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The Citigroup Center, formerly called the Citicorp Center, is a distinctive and one of the tallest skyscrapers in New York City. It is located at 53rd Street between Lexington Avenue and Third Avenue in midtown Manhattan. What makes the 59-floor, 915-foot (279 metre) skyscraper stand out in New York City is the 45° angled top and its unique stilt-style base. The 45-degree top was originally intended to contain solar panels to provide energy - an idea that was eventually dropped. The Citigroup center was designed by architect Hugh Stubbins Jr. for Citibank and was completed in 1977. From the very beginning, the Citigroup Center was an engineering challenge. The northwest corner of the proposed building site was occupied by St. Peter's Lutheran Church. Although the church allowed Citicorp to demolish the old church and build the skyscraper, it set one condition: a new church has to be built on the same corner, with no connection to the Citicorp building and no columns passing through it. the St Peter's Lutheran Church wanted to remain on the site of the new development, near one of the intersections. Architects wondered at the time if this demand was too much, and if the proposal could even work. To ensure the condition set by the church was met, the Citigroup Center was built on four massive 114-foot (35-metre) tall columns, positioned at the center of each side of the building, rather than at the corners. This allows the northwest corner of the tower to cantilever 75 feet over the new church. While the skyscraper was under construction, the structural engineer William LeMessurier discovered a potentially fatal flaw in the building's construction: the skyscraper's bolted joints were too weak to withstand 70-mile-per-hour wind gusts at specific angles, making the building unstable in a hurricane. He decided to inform Citicorp of the problem, and convinced them to get a crew of welders to repair the problem without informing the publlic. It was only 20 years after the building was completed that the issue surfaced in the New York Times. Although LeMessurier was criticized for not revealing the problem to the public for two decades, his act of informing Citicorp is regarded today as an example of ethical behaviour in several engineering textbooks. Today the Citigroup Center is considered one of the most structurally sound skyscrapers in the world. How to reach the Citigroup CenterThe Citigroup Center is located at 153 East 53rd Street.Find a hotel
 The based of Citigroup Center Source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Citigroup_center.jpg, available in the public domain  Another view of the Citigroup Center Source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Citigroup_center.jpg, available in the public domain | ||||||||
Local Tours of New York City
Check out some of the Local Tours of New York City that you may want to pre-book for your trip.Explore other sights in Upper Midtown.
Return to Manhattan Travel Guide,
New York City Travel Guide,
or to United States Travel Guide
Find lowest price for your Hotel RoomBefore booking a hotel room, make sure you are getting the lowest price for it. Different hotel booking websites offers the same room at different prices. If you stick with one site all the time, you could be paying more for the same room. Now why pay more?The form below is a Research Engine. It doesn't take bookings. Instead it lets you find the hotel booking website that offers the room you want at the lowest price. You can see and compare what different sites are offering, and then click to choose the one with the best price. Do this, and you're guaranteed to save a whole lot of money on your room reservations!
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 EarthDocumentary logo © copyright Timothy Tye 2007-2010. Content and articles in EarthDocumentary are provided in goodwill and are believed to be correct at time of writing. While every reasonable care is taken to check and verify the information shared, EarthDocumentary disclaims responsibility for its use. Text in EarthDocumentary is available under Creative Commons Attribution/ShareAlike License meaning you are free to copy, distribute, transmit, adapt and make derivative works, as long as you attribute your resulting work and apply it under the same, similar or a compatible license. You may use the information on this website on your blog or website so long as you place a link back to the page in AsiaExplorers where it appears. Wikipedia and Wikitravel are cited as among the sources of references. Photographs appearing in EarthDocumentary are available according to the licensing terms specified in its caption. Photographs supplied by Panoramio are governed by the Panoramio API terms & condition, are for display only, and may not be downloaded for use. Photographs belonging to the author are the copyright of Timothy Tye and may not be reused without prior written permission from the author. Contact the author for permission and licensing of the photos. |
