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Constructed in neo-Gothic style by architect Cass Gilbert, who was commissioned by Frank Woolworth in 1910 to design the new corporate headquarters on Broadway, between Park Place and Barclay Street, opposite City Hall, it opened on April 24, 1913. Originally planned to be 625 ft high, it then rose to 792 ft (241 m); construction cost $13.5 million, which Woolworth paid in cash.
For its splendor and resemblances with European Gothic cathedrals, it was labeled the Cathedral of Commerce by Rev. S. Parkes Cadman during its opening ceremony, and was the tallest building in the world from its opening until the opening of the Chrysler Building in 1930. Until 1945, an observation deck on the 58th floor attracted visitors.
The building's tower, flush with the main frontage on Broadway, is raised on a block base that has a narrow interior court for light. The exterior decoration was cast in limestone-colored architectural terra cotta panels. Strongly-articulated piers carried without interrupting cornices right to the pyramidal cap give the building its upward thrust (illustration right). The Gothic detailing concentrated at the highly-visible top is massively scaled, so that it reads well from the street level. The ornate lobby has a vaulted ceiling, mosaics and sculptured caricatures that include Gilbert and Woolworth.
The engineer Gunvald Aus designed the steel frame, supported on massive caissons that penetrated to bedrock. The high-speed elevators were innovative, and the building's high office-to-elevator ratio made it profitable. Tenants included the Irving Trust bank and Columbia Records, which had its main New York recording studio in the Woolworth Building.
The building was owned by the company for 85 years, until 1998, when Venator Group (formerly the F.W. Woolworth CompanyWoolworth Company was an American operator of retail stores. It was founded in 1911 by Frank Woolworth and Charles Woolworth by the merger of six chains of five-and-ten-cent stores. Woolworth was the first five-and-ten-cent store, which sold discounted ge) sold it to the Witkoff Group for $155 million.
After the September 11, 2001 attacksThe attacks of September 11, 2001 were a series of coordinated terrorist attacks against the United States on September 11, 2001. Nineteen members of the al-Qaida militant Islamist group hijacked four aircraft. They crashed two into the two towers of the a few blocks away, the building was without electricity or phone service for a few weeks, but it suffered no significant damage. Increased post-attack security meant that most of the ornate lobby, previously a tourist attraction, was placed off-limits except to those with business in the building.