Daily News Building vs McGraw Hill Building

Comparing the Daily News Building and the McGraw Hill Building is especially interesting because they share much in common. Both rise in New York, NY both were designed by Howells & Hood, and they were completed just one year apart.

This overlap gives us a unique opportunity to understand how Howells & Hood approached different commissions in the same urban context and historical context during a short period.

These two towers present an interesting contrast in their proportions. The McGraw Hill Building rises higher at 486ft (148m), while the Daily News Building reaches 476ft (145m). However, the Daily News Building accommodates more floors with 36 levels above ground, compared to 35 floors in the McGraw Hill Building.

This suggests different approaches to interior space design. The McGraw Hill Building has an average floor-to-floor height of approximately 4.2m, while the Daily News Building has more compact floors averaging around 4m each.

These different proportions likely reflect the specific needs each building was designed to serve, whether driven by zoning regulations, client requirements, or the intended use of the spaces within. The contrast shows how architects can achieve different spatial experiences even when working with similar overall building scales.

Both the Daily News Building and the McGraw Hill Building were designed in line with the aesthetic conventions of the Art Deco style.

At the time, this style was at the height of its popularity. So Howells & Hood followed what was in many ways expected at the time, producing designs that fit comfortably within contemporary architectural norms rather, than breaking with convention.

Both the Daily News Building and the McGraw Hill Building were designed to serve as commercial towers, and that has remained their main use since their completion, serving similar roles in the urban fabric.

These two towers illustrate the many possible ways to combine structure and enclosure in skyscraper design.