World tallest building for 17 months

47 stories skyescraper

In addition, there was a 6-story lantern surmounting the tower.

upper 3 of these stories were housed under a mansard roof.

generally considered to be 41 stories

14 storie "base"

Iron Railing and Balconies

  At every 7th story, on all four sides of the tower, were cast iron balconies supported by ornamental wrought iron brackets.  

The window openings were graced with ornamental iron railings with French scrolled designs.   

The exterior walls were constructed of rusticated North River blue stone on the first 3 stories.

The upper stories were dark red brick laid up in English bond.

Architectural Giraffe

The Singer Building was the first in New York to be dramatically lit at night. This postcard's boast "Highest building in the world" would last only 18 months.

Not everyone loved the building. The New York Globe scoffed "For anyone but an eagle, the occupancy of a perch over 600 feet up is a matter of sentiment rather than reason, and until there is a balloon fire-rescue service established, there ought to be some limit to our real estate owners’ appropriation of the skies."

The newspaper called it an "architectural giraffe."

The Singer Medallion

At the top of each side of each pier was a bronze molding and medallion with the Singer Manufacturing Company's trademark.
With a thread and needle

Arch Springs from Each Side of the Piers

The pilasters along the walls of the lobby were decorated similarly.

An arch springs from each side of these piers. Their intrados were decorated with ornamental plaster work of rosettes.

Lobby Ceiling

The lobby ceiling was a masterpiece of plasterwork.  The "skylights" in the domes were electrically lighted.  

A modern glass lighting fixture in the center of each drum replaced a flat, circular amber glass light set in a steel frame.

Gold Leaf Work

Gold leaf on the vaults and dome surmounting the columns .
Especially at night when the corridor remained illuminated while the rest of the building In is darkness , looked like the nave of a golden cathedral

The pendentives and drums of these bays were of richly ornamented plaster.

Bronze Railings

Along the south wall were two marble staircases leading to the original Singer Building; on the west wall a marble staircase that divides them leads to the balcony. Both had bronze railings. 

Offices

Executive Offices

The executive offices of the Singer company covered the entire 34th floor.  

Here were Oriental rugs, custom-designed Empire-inspired mahogany furniture and carved woodwork.  

Semsch commented "Such furniture appeals to the discriminating man and creates the right impression upon all who see it."

Ultra Modern Convenience

Meanwhile, upstairs, tenants enjoyed ultra-modern conveniences.
There was a central, building-wide vacuum system, a refrigerating plant for the cooling of the drinking water (which was filtered), and an amazing electric clock system.  

38 Tons of Ornamental Bronze

Inside, the marble columns and walls were embellished with more than 3,600 lineal feet of cast bronze molding plus 80 bronze medallions bearing the trademark of the Singer Manufacturing Company.  
stair railings,
interior balconies,
office doors
the master-clock on the main stairs in the lobby
were all of bronze.  
Thirty-eight tons of ornamental bronze were used

A row of eight elevators formed the north wall of the center section of the lobby.
The elevator doors,
were all of bronze.   Thirty-eight tons of ornamental bronze were used

Demolition

In 1961, the Singer Company announced plans to move its headquarters north to Midtown.
Webb & Knapp, bought the Singer tower and the rest of the block, hoping to get the New York Stock Exchange to relocate there.
Unable to generate corporate interest in the space because the small square footage of the building’s narrow tower was antithetical to the booming growth of modern business, which demanded more, not less, office space.
By 1964, the property had been sold to United States Steel to be demolished, and it soon became the site of the 54-story, 743-foot-high structure known today as One Liberty Plaza.

The Singer Building’s demolition is considered by some to be one of the greatest failures of the early preservation movement.
Alan Burnham, the executive director of the city’s nascent Landmark Preservation Commission filed a “meek request” asking United States Steel to consider preserving the lobby of the building,
The request had no effect, and demolition of the entire building began in August 1967.

One year later, the sight of the Singer Building’s iconic domed tower among the structures of Lower Manhattan was but a memory.
The Italian-marble surfacing and the bronze medallions with the Singer monogram were stripped from many columns and were being offered for sale.

Singer House 1902-1904

Singer House (1904)
Use: regional headquarters.
Location: Nevsky Prospekt, St Petersburg, Russia.
Architect: Pavel Yulievich Suzor. Sculptors: A. G. Adamson, A. L. Ober.
Client: the Singer Sewing Machine Company.
Style: Art Nouveau.

