does the Woolworth Building reign supreme on lower Manhattan. Liberty
proclaims independence from the bondage of man and the Woolworth Tower
stands majestically in defiance of the elements as a symbol of man's
growing independence of nature. This building with its cream terra-cotta
surface and intricate architectural details touched here and there with
buff, blue, green, red, and gold, rises 792 feet or sixty stories above
the street and typifies the American spirit of conceiving and of
executing great undertakings. In it are blended art, utility, and
majesty. Viewed by multitudes during the day, it is a valuable
advertisement for the name which stands for a national institution. But
by day it shares attention with its surroundings. If lighted at night it
would stand virtually alone against the dark sky and the investment
would not be wholly idle during the evening hours.

Mr. H. H. Magdsick, who designed the lighting for Liberty, planned the
lighting for the Woolworth Tower, which rises 407 feet or thirty-one
stories above the main building. Five hundred and fifty projectors
containing tungsten filament lamps were distributed about the base of
the tower and among some of the architectural details. The main
architectural features of the mansard roof extending from the
fifty-third to the fifty-seventh floor, the observation balcony at the
fifty-eighth and the lantern structures at the fifty-ninth and sixtieth
floors are covered with gold-leaf. By proper placing of the projectors a
glittering effect is obtained from these gold surfaces. The crowning
features of the lighting effect are the lanterns in the crest of the
spire. Twenty-four 1000-watt tungsten lamps were placed behind crystal
diffusing glass, which transmits the light predominantly in a horizontal
direction. Thus at long distances, from which the architectural details
cannot be distinguished, the brilliant crowning light is visible. An
automatic dimmer was devised so that the effect of a huge varying flame
was obtained. At close range, owing to the nature of the glass panels,
this portion is not much brighter than the remainder of the surfaces.
When the artificial lighting is in operation the tower becomes a
majestic spire of light and this magnificent Gothic structure projecting
defiantly into the depths of darkness is in more than one sense a torch
of modern civilization.

Many prominent buildings and monuments have burst forth in a flood of
light, and the