Singer Building: NYC
Upon its completion in 1908, downtown Manhattan’s Singer Building was the tallest in the world and was also one of New York City’s first skyscrapers to be lit at night.
The building was headquarters to the Singer Sewing Company and was designed to harmonize and recede slightly from Manhattan’s narrow streets. When the company decided to move uptown in the 1960s, the building’s small footprint made it too difficult to sell for inhabitation.
The buyer, United States Steel, purchased the building simply to destroy it. Demolition began in 1967 and set a less auspicious record: the tallest building in the world to be peacefully demolished, to the regret of historic preservationists ever since.
