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Flat Iron from Madison Square Garden. New York. Flat Iron from Madison Square Garden. New York.
Flat Iron from Madison Square Garden. New York.

The Flatiron Building, which when constructed was called the Fuller Building, was one of the tallest buildings in New York City upon its completion in 1902. The building, at 175 Fifth Avenue in the borough of Manhattan, sits on a triangular island block at 23rd Street, Fifth Avenue, and Broadway, anchoring the south (downtown) end of Madison Square.

The Flatiron Building was designed by Chicago's Daniel Burnham in the Beaux-Arts style
. Like a classical Greek column, its limestone and glazed terra-cotta façade is separated into three parts horizontally. Since it was one of the first buildings to use a steel skeleton, the building could be constructed to 285 feet (87 m), which would have been very difficult with other construction methods of that time.

The building, which took its name from the shape forced on it by the triangular lot it was built on – the Flatiron block, so called because it was shaped like a clothes iron – was officially named the Fuller
Building after George A. Fuller, founder of the company that financed its construction two years after his death.

Locals took an immediate interest in the building, placing bets on how far the debris would spread when the wind knocked it down.

The building is also said to have helped coin the phrase "23 skidoo", from what cops would shout at men who tried to get glimpses of women's dresses being blown up by the winds swirling around the building due to the complex geography of the area.
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Taken on: March 12, 2008
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