Flatiron

The marvelous story of one of New York City’s most unique buildings

Critics hated it. The public feared it would fall 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.

Alice Sparberg Alexiou chronicles not just the story of the building, but the heady times in which it was built. It was the dawn of the twentieth century, a time when Madison Square Park shifted from a promenade for rich women to one for gay prostitutes; when photography became an art; motion pictures came into existence; the booming economy suffered increasing depressions; jazz came to the forefront of popular music—and all within steps of one of the city’s best-known and best-loved buildings.

Author Biography

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