The World Building > World Building Window
Heinigke & Bowen, New York
"Liberty Enlightening the World"
Stained glass window
New York, 1908
original location:
World Building, New York, NY
current location:
World Room, Columbia School of Journalism
collection:
Art Properties, Columbia University
photography:
Eileen Barroso
One of the glories of the World Building was this stained glass window depicting the newspaper’s masthead. Otto Heinigke and Owen Bowen, inspired by the work of Tiffany and John LaFarge, created some of the most splendid glass of the era.
In 1950, before the building was torn down in 1955, Columbia was able to purchase the window from New York City for $1. The transaction was facilitated by Journalism faculty member and former Journalism School student John Hohenberg (Class of 1927), and Herbert Bayard Swope, long-time World editor, first recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Reporting, and creator of the op-ed page. Thanks to Robert Moses, the World Building and its next-door neighbor the Tribune Building were condemned to create additional road access to another great New York treasure, the Brooklyn Bridge.