The architect of the Singer building was Ernest Flagg, who was a contemporary of Frank Lloyd Wright. Flagg wrote a book near the end of his life called Small Houses. It's one of the most interesting books on architecture that I have read. He seemed to be extremely opinionated and reminded me a lot of FLW. He published his book in the largest print option available which I think is called Elephantine -- a massive volume. I bought mine from a man who lived in New York and was familiar with the Singer Building and was still upset over its demolition. Many people who are into alternative architecture and do-it-yourself homebuilding are familiar with Flagg as he promoted a style of home construction using stones and cement inside forms to build the walls of the homes inexpensively. He had a lot of brilliant ideas on low-cost home construction that I have not seen anybody else cover.

The limestone building on Liberty Street with the columns is the old New York Chamber of Commerce. Since 1991, it has been the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China. Its portrait-festooned, mahogany-paneled Assembly Room was depicted in "Trading Places" as the meeting room for the fictional Heritage Club to which Mortimer and Randolph Duke and Louis Winthorpe III belonged. It looks like there used to be 3 large carved classical statues on pedestals on the 2nd floor facade above each arched doorway. One of the nicest assembly rooms in the U.S., I'd say.

Perhaps better known to modern viewers as "the tallest building ever demolished"; subsequent events in the neighborhood -- literally next door -- eventually necessitated that qualifiers like "lawfully" be added to the claim. Eventually even that (no so) coveted distinction was lost.

Between initial construction (1898-99) and completion of the Singer Building tower (1908), Singer built a Russian headquarters, the extravagant art nouveau Singer House in St. Petersburg.

Singer House was nationalized after the Russian Revolution and became known as House of the Book--headquarters for publishing, bookselling, and state censorship. It survived the siege of Leningrad (1941-44), demolition of the Singer Building (1968), dissolution of the USSR (1991), bankruptcy filing of the Singer company (1999), complete restoration (a billion rubles, 2000-2009), and Vladimir Putin (so far),

According to Wikipedia, visitors paid 50 cents in 1908 for this amazing view.

... is still there: