Standing at 33 Thomas Street inwards the Civic Center neighborhood of New York City is a 550-foot tall monolithic , granite-clad , concrete building. Even inwards a metropolis similar New York , where tall buildings are typical , people passing past times would hold back upwardly to gaze at this intimidating construction —their attending drawn non past times the building’s acme exactly past times its fortress-like appearance. Aside from a pair of ventilation openings on the sides , the building’s bare concrete slab façade is without a unmarried window.
The Long Lines Building is owned past times the multinational telecom companionship AT&T , as well as is indeed an impenetrable fortress. When it was built inwards 1974 , AT&T asked architect John Carl Warnecke to pattern a construction that could withstand a nuclear nail as well as protect its occupants from fallout for upwardly to ii weeks afterward the attack. Such concerns were non uncommon at that fourth dimension , as well as AT&T wanted to hold out certain that their expensive equipment stayed undamaged.
New York Times , AT&T built several (almost) windowless buildings to component subdivision every bit telephone exchanges. There is or then other i at Houston , for instance.
AT&T Building at Houston. One wall is completely devoid of windows. Photo credit: Wolfgang Houston/Panoramio
AT&T Building at Houston. Photo credit: Bobby “Burning7Chrome” Quine/Panoramio