MY VOTES–THE FLATIRON BUILDING (#72).

MY VOTES–THE FLATIRON BUILDING (#72). I will start with my sixth vote, partly because I am still feeling bad about leaving it off the list of five when I voted. It is the Flatiron Building by Daniel Burnham. It is beautiful in itself and a masterpiece in terms of its being suited to its location, a strangely shaped piece of land where Broadway, Fifth Avenue and 23rd Street converge. Its name shows the affection that people have for it. I once read that when Burnham designed the Flatiron Building, he thought that a skyscraper should have the characteristics of a column, with a defined top or capital and bottom or base. The Flatiron Building exemplified this theory. This Wikipedia article indicates that there is documentary evidence–in the form of postcards–that the wind currents at the Flatiron Building gave rise to the phrases “23 skidoo” and “scram” because the location was a good one for spotting a trim ankle. We lived half a mile from the Flatiron Building and I passed it all the time.