Too Thin to Stand (8 Photos)

Thin Buildings That Look Like They Should Tip Over

Two of these are Manhattan towers more than 1,390 feet tall, and one of them stands on a base just 59 feet wide. Others are old brick, stone and timber corners that taper to a point you could almost hug. Seen from the right spot, every one looks like a slice of a building rather than the whole thing.

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🏙️ 111 West 57th Street — New York City, USA 🇺🇸

From most angles this tower on West 57th Street looks like a ruler stood on end. Guinness lists it as the most slender building in the world: 1,428 feet tall but only 59 feet wide at its base, a ratio of 1:24. It was designed by SHoP Architects and completed in 2021.

💡 Sway Fact: To keep movement and vibration down, the 91-story tower has an 800-ton tuned mass damper. It stands next to the landmarked Steinway Hall.

📷 Photo: Wil540 art / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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🔺 Flatiron Building — New York City, USA 🇺🇸

From the north end, where Fifth Avenue and Broadway cross, the Flatiron looks like a blade standing on the sidewalk. The narrow end of Daniel Burnham’s 1902 building measures only six feet across, and early critics called it “Burnham’s Folly.”

💡 Restroom Fact: The building opened without ladies’ restrooms, so men’s and women’s restrooms ended up on alternating floors.

📷 Photo: Spatapoff / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

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📏 432 Park Avenue — New York City, USA 🇺🇸

A plain grid of square windows, repeated almost 1,400 feet into the sky. Rafael Viñoly’s tower at Park Avenue and East 57th Street is 1,396 feet tall with a 1:15 slenderness ratio, so from a rooftop across town it looks like a single stick of chalk.

💡 Wind Fact: The architects describe it as seven “independent” buildings stacked on top of each other. The open gaps between them help deflect wind pressure on the tower.

📷 Photo and cover crop: Epistola8 / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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🧱 Gooderham Building — Toronto, Canada 🇨🇦

From its rounded tip, this red brick building where Wellington Street and Front Street meet is not much wider than its green turret. David Roberts Jr. designed it for George Gooderham, and it was constructed in 1891.

💡 Timing Fact: Heritage Toronto points out that its distinctive wedge shape came about a decade before New York’s famous Flatiron Building.

📷 Photo and cover crop: Richie Diesterheft / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)

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🌫️ Highcliff and The Summit — Hong Kong 🇭🇰

The two slim towers above the apartment blocks are Highcliff and its neighbor The Summit, side by side on Stubbs Road. Highcliff rises 828 feet with a slenderness ratio of 1:20, which makes the regular apartment buildings in front look like sugar cubes.

💡 Height Fact: Highcliff was designed by Dennis Lau and Ng Chun Man Architects & Engineers and completed in 2003, with more than 70 stories.

📷 Photo: ParkerStarS / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.5)

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🚆 Flat Iron Building — Stockholm, Sweden 🇸🇪

Seen from the end, this office block at Norra Bantorget narrows to an edge so sharp it looks like a single wall beside the railway tracks. The photo was taken in December 2008, while it was still being built; Rosenbergs Arkitekter’s building was completed in 2009.

💡 Name Fact: Yes, it shares its name with New York’s Flatiron. It was built together with an extensive renovation of the Norra Bantorget area.

📷 Photo: Holger Ellgaard / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

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📐 Flatiron Building — Atlanta, Georgia, USA 🇺🇸

Atlanta had its own flatiron first. The National Park Service describes this 11-story, narrow triangular steel-framed building on Peachtree Street, designed by Bradford Gilbert and built in 1897, a few years before New York’s.

💡 Record Fact: It is Atlanta’s oldest standing skyscraper, and the city made it a landmark building in 1991.

📷 Photo: Ganeshk / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

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🏚️ Bügeleisenhaus — Hattingen, Germany 🇩🇪

The name means “flatiron house,” and from the Haldenplatz it looks only one window wide. Wilhelm Elling, probably a merchant, had it built in 1611, and its floor plan narrows from 26 feet (8 meters) on the north side to 8.4 feet (2.57 meters) at the south end.

💡 Beam Fact: The beam over the door still carries its 1611 house motto, which names the builder, Wilhelm Elling, and asks God to give everyone who knows the house what they wish for it.

📷 Photo: Tuxyso / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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Which one is your favorite?