vermillion, a similar TND in Huntersville. I wonder if the utility thinking has evolved to allow less space? Or Perhaps Vermillion's designers decided if they had to do a set back they would do one an entire car length. as an Urbanist, I prefer shallower garage setbacks with more space in the yard.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License
Please Attribute to: Brett VA
小石头俱乐部: situated on an extremely small plot measuring only 65 sqm, 'grow' by apollo architects & associates is a downtown tokyo residence conceived for a husband-and-wife designer couple.on the ground floor, a cockpit-like office at the entrance which runs along the east side of the home, neighbors the garage, separated by a single pane of glass which visually expands the narrow space. when the garage is open to its fullest extent, it creates a sense of unity between the street and interior. a small square white rock covered courtyard located at the back left corner of the garage fills with diffused light which floods down from the upper levels, projecting a sense of tranquility into the adjoining master bedroom.a staircase which spirals from the ground floor to the penthouse leads upwards to the second floor outfitted with a large changing room and sleeping quarters for the client's three children - this area is divided by a curtain. two large doors which open out over the courtyard from the bathroom allow one to enjoy a relaxing 'outdoor' bath complete with fresh air and sunlight.the third floor floor houses the dwelling's main communal areas such as the kitchen and living room. high skylights installed along the walls and the ceiling - which is sloped as a result of the setback limit imposed by the city - provide a lot of natural light into the home,making it feel open and airy despite its small area. these windows also offer panoramic views of the sky and downtown area with built-in furniture covered in tatami mats lining the south and east facing walls of the family room. a balcony extends from the kitchen where the residents are able to grow their own plants, allowing them to prepare food in an open environment, while a rooftop garden offers an additional green oasis for the owners in the middle of the city.architecture: satoshi kurosaki/apollo architects & associates location: shinjuku ward tokyodate of completion: july 2012principal use: private housingstructure: concretesite area: 38.37m2total floor area: 124.33m2 (43.61m2/1f, 38.37m2/2f,38.66m2/3f,3.69m2/ph)structural engineer: kenta masakimechanical engineer: zenei shimadamaterial informationexterior finish: exposed concretefloor: wood flooringwall: synthetic resin emulsion paintceiling: exposed concreteEdit By 小石头俱乐部 来自http://dd.mu/wRW=N
NEWARK, Del. (Nov. 22, 2008) -- Villanova ran up 317 yards on the ground led by Aaron's Ball's 105 yards and two touchdowns as the Wildcats downed Delaware 21-7 Saturday afternoon at Delaware Stadium in the Blue Hens' final football game of the 2008 season. Delaware, which got its only points on a 34-yard scoring strike from Robby Schoenhoft to Martwain Johnston (above) in the final quarter, closed out a disappointing, injury-plagued season with a record of 4-8.
I've had a setback on my sockapalooza socks. Let's ignore the fact that I just started yesterday, because this pattern is a really fast knit, so that's not really an issue.
What is the issue is this:
(1) When I got my order from The Loopy Ewe, she sent me two skeins of the same colorway from two different dye lots. It's evident. One has more red, the other has more tan and green. I can't in good conscience send her socks that are that mismatched.
(2) I cast on for a small (58 stitches). Gauge is good. I figured this would work since my sock pal has smaller feet than I do. It won't. I can't get the leg over my ankle, so I'll need to cast on the next larger size.
(3) The colors of this yarn are far too dark to work with this pattern. I need to use a different yarn. I'll probably switch to this (another Interlacements), which I have in my stash. She likes jewel-tones, so the blues and greens should still be OK.
Pattern: Mad Color Weave
Needles: Knit Picks circular US1 (2.25 mm)
Yarn: Interlacements Tiny Toes in Stained Glass
Started 7/11/07
Frogged 7/12/07
This pool was installed in an enviromentally restricted area. Because of the setbacks, a silt fence had to be constructed first and then every bit of dirt had to be taken away to build the pool. It was very important to the customer that the pool be integrated with the style of the house. The house is a traditional Cape Cod beach house and a traditional Roman End pool fit the style. An oval tanning bay was set at the shallow end to maximize the view of the lake. The colors of the pool and decking were matched carefully to the colors used in and outside the house. The pool has been finished in a mosaic glass tile. An automatic floating cover emerges from a bunker in the floor of the pool. The ladder treads and handrails were custom designed and built.
Sidewalk with shallow setback on single family detached street at the New Town at St. Charles new urban development.
NEWARK, Del. (Nov. 22, 2008) -- Villanova ran up 317 yards on the ground led by Aaron's Ball's 105 yards and two touchdowns as the Wildcats downed Delaware 21-7 Saturday afternoon at Delaware Stadium in the Blue Hens' final football game of the 2008 season. Delaware, which got its only points on a 34-yard scoring strike from Robby Schoenhoft to Martwain Johnston (above) in the final quarter, closed out a disappointing, injury-plagued season with a record of 4-8.
This is either a Freightliner 108SD or 114SD setback 5 axle flatbed semi truck with a tractor mounted Palfinger crane. (The SD stands for severe duty). I'm guessing this was a private crew doing contract work for PG&E. The roof mounted LED warning lights on this truck are super bright. Photographed and filmed by me in Livermore, CA - this short clip is the 1st video I have uploaded to my Flickr acct. You can see pictures of many other types of cool trucks & other vehicles below this one and in my albums with more to follow soon.
Keep customer service a top priority with these tips – don’t miss any opportunities! Call Storesupport today for more information: 1-877-421-5081.
This is either a Freightliner 108SD or 114SD setback 5 axle flatbed semi truck with a tractor mounted Palfinger crane. (The SD stands for severe duty). I'm guessing this was a private crew doing contract work for PG&E. The roof mounted LED warning lights on this truck are super bright. Photographed and filmed by me in Livermore, CA - this short clip is the 1st video I have uploaded to my Flickr acct. You can see pictures of many other types of cool trucks & other vehicles below this one and in my albums with more to follow soon.
The Allerton Hotel is a 25-story 360 foot (110 m) hotel skyscraper along the Magnificent Mile in the Near North Side community area of Chicago, Illinois. It was the first building in the city to feature pronounced setbacks and towers resulting from the 1923 zoning law. The building was designated a Chicago Landmark on May 29, 1998.
When the Allerton first opened, it had fourteen floors of small apartment-style rooms for men and six similar floors for women, with a total of 1,000 rooms. The hotel also boasted social events, gold, sports leagues, a library, solarium, and an in-house magazine. An early resident was Louis Skidmore, founder of the architectural firm Skidmore Owings and Merrill.
In the 1940s and 1950s, the hotel housed a swanky lounge on its upper story, called the "Tip Top Tap." Although the lounge closed in 1961, the sign proclaiming its existence is still displayed on the Allerton Hotel. By 1963, the room was home to a new restaurant, the Cloud Room, when Don McNeill moved his broadcast of "Don McNeill's Breakfast Club" to the location. While the show was broadcast from the Allerton, McNeill's guests included regular Fran Allison.
After the Allerton Hotel was declared a Chicago landmark, it was closed from August 1998 through May 1999 for a $60,000,000 renovation. The restoration work reversed the hotel's trend toward seediness. When the hotel reopened as the Allerton Crowne Plaza Hotel, the twenty-third floor, which had housed the Tip Top Tap and the Cloud Room, opened as the Renaissance Ballroom. At the same time, a lounge opened on the second floor called Taps on Two, and featured one of the Tip Top Tap's signature drinks, a Moscow mule.
In November 2006, the Allerton Hotel was purchased from Crowne Plaza and sold to the Chartres Lodging Group for $70,000,000. It reopened on February 2, 2007 as the independently owned Allerton Hotel, under the Chartres Lodging umbrella of hotels.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allerton_Hotel
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_Creative_Commons_...
The Postcard
A postally unused postcard published by the American Art Publishing Co. on behalf of F.W. Woolworth.
