Looking Up: Rooftop Water Towers
AUGUST 14, 2008
From your rooftop to your bathtub, water towers are an historic city icon with a job to do
Though rarely mentioned, rooftop water towers are icons of New York City architecture. No classic comic book city skyline would be complete without them. Though their design has changed little in over a century, they're as useful as they ever were.
In the 1800s, the city required that all buildings higher than six stories be equipped with a rooftop water tower to prevent the need for excessively high pressure on lower floors. Instead, a pump is used to fill the rooftop tanks, after which gravity kicks in. One of the advantages of a water tower is that pumps can be sized for average rather than peak demand, saving both water and money.
Only two companies build water towers in New York–Isseks Brothers and the Rosenwach Tank Company—and both family businesses have been in operation for well over a century. In formerly industrial TriBeCa, water towers have gone beyond the merely functional. A set of voluntary design guidelines calls for them to be built on new buildings ''if they are of the traditional wood barrel type.''
To celebrate the water tower's lofty shadow, British artist Rachel Whiteread created "WaterTower," a 12-foot high, translucent resin cast of a SoHo rooftop water tower in 1998 as part of a grant for New York City's Public Art Fund.
ALSO IN NEW YORK CITY INSIDER
- 30 Park Place Vs. The Baccarat Hotel and Residences - JUL 8, 2014
- This Week in NYC Living - JUL 1, 2014
- Notable NYC Neighbors - JUN 26, 2014
- Great NYC Buildings: New in the Heights - JUN 23, 2014
- Notable NYC Neighbors - JUN 20, 2014
- Notable NYC Neighbors - JUN 17, 2014
- Building Vs. Building - JUN 9, 2014
- Notable NYC Neighbors - JUN 6, 2014
- Notable NYC Neighbors - MAY 23, 2014
- Notable NYC Neighbors - MAY 15, 2014
- Great NYC Apartment Buildings: 12 East 13th Street vs. 22 Central Park South - MAY 13, 2014
- Notable NYC Neighbors - MAY 7, 2014
- Notable NYC Neighbors - MAY 1, 2014
- Upping the Architectural Ante in NoHo - APR 22, 2014
- Great NYC Buildings: Brooklyn's Gold Coast Living - APR 15, 2014
- Notable NYC Neighbors - APR 11, 2014
- Building vs. Building - APR 10, 2014
- Notable NYC Neighbors - APR 2, 2014
- This Week in NYC Living - APR 1, 2014
- Notable NYC Neighbors - MAR 26, 2014
- View Articles By Date
6sqft delivers the latest on real estate, architecture, and design, straight from New York City.