Singer Headquarters Building Problems

The company wanted a building similar to the skyscraper that was then being constructed for them in New York.
However, St. Petersburg's strict building codes dictated that no building could be higher than 23.5 meters at the cornice did not allow structures taller than the Winter Palace, residence of the emperor.

New York Type Skyscraper

The company had planned to build an 11-story building in the style of New York skyscrapers
Russian architect Pavel Suzor, who was in charge of construction, found an elegant way solution—the building’s six floors do not exceed the maximum altitude,
But there was a get-out – the rule didn't apply to spires or turrets
the ethereal 2,8 m tower with its glass globe on the corner creates a sense of skyward motion , however doesn’t overshadow the Kazan Cathedral
It is created by the Estonian artist Amandus Adamson

Atlas Statue

The decorative turret which crowns the Singer Building.
The Bald Eagle at the base symbolizes the United States.
Above we see two seamstresses clasping a globe – a figurative symbol of Singer's success in distributing its sewing-machinery around the world.
The glass globe on top of the cupola, held up by two women, represented the multinational scope of the company, whose largest foreign market at the beginning of the 20th century was in Russia

Originally had the Singer Equatorial Strip

The name of the company in large Cyrillic letters on the equatorial strip circling the glass globe above the cupola
symbolized the global reach of the Singer sewing machine.
Went away with the confiscation of Singer assets after the October Revoltion

Modern Technology in St Petersburg

It was the first building in St. Petersburg to use a metal frame, which made possible the huge windows on the ground floor.
Another first for St. Petersburg was the glass-roofed atrium,
and the building was equipped with the latest lifts,
heating and air-conditioning
and an automatic system for clearing snow from the roof.
The building was the first business center in Russia with trading, banking premises and offices for rent.

Inside the Singer Building

The 1906 cutaway view of the House of Singer reveals the interior of the building, including the basement below street level.

The seamstresses working for the company were visible from the street through the large windows, serving as live advertisements.

Executive Offices

On the top floor was the executive office of the Singer Manufacturing Joint-Stock Company in Russia. It had a long skylight which provided natural light to the oval shaped hall.
The large windows offered the senior staff a bird’s eye view of Petersburg, which could be said to represent the panoptic power of the company

Other Commercial Enterprises

They were leased to foreign and Russian banks and various other commercial enterprises between 1904 and 1917.
The American consulate was located in House of Singer between 1909 and the Revolution

Wrought Iron Balconies

while features of the new style include the floral design of the wrought-iron balconies and grilles, which is also repeated in the interior ration.

Dom Kniti - St Petersburg's Most Popular Book Store

Restauration of the Interiors 2004-2006

Officially Russian Cultural Heritage

The Dakota 1880-84

The Dakota Apartments (also known as "The Dakota") 1880-84
Use: co-op apartment block.
Location: Upper West Side, New York, USA.
Architect: Henry J. Hardenbergh.
Client: Edward Cabot Clark
Company. Style: neo-German Renaissance.

• Edward Clarke dared to build an apartment building luxurious enough to coax the city's wealthy from their mansions downtown for ultra-modern living on what was then the swamplands of the Upper West Side.
• Redrawn plans of the entire building, published here for the first time, show how Clarke created apartments glamorous enough that they made living under a shared roof as acceptable in Manhattan as it already was in Europe's grand capitals, forever revolutionizing apartment life in NewYork city
• some of its most famous residents, including Judy Garland, Leonard Bernstein, Joe Namath, Boris Karloff, Gilda Radner, Yoko Ono, and Lauren Bacall.
• Includes reprints of several lifestyle magazine pieces showing the interiors of the apartments of dancer Rudolf Nureyev, artist Giora Novack, and designer Ward Bennett.

Life at the Dakota (1979) is a deliciously entertaining social history that describes the lives of the rich and trendy who have lived at the Dakota

• a New York apartment house daringly erected in 1884, "too far up" and on the wrong side of town.
• This story has the fabulous characters, sharp insights, and captivating anecdotes of Stephen Birmingham's earlier works, and the atmosphere of the elegant Dakota is so powerful that the building itself becomes an unforgettable major character.
• In this edition the author has included an afterword on John Lennon's murder at the Dakota

Not Everyone Liked the Idea

When Clark first started discussing his dreams and visions for his new apartment building, his ideas weren’t seen as revolutionary.