On the divided back is printed:
'The Woolworth Building,
New York City.
Occupies a plot 152x197 feet
at Broadway and Barclay Street.
It is the tallest building in the
world, rising to a height of
750 feet, 55 stories above the
ground.
The foundation consists of
caissons 19 feet in diameter
sunk to bedrock, 110 to 130
feet below the ground.
Total cost is estimated at
$15,000,000.
H. Finkelstein & Son'.
The Woolworth Building
The Woolworth Building is a residential building and early skyscraper at 233 Broadway in the Tribeca neighborhood of Lower Manhattan in NYC.
Designed by Cass Gilbert, it was the tallest building in the world from 1913 to 1930, with a height of 792 feet (241 m). More than a century after its construction, it remains one of the 100 tallest buildings in the U.S..
The Woolworth Building consists of a 30-story base topped by a 30-story tower. Its façade is mostly decorated with architectural terracotta, though the lower portions are limestone, and it features thousands of windows.
The ornate lobby contains various sculptures, mosaics, and architectural touches. The structure was designed with several amenities and attractions, including a now-closed observatory on the 57th. floor and a private swimming pool in the basement.
F. W. Woolworth, the founder of a brand of popular five-and-ten-cent stores, conceived the skyscraper as a headquarters for his company. Woolworth planned the skyscraper jointly with the Irving National Exchange Bank, which also agreed to use the structure as its headquarters.
The Woolworth Building had originally been planned as a 12- to 16-story commercial building, but it underwent several revisions during its planning process. Construction started in 1910, although the building's final height was not decided upon until January 1911. The building officially opened on the 24th. April 1913.
The Woolworth Building has undergone several changes throughout its history. The façade was cleaned in 1932, and the building received an extensive renovation between 1977 and 1981.
The Irving National Exchange Bank moved its headquarters to 1 Wall Street in 1931, but the Woolworth Company (later Venator Group) continued to own the Woolworth Building for most of the 20th. century.
The structure was sold to the Witkoff Group in 1998. The top 30 floors were sold to a developer in 2012 and converted into residences.
Office and commercial tenants use the rest of the building.
-- Architecture of the Woolworth Building
Cass Gilbert designed the Woolworth Building in the neo-Gothic style. The building resembles European Gothic cathedrals; Reverend S. Parkes Cadman dubbed it "The Cathedral of Commerce" in a booklet published in 1916.
F. W. Woolworth, who had devised the idea for the Woolworth Building, had proposed using the Victoria Tower as a model for the building; he reportedly also admired the design of Palace of Westminster.
Gilbert, by contrast, disliked the comparison to religious imagery. The architect ultimately used 15th.- and 16th.-century Gothic ornament on the Woolworth Building, along with a complementary color scheme.
The Woolworth Building was designed to be 420 feet (130 m) high, but was eventually raised to 792 feet (241 m).
The Woolworth Building was 60 stories tall when completed in 1913, though this consisted of 53 usable floors topped by several mechanical floors.
The building's ceiling heights, ranging from 11 to 20 feet (3.4 to 6.1 m), make it the equivalent of an 80-story building. It remained the tallest building in the world until the construction of 40 Wall Street and the Chrysler Building in 1930, both in New York City.
The building is assigned its own ZIP Code; it was one of 41 buildings in Manhattan that had their own ZIP Codes as of 2019.
-- The Form of the Woolworth Building
The building's tower, flush with the main frontage on Broadway, joins an office block base with a narrow interior court for light. The base occupies the entire lot between Park Place to the north, Broadway to the east, and Barclay Street to the south.
The site measures 155 feet (47 m) wide on Broadway and 200 feet (61 m) wide on both Park Place and Barclay Street. The base contains two "wings" extending westward, one each on the Park Place and Barclay Street frontages, which form a rough U-shape when combined with the Broadway frontage.
This ensured that all offices had outside views. The U-shaped base is approximately 30 stories tall. All four elevations of the base are decorated, since the building has frontage on all sides.
The tower rises an additional 30 stories above the eastern side of the base, abutting Broadway. Above the 30th. floor are setbacks on the north and south elevations. There are additional setbacks along the north, south, and west elevations on the 45th. and 50th. floors.
The 30th. through 45th. floors measure 84 by 86 feet (26 by 26 m); the 46th. through 50th. floors, 69 by 71 feet (21 by 22 m); and the 51st. through 53rd. floors, 69 by 61 feet (21 by 19 m).
The tower has a square plan below the 50th.-story setback and an octagonal plan above. Though the structure is physically 60 stories tall, the 53rd. floor is the top floor that can be occupied. Above the 53rd. floor, the tower tapers into a pyramidal roof.
-- The Façade of the Woolworth Building
The lowest four stories are clad in limestone. Above that, the exterior of the Woolworth Building was cast in limestone-colored, glazed architectural terracotta panels.
F. W. Woolworth initially wanted to clad the skyscraper in granite, while Gilbert wanted to use limestone. The decision to use terracotta for the façade was based on both aesthetic and functional concerns.
Terracotta was not only fireproof but also, in Gilbert's mind, a purely ornamental addition clarifying the Woolworth Building's steel construction. Each panel was of a slightly different color, creating a polychrome effect.
The façade appeared to have a uniform tone, but the upper floors were actually darker and more dense. Behind the terracotta panels were brick walls; the terracotta pieces are attached to the brick walls by metal rods and hangers.
The Atlantic Terra Cotta Company provided the original terracotta cladding. The panels were manufactured in shades of blue, green, sienna, and rose. The terracotta panels were partially vitrified, allowing them to bear large loads.
Gilbert also asked that John Donnelly and Eliseo V. Ricci create full-size designs based on Atlantic Terra Cotta's models.
In 1932, Atlantic Terra Cotta carried out a comprehensive cleaning campaign of the Woolworth's façade in order to remove blackening caused by the city's soot and pollution.
The Ehrenkrantz Group restored the building's façade between 1977 and 1981. During the renovation, much of the terracotta was replaced with concrete and Gothic ornament was removed.
The building has several thousand windows: the exact number is disputed, but various sources state that the Woolworth Building has 2,843, 4,400, or 5,000 windows.
Windows were included for lighting and comfort; because the Woolworth Building was built before air conditioning became common, every office is within 10 feet (3.0 m) of a window.
Some of the Woolworth Building's windows are set within arch-shaped openings. Most of the building's spandrels, or triangles between the top corners of the window and the top of the arch, have golden Gothic tracery against a bright blue backdrop.
On the 25th., 39th., and 40th. stories, the spandrels consist of iconography found in the royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom.
Gold-on-blue tracery is also found on the 26th., 27th., and 42nd. floors.
-- The Base of the Woolworth Building
The main entrance on Broadway is a three-story Tudor arch, surrounded on either side by two bays: one narrower than the main arch, the other wider. The five bays form a triumphal arch overhung by a balcony and stone motifs of Gothic design.
The intrados of the arch contains 23 niches. The topmost niche depicts an owl; the lowest niches on both sides depict tree trunks; and the other twenty niches depict animated figures.
The spandrel above the left side of the arch depicts Mercury, classical god of commerce, while that above the right side depicts Ceres, classical goddess of agriculture.
Above all of this is an ogee arch with more niches, as well as two carvings of owls hovering above a "W" monogram. There are salamanders within niches on either side of the main entrance.
Inside the triumphal arch, there is a smaller arch with a revolving door and a Tudor window; it is flanked by standard doors and framed with decorations. There is a pelican above this smaller arch.
-- The Tower Section of the Woolworth Building
At the 45th.- and 50th.-story setbacks, there are turrets at each corner of the tower. The northeast corner turret concealed a smokestack.
There is a pyramidal roof above the 53rd. floor, as well as four ornamental tourelles at the four corners of the tower. The roof was originally gilt but is now green. The pyramidal roof, as well as the smaller roofs below, used 40,000 square feet (3,700 m2) of gold leaf.
