Equitable Building
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Architect: Ernest R. Graham & Associates (later Graham, Anderson, Probst & White)
Year Completed: 1915
Location: 120 Broadway, New York City, New York
Style: Beaux Arts
The Equitable Building is most important for the zoning law that resulted from its construction. Built for Equitable Life Insurance, the building is forty-one stories high with no setbacks. As a result, the building has 1.2 million square feet of space, or 30 times its plot size.
Such a high proportion of space per plot size would never be allowed under today's zoning laws, but this building was completed in the early days of the skyscraper. The builder's goal was to maximize rentable floor space to maximize profits.
After this building was completed, the public complained about it and feared that an entire city of these types of skyscrapers would limit the amount of light that reached the street, causing the city to feel dark and gloomy. These complaints caused the passage of the city's first zoning ordinance in 1916 that required buildings to be step-backed.
Interestingly, Chicago's first zoning ordinance was passed in 1894. This ordinance set a maximum height on buildings, but did not require setbacks. This maximum height fluctuated between 130 feet and 260 feet over the years. Chicago finally adopted a setback ordinance with the passage of their 1923 zoning laws.