Lego Architecture Флэтайрон-билдинг (21023) [2/88] Flatiron building

Flatiron Building

Sitting on the intersection where Fifth Avenue and Broadway cross, the

Flatiron Building (originally named the Fuller Building) remains one of

New York City’s most popular and memorable structures. Today it is

difficult to imagine the controversy this architectural landmark created

on its completion in 1902.

[ I found myself agape, admiring a sky-scraper...

ploughing up through the traﬃc of Broadway

and Fifth Avenue in the afternoon light. ]

H. G. Wells, 1906

The Architect

Born in New York and raised in Chicago, Daniel H. Burnham would

become one of the founding fathers of the first Chicago School of

architects. Together with his then partner John W. Root, Burnham built

one of the first American skyscrapers, the 21-story Masonic Temple

Building in Chicago in 1892, and planned the architectural layout of the

largest World Fair ever held at that time in 1893.

Burnham’s architecture mixed elements of Modernism with a more

neoclassical style. Many of his buildings, including the Flatiron, followed

the convention of the classical column: three distinct parts made up of

a base, a middle section, and an ornate cornice at the top.

Burnham’s early sketches for the

Flatiron Building included a clock

face and a far more elaborate

crown at the top of the building,

but he was persuaded to remove

both by his former partner John W.

Root. Though Burnham retained

overall control of the project,

he engaged the architect F. P.

Dinkelberg (1859–1935) to carry

out most of the supervising work

during the actual construction.

After the Flatiron Building, Burnham

would continue to work on a

series of impressive architectural

projects, including a number of

major planning tasks for the cities of San Francisco, Washington, D.C.,

and Manila in the Philippines. At the time of his death in 1912, his D. H.

Burnham & Co. architectural firm was the largest in the world.

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