17 Facts About Gillender Building

1.

At the time of its completion in 1897, the Gillender Building was, depending on ranking methods, the fourth- or eighth-tallest structure in New York City.

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2.

Gillender Building was designed by Charles I Berg and Edward H Clark, and rose 273 feet with 20 stories, comprising 17 floors in the main bulk and three floors in a cupola.

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3.

Gillender Building was occupied by financial firms through its uneventful 13-year existence and was perceived as economically obsolete from the start.

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4.

The Gillender Building was demolished between April and June 1910 to make way for Bankers Trust's 39-story tower at 14 Wall Street, and much of the material from the building was saved.

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5.

At the time, the Gillender Building was the tallest building ever demolished voluntarily.

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6.

Gillender Building belonged to "a series of elegant towers in various classical modes erected in New York in the 1890s", and is considered "a notable example" of its period along with the demolished Central National Bank Building and the still-extant American Surety Building .

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7.

Gillender Building's articulation consisted of three horizontal sections similar to the components of a column .

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8.

Gillender Building attracted attention due to the disproportion of its height and footprint.

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9.

Gillender Building'set piles were then driven around the three caissons to make rectangular enclosures.

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10.

Inside, the Gillender Building contained a plumbing system serving "26 water closets, 17 water basins, 12 wash basins and 5 slop sinks".

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11.

In 1896, Gillender Building Asinari decided to replace it with a 300-foot tall tower, capitalizing on a tenfold increase in land value.

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12.

At the time, the Gillender Building was the tallest building ever demolished voluntarily.

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13.

Contract to demolish the Gillender Building was awarded to Jacob Volk, known for his work on the McAdoo Tunnel, who himself claimed experience in demolishing 900 buildings.

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14.

The granite slabs from the Gillender Building were recycled into tombstones of the Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn.

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15.

Bankers Trust Company Gillender Building, now known as 14 Wall Street, was completed in 1912, becoming the tallest banking building in the world.

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16.

Gillender Building is the site of a final scene in Jed Rubenfeld's The Interpretation of Murder, a 2006 novel reconstructing Sigmund Freud's 1909 visit to New York.

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17.

The narrator and Nora Acton meet for the last time in the Gillender cupola, watch the New York skyline, well aware that the building will be soon torn down.

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