The idea of apartment-style living was a relatively new concept in New York City, so people were suspicious of the idea.

This is so because apartments sounded a lot like a hotel “rather disreputable places, often connected with a tavern or in…

They served a useful purpose in the 18th and early 19th Centuries, but ‘nice’ people wouldn’t choose to live in such places.”

It was not seen as a choice to rent, but rather a failure in ownership. It also seemed indecent to have a bedroom on the same floor where you would eat, drink, and socialize.

Turns out Clark was just ahead of his time.

Corner of 72nd Street and Central Park West on the Wrong Side of the City

The Dakota was completed in 1884, by architect Henry J. Hardenbergh.  At this point in time, "the fashionable area to live was now Murray Hill, on Madison Avenue north of Thirty-fourth Street, where a few years earlier gentlemen of fashion had gone quail hunting, though a few diehard families like the Astors still clung to their mansions on lower Fifth Avenue." The Upper West side was not yet densely populated like it is today, as not many people lived beyond 42nd Street.  Edward Clark, who commissioned The Dakota, sought to change that and establish the area as a suburban connection to the frenzied downtown Manhattan [As a fashion side note, Clark was a co-founder of the Singer Sewing Machine Company. In fact, many suggest that due to the fact that this building was constructed in such an uninhabited area, it led to the nickname The Dakota, as in, it was so far away from the bustle of lower Manhattan it was as if it were built in the wild west (the Dakota territory was not yet a part of the U.S. when the Dakota was built).

The Happy Mix

Current architectural historians wrestle with putting a name to the Dakota's architectural style - calling it German Renaissance, Hanseatic town hall Chateauesque,
and even Gothic Revival, explains Miller.
"The confusion is a result of Hardenberg's mixing of historic styles; what was at the time sometimes referred to as ‘a happy mix.’"

its layout and floor plan  betray a strong influence of French architectural trends in housing design that had become known in New York in the 1870s.  

Most Luxurious Apartment Building with an Intellectual and Artistic Tone

The western facade of the Dakota, circa 1889. Source: Office for Metropolitan History via Bloomberg

However, Clark had bigger plans for the Dakota in 1880 and commissioned the most luxurious apartment building in New York City in terms of room size, opulent interiors, and property amenities.

He payed an unprecedented 2 million dollars to complete the project,( projected for 1 million , equivalent of 24 m today ) and the result would be an elaborate, eclectic architectural mix.

The kind of tenants the building attracted were not the usual old money social strivers. The Dakota’s residents "conveyed a vaguely intellectual and artistic tone".

On the other hand, the Steinways, of Steinway Pianos, were some of the Dakota’s first residents

The Dakota Indian- Too Far Up

Got its unusual name not because "it’s far out in the Dakota’s" in regard to its distance from some parts of Manhattan.
In a meeting of a neighborhood group in 1880, before construction started, the building developer Edward Clark had proposed that the surrounding streets should be named after state names.
However, his idea was shot down by the rest of those attending the meeting, so he named his building based off of his original idea. And if you look close, on the southern facade, there is a carving of what could be understood as a Dakota Indian.

View on the Central Park

Typically, bankers, lawyers, and merchants (the amazing views of Central Park and the property’s tennis courts didn’t hurt either).

The Dakota, as seen from Central Park in 1894.

The Carriage Way

The arched main entrance is a porte-cochère large enough for the horse-drawn carriages that once entered and allowed passengers to disembark sheltered from the weather.

Many of these carriages were housed in a multi-story stable building built in two sections, 1891–94, at the southwest corner of 77th Street and Amsterdam Avenue,

where elevators lifted them to the upper floors.

The "Dakota Stables" building was in operation as a garage until February 2007, when it was slated to be transformed by the Related Companies into a condominium residence.

Porte Cochère Gas Lamps

Original gas lamps hang by the 20-foot-high front entrance with a porte cochère

Bas Relief Profiles of Isaac Singer and his Wife

However, there are two circular portraits over the entrance at 72nd Street and another two above an arch on the Central Park West Side.
It is possible that the two above the main entrance may very well be Merritt Singer and his wife, but there other two are totally unknown.

