The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission was created in 1965, in the wake of several notable buildings in the city having either been demolished or threatened with demolition. Although the Singer Building was considered to be one of the most iconic buildings in New York City, it did not receive landmark designation, which would have prevented it from being torn down. In August 1967, the commission's executive director Alan Burnham said that if the building were to have been made a landmark, the city would have to either find a buyer for it or acquire it. Sam Roberts later wrote in "The New York Times" that the Singer Building had been one of the city's notable structures that "weren't considered worth preserving". Demolition had commenced by September 1967. A "New York Times" writer observed in March 1968 that the lobby looked like "a bomb had hit it". The last piece of scrap had been carted away in early 1969, and the "New York Daily News" observed, "The Singer fell victim to a malady called progress."