The main roof is interspersed with small dormers, which contain windows into the maintenance levels inside. The pyramidal roof is topped by another pyramid with an octagonal base and tall pointed-arch windows. In turn, the octagonal pyramid is capped by a spire.
The three layers of pyramids are about 62 feet (19 m), or five stories tall. An observation deck was located at the 55th. floor, about 730 feet (220 m) above ground level. The deck, which was octagonal in plan, measuring 65 feet (20 m) across, was accessed by a glass-walled elevator.
It was patronized by an estimated 300,000 visitors per year, but was closed as a security measure in 1941 after the Pearl Harbor attack.
Strongly articulated piers, which carry right to the pyramidal cap without intermediate cornices, give the building its upward thrust. This was influenced by Aus's belief that:
"From an engineering point of view,
no structure is beautiful where the
lines of strength are not apparent."
The copper roof is connected to the Woolworth Building's steel superstructure, which serves to ground the roof electrically. The Gothic detailing concentrated at the highly visible crown is over-scaled, and the building's silhouette could be made out from several miles away.
Gilbert's choice of the Gothic style was described as "an expression of the verticality of the tower form", and as Gilbert himself later wrote, the style was "light, graceful, delicate and flame-like".
Gilbert considered several proposals for exterior lighting, including four powerful searchlights atop nearby buildings and a constantly rotating lamp at the apex of the Woolworth Building's roof.
Ultimately, the builders decided to erect nitrogen lamps and reflectors above the 31st. floor, and have the intensity of the lighting increase with height.
-- Structural Features of the Woolworth Building
-- The Substructure
In contrast to other parts of Manhattan, the bedrock beneath the site is relatively deep, descending to between 110 and 115 feet (34 and 35 m) on average. The site also has a high water table, which is as shallow as 15 feet (4.6 m) below ground level.
Due to the geology of the area, the building is supported on 69 massive caissons that descend to the bedrock. The caissons range in depth from 100 to 120 feet (30 to 37 m).
To give the structure a sturdy foundation, the builders used metal tubes 19 feet (5.8 m) in diameter filled with concrete. These tubes were driven into the ground with a pneumatic caisson process to anchor the foundations to the bedrock.
Because the slope of the bedrock was so sharp, steps had to be carved into the rock before the caissons could be sunk into the ground. The caissons were both round and rectangular, with the rectangular caissons located mainly on the southern and western lot lines.
The caissons are irregularly distributed across the site, being more densely concentrated at the northeastern corner. This is because the building was originally planned to occupy a smaller site at the corner of Broadway and Park Place; when the site was enlarged, the caissons that had already been installed were left in place.
The two basement levels, descending 55 feet (17 m), are constructed of reinforced concrete.
-- The Superstructure
Whereas many earlier buildings had been constructed with load-bearing walls, which by necessity were extremely thick, the Woolworth Building's steel superstructure was relatively thin, which enabled Gilbert to maximize the building's interior area.
Engineers Gunvald Aus and Kort Berle designed the steel frame. Each column carries a load of 24 tons per square foot, supporting the building's overall weight of 233,000 tons.
Where the columns of the superstructure did not match up with the caissons, they were cantilevered above on plate girders between two adjoining caissons. These girders are extremely large; one such girder measures 8 feet (2.4 m) deep, 6.75 feet (2 m) wide, and 23 feet (7.0 m) long.
For the wind bracing, the entire Woolworth Building was considered as a vertical cantilever, and correspondingly large girders and columns were used in the construction.
-- Interior
Upon completion, the Woolworth Building contained seven water systems — one each for the power plant, the hot-water plant, the fire-protection system, the communal restrooms, the offices with restrooms, the basement swimming pool, and the basement restaurant.
Although the water is obtained from the New York City water supply system, much of it is filtered and reused. A dedicated water system, separate from the city's, was proposed during construction, but workers abandoned the plan after unsuccessfully digging 1,500 feet (460 m) into Manhattan's bedrock.
The Woolworth Building was the first structure to have its own power plant, with four Corliss steam engine generators totaling a capacity of 1,500 kilowatt-hours; the plant could support 50,000 people.
The building also had a dedicated heating plant with six boilers producing 2,500 horsepower. The boilers were fed from subterranean coal bunkers capable of holding over 2,000 tons of anthracite coal.
-- Lobby
The ornate, cruciform lobby, known as the "arcade", was characterized by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission as:
"One of the most spectacular of
the early 20th. century in New
York City".
It consists of two perpendicular, double-height passageways with barrel-vaulted ceilings. Where the passageways intersect, there is a domed ceiling. The dome contains pendentives that may have been patterned after those of the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia.
Veined marble from the island of Skyros in Greece covers the lobby. Patterned glass mosaics that contain blue, green, and gold tiling with red accents decorate the ceilings.
There are other Gothic-style decorations in the lobby, including on the cornice and the bronze fittings. Twelve plaster brackets, which carry grotesques depicting major figures in the building's construction, are placed where the arcade and the mezzanine intersect.
These ornaments include Gilbert with a model of the building, Aus taking a girder's measurements, and Woolworth holding nickels and dimes. Two ceiling murals by C. Paul Jennewein, titled Labor and Commerce, are located above the mezzanine where it crosses the south and north wings, respectively.
The staircase hall is a two-story room located to the west of the arcade. It consists of the ground level, which contains former storefronts, as well as a mezzanine level above it. The ground floor originally contained 18 storefronts.
A 15-foot-wide (4.6 m) marble staircase leads westward from the arcade to a mezzanine, where the entrance to the Irving National Exchange Bank office was formerly located. The mezzanine contains a stained-glass skylight surrounded by the names of several nations. The skylight contains the dates 1879 and 1913, which respectively signify the years of the Woolworth Company's founding and the building's opening.
The skylight is also surrounded by sculpted grotesques, which depict merchandising activities in the five-and-dime industry.
There is a smaller space west of the staircase hall with a one-story-high ceiling. This room contains a coffered ceiling with a blue-green background. The crossbeams contain Roman portrait heads, while the cornice contains generic sculpted grotesques.
-- Basement
The basement of the Woolworth Building contains an unused bank vault, restaurant, and barbershop. The bank vault was initially intended to be used for safe-deposit boxes, though it was used by the Irving National Exchange Bank in practice.
In 1931, Irving moved some $3 billion of deposits to a vault in its new headquarters at 1 Wall Street, and the Woolworth Building's vault was converted into a storage area for maintenance workers.
There is also a basement storage room, known as the "bone yard", which contains replacement terracotta decorations for the facade.
The basement also contains closed entrances to two New York City Subway stations. There was an entrance to the Park Place station directly adjacent to the building's north elevation, served by the 2 and 3 trains. This entrance was closed after the September 11 attacks in 2001.
Another entrance led to the City Hall station one block north, now served by the R and W trains, but this was closed in 1982 because of concerns over crime.
A private pool, originally intended for F. W. Woolworth, exists in the basement. Proposed as early as 1910, the pool measured 15 by 55 feet (4.6 by 16.8 m) and had a marble perimeter.
The pool was later drained, but was restored in the mid-2010's as part of the conversion of the Woolworth Building's upper floors into residential units.
-- Offices
At the time of construction, the Woolworth Building had over 2,000 offices. Each office had ceilings ranging from 11 to 20 feet (3.4 to 6.1 m) high. Gilbert had designed the interior to maximize the amount of usable office space, and correspondingly, minimize the amount of space taken up by the elevator shafts.
The usable-space consideration affected the placement of the columns in the wings, as the columns in the main tower were positioned around the elevator shafts and facade piers.
Each of the lowest 30 stories had 31 offices, of which ten faced the light court, eight faced Park Place, eight faced Barclay Street, and five faced Broadway. Above the 30th.-story setback, each story had 14 offices.
