![]() How could something this odd ever be built? This becomes an even more credible theory when you go inside the structure and realize that twenty-five percent of its internal area is consumed by a staircase leading to the upper floors. The answer to that question is a fascinating tale, rife with con men, fraud, and city-wide naiveté. The original Newby Building, built by Augustus Newby in 1906, was a one story brick office building near the railway depot in downtown Wichita Falls. As the city grew in wealth and size during the early twentieth century oil boom, a tenant of the Newby Building, the oil-rig construction firm of J.D. McMahon, decided to propose and build a high-rise annex next to the structure in an attempt to alleviate the city’s dearth of downtown office space. In 1919, McMahon collected $200,000 of investor capital (about $3 million in today’s dollars) and provided a blueprint which depicted a building 480 inches tall. McMahon neglected to specify that the building’s scale was measured in inches, not feet, and no investors noticed the double tick marks before handing McMahon a fortune in capital. McMahon used his own crew to build the new “skyscraper.” By the time the investors realized they had been swindled, the building was nearly complete. They took McMahon to court, but since he listed the building’s height on the blueprint in inches, not feet, the construction deal was upheld by the courts. Adding insult to injury, the elevator crew originally contracted for the project backed out, which meant that until an internal stairway was built years later, the only way to access the upper floors was by an external ladder. The Newby-McMahon Building was an embarrassment for local officials. As the oil boom ended and the Great Depression began, the building went unused for decades and fell into disrepair. After the economy rebounded, various tenants, including a barbershop and local eateries, briefly occupied the building. $250,000 and ten years later, it stands tall-ish, occupied by an antique store and an artist’s studio - a symbol of the rapid growth and rampant greed of the oil boom era.Gregg Pasquarelli, founder of SHoP Architects, which designed the building, said at the press preview that their goal was to create a building that was "uniquely New York and absolutely modern and forward-thinking, but has the DNA of the New York skyscraper embedded in it." In 2000 Marvin Groves Electric, a local business, purchased the again-vacant building for $3,748 and restored the structure as a permanent feature of the Depot Square Historic District of Wichita Falls. You can learn more interesting facts about the Steinway Tower, as well as view it in high quality from the following videos."It's the quintessential tower designed and built by New Yorkers," Pasquarelli said. "No tower will be the last, biggest or tallest for long, but this one could be the best." Justin Davidson of New York Magazine wrote: Hughes of The New York Times said that the tower discounts the "crystal view of the neighborhood's popular new developments."Īrchitecture critic Carter Horsley wrote that the tower was "a very original SHoP design" and that it "definitely has a feminine character" with a crown resembling a tiara (a type of crown or diadem). Goldberger described the building as "a subtle and graceful reimagining, in modern form, of the stepped 'wedding cake' towers of old New York."Ĭ. Writing for Vanity Fair magazine, architecture critic Paul Goldberger called the tower design "quite possibly the most elegant" building built on Billionaire Street. The interiors are designed in Art Deco style by Studio Sofield. Two side reinforced concrete walls, up to a meter thick, have small lancet windows between the facade bronze and terracotta, and huge glass windows are provided in the other (southern and northern) walls. ![]() The Steinway Tower has two occupant elevators and one service elevator.įor the stability of the tower, an 800-ton damper (a device for damping or preventing vibrations) is provided in its upper part, which does not allow it to sway strongly from the wind. The building houses a swimming pool and a gym, as well as a concert hall at Steinway Hall. ![]() On the 43rd floor is a residential residence in the entire width of the tower. The first five floors are for common recreational areas and retail space, the remaining 77 floors are for luxury apartments. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |