page_title: Manhattan Municipal Building
section_title: Civic Fame
hierarchical_section_title: Manhattan Municipal Building / Art / Civic Fame
caption_attribution_description: English: Civic Fame statue (Manhattan Municipal Building) by Adolph Alexander Weinman.
context_page_description: The David N. Dinkins Municipal Building is a 40-story, 580-foot building at 1 Centre Street in Manhattan, near Centre Street's intersection with Chambers Street in New York City. The structure was built to accommodate increased governmental space demands after the 1898 consolidation of the city's five boroughs. Construction began in 1909 and continued through 1914 at a total cost of $12 million.
  Designed by McKim, Mead & White, the Manhattan Municipal Building was among the last buildings erected as part of the City Beautiful movement in New York. Its architectural style has been characterized as Roman Imperial, Italian Renaissance, French Renaissance, or Beaux-Arts. The Municipal Building is one of the largest governmental buildings in the world, with about 1 million square feet of office space. The base incorporates a subway station, while the top includes the gilded Civic Fame statue.
  The Municipal Building was erected after three previous competitions to build a single municipal building for New York City's government had failed.
context_section_description: At the top of the Municipal Building is Civic Fame, a 25-foot-tall (7.6 m) statue installed in March 1913. The statue is a gilded copper figure, made from about 500 pieces of hammered copper executed by the Manhattan firm of Broschart & Braun. The statue is variously reported to be supported on an iron skeleton and made over a steel frame. Civic Fame has been variously described as the largest or second-largest statue in Manhattan, depending on whether the larger Statue of Liberty is considered as being in Manhattan. It is similar in style to the Statue of Liberty.
  The statue was designed by Adolph Alexander Weinman (1870–1952). It was commissioned by New York City at a cost of $9,000 (equivalent to $233,000 in 2019) to celebrate the consolidation of the five boroughs into the City of New York. The figure—described as "graceful and unusually charming"—is barefoot and balances upon a globe. She carries various symbolic items: a shield bearing the New York City coat of arms, a branch of leaves, and a mural crown, which she holds aloft. The mural crown has five crenellations or turrets, which evoke city walls and represent the five boroughs. The crown also includes dolphins as a symbol of "New York's maritime setting". Audrey Munson posed for the figure; she had also posed for a very large number of other important allegorical Beaux-Arts sculptures in New York, including those at the Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House, New York Public Library Main Branch, Manhattan Bridge Colonnade, and USS Maine National Monument at Columbus Circle.
  The left arm was repaired in 1928 after cracks were detected on that side. After Civic Fame's 150-pound (68 kg) left arm broke off, fell through a skylight, and landed on the 26th-floor cafeteria in February 1935, the statue was renovated, with metal rods being used to hold up the left arm. The sculpture was refurbished and re-gilded starting in July 1974 at a cost of $294,500, as part of the interior renovations of the Municipal Building; the restoration was completed by the end of the year. In early 1991, while the facade was undergoing renovations, Civic Fame was removed for six months and re-gilded in a New Jersey metalwork shop at a cost of $900,000. Civic Fame was placed back on the roof in October 1991 using a helicopter.
caption: The gilded statue of Civic Fame at the top
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