For reasons that are unknown, floor numbers 42, 48, and 52 are skipped.
Woolworth's private office on the 24th. floor, revetted in green marble in the French Empire style, is preserved in its original condition. His office included a mahogany desk with a leather top measuring 7.5 by 3.75 feet (2.29 by 1.14 m).
That desk contained a hidden console with four buttons to request various members of his staff.
The marble columns in the office are capped by gilded Corinthian capitals. Woolworth's reception room contained objects that were inspired by a visit to the Château de Compiègne shortly after the building opened.
These included a bronze bust of Napoleon, a set of French Empire-style lamps with gold figures, and an inkwell with a depiction of Napoleon on horseback.
The walls of the office contained portraits of Napoleon, and gold-and-scarlet chairs were arranged around the room. At some point, Woolworth replaced the portrait of Napoleon with a portrait of himself.
-- Elevators
The Woolworth Building contains a system of high-speed elevators capable of traveling 650 feet (200 m) or 700 feet (210 m) per minute. The Otis Elevator Company supplied the units, which were innovative in that there were "express" elevators, stopping only at certain floors, and "local" elevators, stopping at every floor between a certain range.
There were 26 Otis electric elevators with gearless traction, as well as an electric-drum shuttle elevator within the tower once construction was complete. Of these, 24 were passenger elevators. Two freight elevators and two emergency staircases were placed at the rear of the building.
The elevator doors in the lobby were designed by Tiffany Studios. The patterns on the doors are arabesque tracery patterns in etched steel set off against a gold-plated background.
-- History of the Woolworth Building
-- Planning
F. W. Woolworth, an entrepreneur who had become successful because of his "Five-and-Dime" (5- and 10-cent stores), began planning a new headquarters for the F. W. Woolworth Company in 1910.
Around the same time, Woolworth's friend Lewis Pierson was having difficulty getting shareholder approval for the merger of his Irving National Bank and the rival New York Exchange Bank.
Woolworth offered to acquire shares in New York Exchange Bank and vote in favor of the merger if Pierson agreed to move the combined banks' headquarters to a new building he was planning as the F. W. Woolworth Company's headquarters.
Having received a commitment from the banks, Woolworth acquired a corner site on Broadway and Park Place in Lower Manhattan, opposite City Hall.
Woolworth and the Irving National Exchange Bank then set up the Broadway-Park Place Company to construct and finance the proposed structure. Initially, the bank was supposed to purchase the company's stock gradually until it owned the entire company, and thus, the Woolworth Building.
Irving would be able to manage the 18 floors of rentable space on a 25-year lease. While negotiations to create the Broadway-Park Place Company were ongoing, Woolworth and his real estate agent Edward J. Hogan purchased several parcels from the Trenor Luther Park estate and other owners.
The entire footprint of the current building, a rectangular lot, had been acquired by the 15th. April 1910, at a total cost of $1.65 million (about $37.7 million in 2022).
-- Original designs
Woolworth commissioned Cass Gilbert to design the new building. Gilbert later mentioned that he had received the commission for the Woolworth Building after getting a phone call from Woolworth one day.
Woolworth wanted his new structure to be of similar design to the Palace of Westminster in London, which was designed in the Gothic style. At the time, Gilbert was well known for constructing modern skyscrapers with historicizing design elements.
Gilbert was originally retained to design a standard 12- to 16-story commercial building for Woolworth, who later said:
"I have no desire to erect a monument
that would cause posterity to remember
me".
However, Woolworth then wanted to surpass the nearby New York World Building, which sat on the other side of City Hall Park and stood 20 stories and 350 feet (110 m).
A drawing by Thomas R. Johnson, dated April 22 1910, shows a 30-story building rising from the site. Because of the change in plans, the organization of the Broadway-Park Place Company was rearranged.
Woolworth would now be the major partner, contributing $1 million of the planned $1.5 million cost. The Irving Bank would pay the balance, and it would take up a 25-year lease for the ground floor, fourth floor, and basement.
By September 1910, Gilbert had designed an even taller structure, with a 40-story tower on Park Place adjacent to a shorter 25-story annex, yielding a 550-foot (170 m)-tall building.
The next month, Gilbert's latest design had evolved into a 45-story tower roughly the height of the nearby Singer Building. After the latest design, Woolworth wrote to Gilbert in November 1910 and asked for the building's height to be increased to 620 feet (190 m), which was 8 feet (2.4 m) taller than the Singer Building, Lower Manhattan's tallest building.
Woolworth was inspired by his travels in Europe, where he would constantly be asked about the Singer Building. He decided that housing his company in an even taller building would provide invaluable advertising for the F. W. Woolworth Company and make it renowned worldwide.
This design, unveiled to the public the same month, was a 45-story tower rising 625 feet (191 m), sitting on a lot by 105 by 197 feet (32 by 60 m). Referring to the revised plans, Woolworth said:
"I do not want a mere building.
I want something that will be an
ornament to the city."
He later said that he wanted visitors to brag that they had visited the world's tallest building.
Louis J. Horowitz, president of the building's main contractor Thompson-Starrett Company, said of Woolworth:
"Beyond a doubt his ego was a thing
of extraordinary size; whoever tried to
find a reason for his tall building and
did not take that fact into account would
reach a false conclusion."
Even after the revised height was unveiled, Woolworth still yearned to make the building even taller, as it was now close to the 700-foot (210 m) height of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Tower, then the tallest building in New York City and the world.
On the 20th. December 1910, Woolworth sent a team of surveyors to measure the Metropolitan Life Tower's height and come up with a precise measurement, so that he could make his skyscraper 50 feet (15 m) taller.
He then ordered Gilbert to revise the building's design to reach 710 or 712 feet (216 or 217 m), despite ongoing worries over whether the additional height would be worth the increased cost.
In order to fit the larger base that a taller tower necessitated, Woolworth bought the remainder of the frontage on Broadway between Park Place and Barclay Street. He also purchased two lots to the west, one on Park Place and one on Barclay Street; these lots would not be developed, but would retain their low-rise buildings and preserve the proposed tower's views.
Such a tall building would produce the largest income of any building globally.
On the 1st. January 1911, the New York Times reported that Woolworth was planning a 625 feet (191 m) building at a cost of $5 million.
By the 18th. January 1911, Woolworth and Hogan had acquired the final site for the project at a total cost of $4.5 million; (about $103 million in 2022) the lot measured 152 feet (46 m) on Broadway, 192.5 feet (58.7 m) on Barclay Street, and 197.8 feet (60 m) on Park Place.
In a New York Times article two days later, Woolworth said that his building would rise 750 feet (230 m) to its tip. In order to fit the correct architectural proportions, Gilbert redesigned the building to its current 792-foot (241 m) height.
Renderings by the illustrator Hughson Hawley, completed in April 1911, are the first official materials that reflect this final height.
Gilbert had to reconcile both Woolworth's and Pierson's strict requirements for the design of the structure. The architect's notes describe late-night conversations that he had with both men. The current design of the lobby, with its arcade, reflected these conflicting pressures.
Sometimes Gilbert also faced practical conundrums, such as Woolworth's requirement that:
There must be many windows so divided
that all of the offices should be well lighted,
and so that tenants could erect partitions to
fit their needs."
Gilbert wrote that:
"This requirement naturally
prevented any broad wall
space".
Woolworth and Gilbert sometimes clashed during the design process, especially because of the constantly changing designs and the architect's fees. Nevertheless, Gilbert commended Woolworth's devotion to the details and beauty of the building's design, as well as the entrepreneur's enthusiasm for the project.
Such was the scale of the building that Gilbert noted:
"For several years my sense of scale was
destroyed because of the unprecedented
attuning of detail to, for these days, such
an excessive height".
-- Construction of the Woolworth Building
In September 1910, wrecking crews demolished the five and six-story structures which previously occupied the site. Construction officially began on the 4th. November 1910, with excavation by The Foundation Company, using a contract negotiated personally by Frank Woolworth.
