Architecture of the United States New York City's Woolworth Building designed by architect Cass Gilbert, 1913. Raising previous technological advances to new heights, 793 ft (233 m), it was the world's tallest building until 1930. Frank Woolworth was fond of gothic cathedrals. Cass Gilbert constructed the office building as a cathedral of commerce and incorporated many Gothic revival decorative elements. The main entrance and lobby contain numerous allegories of thrift, including an acorn growing into an oak tree and a man losing his shirt. The popularity of the new Woolworth Building inspired many Gothic revival imitations among skyscrapers and remained a popular design theme until
Campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology enable efficiencies of scale by building a massive, one million square-foot building incorporating the administrative, teaching, and research functions. The proposed five-story building resembled a large "E" with the base aligned to the river, with "cloistered" courtyards and a pedimented Doric exterior. Freeman also rejected using masonry walls, and proposed using reinforced concrete, a relatively new material that was then thought to be both expensive and unconventional. President Maclaurin and MIT's executive committee sought to hire an established architect, rather than an ambitious engineer, to design the campus and briefly retained Cass Gilbert before conflicts with a determined Freeman drove