Dome

Upper portion of the building, from north; Although widely scattered, the office buildings done by the firm after 1893 displayed a remarkably consistent vocabulary of a few classical motifs applied over a clearly expressed steel skeleton, small variations in the costliness of materials and extensiveness of ornament responding to the budget and pretenses of particular cases. The designs of Burnham & Co. were considered practical and fashionable, the ‘latest thing’ from Chicago. The neighborhood around the building is called the Flatiron District after its signature building, which has become an icon of New York with its distinctive triangular shape (which led to the popular name of "flatiron"). The facade of limestone at the bottom changes to glazed terra-cotta as the floors rise (to a total 22 stories). At the vertex, the triangular tower is only 6.5 feet (2 m) wide; viewed from above, this ‘pointy’ end of the structure describes an acute angle of about 25 degrees. Source: Grove Art Online; http://www.oxfordartonline.com/ (accessed 7/9/2010)