The start of construction instantly raised the site's value from $2.25 million to $3.2 million. The contract of over $1 million was described as the largest contract for foundation construction ever awarded in the world.
It took months for Woolworth to decide upon the general construction company. George A. Fuller's Fuller Company was well experienced and had practically invented skyscraper construction.
However Louis Horowitz's Thompson-Starrett Company was local to New York, and despite being newer, Horowitz had worked for Fuller before, and thus had a similar knowledge base.
On the 20th. April 1911, Thompson-Starrett won the contract with a guaranteed construction price of $4,308,500 for the building's frame and structural elements.
The company was paid $300,000 for their oversight and management work, despite Woolworth's attempts to get the company to do the job for free due to the prestige of the project.
On the 12th. June 1911, the Atlantic Terra Cotta Company received a $250,000 contract to manufacture the terracotta.
The next month, Donnelly and Ricci received the $11,500 contract for the terracotta work and some of the interior design work. Gilbert requested Atlantic Terra Cotta use an office next to his while they drew several hundred designs.
The construction process involved hundreds of workers, and daily wages ranged from $1.50 for laborers (equivalent to $44 in 2022) to $4.50 for skilled workers (equivalent to $133 in 2022).
By August 1911, the building's foundations were completed ahead of the target date of the 15th. September; construction of the skyscraper's steel frame began on the 15th. August.
The steel beams and girders used in the framework weighed so much that, to prevent the streets from caving in, a group of surveyors examined them on the route along which the beams would be transported.
The American Bridge Company provided steel for the building from their foundries in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh; manufacturing took over 45 weeks.
The first above-ground steel had been erected by October 1911, and installation of the building's terracotta began on the 1st. February 1912.
The building rose at the rate of 1½ stories a week, and the steelworkers set a speed record for assembling 1,153 tons of steel in six consecutive eight-hour days.
By the 18th. February 1912, work on the steel frame had reached the building's 18th. floor. By the 6th. April 1912, the steel frame had reached the top of the base at the 30th. floor, and work then began on constructing the tower of the Woolworth Building.
Steel reached the 47th. floor by the 30th. May, and the official topping out ceremony took place two weeks ahead of schedule on the 1st. July 1912, as the last rivet was driven into the summit of the tower.
The skyscraper was substantially completed by the end of that year. The final estimated construction cost was US$13.5 million (equivalent to $400,000,000 in 2022), up from the initial estimates of US$5 million for the shorter versions of the skyscraper (equivalent to $148,000,000 in 2022).
Woolworth provided $5 million, while investors provided the remainder, and financing was completed by August 1911.
-- Opening and the 1910's
The building opened on the 24th. April 1913. Woolworth held a grand dinner on the building's 27th. floor for over 900 guests, and at exactly 7:30 p.m. EST, President Woodrow Wilson pushed a button in Washington, D.C., to turn on the building's lights. Additional congratulations were sent via letter from former President William Howard Taft, Governor of New Jersey James Fairman Fielder and United States Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels.
The building was declared ready for occupancy on the 1st. May 1913, and Woolworth began advertising the offices for rent beginning at $4.00 per square foot.
To attract tenants, Woolworth hired architecture critic Montgomery Schuyler to write a 56-page brochure outlining the building's features. Schuyler later described the Woolworth Building as the "noblest offspring" of buildings erected with steel skeletons.
On completion, the Woolworth Building topped the record set by the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Tower as the world's tallest building, a distinction it held until 1930.
Woolworth had purchased all of the Broadway-Park Place Company's shares from the Irving National Exchange Bank by May 1914; his company held no ownership stake in the building.
The building contained offices for as many as 14,000 employees. By the end of 1914, the building was 70% occupied and generating over $1.3 million a year in rents for the F. W. Woolworth Company.
-- The Woolworth Building in the 1920's to 1960's
During the Great War, only one of the Woolworth Building's then-14 elevators was turned on, and many lighting fixtures in hallways and offices were turned off. This resulted in about a 70% energy reduction compared to peacetime requirements.
The building had more than a thousand tenants by the 1920's, who generally occupied suites of one or two rooms. These tenants reportedly collectively employed over 12,000 people in the building.
In 1920, after F. W. Woolworth died, his heirs obtained a $3 million mortgage loan on the Woolworth Building from Prudential Life Insurance Company in order to pay off $8 million in inheritance tax.
By this point, the building was worth $10 million and grossed $1.55 million per year in rental income. The Broadway-Park Place Corporation agreed to sell the building to Woolco Realty Co., a subsidiary of the F. W. Woolworth Company, in January 1924 at an assessed valuation of $11.25 million (about $153 million in 2022).
The company paid $4 million in cash and obtained a five-year, $11 million mortgage from Prudential Life Insurance Company at an annual interest rate of 5.5%. The sale was finalized in April 1924, after which F. W. Woolworth's heirs no longer had any stake in the building.
In 1927, the building's pinnacle was painted green, and the observation tower was re-gilded for over $25,000 (about $340,647 in 2022). The Atlantic Terra Cotta Company cleaned the Woolworth Building's façade in 1932.
Prudential extended its $3.7 million mortgage on the building by ten years in 1939, and the observation deck was closed after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941.
Ten of the building's 24 elevators were temporarily disabled in 1944 because of a shortage of coal. The next year, the building's owners replaced the elevators and closed off the building above the 54th. story.
By 1953, a new chilled water air conditioning system had been installed, bringing individual room temperature control to a third of the building.
The old car-switch-control elevators had been replaced with a new automatic dispatching systems and new elevator cars. The structure was still profitable by then, although it was now only the sixth-tallest building, and tourists no longer frequented the Woolworth Building.
The building's terracotta façade deteriorated easily, and, by 1962, repairs to the terracotta tiles were occurring year-round.
The Woolworth Company had considered selling the building as early as the 1960's, though the planned sale never happened.
-- Restoration and Landmark Status
The National Park Service designated the Woolworth Building as a National Historic Landmark in 1966. The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) considered giving the Woolworth Building official city-landmark status in 1970. The F. W. Woolworth Company called the landmark law "onerous" since it would restrict the company from making modifications to many aspects of the building.
The commission ultimately declined to give the Woolworth Building a designated-landmark status because of the company's opposition to such a measure, as well as the increased costs and scrutiny.
The lobby was cleaned in 1974.
The F. W. Woolworth Company commissioned an appraisal of the building's façade in 1975 and found serious deterioration in the building's terracotta. Many of the blocks of terracotta had loosened or cracked from the constant thermal expansion and contraction caused by New York's climate.
The cracks in the façade had let rain in, which had caused the steel superstructure to rust. By 1976, the Woolworth Company had placed metal netting around the façade in order to prevent terracotta pieces from dislodging and hitting pedestrians.
The issues with the façade were exacerbated by the fact that very few terracotta manufacturers remained in business, making it difficult for the company to procure replacements.
The New York City Industrial and Commercial Incentives Board approved a $8.5 million tax abatement in September 1977, which was to fund a proposed renovation of the Woolworth Building.
The Woolworth Company still occupied half the building; its vice president for construction said:
"We think the building merits
the investment, in part because
F. W. Woolworth had used his
own wealth to fund the building's
construction."
Much of the remaining space was occupied by lawyers who paid rentals of between $7 to $12 per square foot ($75 to $129/m2).
The F. W. Woolworth Company began a five-year restoration of the building's terracotta and limestone façade, as well as replacement of all the building's windows, in 1977.
Initially, the company had considered replacing the entire terracotta façade with concrete; however this was canceled due to its high cost and potential backlash from preservationists.
The renovation, carried out by Turner Construction to plans by the New York architectural firm Ehrenkrantz Group, involved the replacement of roughly one-fifth of the building's terracotta.
