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The Convocation Tower was an unbuilt skyscraper proposed in 1921 by architect Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue for Madison Square, located at the northeast corner of Madison Avenue and East 26th Street in New York City, the spot currently occupied by the New York Life Building. [1]
The tower was designed as an approximately 1,000-foot (305 m) tall, 80-story Gothic-inspired skyscraper. It was intended to be a mixed-use building, incorporating a grand church or chapel in its lower floors, while the remaining upper floors would be dedicated to office space [1] .
Hugh Ferriss, a renowned architectural illustrator, depicted the tower. His illustration showed a tiered building beneath a Gothic pinnacle, street-level lighting, and a chapel-like central section from which radiant light emnates. The cross on the top represents Christianity. The Convocation Tower was a daring constuction, combining elements of the church with the contemporary secular corporatist idea of the skyscraper. Chicago's First United Methodist Church had a similar idea, though it actually got built. Though designed in 1921, it was never realized. After Goodhue's death in 1924, plans for the tower were abandoned, and eventually the New York Life Insurance Building was constructed on the site instead of MSG II’ s replacement. [2]
