Landmark buildings of lower Manhattan are very important to New York City history because it helps us to remember the unique things that happened in the past. We visited landmark buildings throughout the semester such as the U.S Custom House, and the Woolworth Building. Both buildings were designed by Case Gilbert.

The U.S Customs House has an open view to lower Manhattan, and the building around helps make the view even better. The facade of the building is very different and has very engaging Corinthian columns. The columns are made from marble, and it is two stories high and is very spaced out from each other. The doors to the main hall of the building are made from bronze. It is a steel-framed building and it is 7 stories high from the south side of Bowling green. The interior and exterior of the building are both New York City Landmarks, it’s a Beaux-Arts and the main materials used for the building were Granite and Marble.

Standing within the Woolworth Building a person can see the coastal shoreline of the geographic area of lower Manhattan, the East River, and New Jersey. The Post Office was nearby at the time and it is close to the city hall park. It also has many different characteristics of the 19th century. It was one of the first buildings to use steel frame construction. In 1913 it was one of the tallest buildings in the world which were 60 stories high. It was important for New York City designated landmarks because it was the tallest building to use a steel frame. Its neo-gothic style architecture was unique to the design of the building as well as being very massive in size. This led to the race to the sky which led other buildings wanting to build higher and be in competition at the time for getting to the heaven of the sky.

To conclude the Custom House and the Woolworth building created landmarks for New York with its architectural styles that are still used today. Later builders designed buildings in New York City to be modeled after theses two historic landmark buildings.