Early 20th century

Grand Central Terminal is located in East Midtown near the Chrysler Building. It was completed in 1913 and is the third on its site. It was built in the Beaux-Arts style by the firms Reed and Stem and Warren and Wetmore. It became a National Historic Landmark in 1976.

The Empire State Building, a 102-story contemporary art deco building in Midtown Manhattan, was designed by Shreve, Lamb and Harmon and completed in 1931. It was the tallest building in the world for 42 years.[21] The tower takes its name from New York State's nickname "New York (state)"). world, which sees around 4 million visitors a year.[24]​ It was built in 14 months.[25]​.

Completed in 1930, the Chrysler Building is a distinctive symbol of New York, standing 319 m high in East Midtown, Manhattan.[23]​ Originally built for the Chrysler Corporation,[26]​ the building is currently co-owned by Aby Rosen's RFR Holding LLC, in a joint venture with Austrian group SIGNA.[27][28]​ The Chrysler was the first structure in the world to surpass the 1,000 threshold. feet.[29]​.

30 Rockefeller Plaza is a slim art deco skyscraper and the focal point of Rockefeller Center. It is 259 meters high and has 70 floors. Built in 1933[30]​ and originally called the RCA Building, it was later called the Comcast Building.[31]​ The frieze over the main entrance was executed by Lee Lawrie and depicts Wisdom, along with a scripture phrase that reads "Wisdom and knowledge will be the stability of your times", originally found in the Book of Isaiah, 33:6.[32]​.

The International Style was a pioneering exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art that completely changed the face of architecture in New York and the world.[33] Mies Van Der Rohe, a focus of the show, later built the Seagram Building on Park Avenue at 53rd Street. One of the most important buildings for modern architecture, the Seagram Building transformed its site into the center of the city, the development of tall buildings, and the history of architecture. Seagram details were replicated by other architects in New York and around the world for decades after his completion in the late 1950s. Bronze extrusions attached to mullions are an example of this trend in tall building design and can be seen in many cities.

Late 20th century

The MetLife Building, formerly the Pan Am Building, was the largest commercial office building in the world when it opened on March 7, 1963.[34] It is located directly north of Grand Central Terminal.[35]

The twin towers of the World Trade Center "World Trade Center (1973-2001)") were the tallest buildings in the city from 1973 until their destruction in the September 11 attacks. The towers rose 417 m and 415 m respectively, both with 110 floors. The North Tower's 360-foot antenna housed most of the city's communications, while the South Tower housed a popular observation deck. They were the tallest buildings in the world until Chicago's 1,454-foot Sears Tower was completed in 1974.[36]​.

Citigroup Center is a 59-story office tower located at 53rd Street and Lexington Avenue in Midtown Manhattan. It is considered one of the most important post-war skyscrapers to be erected in New York. The skyscraper's striking pitched roof design, elegant aluminum-clad façade and its four-stilt foundation atop St. Peter's Evangelical Lutheran Church, also on site, made the skyscraper an instant architectural icon. The pitched roof houses the building's mechanical and ventilation systems. The designers decided on an aluminum clad façade to reduce the weight load on the building's foundation and supporting structures, as its entire weight would be supported by "Pile (foundation)" piles.[37]​ To prevent swaying, a "tuned mass damper" was later added to the roof.[38]​.

21st century

Time Warner Center is a mixed-use skyscraper on Columbus Circle on Manhattan's Upper West Side. It was the first major building to be completed since the 9/11 attacks.[39]​.

4 Times Square is a modern skyscraper in Times Square in Midtown Manhattan and one of the most important examples of green design in skyscrapers in the United States. Environmentally friendly gas absorption chillers, together with a high-performance insulating and shading curtain wall, ensure that the building does not need to be heated or cooled for most of the year. Office furniture is made with biodegradable and non-toxic materials. The air supply system provides 50% more fresh air than required by the New York City Building Code, and multiple recycling ducts serve the entire building. Being the first project of its size to undertake these features in construction, the building has received an award from the American Institute of Architects, as well as the AIA New York State.

The Hearst Tower, located in Midtown Manhattan at 300 West 57th Street, is another example of the new generation of eco-designed skyscrapers in New York. Hearst Tower is a skyscraper of glass and steel construction that rests on the base of the original 1920s Hearst Corporation building. Hearst Tower is easily identified by the spectacular interlocking triangular glass panels designed by architect Norman Foster. Hearst Tower is also the first skyscraper in New York to receive Gold LEED Certified rating by the US Green Building Council.

New York is home to 91 skyscrapers that exceed 200 meters in height, making it the second city in the world with the most skyscrapers, only behind Hong Kong. super-slender skyscraper 435 meters high.[45]​ The Empire State Building was the tallest from 1931 to 1971,[46]​ when the North Tower of the World Trade Center "World Trade Center (1973-2001)" was completed.[47]​ Since 2003, 105 buildings[48]​ that are at least 150 meters high have been built.[49]​.

Skyscrapers are concentrated mainly in Midtown and Lower Manhattan, although other neighborhoods of Manhattan and the "Borough (New York)")* of Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx also have some skyscrapers. Some of them even have heights greater than 200 meters, such as the City Point "City Point (Brooklyn)") (2019)[50]​ in Brooklyn, or the Skyline Tower (2021),[51]​ the Queens Plaza Park (2021)[52]​ and One Court Square (1990)[53]​ in Queens.

As New York grew, it expanded from where it originally began at the southern tip of the island of Manhattan into the surrounding areas. In order to accommodate the growing population, agricultural land and open space in Upper Manhattan, the Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn, and Staten Island were converted into neighborhoods of brownstones, apartment buildings, multi-family and single-family homes. The density of this new construction generally depended on the area's proximity and accessibility to Manhattan.

The development of these areas was often stimulated by the opening of bridges and connecting districts through public transportation. For example, the Brooklyn Bridge was completed in 1883 and connects Brooklyn and Manhattan across the East River. Brooklyn Heights, a nabe on the Brooklyn waterfront, is often credited as America's first suburb.[56]​ The bridge allowed easier travel between Brooklyn and Manhattan and spurred rapid construction, development, and redevelopment. The Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, completed in 1964,[57] opened many areas of Staten Island to residential and commercial development, especially in the central and southern parts of the borough, which had previously been largely undeveloped. Staten Island's population doubled from about 221,000 in 1960 to about 443,000 in 2000.

By 1870, stone and brick had been firmly established as the building materials of choice, as the construction of wood-frame houses had been severely limited in the wake of the Great Fire of 1835. Unlike Paris, which for centuries was built from its own limestone bed, New York has always sourced its building stone from a network of quarries, sometimes quite distant, evidenced by the variety of textures and stone tones seen in the city buildings. In the days before the railroad, stones were floated down the Hudson River or down the Atlantic coast from wells in New England. While trains brought marble from Vermont and granite from Minnesota, it was Connecticut brownstone that was so popular in New York rowhouse construction at the turn of the century that the term brownstone became synonymous with rowhouse.

Beginning in the 1950s, public housing projects dramatically changed the appearance of the city. New large-scale residential complexes (often high-rise) replaced older communities, sometimes removing artifacts and landmarks that would now be considered of historical value. During this period, many of these new projects were built in an effort toward urban renewal promoted by famed urban planner Robert Moses. The resulting housing projects have suffered from inconsistent financing, poor maintenance, and high crime, leading many to consider these projects a failure. A distinctive feature of residential (and many commercial) buildings in New York is the presence of water towers mounted on wooden roofs, which were required in all buildings over six stories by city ordinance in the century because municipal water pipes could not withstand the extraordinarily high pressure needed to supply water to the upper floors of high-rise buildings.[12]​.

New York is located on one of the largest natural harbors in the world.[60] The boroughs of Manhattan and Staten Island are their own islands, while Queens and Brooklyn are located on the western end of the larger Long Island. This precipitates the need for extensive bridge and tunnel infrastructure. Almost all of the city's main bridges and several of its tunnels have broken or set records. For example, the Holland Tunnel was the world's first vehicular tunnel when it opened in 1927.[61]​.