Since there were so few remaining terracotta manufacturers, Woolworth's replaced 26,000 of the tiles with concrete lookalikes; many of those tiles had to be custom-cut. The concrete was coated with a surface that was meant to be replaced every five years, like the glazing on the terracotta blocks.
Similarly, the original copper windows were replaced with aluminum frames which allowed them to be opened, whereas the originals were sealed in place.
The company also removed some decorative flying buttresses near the tower's crown and refaced four tourelles in aluminum because of damage.
The building's renovation was completed without fanfare in 1982. The estimated cost of the project had risen from $8 million to over $22 million. Much of the renovation was financed through the city government's tax break, which had increased to $11.4 million.
The LPC again considered the Woolworth Building for landmark designation in early 1982, shortly after the renovation was completed. However upon the request of the building's lawyers, the LPC postponed a public hearing for the proposed landmark designation to April 1982.
That year, the building's entrance to the City Hall subway station was closed because of fears over crime. The LPC granted landmark protection to the building's façade and the interior of its lobby in April 1983.
The Woolworth Company (later Venator Group) continued to own the building for a decade and a half. After struggling financially for years, and with no need for a trophy office building, Venator Group began discussing a sale of the building in 1996.
To raise capital for its other operations, Venator formally placed the Woolworth Building for sale in April 1998.
-- Witkoff Group Ownership
Venator Group agreed to sell the building in June 1998 to Steve Witkoff's Witkoff Group and Lehman Brothers for $155 million (about $261 million in 2022). However before the sale was finalized in December 1998, Witkoff renegotiated the purchase price to $137.5 million (about $231 million in 2022), citing a declining debt market.
Venator shrunk its space in the building from eight floors to four; this was a sharp contrast to the 25 floors the company had occupied just before the sale.
Witkoff also agreed to license the Woolworth name and invest $30 million in renovating the exterior and interior of the building.
After purchasing the building, the Witkoff Group rebranded it in an attempt to attract entertainment and technology companies. In April 2000, the Venator Group officially moved their headquarters to 112 West 34th. Street, and Witkoff indicated that he would sell the upper half of the building as residential condominiums.
That October, the company proposed a two-story addition to the 29th.-floor setbacks on the north and south elevations of the tower, to be designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, who were also leading the renovation of the building. The LPC denied the proposal.
The company unveiled an ambitious plan in November 2000 that would have converted the top 27 floors of the building into 75 condominiums, including a five-story penthouse. The plan would have included a new residential lobby on Park Place, a 100-space garage, a 75-seat underground screening room, and a spa in the basement.
The developers planned to spend $60 to $70 million on the conversion which would be ready for occupancy by August 2002. However the LPC opposed the plan because it would have required exterior changes to the roof.
The commission eventually approved a modified version of the plan. Following the September 11 attacks and the subsequent collapse of the nearby World Trade Center, the proposal was later canceled.
-- Security Increases and New Plan
Prior to the September 11 attacks, the World Trade Center was often photographed in such a way that the Woolworth Building could be seen between the complex's twin towers.
After the attacks occurred only a few blocks away, the Woolworth Building was without electricity, water and a telephone service for a few weeks; its windows were broken, and falling rubble damaged a top turret.
Increased post-attack security restricted access to most of the ornate lobby, previously a tourist attraction. New York Times reporter David W. Dunlap wrote in 2006 that a security guard had asked him to leave within twelve seconds of entering the Woolworth Building.
However, there was renewed interest in restoring public access to the Woolworth Building during planning for its centennial celebrations. The lobby reopened to public tours in 2014, when Woolworth Tours started accommodating groups for 30- to 90-minute tours.
The tours were part of a partnership between Cass Gilbert's great-granddaughter, Helen Post Curry, and Witkoff's vice president for development, Roy A. Suskin.
By 2007, the concrete blocks on the Woolworth Building's façade had deteriorated because of neglect. A lack of regular re-surfacing had led to water and dirt absorption, which had stained the concrete blocks.
Though terracotta's popularity had increased since the 1970's, Suskin had declined to say whether the façade would be modified, if at all.
Around the same time, Witkoff planned to partner with Rubin Schron to create an "office club" on the top 25 floors building to attract high-end tenants like hedge funds and private equity firms. The plan would have restored the 58th. floor observatory as a private amenity for "office club" tenants, in addition to amenities like a private dining room, meeting rooms, and a new dedicated lobby.
The partners planned to complete the project by the end of 2008, but the financial crisis of 2007–2008 derailed the plans, leaving the top floors gutted and vacant.
-- Residential Conversion
On the 31st. July 2012, an investment group led by New York developer Alchemy Properties which included Adam Neumann and Joel Schreiber, bought the top 30 floors of the skyscraper for $68 million (about $86.1 million in 2022) from the Witkoff Group and Cammeby's International.
The firm planned to renovate the space into 33 luxury apartments and convert the penthouse into a five-level living space. The lower 28 floors are still owned by the Witkoff Group and Cammeby's International, who planned to maintain them as office space.
The project was expected to cost approximately $150 million including the $68 million purchase price. The Landmarks Preservation Commission approved the changes to the building in October 2013.
When the sale was first announced in 2012, the developers expected the building's conversion to be complete by 2015. However, construction took longer than expected.
Workers could not attach a construction hoist to the building's façade without damaging it, and they were prohibited from using the elevators because of the active office tenants on the lower floors and the regular public tours of the landmarked lobby.
The renovation included many restorations and changes to the building's interior. Two of the elevator shafts only went to the 29th. floor, allowing extra floor space for the residents above.
A new private lobby was also built for residents, and the coffered ceiling from F. W. Woolworth's personal 40th. floor office was relocated to the entryway. Each unit received space in a wine cellar, along with access to the restored private pool in the basement.
The 29th. floor was converted to an amenity floor named the "Gilbert Lounge" after the structure's architect, while the 30th. floor hosts a fitness facility.
In August 2014, the New York Attorney General's office approved Alchemy's plan to sell 34 condos at the newly branded Woolworth Tower Residences for a combined total of $443.7 million. After a soft launch in late 2014, units at the building were officially listed for sale in mid-2015.
Alchemy initially intended to leverage an in-house sales staff, and hired a director from Corcoran Sunshine to lead the effort. However, the new sales director left at the end of 2015 amid rumors of slow sales. Following his departure, the company hired Sotheby's International Realty to market the units.
The building's penthouse unit, dubbed "The Pinnacle", was listed at $110 million, the highest asking price ever for an apartment in downtown Manhattan. If it had sold at that price, the unit would have surpassed the record $50.9 million penthouse at Ralph Thomas Walker's Walker Tower, and even the $100.5 million record price for a Manhattan penthouse set by Michael Dell at Extell's One57 in 2014.
Due to delays, the conversion was expected to be completed by February or March 2019, about six and a half years after Alchemy bought the property. However by February 2019, only three of the building's 31 condos had been sold, since the developers had refused to discount prices, despite a glut of new luxury apartments in NYC.
The still-vacant penthouse's asking price was reduced to $79 million. By 2021, Alchemy had sold 22 condominiums to tenants such as the entrepreneur Rudra Pandey.
-- Corporate Tenants
On the building's original completion, the F. W. Woolworth Company occupied only one and a half floors. However, as the owner, the Woolworth Company profited from renting space out to others.
The Woolworth Building was almost always fully occupied because of its central location in Lower Manhattan, as well as its direct connections to two subway stations.
The Irving Trust Company occupied the first four floors when the building opened. It had a large banking room on the second floor accessible directly from a grand staircase in the lobby, vaults in the basement, offices on the third-floor mezzanine, and a boardroom on the fourth floor.
In 1931, the company relocated their general, out-of-town, and foreign offices from the Woolworth Building after building their own headquarters at 1 Wall Street.
Columbia Records was one of the Woolworth Building's tenants on opening day and housed a recording studio in the skyscraper. In 1917, Columbia made what are considered the first jazz recordings, by the Original Dixieland Jass Band, in this studio.
