Park Row Building

The Park Row Building dominates the skyline near City Hall Park as a direct relic of the era when steel frame construction first allowed skyscrapers to pierce the clouds. When it opened in 1899, it held the title of the tallest office building in the world, a status it maintained until 1908. Its height was so unprecedented that the architect, Robert Henderson Robertson, actually struggled with how to design its exterior, as contemporary architects were still debating whether such massive structures should look like solid, classical columns or layered vertical stacks. He ultimately settled on a design that features twin copper-domed cupolas, which were originally intended to serve as observatories for the public.