Isabelle Boyer

Isabelle Boyer, model of Frédéric Bartholdi for the Statue of Liberty in New York

There is a bit of mystery surrounding the identity of the two bas-relief profile portraits that adorn the main entrance, on 72nd Street — a man and a woman looking at one another across the carriageway. Who are they? In 2005, Michael Pollak of The New York Times suggested that the man is Isaac Merrit Singer, the founder of the Singer sewing machine company and business partner of the developer of the Dakota, Edward S. Clark. "Singer," Pollak wrote, "was a foulmouthed, cantankerous polygamist who acknowledged 25 children in his will, only 8 of them born of marriage. Although he and the patrician Clark detested each other, they made each other rich." Pollak speculates that the woman is "the last unfortunate Mrs. Singer," Isabella Boyer Singer, who put in a legal claim to be his widow after he died in 1875, and was supported in that claim by Clark. She won the case, moved to Paris, married a Duke and may have been one of the models for the Statue of Liberty. Notice the resemblance

Like a Mansion

It’s unclear whether the Dakota was ever a profitable enterprise
"To eradicate the stigma of 'tenements', Clark had to offer wealthy families all the amenities of a private mansion up to 16 rooms in some apartments."
when it opened, it had a staff of 150, which doesn’t include maids and cooks employed by individual households who lived in the upper floors From 1884 to 1929, all 65 of The Dakota's apartments — each with a reported  four bathrooms, parlor, and servant quarters — remained spoken for.
"rents were hardly ever raised" until it became a co-op in the 1960s.

The Dakota is square building, built around a central courtyard
A lower-level dining hall that could deliver food on dumbwaiters to the apartment kitchens.

Central Heating Electricity

Print from a wood engraving of the Dakota interior from 1884, as seen in the collection of the Library of Congress

Electricity was generated by an in-house power plant, and the building has central heating.
Besides servants' quarters, there was a playroom and a gymnasium under the roof. (In later years, these spaces on the tenth floor were -for economic reasons- converted into apartments, too.)
The lot of the Dakota also comprised a garden and private croquet lawns and a tennis court behind the building between 72nd and 73rd Streets.

Courtyard

Originally, the Dakota had 65 apartments with four to twenty rooms, no two alike. These apartments are accessed by staircases and elevators placed in the four corners of the courtyard.
Separate service stairs and elevators serving the kitchens are located in mid-block.
Built to cater for the well-to-do, the Dakota featured many amenities and a modern infrastructure that was exceptional for the time. The building has a large dining hall; meals could also be sent up to the apartments by dumbwaiters

French Style of Layout

The general layout of the apartments is in the French style of the period, with all major rooms connected to each other, in enfilade, and also accessible from a hall or corridor.
The arrangement allows a natural migration for guests from one room to another, especially on festive occasions,
yet gives service staff discreet separate circulation patterns that offer service access to the main rooms.

Set the Standard of Luxury Apartment Today

Originally, the Dakota had 65 apartments with 4 to 20 rooms, no two being alike. These apartments are accessed by staircases and elevators placed in the four corners of the courtyard. Separate service stairs and elevators serving the kitchens are located in mid-block.

The principal rooms, such as parlors or the master bedroom, face the street, while the dining room, kitchen, and other auxiliary rooms are oriented toward the courtyard.
Apartments thus are aired from two sides, which was a relative novelty in Manhattan at the time. Some of the drawing rooms are 49 ft (15 m) long, and many of the ceilings are 14 ft (4.3 m) high; the floors are inlaid with mahogany oak, and cherry (Clark’s floors was famously inlaid with sterling silver).  

Turns into a Cooperative Building in 1960s

It was in just the early 1960s when the Dakota became a co-op, and in the resultant years, Lauren Bacall, Leonard Bernstein, Rudolph Nureyev, Judy Garland, and, perhaps most famously, John Lennon and Yoko Ono became residents; the building began to take on a cult status. The movie Rosemary’s Baby, which used exterior shots of the Dakota and featured a 19-year-old Mia Farrow running around its palatial hallways (though those were filmed elsewhere), solidified the building’s fame. Then Lennon’s assassination, which occurred in the building’s archway, cemented its infamy.

Famously Rejected

The scene at the Dakota on Dec. 9, 1980 (the day after John Lennon's death)

Melanie Griffith and Antonio Banderas, Cher, Billy Joel, and Madonna were all famously rejected by the board.

Leonard Bernstein's former apartment was the building's most expensive sale 
Located on the second floor, the four-bedroom, four-bathroom apartment had a library, a formal dining room, a wood fireplace, kitchen and breakfast areas, and views of Central park. It was listed at $25.5 million and sold for $21 million.

