A Park Row press floor at night: giant paper reels turning, the web running through a line of presses, ink rollers, a composing room of type cases, the copy desk under green shades, a newsstand at the door and the World Building dome through the window. The New Yorkers hang along the press gallery.
In the late 19th century the city's papers crowded onto Park Row facing City Hall. The Tribune Building of 1875, by Richard Morris Hunt at Printing House Square, was among the first with elevators, and the Times built at 41 Park Row in 1889 before leaving for Times Square in 1903. Joseph Pulitzer's World Building at 99 Park Row, by George B. Post, rose 309 feet under a copper dome in 1890 and was the world's tallest building until 1894. It was demolished in 1955 for the Brooklyn Bridge ramps.
Source · 6sqft ↗
Three paper reels on cradles feeding a moving web through four press units, ink rollers turning, cast iron columns and pendant lamps, the composing room with sloped type cases and the imposing stone, the copy desk, the ticking wall clock over the end window, the gilt World Building dome outside, the EXTRA newsstand on the sidewalk, the front page board of the census. Mood: the city goes to press. Everything is procedural geometry with painted surfaces; nothing is a scan or a photograph. The room is an interpretation, and it hangs the New Yorkers the census recorded at this place first.