The Queensboro Bridge is an important piece of cantilever architecture. The Brooklyn Bridge towers are built of limestone, granite and Rosendale cement. Its architectural style is neo-Gothic, with characteristic pointed arches over the corridors through the stone towers. This bridge was also the longest suspension bridge in the world from its opening until 1903, and the first steel wire suspension bridge. The Manhattan Bridge, the Throgs Neck Bridge, the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge, and the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge are all examples of structural expressionism.[62][63]​.

Formulated in the Commissioners' Plan of 1811, New York adopted a visionary proposal to develop Manhattan north of 14th Street with a regular street grid. The economic logic underlying the plan, which called for twelve numbered avenues running north-south, and 155 orthogonal cross streets, was that the regularity of the grid would provide an efficient means of developing new real estate. Frederick Law Olmsted, the designer of Central Park, disapproved.

One of the city's most famous thoroughfares, Broadway, is one of the longest urban streets in the world. Other famous streets include Park Avenue and Fifth Avenue. 42nd Street "42nd Street (Manhattan)") is the capital of American theater. The Grand Concourse"), inspired by the Champs-Elysees in Paris, is the most notable street in the Bronx. The City Beautiful movement inspired similar boulevards in Brooklyn, known as avenues.

New York has two main concentrations of high-rise buildings: Midtown Manhattan and Lower Manhattan, each with its own unique and recognizable skyline. Midtown Manhattan, the world's largest central business district, is home to such notable buildings as the Empire State Building, Chrysler Building, Citigroup Center, and Rockefeller Center. Lower Manhattan comprises the third largest central business district in the United States (after Midtown and the Chicago Loop). Lower Manhattan was characterized by the omnipresence of the Twin Towers "World Trade Center (1973-2001)") of the World Trade Center from its completion in 1973 until its destruction in the attacks of September 11, 2001.

In the first decade of the century, Lower Manhattan was rebuilt to include the new One World Trade Center. The downtown skyline received new designs from architects such as Santiago Calatrava and Frank Gehry.[14]​[15]​ In 2010, a 43-story, 228 m tower called 200 West Street was built for Goldman Sachs across the street from the World Trade Center site.[16]​.

New York has a long history of tall buildings. It has had ten buildings that have held the title of tallest building in the world at some point in history, although half have since been demolished. The first New York building to earn recognition as the tallest in the world was the New York World Building, in 1890. New York later had the world's tallest building for 75 continuous years, beginning with the Park Row Building in 1899 and ending with One World Trade Center following the completion of the Willis Tower in 1974. The 1899 Park Row Building, one of the oldest skyscrapers in the world, is still standing. foot.[17]​.

The Brooklyn skyscrapers constitute a third, much smaller skyline. Downtown Brooklyn is also experiencing a major construction boom, with new luxury residential towers, commercial spaces, and a new arena in the planning stages. Brooklyn's building boom has been heavily opposed by local civic and environmental groups who argue that Brooklyn needs to maintain its human scale. The borough of Queens has also been developing its own skyline in recent years with One Court Square (formerly the Citigroup Building, currently the tallest building in New York outside of Manhattan), and the Queens West development of several residential towers along the East River waterfront.

The Zoning Act of 1916 "Zoning Act of 1916 (New York)") required setbacks on new buildings and towers restricted to a percentage of the lot size, to allow sunlight to reach the streets below.[2]​.

Early 20th century

Grand Central Terminal is located in East Midtown near the Chrysler Building. It was completed in 1913 and is the third on its site. It was built in the Beaux-Arts style by the firms Reed and Stem and Warren and Wetmore. It became a National Historic Landmark in 1976.

The Empire State Building, a 102-story contemporary art deco building in Midtown Manhattan, was designed by Shreve, Lamb and Harmon and completed in 1931. It was the tallest building in the world for 42 years.[21] The tower takes its name from New York State's nickname "New York (state)"). world, which sees around 4 million visitors a year.[24]​ It was built in 14 months.[25]​.

Completed in 1930, the Chrysler Building is a distinctive symbol of New York, standing 319 m high in East Midtown, Manhattan.[23]​ Originally built for the Chrysler Corporation,[26]​ the building is currently co-owned by Aby Rosen's RFR Holding LLC, in a joint venture with Austrian group SIGNA.[27][28]​ The Chrysler was the first structure in the world to surpass the 1,000 threshold. feet.[29]​.

