Accuracy of Past Analysis: The Steel Frame of the Gillender Building

The Gillender building in New York, constructed in 1897 and demolished in 1910, was the most slender steel-frame building constructed in the US before World War II, and was the among the tallest modern buildings when constructed. It is a good example of the best design practice of the first generation of steel-framed skyscrapers, and as such provides insight into the frames of those buildings. In short, did the frame design make sense by modern standards? Steel-beam design from the 1890s is generally acceptable today, although slightly over-conservative. However, column design and frame analysis have changed much more than beam design in the last 120 years, and portions of the original design do not meet basic criteria of modern codes. There were no structural problems, excessive movement, or signs of overstress reported during the building’s (admittedly short) life, which suggest that it was empirically competent for some level of loading. This paper compares original and modern analysis, and reviews reasons why the building functioned better than modern analysis suggests it would.