What Construction Workers Found Gutting the Flatiron Building

"Plenty of stuff gets unearthed during renovations - old newspapers, wallpaper scraps, wide-plank wood floors, sometimes even windows. But no one expected to discover anything too surprising when the Brodsky Organization started gutting the interiors of the Flatiron Building for a condo conversion in 2024. (Brodsky, one of the building's owners, is overseeing the project with the Sorgente Group.) The 123-year-old tower is, after all, one of the most extensively documented and photographed buildings in New York City."

"In July, however, workers gutting the 18th floor noticed something strange. At the prow of the building overlooking Madison Square Park, demolition work had exposed part of a parapet wall along what had been a bay window. Pulling down the interior walls, they discovered the terrace, whose original use was confirmed by a drain that ran along the inside of the wall and ceiling."

"And that parapet on 19 encircled a small half-moon-shaped terrace, one of only two known outdoor spaces in the building. (The other, a terrace that edges the top floor, is a narrow space, originally used by the artists for whom the penthouse floor was built and enclosed by a high balustrade.) Examining photographs of the exterior, the architects saw that the columns on the 18th and 19th floors are continuous, with their base on the 18th floor"

The Flatiron Building, a 123-year-old steel-frame skyscraper long documented and photographed, underwent interior gutting for a 2024 condo conversion. Workers demolishing the 18th-floor interior exposed a parapet and uncovered a concealed half-moon terrace at the prow overlooking Madison Square Park, with a drain confirming exterior use. Beyer Blinder Belle Architects & Planners identified the parapet by comparison with the floor above; that 19th-floor parapet surrounds one of only two known outdoor spaces in the building, the other a narrow artists' penthouse terrace. Exterior photographs show continuous columns between the 18th and 19th floors, supporting the terrace discovery.

Read at Curbed