30 Rockefeller Plaza is a slim art deco skyscraper and the focal point of Rockefeller Center. It is 259 meters high and has 70 floors. Built in 1933[30]​ and originally called the RCA Building, it was later called the Comcast Building.[31]​ The frieze over the main entrance was executed by Lee Lawrie and depicts Wisdom, along with a scripture phrase that reads "Wisdom and knowledge will be the stability of your times", originally found in the Book of Isaiah, 33:6.[32]​.

The International Style was a pioneering exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art that completely changed the face of architecture in New York and the world.[33] Mies Van Der Rohe, a focus of the show, later built the Seagram Building on Park Avenue at 53rd Street. One of the most important buildings for modern architecture, the Seagram Building transformed its site into the center of the city, the development of tall buildings, and the history of architecture. Seagram details were replicated by other architects in New York and around the world for decades after his completion in the late 1950s. Bronze extrusions attached to mullions are an example of this trend in tall building design and can be seen in many cities.

Late 20th century

The MetLife Building, formerly the Pan Am Building, was the largest commercial office building in the world when it opened on March 7, 1963.[34] It is located directly north of Grand Central Terminal.[35]

The twin towers of the World Trade Center "World Trade Center (1973-2001)") were the tallest buildings in the city from 1973 until their destruction in the September 11 attacks. The towers rose 417 m and 415 m respectively, both with 110 floors. The North Tower's 360-foot antenna housed most of the city's communications, while the South Tower housed a popular observation deck. They were the tallest buildings in the world until Chicago's 1,454-foot Sears Tower was completed in 1974.[36]​.

Citigroup Center is a 59-story office tower located at 53rd Street and Lexington Avenue in Midtown Manhattan. It is considered one of the most important post-war skyscrapers to be erected in New York. The skyscraper's striking pitched roof design, elegant aluminum-clad façade and its four-stilt foundation atop St. Peter's Evangelical Lutheran Church, also on site, made the skyscraper an instant architectural icon. The pitched roof houses the building's mechanical and ventilation systems. The designers decided on an aluminum clad façade to reduce the weight load on the building's foundation and supporting structures, as its entire weight would be supported by "Pile (foundation)" piles.[37]​ To prevent swaying, a "tuned mass damper" was later added to the roof.[38]​.

21st century

Time Warner Center is a mixed-use skyscraper on Columbus Circle on Manhattan's Upper West Side. It was the first major building to be completed since the 9/11 attacks.[39]​.

4 Times Square is a modern skyscraper in Times Square in Midtown Manhattan and one of the most important examples of green design in skyscrapers in the United States. Environmentally friendly gas absorption chillers, together with a high-performance insulating and shading curtain wall, ensure that the building does not need to be heated or cooled for most of the year. Office furniture is made with biodegradable and non-toxic materials. The air supply system provides 50% more fresh air than required by the New York City Building Code, and multiple recycling ducts serve the entire building. Being the first project of its size to undertake these features in construction, the building has received an award from the American Institute of Architects, as well as the AIA New York State.

The Hearst Tower, located in Midtown Manhattan at 300 West 57th Street, is another example of the new generation of eco-designed skyscrapers in New York. Hearst Tower is a skyscraper of glass and steel construction that rests on the base of the original 1920s Hearst Corporation building. Hearst Tower is easily identified by the spectacular interlocking triangular glass panels designed by architect Norman Foster. Hearst Tower is also the first skyscraper in New York to receive Gold LEED Certified rating by the US Green Building Council.

New York is home to 91 skyscrapers that exceed 200 meters in height, making it the second city in the world with the most skyscrapers, only behind Hong Kong. super-slender skyscraper 435 meters high.[45]​ The Empire State Building was the tallest from 1931 to 1971,[46]​ when the North Tower of the World Trade Center "World Trade Center (1973-2001)" was completed.[47]​ Since 2003, 105 buildings[48]​ that are at least 150 meters high have been built.[49]​.

Skyscrapers are concentrated mainly in Midtown and Lower Manhattan, although other neighborhoods of Manhattan and the "Borough (New York)")* of Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx also have some skyscrapers. Some of them even have heights greater than 200 meters, such as the City Point "City Point (Brooklyn)") (2019)[50]​ in Brooklyn, or the Skyline Tower (2021),[51]​ the Queens Plaza Park (2021)[52]​ and One Court Square (1990)[53]​ in Queens.

