After a digression to the interior last time – which will be revisited in a post or two as the exterior heads toward completion – we’re back watching the exterior of the Equitable Trust building at 15 Broad Street inch forwards.
As of July 12, 1927, the frame looks to have been topped out. Note the lack of derricks at the top:
August 1, and the brick facade is being completed at the upper office floors:
A week later and derricks are back, to get masonry to the logistically-awkward upper setbacks. Note that you can see clear through the building at the floor below the upper band of three stories of brick. No surprise – that’s how skeleton-frame buildings work, with the walls supported at every floor – but you don’t always see it illustrated quite so clearly.
Another two weeks and there’s progress that feels painfully slow to me, vicariously experiencing the work a century later:
As slow as the building’s crown was, the Wall Street wing was slower. It seems as if the contractors completely decoupled progress on that small part of the building from the main block, presumably to speed up the main block. September 9:
Two weeks later, three floors of facade:
And at the end of September, the derricks were still there at the crown, which was still not entirely clad:
If you look closely at the pictures, you’ll see the progress of window installation, which was one of the necessary milestones to work on the interior. So a lot of work was going on at the interior which this group of pictures doesn’t capture, but the slow-down in the facade and crown work has the feeling of a logistical or coordination problem.
Part 1: here.
Part 2: here.
Part 3: here.
Part 4: here.
Part 5: here.
Part 6: here.
Part 7: here.
Part 8: here.
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