Shortly after the building opened, several railroad companies rented space. The Union Pacific Railroad and Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad occupied the ground floor retail space with ticket offices.
The inventor Nikola Tesla also occupied an office in the Woolworth Building beginning in 1914; he was evicted after a year because he could not pay his rent.
Scientific American moved into the building in 1915 before departing for Midtown Manhattan in 1926. The Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company of America was present at the building's opening, occupying the southern half of the 18th. floor.
By the 1920's, the building also hosted Newport News Shipbuilding and Nestlé.
In the 1930's, prosecutor Thomas E. Dewey maintained his offices in the building while investigating racketeering and organized crime in Manhattan. His office took up the entire fourteenth floor, and was heavily guarded.
During World War II, the Kellex Corporation, part of the Manhattan Project to develop nuclear weapons, was based here.
During the early 1960's, public relations expert Howard J. Rubenstein opened an office in the building. In 1975, the city signed a lease for state judge Jacob D. Fuchsberg's offices in the Woolworth Building.
-- Educational Tenants
The structure has a long association with higher education, housing a number of Fordham University schools in the early 20th. century. In 1916, Fordham created "Fordham Downtown" at the Woolworth Building by moving the School of Sociology and Social Service and the School of Law to the building.
The Fordham University Graduate School was founded on the building's 28th. floor in the same year, and a new Teachers' College quickly followed on the seventh floor.
In September 1920, the Business School was also established on the seventh floor, originally as the School of Accounting. By 1929, the school's combined programs at the Woolworth Building had over 3,000 enrolled students.
Between 1916 and 1943 the building was also home at various times to the Fordham College (Manhattan Division), a summer school, and the short-lived School of Irish Studies.
In 1943, the Graduate School relocated to Keating Hall at Fordham's Rose Hill campus in Fordham, Bronx, and the rest of the schools moved to nearby 302 Broadway because of reduced attendance due to World War II.
The New York University School of Professional Studies' Center for Global Affairs leased 94,000 square feet (8,700 m2) on the second, third, and fourth floors in 2002 from defunct dot-com startup FrontLine Capital Group.
The American Institute of Graphic Arts also moved its headquarters to the Woolworth Building.
-- 21st-Century Tenants
By the early 2000's, the Woolworth Building was home to numerous technology tenants. Digital advertising firm Xceed occupied 65,000 square feet (6,000 m2) across four floors as its headquarters. Organic, Inc. took 112,000 square feet (10,400 m2), and advertising agency Fallon Worldwide used two floors.
Xceed terminated its lease in April 2001 during the midst of the Dot-com bubble collapse in order to move to smaller offices in the Starrett–Lehigh Building.
One month after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC's) Northeast Regional Office at 7 World Trade Center was destroyed in the September 11 attacks, the commission's 334 employees moved into 140,000 square feet (13,000 m2) across five floors of the Woolworth Building. The SEC left for a larger space in Brookfield Place in early 2005.
The General Services Administration took over the commission's space on the 1st. November 2005 and used it as offices for approximately 200 staff of the Administrative Office of the United States Courts and U.S. Probation and Pretrial Services System.
The New York City Police Department pension fund signed a lease for 56,000 square feet (5,200 m2) on the 19th. and 25th. floors in April 2002.
Starbucks opened a 1,500-square-foot (140 m2) location on the ground floor in the spring of 2003. In 2006, Levitz Furniture moved its headquarters to the 23rd. floor from Woodbury, Long Island, after declaring bankruptcy a second time.
In May 2013, SHoP Architects moved the company's headquarters to the entire 11th. floor, occupying 30,500 square feet (2,830 m2) of space. In February 2016, the New York City Law Department leased the entire 32,000 square feet (3,000 m2) fifth floor for the Department's tort office.
Joseph Altuzarra's namesake fashion brand, Altuzarra, signed on to occupy the 14th. floor in June 2016. In 2017, the New York Shipping Exchange moved into the 21st floor. In May 2018, architecture and design firm CallisonRTKL signed a lease for the entire 28,100 square feet (2,610 m2) 16th. floor.
-- Impact of the Woolworth Building
Before construction, Woolworth hired New York photographer Irving Underhill to document the building's construction. These photographs were distributed to Woolworth's stores nationwide to generate enthusiasm for the project.
During construction, Underhill, Wurts Brothers, and Tebbs-Hymans each took photographs to document the structure's progression. These photos were often taken from close-up views, or from far away to provide contrast against the surrounding structures.
They were part of a media promotion for the Woolworth Building. Both contemporary and modern figures criticized the photos as:
"Standard solutions at best and
architectural eye candy at worst".
Later critics praised the building. Amei Wallach of Newsday wrote in 1978 that the building resembled:
"A giant cathedral absurdly
stretched in a gigantic fun
mirror. The lobby certainly
looks like a farmboy's dream
of glory".
A writer for The Baltimore Sun wrote in 1984 that:
"The lobby's lighting, ceiling mosaic,
and gold-leaf decorations combine
for a church-like atmosphere, yet the
grotesques provide a touch of
irreverence".
Richard Berenholtz wrote in his 1988 book Manhattan Architecture that:
"At the Woolworth Building, Gilbert
succeeded in uniting the respected
traditions of architecture and
decoration with modern technology".
In a 2001 book about Cass Gilbert, Mary N. Woods wrote that:
"The rich and varied afterlife of
the Woolworth Building enhances
Gilbert's accomplishment".
Dirk Stichweh described the building in 2005 as being:
"The Mozart of skyscrapers".
In 2007, the building ranked 44th. among 150 buildings in the AIA's List of America's Favorite Architecture.
In recognition of Gilbert's role as the building's architect, the Society of Arts and Sciences gave Gilbert its gold medal in 1930, calling it:
"An epochal landmark in the
history of architecture".
On the 40th. anniversary of the building's opening in 1953, one news source called the building:
"A substantial middle-aged lady, with
a good income, unconcern over years—
and lots of friends".
A one-third-scale replica of the Woolworth Building, the Lincoln American Tower in Memphis, Tennessee, was also built in 1924.
-- The Woolworth Building in the Media
The Woolworth Building has had a large impact in architectural spheres, and has been featured in many works of popular culture, including photographs, prints, films, and literature.
One of the earliest films to feature the skyscraper was Manhatta (1921), a short documentary film directed by painter Charles Sheeler and photographer Paul Strand.
Since then, the building has made cameo appearances in several films, such as the 1929 film Applause. It was also the setting of several film climaxes, such as in Enchanted (2007), as well as the setting of major organizations, such as in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016).
The television show Ugly Betty used the Woolworth Building as the 'Meade Publications' building, a major location in the series, while one of the vacant condominiums was used in filming the TV series Succession in 2021.
The building has also appeared in literature, such as Langston Hughes's 1926 poem "Negro" and the 2007 novel Peak.
.New Fresh Start program helping families hurt by foreclosure during recession
DOVER — A new state program is designed to help families and individuals who have experienced foreclosures, job loss, or other financial difficulties stemming from the financial crisis that began in 2008, Governor John Carney and other officials announced this week.
Fresh Start, a partnership between the Delaware State Housing Authority and DHSS’ financial empowerment program, $tand By Me, offers free financial coaching to help Delawareans get past setbacks and move toward home ownership again.
“Home ownership is a fundamental element of our economy and important to ensuring our neighborhoods thrive,” said Governor Carney. “We have to make sure that all Delawareans have an opportunity to succeed, achieve financial stability and strengthen their communities. Through Fresh Start, we are giving people the tools they need to help them work through economic challenges.”
The statewide program, funded by bank settlements, was developed to help Delawareans who lost their homes due to foreclosure, short sale, or deed in lieu arrangements, said DSHA Director Anas Ben Addi. They may wish to improve credit, increase savings, or decrease debt to put them in a better position to buy a home or rent.