As New York grew, it expanded from where it originally began at the southern tip of the island of Manhattan into the surrounding areas. In order to accommodate the growing population, agricultural land and open space in Upper Manhattan, the Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn, and Staten Island were converted into neighborhoods of brownstones, apartment buildings, multi-family and single-family homes. The density of this new construction generally depended on the area's proximity and accessibility to Manhattan.

The development of these areas was often stimulated by the opening of bridges and connecting districts through public transportation. For example, the Brooklyn Bridge was completed in 1883 and connects Brooklyn and Manhattan across the East River. Brooklyn Heights, a nabe on the Brooklyn waterfront, is often credited as America's first suburb.[56]​ The bridge allowed easier travel between Brooklyn and Manhattan and spurred rapid construction, development, and redevelopment. The Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, completed in 1964,[57] opened many areas of Staten Island to residential and commercial development, especially in the central and southern parts of the borough, which had previously been largely undeveloped. Staten Island's population doubled from about 221,000 in 1960 to about 443,000 in 2000.

By 1870, stone and brick had been firmly established as the building materials of choice, as the construction of wood-frame houses had been severely limited in the wake of the Great Fire of 1835. Unlike Paris, which for centuries was built from its own limestone bed, New York has always sourced its building stone from a network of quarries, sometimes quite distant, evidenced by the variety of textures and stone tones seen in the city buildings. In the days before the railroad, stones were floated down the Hudson River or down the Atlantic coast from wells in New England. While trains brought marble from Vermont and granite from Minnesota, it was Connecticut brownstone that was so popular in New York rowhouse construction at the turn of the century that the term brownstone became synonymous with rowhouse.

Beginning in the 1950s, public housing projects dramatically changed the appearance of the city. New large-scale residential complexes (often high-rise) replaced older communities, sometimes removing artifacts and landmarks that would now be considered of historical value. During this period, many of these new projects were built in an effort toward urban renewal promoted by famed urban planner Robert Moses. The resulting housing projects have suffered from inconsistent financing, poor maintenance, and high crime, leading many to consider these projects a failure. A distinctive feature of residential (and many commercial) buildings in New York is the presence of water towers mounted on wooden roofs, which were required in all buildings over six stories by city ordinance in the century because municipal water pipes could not withstand the extraordinarily high pressure needed to supply water to the upper floors of high-rise buildings.[12]​.

New York is located on one of the largest natural harbors in the world.[60] The boroughs of Manhattan and Staten Island are their own islands, while Queens and Brooklyn are located on the western end of the larger Long Island. This precipitates the need for extensive bridge and tunnel infrastructure. Almost all of the city's main bridges and several of its tunnels have broken or set records. For example, the Holland Tunnel was the world's first vehicular tunnel when it opened in 1927.[61]​.

The Queensboro Bridge is an important piece of cantilever architecture. The Brooklyn Bridge towers are built of limestone, granite and Rosendale cement. Its architectural style is neo-Gothic, with characteristic pointed arches over the corridors through the stone towers. This bridge was also the longest suspension bridge in the world from its opening until 1903, and the first steel wire suspension bridge. The Manhattan Bridge, the Throgs Neck Bridge, the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge, and the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge are all examples of structural expressionism.[62][63]​.

Formulated in the Commissioners' Plan of 1811, New York adopted a visionary proposal to develop Manhattan north of 14th Street with a regular street grid. The economic logic underlying the plan, which called for twelve numbered avenues running north-south, and 155 orthogonal cross streets, was that the regularity of the grid would provide an efficient means of developing new real estate. Frederick Law Olmsted, the designer of Central Park, disapproved.

One of the city's most famous thoroughfares, Broadway, is one of the longest urban streets in the world. Other famous streets include Park Avenue and Fifth Avenue. 42nd Street "42nd Street (Manhattan)") is the capital of American theater. The Grand Concourse"), inspired by the Champs-Elysees in Paris, is the most notable street in the Bronx. The City Beautiful movement inspired similar boulevards in Brooklyn, known as avenues.