The Flatiron The New York Landmark and the Incomparable City That Arose with It

"An engaging and informative account of the building's construction and its lasting place in New York's lore." - The Washington PostCritics hated it. The public feared it would topple over. Passersby were knocked down by the winds. But even before it was completed, the Flatiron Building had become an unforgettable part of New York City.Built by the Fuller Company to be their New York headquarters, their president, Harry Black, was never able to make the public call it the Fuller Building. Head of the country's largest real estate firm, Black made a fortune and lived out a high-profile, ostentatious life that led to divorce, collapse and at last, suicide.This marvelously written book chronicles not just the construction of the building, but the changing technology and culture that characterized New York at the dawn of the 20th century: Madison Square Park shifted from a promenade for rich women to gay prostitutes, photography became an art, motion pictures came into existence; jazz came to the forefront of popular music - and all within steps of one of the city's best loved buildings. "Alice Sparberg Alexiou's The Flatiron joins such books as Jill Jonnes's Conquering Gotham, about Pennsylvania Station, and Gail Fenske's The Skyscraper and the City, about the Woolworth Building, in a budding genre that we might call biographies of buildings.' - The Wall Street Journal

ALICE SPARBERG ALEXIOU is the author of Jane Jacobs: Urban Visionary. She has been an editor of Lilith magazine and written for The New York Times and Newsday, among others. She is a graduate of Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and has a Ph.D. in classics from Fordham University. She lives in New York.

PrologueChapter One: George Allon FullerChapter Two: Eno's FlatironChapter Three: Chicago's GiftChapter Four: Preparing to BuildChapter Five: Bigger and BiggerChapter Six: The Skyscraper TrustChapter Seven: The Flatiron Opens for BusinessChapter Eight: 23 SkiddooChapter Nine: Water and WindChapter Ten: AllonChapter Eleven: UptownChapter Twelve: Sur Le Flat-IronChapter Thirteen: The Big LandlordEpilogue