“Fresh Start reaches Delawareans who have struggled to recover and get back on the path to financial stability,” Ben Addi said. “Losing your home or job is painful and a significant challenge, but with the right coaching and assistance, we can help Delaware families move forward again.”
$tand By Me, a partnership with the United Way of Delaware, works with nonprofits to offer personal financial coaching, with four coaches statewide devoted to helping Fresh Start clients.
“Our goal is to provide people with the information, resources and support they need to establish and achieve their financial goals,” said $tand By Me Director Mary Dupont. Since it began six years ago, $tand By Me has served more than 75,000 Delawareans, including more than 14,000 who have participated in financial coaching.
Governor Carney and other leaders spoke at an event formally kicking the program off at the Goodwill store at Lea Boulevard in Wilmington. Goodwill is one of three nonprofits with Fresh Start financial coaches, along with NCALL Research and Interfaith Community Housing of Delaware.
Information on Fresh Start can be found at standbymede.org/fresh, or a coach can be reached by calling:
New Castle County: 302-504-3549 or 302-652-3991, ext. 106
Kent County: 302-678-9400
Sussex County: 302-855-1370
Delaware also offers assistance to people facing foreclosure or going through the process. The Delaware Emergency Mortgage Assistance Program has helped 665 people with emergency mortgage loans since 2007.
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Fresh Start, un nuevo programa que ayuda a las familias afectadas por ejecuciones hipotecarias durante la recesión
DOVER -- Hoy el Gobernador John Carney y otros funcionarios anunciaron el lanzamiento de un nuevo programa del estado diseñado para ayudar a personas y familias que han atravesado ejecuciones hipotecarias, pérdida de empleo u otras dificultades financieras originadas en la crisis económica que comenzó en 2008.
Fresh Start, una alianza entre la Autoridad de Vivienda Pública de Delaware y el programa de empoderamiento financiero $tand By Me, ofrece asesoramiento financiero en forma gratuita para ayudar a los residentes de Delaware a superar contratiempos y retomar el camino hacia la vivienda propia.
“La vivienda propia es un elemento fundamental de nuestra economía y es un factor importante para garantizar la prosperidad de nuestros vecindarios”, expresó el Gobernador Carney. “Debemos asegurarnos de que todos los residentes de Delaware tengan la posibilidad de alcanzar el éxito, lograr estabilidad económica y fortalecer sus comunidades. Con Fresh Start, les estamos dando a las personas las herramientas que necesitan para ayudarlas a superar desafíos económicos.”
Según el Director de la DSHA, Anas Ben Addi, este programa, que abarca todo el estado y se financia mediante convenios con bancos, se desarrolló para ayudar a los residentes de Delaware que perdieron sus hogares por ejecución hipotecaria, venta en descubierto, o acuerdos de entrega de escritura de propiedad inmobiliaria en lugar de ejecución hipotecaria. A lo mejor desean mejorar su calificación crediticia, incrementar sus ahorros o reducir sus deudas para quedar en mejores condiciones de comprar o alquilar una vivienda.
“Fresh Start extiende una mano a los residentes de Delaware que han tenido dificultades para recuperarse y retomar la senda de la estabilidad económica”, agregó Ben Addi. “Perder un hogar o empleo es doloroso y presenta un importante desafío, pero con la asistencia y el asesoramiento adecuados podemos ayudar a las familias de Delaware a avanzar otra vez.”
$tand By Me trabaja con organizaciones sin fines de lucro para ofrecer asesoramiento financiero personalizado, junto con cuatro asesores en todo el estado que se dedican a ayudar a clientes de Fresh Start.
“Nuestra meta es suministrarles a las personas la información, los recursos y el apoyo que necesitan para definir y alcanzar sus metas financieras”, dijo la Directora de $tand By Me, Mary Dupont. Desde sus inicios hace seis años, $tand By Me ha ayudado a más de 75,000 residentes de Delaware, incluidos más de 14,000 que han obtenido asesoramiento financiero.
El gobernador Carney y otros líderes hablaron hoy en un evento y anunciaron formalmente el lanzamiento del programa en la tienda Goodwill de Lea Blvd en Wilmington. Goodwill es una de las tres organizaciones sin fines de lucro con asesores financieros especializados en Fresh Start, junto con NCALL Research e Interfaith Housing.
Para obtener más información sobre Fresh Start, ingrese en standbymede.org/fresh, o comuníquese con un asesor llamando a los siguientes teléfonos:
Condado de New Castle: 302-504-3549 o 302-652-3991, interno 106
Condado de Kent: 302-678-9400
Condado de Sussex: 302-855-1370
(Jan. 17, 2014) The girls played very well and dominated the Cal City High squad, despite injury setbacks to the Bishop Roster. Was lots of fun to shoot!
ROYAL PINES DAVAO CITY
Architectural Guidelines
Concept : AMERICAN HOUSE
Height Limit : 10 meters
Material : Concrete
Roof : Asphalt Shingles
Easement/Setback
3 meters Front
2 meters side and back
LOCATION : Shrine Hills, Matina, Davao City
House and Lot Package : 8 million and above
Lot Only Purchase : Ph 11, 550 per square meter – GRAND VIEW
Ph 10, 800 per square meter – MIDDLE VIEW
Ph 9, 740 per square meter – REGULAR VIEW
Lot Area : 254 square meters (minimum)
*Reservation Fee : Royal Pines Davao – Ph 100,000
Royal Pines South – Ph 50,000
Terms/Payment Scheme:
* Reservation is non-refundable but deductible from the Down Payment.
1. Deferred Cash
20% Down Payment – payable upto 3 months at 0% interest
80% Balance – payable in
1 year at 0% interest
2-3 years at 12% interest
4 years at 14% interest
5 years at 16% interest
2. Outright Cash – Less 10% discount for Regular and Middleview lots.
3. Bank Financing
Royal Pines South and Royal Pines Davao.. beyond compare..
WE at the Royal Pines South and Royal Pines Davao extend you the limited invitation of living in a community like no other. Having a home amidst beauty and vegetation, where nature has downtown very close by; where country home is what living in the city should be all about, this is the Royal Pines experience.
Royal Pines is located beside the Shrine of the Holy Infant Jesus of Prague. It is a kilometre away from Ateneo de Davao Grade School, approximately 6 minutes from SM City Davao or NCCC Mall and right next to Alexian Health and Wellness Centre.
It is NESTED on an elevated terrain, overlooking the city, allowing a panoramic view of the Davao Gulf and the island it embraces, Samal Island. WE give you a close-up of the majestic Mt. Apo glittering in the MORNING SUN and Mt. Matutum beckoning in the horizon!
ALL these with the gentle breeze sweeping over the verdant contours of the land.
FEATURES:
• 30 hectares rolling terrain with its peak at 131 meters above sea level.
• Attractive house design to suit every lot contour and dimension.
• Accessible to school, malls, sport clubs and other point of interest.
OFFERS
A. House and Lot Package
B. Lot Only Purchase
*with easy payment schemes to choose from:
1. Big discount for outright cash purchases
2. Interest- free deferred payment schemes
3. Bank financing with low interest rates
FACILITIES
• Concrete perimeter fence with 5 sentry points.
• Concrete roads, curbs and gutters.
• Well-lighted streets.
• Water and electrical lines.
• Back-up ground water cistern.
• Open parks and Pine tree-lined streets.
• Kiddie pool and Pavilion.
FOR FREE VIEWING JUST TEXT ME AND EMAIL ME : THANKS
YOUR SALES PERSON:
Ms Ju 09466820690
email me at davao_properties@yahoo.com
Construction equipment build a lift across a new setback levee alignment at the lower breach site of Missouri River Levee Unit L-575 south of Hamburg, Iowa. This is the final breach of five between L-575 and L-550 that the Omaha District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is working to repair. This project is scheduled to be completed March 1 in time for the beginning of the new runoff season.