New York City Landmark

The Dakota was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972, and was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1976.

Oldway Mansion 1873

Isaac Singer

He has patented Singer Sewing machine in 1851, age 41

Scandals made him leave New York. By the time he left for Europe in 1862, he had 18 children and his new wife was 30 years junior with whom he had another 6 children until the French Prussian war of 1870
By the time he came to England in 1870 , he was already one of the richest man alive.

Oldway Mansion – Isaac’s ultimate dream house

Devon seaside town Torquay, Paignton.

According to him "A proud american with a large family should live in a wigwam"
As an inventor and engineer Isaac wanted to design and choose everything from the shape of the house to the type of hinges used.
A fully working theater on the ground floor
An arena ( rotunda) a center for exercise for horses during the day, in the evening ideal venue for entertainment and dancing,with its wooden floor in place.

Wigwam -1874-75

French style Fountain between Wigwam and rotunda Aberdeen granite entrance porch Terra cotta bricks

Completed after his death and owned by Isaac’s Trust Bought by Washington and Paris in 1893 from the Singer trustee

Wigwam Seen from the West

Wigwam and the Gardens after Versailles

Paris buys the house, moves in 1897 .
Engage famous landscape architects Achille and Henri Duchene, for a new drawing insired by Versaille Palace. They had just restaured gardens of Petit Trianon

Petit Versailles, Petit Trianon bis

The remodeling caused the removal of the great conversatory

1910 work was completed West front untouched Wigwam was renamed Oldway House,

Oldway Mansion

Duchene recreated each element of the garden of the Petit Trianon in Oldway,
Sphinxes, urns, satutes, prine trees, orangery , lakes with a grotto
Entrance door, Porte St Antoine of Versailles
Place de la Concorde collonades

The Crowning of Josephine et Napoleon

David’s painting , the crowning of Napoleon, bought at auction in 1898
Purchased by the French government to return it to Versailles in 1947

Designed by Charles Le Brun 1672

Hang over to the stay true original Versailles staircase.This required the removal of Isaac's theatre.

The Ambassadors' Staircase

The original in Versailles is demolished by Louis XV The other reproduction of this staircase in the world is at Bavarian Versailles, of Ludwig II, at Royal Palace on Herrenchiemsee

Painted Ceiling of the Staircase - 4 Continents

End of the Rotunda

Isaac Singer loved horses, had a l range of special carriages built through his lifetime.
In NY , designed and had built a canary yellow "sociable", a carriage that could accommodate 31 passangers, drawn by 9 matched horses.
Under Paris, Rotunda became a swimming pool, horse stalls becoming changing rooms

Paignton Council bought Oldway from the Singer Estate in 1946

Other buildings

The Everglades Club
(1918-19)
Use: country club.
Location: Palm Beach, Florida, USA. Architect: Addison Mizner.
Client: Paris Singer.
Style: Palm Beach, neo-Renaissance.

The Singer Factory
(1882-84)
Use: factory.
Location: Kilbowie, Clydeside, nr. Glasgow, UK.
Architect: Robert Whyte; construction by Robert McAlpine & Sons.
Client: George McKenzie, for the Singer Sewing Machine Company.
Style: Scottish Baronial.

72 rue de la Colonie (1911)
Use: social housing.
Location: 13th arrondisement, Paris, France.
Architect: Georges Vaudoyer.
Client: Les Habitations à Bon Marché (HBM).
Sponsor: Winnaretta Singer (Princesse Edmond de Polignac).
Style: cité horticole.

La Cité de Refuge
(1929-1933)
Use: social housing.
Location: 13th arrondisement, Paris, France.
Architect: le Corbusier.
Client: Fondation de l’Armée du Salut.
Sponsor: Winnaretta Singer (Princesse Edmond de Polignac).
Style: avant-garde.

The Clark Institute (1955)
Use: charitable arts foundation and museum.
Location: Williamstown, Massachusetts, USA.
Architect: Daniel Deverell Perry, Tadao Ando, Annabelle Selldorf.
Client: Mr and Mrs Robert Sterling Clark.
Style: modern.

The Nahmaschinenwerk factory,
a Singer plant in Wittenberge, designed in the neoclassical style and modified by Felix Ascher and others. There is a smaller Singer factory in Kreuzberg, Berlin, that currently has new life as a fashion and design centre.