New York is a city of iconic buildings and, despite the hundreds of notable structures that have been built throughout its history, the Flatiron Building has proven especially memorable. Decades before the Empire State Building arrived and over a century before One World Trade was built, the Flatiron was erected in Manhattan. For those outside of the US, the building is a symbol of New York, making it a tourist destination for thousands, even without an observatory deck like other big-name Big Apple structures. Below, we detail the history, uses, and architectural features of the structure—read on to get better acquainted with the century-old building.

History of the Flatiron Building

Before there was the Flatiron Building, the irregular plot of land on which the structure was built was known as the Flatiron itself (likely because its triangular shape resembled a cast-iron clothing iron). “Owing to the peculiar shape of the ‘Flatiron,’ the erection of a very tall building has always been regarded as something of an architectural problem, and it is said that the structure now projected will probably not be over twelve stories in height,” reads a news item published in the November 27, 1900, issue of The New York Timesregarding plans to build an office building on the land, signaling that readers knew the land itself by that title.

Architect Daniel Burnham and his associate Frederick P. Dinkelberg designed the building using steel-frame construction, a method that the Fuller Company had recently embraced on other projects. Per A History of New York in 27 Buildings, after the site was cleared, the building “rose by about one floor a week” and was completed in 1902. With 22 floors, it exceeded the Times’s estimate of 12 stories, but never held the title of New York’s tallest building. The structure was initially named the Fuller Building, after its developer, but the Flatiron term that preceded the structure itself is what stuck.

What is the Flatiron building used for?

For nearly 120 years, from its completion until 2019, the Flatiron Building was used for offices. Its most prominent tenant was the publishing house Macmillan, a division of which first moved in in 1969, with several other divisions following until eventually the company occupied every floor of the building. “The Flatiron Building does have a special feel,” Thomas McCormack, the president of Macmillan division St Martin’s Press, told TheNew York Times in 1983. “It’s the only office I know of where you can stand in one place and see the East River, the Hudson and Central Park without moving. I find that our authors are fascinated by this extraordinary building.”